ZOWIE, what an EXCITING hobby!!!

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KDM

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So I boiled my first wort a couple weeks ago, then transferred it to the fermentor and left it alone. But a week later, fairly spoiling for a little action -- ANY action -- I racked to secondary . . . and have been doing my utmost to totally disregard it ever since. It's just been sitting there in the dark pantry, not doing anything . . . anything at all. :::yawnnn::: Be ready to bottle in a week or two, I reckon. :::ZZZzzz::: Can't recall such action-packed adventure. :::crickets chirping:::

I'm afraid I'm going to become accustomed to the pace of this new hobby of mine, then take up vegetable gardening in the spring and get my eye put out by a sprouting green bean plant.
 
Actually it's only like this in the beginning, as you brew more than your first batch, you will have beers at various stages of the process, needing to be brewed, in primary, in secondary (if you use it) needing to be bottled, and bottle conditioning...there will come a time where you never will be without something of yours that is drinkable.

I have one I brewed yesterday, one I will bottle this weekend, another one that I will leave in primary for at least another week, I'm drinking one now (nearly finished with it), another two JUST came online to be drinkable, another 1 or 2 should be ready to drink in another week, and I'm pulling another half case out of long term storage, because it had an off flavor and I ignored it for 6 months, I just tasted one and it is gone...

And I plan on one more 2.5 gallon batch before I go back to work on monday...

Get the idea? :D
 
Yeah, I get the idea, thank you. In fact, this was just the sort of thing I was looking for, and even got a bonus: the off-taste that went away thing. Very cool!

Y' gotta understand, I'm all wound up over a new hobby/passion and feel a need to DO something, but I know better than to even think about rushing what I got. So abusing my bandwidth priviliges sprang to mind instead. I believe I'll go buy a kit and start a second brew tomorrow, and get the ol' pipeline one step closer to truly being a going concern.
 
Yeah, I get the idea, thank you. In fact, this was just the sort of thing I was looking for, and even got a bonus: the off-taste that went away thing. Very cool!

Y' gotta understand, I'm all wound up over a new hobby/passion and feel a need to DO something, but I know better than to even think about rushing what I got. So abusing my bandwidth priviliges sprang to mind instead. I believe I'll go buy a kit and start a second brew tomorrow, and get the ol' pipeline one step closer to truly being a going concern.

The easiest answer is buy another bucket and brew again...that's how you get to that point...

As to the time improving with age, read this thread of mine...https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/ne...virtue-time-heals-all-things-even-beer-73254/

My philosophy is that if a beer isn't "right" then set it aside for a couple more months and taste it again...

I get the idea. Revvy needs to have a party!

Although it is hard to get us all together, it would be fun to have a Michigan masher's tasting party sometime in the next couple months...
 
You want excitement, take up sky diving. You want to craft pure beauty with your own hands and mind, brew.:D

I actually do find brewing quite exciting. But I'm old and sort of boring.
 
As a matter of fact, I've been a good little boy and read all those threads we n00bs are admonished to read before posting. And I understand how forums like this work well enough to know why posting a new thread with "Question..." as a header is . . . dumb. Now, that's good for y'all, but bad for me. I have to scrape for excuses to post stuff and participate, as you see, since I'm too new to be of help, and too informed from doing my homework to ask questions.

So I abuse my bandwidth privileges... :D
 
As a matter of fact, I've been a good little boy and read all those threads we n00bs are admonished to read before posting. And I understand how forums like this work well enough to know why posting a new thread with "Question..." as a header is . . . dumb. Now, that's good for y'all, but bad for me. I have to scrape for excuses to post stuff and participate, as you see, since I'm too new to be of help, and too informed from doing my homework to ask questions.

So I abuse my bandwidth privileges... :D
I suggest you check out a history of my posts. I've abused bandwidth privileges to the point that they are a bloodied mess, barely breathing in the gutter as frigid temperatures descend.:p
 
brewing is great.

it cannot be my only hobby though. It's just something that takes up time between my other hobbies.
 
IMO, you are never too new to help. I have brewed 3 batches in total. But, each batch has taught me valuable information. That information I learned can be useful to others.

Also, IMO, if you haven't learned anything valuable while brewing (even your first batch), you aren't paying attention.

Just my .02
 
Ha ha, I'm old and boring too, lord love us! I sky dived once, but that was only because the plane I was in was on fire ... and yes, it was certainly exciting. I build my own canoes and sea kayaks, large astronomical telescopes, and pretty much all my other toys too, so I hear ya talkin'. The only curious point about my getting into this business is whythe heck it took so long. I really shoulda been a n00b at least 10 years ago.

But then, as we paddlers always say: I get there eventually.
 
As a matter of fact, I've been a good little boy and read all those threads we n00bs are admonished to read before posting. And I understand how forums like this work well enough to know why posting a new thread with "Question..." as a header is . . . dumb. Now, that's good for y'all, but bad for me. I have to scrape for excuses to post stuff and participate, as you see, since I'm too new to be of help, and too informed from doing my homework to ask questions.

So I abuse my bandwidth privileges... :D

If you have a specific question ask it...preferably though by bumping an existing thread on the same topic...usually if someone reads a thread on a topic, their question shifts from being general (and oft repeatable and re-answerable but cutting and pasting the same answer 10,000) to having a little more depth and being more specific...and maybe even being more challenging for one of us to answer...

it also takes the feeling that many of us get at times of wiping your a$$es for you...if you have bumped a thread and said, "I read this, and it seems to relate to my situation, BUT I'm not sure...here's what's going with my beer." It feels like you are trying...

