Excited for first brew session tomorrow!

I'm new to brewing but not to beer and I'm brewing my first batch (extract) tomorrow wondering why I didn't start doing this 10 years ago.

I think I have all my supplies and have checked and re-checked my list. I've also been reading this forum and have found much quality advice, thanks for that.

My only concern is my brew pot, it's one of the black 21qt. GraniteWare canning pots with a ridged bottom, I'm concerned about the malt extract getting stuck in the grooves and scorching. Since I'm a noob I don't know what happens when you add the malt extract, I'll be taking it off the heat of course and stirring constantly until it's dissolved before returning to the heat. Just hoping that it doesn't sink to the bottom instantly and stick in the grooves.....

Luckily I live 20 minutes away from Midwest Supplies and Northern Brewer if I muck things up too badly.

You are on the right track. If you remove the heat and stir in the extract, it won't fall to the bottom and burn. You will find that extract is very soluble and will dissolve quickly.

Just watch carefully for the boil over. Have fun and let us know how it turns out.

Thanks for the reassurance and reminder about the boil over Brewham, I'll post my initial results and impressions.

You will be fine just take it off the heat while you are adding then stir. Keep a spray bottle around for boil-overs and cool down the wort quickly.

As the others before me stated..you're on the right track...as long as you remove it from the heat, stir vigilatly and watch for boil over you're golden! Don't forget the most important thing....a few of your fave brews to sip on your first brew day! CHEERS! have fun!

Welcome to the new obsession in your life!! Enjoy your brew day and don't worry, sounds like you've got way more info and a better idea than most had on our first brew day.

I had a old canning pot I was going to use when I started a couple years ago. It had an odd aroma I just couldn't get out of it even after boiling water in it a couple times. I just ended up going and buying a turkey fryer with its included pot. Unless you are limited to indoors, I'm sure you will end up doing something similar.

Next will be MLTs, wort chillers, fermentation chambers... You are doomed.

Everything went much better than I had hoped, no boil overs, nothing burned, the malt extract dissolved very easily.

A couple things I noticed. I made a small immersion wort chiller with 25' of tubing and it cooled the 4 gallons of wort much faster than I thought it would.

Fermentation was going strong about 12 hours later(airlock bubbling), not sure if that's good or bad but from what I've read it usually start from 1-3 days later.

Unfortunately, now I have to wait to see if it turns out.

7HockeyDad: the fermentation chamber sounds like a great idea, I'll have to wait on that so I don't piss off the wife.

Fermentation can start in as little as a few hours (actually, fermentation can start right awya. SIGNS of fermentation can start within a few hours...)

No worries, I'm sure you'll have at least decent beer this time! Now the hard part; Waiting for the beer to ferment and then carb up! Patience is a major problem that wont' go away for many batches!

So I moved the first batch (Sierra extract clone) into a secondary, it was a too early I know but I wanted to get started on a second and my five year old wanted to see the siphon in action. I'm expecting this one to be on the lighter side but I'm planning on doing this one again and adding extra DME and using better yeast then letting it sit in the primary for a few weeks.

My second batch is the Patersbier kit from Northern Brewer, I'll let this one sit for a while but I had my first airlock blowout which was pretty cool.

For my third I'm planning on doing the Surly Furious clone from MS.

Wow, my first batch was bottled and I only have six left from a five gallon batch. Everyone though the beer tasted great and was carbed after only a few days. This batch won't last long but I'll save a couple to try in a month or two.

My Patersbier is in the secondary and I'm going to dry hop with Styrian Goldings and I have the Hop Head IPA kit in the primary.

I won't have to buy much beer anymore but I definitely need another primary bucket.

The first beer:

Congrats! Again, welcome to the obsession