Another new member

Hi all!

I'm new to home brewing. Made one amber, came out great. A wheat and a pale fermenting away in the closet.

Never done the bottle process. Have 3 cornys (2 donated from a Coke friend... take that however you want) and two CO2 canisters. I have one actual kegerator with the tap and one spare fridge with the shelves removed.

The 3 I have done have been from a recipe put together by my LHBS and have been LME with specialty grains.

I don't have a hydrometer.

I haven't used a secondary fermenter.. just 3 weeks in the primary then rack into the corny.

I'm interested in making a Raspberry something. My favorite beer is McMennamin's Ruby Ale.

I have some kegging/fermenting questions, some yeast questions and some miscellaneous ones.

I'm from Oregon, and I had no idea other places were not loaded with micro-breweries.

I got into brewing for the fun, to get more into different beer flavors, and to save a little money on GOOD beer. So far I'm way in the whole, and I doubt I'll ever make it out. I drink more than ever cause I have 5gal and everyone I know wants to try a pint.

Yeah,,,um,,,you wont ever make it out of that hole.

And buy a damn hydrometer, This isnt the 1800's, Christ, im sure they even used a stick that floated with marked increments on it!!

And good to see your patients, 3 weeks in primary, damn nice to see.

The person that got me into brewing told me not to bother with the hydrometer until I find out if I really want to get into the hobby and not just make beer.

He said that if it is used:

You'll know when it is done fermenting
-You'll know when to rack to secondary
-If you rack too early you could stop the fermentation process
-Bottling agitation could kickstart the fermentation creating a bottle bomb
You'll know the alc. content of your beer
You'll have the FG
-You'll be able to use this knowledge to play with different recipies

So far I think I've been successful without because:

I don't use a secondary fermenter
-I don't care if it's clear
-It tastes great
-After 3 weeks in the primary on normal gravity it's got to be close to done
-I keg, if it refermented I doubt it would get over 130psi
I don't care about the alc. content as long as there is some in there
I don't think I'm really ready to start tweaking recipes, I'm more in the exploration stage. I was raised on Keystone Light and Busch Light and at the tender age of 24 I'm starting to try all different kinds of beer.

I think my major assumption is that if it ferments furiously and then settles down, and the krausen falls down (or is just blown off in my 5gal carboy) and it has sat for 3 weeks than it is done fermenting.

Seems to be working so far. I'll prolly end up getting one later on.

Yeah your basically right. Yeah it is nice to see what kind of abv your getting also it will help you tell if you ever get a stuck ferment.

ABV? What is that? alchohol beer volume? Another bastard vomited?

Props for doing you homework before jumping in head first.

Bottling isn't to tough, but if you have three cornys, I wouldn't worry with it. You can bottle from the tap if you want to take some with you, and kegging is a HELLUVA lot easier (at least less time consuming) than bottling.

Alcohol by volume, it's on the side of every bottle of alcohol you have ever purchased, and how we measure alcohol content here in the states.