Brew #1: Fuggles IPA Extract Kit, May 3, 2014

Here was my first attempt at homebrewing.  Along with an equipment starter kit, I bought this extract recipe kit from Midwest Supplies: Fuggles IPA Kit - Midwest Supplies.  I'm not sure why I chose this one - probably a combination of the price, the fact that it was an IPA, and it had a funny sounding name.  This was a pretty simple single hop English IPA.  I tried to brew this one precisely to the instructions.  I still don't know if I got it right.  The recipe that follows reflects how I interpreted the instructions at the time.

Recipe
Batch Size: 5 gal
Boil Size: 3.5 gal
Target OG: 1.042-1.046
Target FG: 1.010-1.012
Style: English IPA
Recipe Type: Extract with specialty grains
Boil Time: 90 minutes

Water:
Acadia bottled spring water

Specialty Grains:
1 lb Caravienne

Fermentables:
6 lb Gold LME

Hops:
1oz Fuggles (pellets) @ 90 min.
1oz Fuggles (pellets) @ 30 min.
1oz Fuggles (pellets) @ 5 min.

Yeast:
Munton's Dry Ale Yeast, 6gm, re-hydrated

Brewing Notes
5/3/2014 - Brew Day:

• Sanitized (star san) my cold side equipment in the fermenting bucket: Auto siphon, tubing, 1pc airlock, bucket lid, and hydrometer.  I set these on a clean dish towel on the counter to dry during the brew
• Heated 3.5 gal water to 155-160 F in my new 5 gallon economy stainless kettle on the stovetop.
• Steeped specialty grains in a muslin bag for 37 minutes (?) holding the temperature between 155 and 160.
  
• Removed the grain bag and held it above the kettle to drain.  When I got bored of that, I set them in a cereal bowl, which I periodically dumped into the kettle during the boil.
• Added 6 lbs of Gold LME with the kettle off of the burner
• Brought to boil and managed to avoid a boil-over
  
• Added 1oz Fuggle hop pellets (I think I used a nylon hop bag) and set a timer for 60 minutes. This is where I got confused.  To this day, I still don't understand if the recipe included in the kit is specifying a 60 or 90 minute boil. I suspect it should have been 60 total.
• After 60 minutes, added 1oz Fuggle hop pellets and set another timer for 30 minutes.
• With 5 minutes remaining on this timer, added 1oz Fuggle hop pellets
• At (electric) flame out, chilled by placing the kettle in an ice bath.  I remember this took a long time and I melted all of the ice I had in the house - I started adding lunch box cool packs to the water in the sink.  My notes say "Next time have more ice,"
• Gave up on chilling when the temperature reached 75 F
• Added room temperature bottled water until the kettle was almost full
• Transferred to the fermenting bucket using the auto siphon.  I aerated the wort by siphoning as noisily as possible, holding the end of the hose near the top of the bucket and shaking it during the whole siphoning process.  This produces a lot of foam.  So far, it seems to be effective.
• Took OG reading - 1.042 at 74 F, corrects to 1.044
• Pitched re-hydrated yeast on top of the wort
• Closed the bucket and installed the airlock.  I filled the airlock with vodka.  I'm not sure why.  I put the bucket in the corner of my dining room and blockaded it with a couple of cases of empty bottles to keep my son (who had just become mobile) and my dog away.
  

5/3 - 5/8/2014 - Primary Fermentation:
I only saw airlock activity the second day, so by day 6, I figured either it was finished fermenting or something had gone wrong.  I opened the bucket and saw that the Krausen had fallen, so I took a gravity reading - 1.016.  Figuring the bucket just wasn't sealed well, I siphoned to a 5 gallon glass carboy.

5/8-6/5/2014 - Secondary Fermentation:
Since I was so impatient during the primary fermentation, I compensated during the secondary fermentation by waiting nearly a whole month.  The airlock bubbled every 90 seconds or so this entire time.


6/5/2014 - Bottling:
This went remarkably smoothly.  I hand washed 54 bottles in oxyclean and put them in the dishwasher overnight to sanitize with the most heat I could manage (extra hot wash - no soap, sanitizing rinse, heated dry) the night before.  On bottling day, I sanitized everything else that might touch the beer with star san in the bottling bucket and let it dry completely on a clean towel on the kitchen counter.  I boiled the whole 5oz package of corn sugar in 1 c of water, cooled that in a mini ice bath, and added that to the bottling bucket.  I siphoned the beer on top of that to mix.  Final Gravity was 1.010, which i calculated to mean 4.5% abv. After the gravity reading, I pulled all of the bottles out of the dishwasher.  I filled while Lauren (my wife) capped with the wing capper.  Yield was 48 12oz bottles.

6/19/2014 - First Taste:
Yes, I waited a full 2 weeks for bottle conditioning.  My tasting notes are simple and brief: "Ready to drink; smooth, somewhat sweet like pumpkin, reasonably clear, ok head."  I have no notes after that.  I know I served some of this a month later, and I know the head got out of control.  I took me several more brews to find out why and even more to do anything about it.