First brew...done. Nice.
 

Started about 11 AM, in the primary, cleaned up by 3.

The day really went well, last minute decision delayed the start. I ran out and grabbed some new sponges, 4 gallons of distilled water, and a spray bottle. Two gallons went into the freezer for cooling, 2+ gallons were mixed for Star San. What the heck was I going to do with 5 gallons of sanitizer, that stuff goes far, cut the batch in half. After cleaning the new pot with some real hot water, I loaded 3 gallons and it was under way.

I followed the directions closely, steeped grain, added extract, bittering added, 60 minute boil, with a bit of finishing thrown in at the end. Done.

I dumped the wort in with two gallons of near frozen water, dropped the temp to about 120, cold water bath brought the temp down in an hour to 78+-.

I aerated from the bottle bucket back into the primary, as seen on HBT. Worked well. Grabbed a reading, 1045. Pitched. Snapped the lid on put the air lock, now I'm on bubble watch.

I have to say I had concerns but man with thought and prep it went well. Thanks for all the info on the site.

Couple of pictures

Wow...sounds like it went smooth.What did u brew? How long u fermenting?

Well done! I'm expecting my BK to arrive tomorrow, just LME/partial boil but hoping it goes as smoothly as yours!

As above, what did you brew?

I brewed a Midwest Supply extract kit, Autumn Amber Ale, that came with the kit. I had some trepidation, silly. Now I understand all the comments about drinking before its time, before the brewing I thought c'mon its only 3 weeks, now maybe a week.....lol

One issue I had was trying to read the hydrometer, bigger numbers please.

I'm thinking 7 days primary, 2 weeks secondary? But being a noob I'm looking into that now.


930PM, I got bubbles!

From what I've read it's best to leave it in primary until fermentation has pretty much stopped. Some don't move to secondary some do. I'll move mine to secondary for a week once fermentations stopped just to let the beer clear up a bit.

For next time: I think it would be faster and easier if you cooled your boil in the ice bath, then dumped the cooled wort into your near frozen water. Just a thought.

You should be rightly proud of yourself!

You always remember your first :)!

Did you leave your bag of steeping grains in during the boil? Couldn't really tell from your pics.

Nice pot!! I've a firend who will not buy a real pot to brew with and to see him strugle is crazy. He is not poor, just crazy.