I just bottled my first batch.

It's a Brewers Best IPA kit. My OG & FG are off from the instructions, but I've read enough on this forum to just relax.

I don't have any questions, I just wanted to share my excitement. I've ordered a Stout kit for round 2 and this is going to be a tough 3 weeks waiting for my IPA to carbonate.

Congratulations. The obsession begins!

Oh no no no. You've done it all wrong! You need to send all of that to me for proper disposal!!

Congrats on your first batch!! Be patient with it. Your last bottle will be the best!

Congrats!! Let us know how it turns out.

Nice photo ! Makes me thirsty......:cross:

Yum! And congrats!!

glenn514

Here's a picture of my fermenter when I first filled it up three weeks ago:

Berserker_Brew said:

Congratulations. The obsession begins!

Click to expand...

The obsession really takes over. I've always loved beer, but I never even knew the difference between ale and lager until my buddy dragged me to the LHBS. Recently I've spent hours combing through conflicting information, trying to get answers to seemingly simple questions like 'Should i use a secondary?', but what I've learned is that there isn't really right and wrong ways, just different ways.

It is an obsession. Soon you will have two or three glass carboys, a gigantic cooler for mashing, a twisted, coiled copper tube for cooling your wort, an enormous brewpot, and a 230,000 btu propane burner...

Then, there is that Blichmann equipment...

And we all await word of the first "hiss" of the very first bottle being opened, poured into a glass, and THOROUGHLY enjoyed by the brewer. Keep us posted!

glenn514

cravej said:

The obsession really takes over. I've always loved beer, but I never even knew the difference between ale and lager until my buddy dragged me to the LHBS. Recently I've spent hours combing through conflicting information, trying to get answers to seemingly simple questions like 'Should i use a secondary?', but what I've learned is that there isn't really right and wrong ways, just different ways.

Click to expand...

i'm with you. i bottled my first batch a week ago today. (put one bottle in the fridge last night, so i can sample tonight...but i'm going to make myself be patient for another two weeks with the rest)

i've spent hours combing through this forum, reading up on stuff...most of which is still greek to me but i'm already obsessed. my second batch is in primary right now, and i can't wait to figure out what i'm doing for round three.

eanmcnulty said:

It is an obsession. Soon you will have two or three glass carboys, a gigantic cooler for mashing, a twisted, coiled copper tube for cooling your wort, an enormous brewpot, and a 230,000 btu propane burner...

Then, there is that Blichmann equipment...

Click to expand...

I'm not ready for all grain yet, but my first carboy showed up in the mail today, along with some other goodies.

I got a 5 gal. better bottle carboy, a vinator, a wine thief, a hydrometer test tube, a super long spoon, and Austin Home Brew's Dry Stout Exract Kit.


So I can brew batch two before I taste batch one.

Really, what you have in the picture is all you need. I brewed about 7 batches before I expanded. I'm on batch 11 now (dry stout), and I'm doing partial-mashes. In April I am going to buy an 8 gallon pot and move to all-grain. When is that first one ready?

I sampled one after a week of being in the bottle, like any impatient new brewer. It was well carbonated, and it tasted pretty good, but not very smooth. I'm looking forward to seeing how it changes over time. In the mean time, I started my second batch.



I learned a few more things, like stir the wort with the top off water, before taking the SG reading. I was off by 12 points until I realized I was getting a bad reading.

And today I had a little trouble with my airlock, but fermentation is very active. I ended up using my racking cane as a blow off tube, because that was all I had.

Yeah, that looks yummy. I bottled my stout yesterday. It is going to be good.

I haven't even bottled my first batch yet (secondary), my second batch is gurgling away merrily, and Wednesday I'm buying yet another carboy and brewing my third batch, all before even tasting a single drop of homebrew.

I'm also geeking out, reading everything I can about anything that has to do with brewing, and seriously considering pursuing an actual education and career in this.

This is not a hobby, it's a freakin' lifestyle!

46, nice! It took me 3 batches to figure out the lines on my ale pale were off and get a full 5 gallon harvest. Enjoy!

I also just bottled my first batch and brewed another... congrats to all of us who have stuck with it and hopefully we all get to enjoy our beer to the fullest. My red ale will be ready just in time for st patricks day. I hope I can hold off until then.

Two weeks in the bottle and I just had to have another taste. It is pretty darn good. I'll have to hide some of it from myself, so it doesn't disappear too quickly.

Just a little update. After 5 months of homebrewing, I've got 8 brews and one apfelwein under my belt. I've got ingredients for two more batches to keep the pipelines full. I've learned to wash the yeast and batch #8 is using the same Wyeast 1056 that I used on batch #5. I've also got some Wyeast 1010 that I washed for future batches. Luckily I snatched up a spare fridge from a friend that was upgrading his kitchen.

I'm six days from cracking open my first brew, and about to explode waiting. I've also spent about 20 hours here planning my next batch. Thinking about Bee Cave IPA.

Nice - I'm new to brewing too, with brewing my first batch of B's Best Kolsch at the beginning of last month. After bottling that, I brewed my 2nd being the Irish Stout also by B's Best. Not too long after that, I made 5 gallons of Edwort's Apfelwein, and tomorrow I'm gonna brew B's Best Witbier made Belgian style. It's definitely an addiction!!

Saw you're in Philly, check out Barry's Homebrew Outlet on Snyder Ave and Home Sweet Homebrew up in the Rittenhouse Sq. area