This is it! (ongoing acct. of a newb's first brews)
 

Alright. Got my brewing kit, got my sanitizer, got my malt extract kits, got my motivation, and most importantly I've got my craft brew to drink while I do all this.

Tomorrow morning marks the first endeavor of the Paulster Brewing Co. (name subject to change). Wish me luck! Although with the amount of stuff I've learned from this site I don't think I'll need much.

(just didn't want first post to be some stupid-ass question or oh-no-what-have-i-done thread - we can leave that for post #2)

Best of luck to ya! Way to go on the 1st post I know mine was an epic fail of a question(or so it seemed). What are you brewing up?

Welcome to the forum/obsession

Good luck.

-a.

I wish you loads of luck and welcome to the obsession.

Good luck! I'm brewing my first batch ever this weekend as well.

Good luck! Let us know how it turned out. Don't do what I did on my first catch of beer. I pitched the yeast at about 90 degrees F. I drank the beer because it was my first batch, but it wasn't very good!

Welcome and good luck! I bet you'll be preparing for brew #2 shortly (if you haven't already)! :mug:

Best of luck!

Tips for a successful first brew day...

1. Make sure you have everything before you start
2. Set a timer to remind you for hop additions
3. Sanitation, sanitation, sanitation.
4. Don't pitch your yeast until wort is below 80 degrees.
5. Keep your fermentation temperature steady.
6. RDWHACB- Relax, Don't Worry, Have A Commercial Brew (since you don't have any home brews yet)
7. Take pot off burner for extract additions so you don't have a boil over. And keep and eye on it throughout the boil too for the same reason.


Welcome and enjoy. Now go make beer!

I'll post my response to #2 in advance:

Nothing. Just leave it alone. RDWHAHB.

I have 2 kits, one is Australian Ale, and one is IPA, both from Cooper's. I'm not expecting great results from such kits, but I'm just trying to dial in the procedure and techniques for cleaning/racking/bottling/etc. before I go balls-out.

We'll see what happens - planning on fermenting first batch, then moving to secondary once complete (yes I bought a hydrometer). At the same time, I'll boil up a new batch to ferment until the first is ready for bottles. Then I wait until they are drinkable, which should give me enough beer to enjoy and assess while I plan my next move.

That's the plan, anyway.