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my wife and I bought a Traeger Lil Tex Elite a couple weeks back. More days than not it gets used for something so far. Never thought I'd say this, but I think at this point I'm ready to get rid of the Weber which has been a great gas grill for the nearly 10 years we've owned it.

+5 Irish Blonde +5 BarleyWine = 40,575.5

you know the saying -- "the last one is the best one"! I used to set aside a 12 pack of every batch to age a bit. Of course I was brewing so much I didn't really have much problem letting the bottled stuff age as I had plenty of choices. I've mostly quit doing that now as I've learned over time...

sometimes it takes awhile -- I also had batch (k-97 yeast) where the krausen didn't drop for 3 weeks

I used k-97 with the NB Octorberfest extract kit and was happy with that... given that I can't lager....

assuming full boils -- a pot size of 2x the batch size isn't a necessity, but it's nice to have the extra head room. I think some folks do 5g full boils in 30qt kettles, but that doesn't leave much headroon after you account for the extra volume needed for boiloff. I usually manage to boil about...

I probably won't be doing much upgrading. I've already blown plenty of $$ ahead of the tax time on a few things.

Just bottled a barleywine, but not specifically as a bigfoot clone. I definitely do like the bigfoot though. I have a case of it in my storage room and will be saving most or all of it to dring next winter.. or the next..

congrats on your first brew! Sure to be the first of many..

Hard to say what my average actually is as I kind of go in streaks. The last few months have been kind of rough. In December and January I bought several wine kits some of which were > $100 and some better bottles for bulk aging. Now in the last few weeks I've acquired a 10G kettle and...

One of my first beers was the Coopers Australian Pale Ale canned kit. In spite of making it with only adding corn sugar, this kit turned out great. More recently: Coopers European Lager kit + 3.3# Munich LME + 1/2oz Hallertau Hops + S-04 dry yeast = another great beer You are right though...

I like this!

It's been a long winter here also; I'm pretty excited to see it warming up as it's good to get the kids back outside doing things instead of being cooped up indoors.

I've recently started using using a simple swamp cooler to keep my temps down. It seems it's not as cool as I thought in my downstairs utility room -- sometimes about 70-72F. Swapping ice bottles 2 or 3 times a day seems to keep the fermenter temps in the mid 60's. Prior to this, I do think...

sorry 'bout that :) It really isn't that bad. I actually have a couple batches ready to bottle myself. Not sure if I'm gonna tackle both in one day or not... We'll see I guess..

I sometimes (if I remember) do lightly stir a bit with the siphon hose after I finish, but that's it. As most folks do, I just siphon on to the priming solution and let it swirl together. After 40+ batches bottled, I've had no issues with inconsistent carbing.

well, to get back on topic here a bit... I hope to soon be doing full boils. I've gotten my 10G kettle, so now I'm just a wort chiller away :)

I've bottled 2 batches in 1 day only twice. I don't mind bottling but 1 batch at a time is enough.

I use the 6G better bottles for most of my 'regular' brews. Some need a blow-off tube, some don't. For the higher OG beers I'll use a 8 gallon bucket.

yeah, given that the fermentation took off rather quickly, I'm not too concerned. I've never used any dry yeast that was expired for more than a month or so prior to this so I was just second guessing myself for going out on a limb here when I have plenty of fresh yeast laying around. I really...