All of us regulars see the same questions every week, and more so this time of year...we also know all the threads that are going to start "is this crazy?" are going to be from people starting to brew their first batch of beer, and wonder if adding fruit, or 5 pounds of sugar is a good idea, on their very first batch...becuse they think for some reason that the designers of the kit, really didn't know what they were doing and this (Perfectly balanced and well thought out before it was even going to be made INTO A KIT TO SELL)recipe might really suck...That the professional brewer and the company that put a couple million on the line to sell the kit are full of **** and don't know what they are doing.

So you gotta understand where people like me, who have an almost psychotic urge to help you all make great beer and that's why we answer questions (my post count ain't from playing word games on here...I actually didn't talk about NON brewing things on here until recently when I got to be friends with Shecky and a few others) are coming from...


Actually I really enjoyed this thread of yours it's such a break from the 50 "Oh my god I just did "this" to my first batch of beer, is it ruined?" threads I just finished answering (and mostly by cutting and pasting the same handful of answers over and over, that if they had searched or read other peoples threads they would have had their answers)....

:mug:
 
:tank:And your effort is so greatly appreciated -- but you already know that. I know of which you speak; I help n00b boat builders, fly tiers, and telescope makers to no end. Hah. It's FUN being a rank n00b myself for a change! Cheers!
 
By the way, some people just really suck at searching, and I ought to know . . . I'm one of the impaired. It's hard to explain and I won't even try, but I just never seem to be able to get the answers I seek. So thank all of y'all who help us dummies out!
 
I just started brewing recently and the best thing I ever did was buy my second and third carboys. When I had one I was waiting FOREVER for my stuff to get ready. Now like revvy I have it at various stages. If you have one fermenter and it takes 3 weeks to ferment then you procrastinate another week it's gonna be a while till you can have another homebrew ready. If you have 4 fermenters then when you feel like brewing, you brew. You dont have to worry about it. Once I had 3 fermenters full I ran into a bottle problem but after a couple 12 packs of SNPA life is good.

When you get to the point where you cant keep up with your pipeline you can sleep at night knowing that you are the only thing holding your beers up not time.
 
Y' gotta understand, I'm all wound up over a new hobby/passion and feel a need to DO something, but I know better than to even think about rushing what I got. So abusing my bandwidth priviliges sprang to mind instead. I believe I'll go buy a kit and start a second brew tomorrow, and get the ol' pipeline one step closer to truly being a going concern.

I totally understand. It took me about two months to reach the point where I always have beer in various stages. The hardest part was drinking store bought beer while waiting for mine to be ready. The plus to the store bought beer was all of the bottles I saved.:rockin:

I now keg my beer and I have bottles for when I bring beer with me to friends places or what ever. I brewed beer every weekend for darn near two months. A couple of weeks of bad weather put me behind the power curve. The weather broke and I brewed another batch today. Life is good. Just be patient and keep on brewing. In two months you will have plenty of your own beer in various stages as well.
 
Yeah, I get the idea, thank you. In fact, this was just the sort of thing I was looking for, and even got a bonus: the off-taste that went away thing. Very cool!

Y' gotta understand, I'm all wound up over a new hobby/passion and feel a need to DO something, but I know better than to even think about rushing what I got. So abusing my bandwidth priviliges sprang to mind instead. I believe I'll go buy a kit and start a second brew tomorrow, and get the ol' pipeline one step closer to truly being a going concern.

So you have already designed your brewing logo, labels and all that? :)
Not like it's mandatory but you could spend virtually the rest of your life just making up name for new batches. ;)

If you are going to use GIMP to make your labels that (alone) can take a while to learn well enough to make what you want to make with it. It's extremely versatile and not $300+ for a soon-to-be-obsolete piece of software.

Good luck though and hope that growing grass doesn't poke your eye out! :)
 
brewing is great.

it cannot be my only hobby though. It's just something that takes up time between my other hobbies.

Y' gotta understand, I'm all wound up over a new hobby/passion and feel a need to DO something, but I know better than to even think about rushing what I got.

Don't think that brewing as a hobby starts and ends with your time making beer. You also can make the things to make your beer, then make things to put it in etc... It really can eat up an enormous amount of money and time if you want it to.

Once you have completed these types of projects you might be out of stuff, but that will be a few years at least...and by then something will need an upgrade.
Make your beer - https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/deep-six-brewing-system-v2-0-a-79435/ and https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/diy-conical-fermenter-14855/
Temp controlled fermentation that is wife approved - https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/fermoire-45567/
Store your beer - https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/my-latest-project-walk-cooler-11440/ or if your really energetic https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/brew-hut-raising-weekend-4-25-a-62134/

and that doesn't even begin to touch all the other things like kegerators, wort chillers, mash tuns, stir plates etc...

Even if I were retired and had unlimited funds this could be my only hobby.
 
First, I want to applaud you on the time and effort you took on actually studying up on the great "hobby" of ours. My first post was a panick post. Revvy helped me through it but I sure did feel stupid after rereading my question and realizing the answer had been posted more than 50 times in just that week;)
You'll soon find that you will be doing some of the aforementioned projects when you are not post whoring like Shecky:D I despise tools (because I usually end up bleeding or bruised) but I'm now more than willing to get the toolbox out to try and build something that will help me better the world through brewing. I've even taken an interest again in graphic design and math. You mentioned a garden - start a hop garden!

Oh, by the way - Welcome to the board!
 
I think they should sell the homebrew starter kits with some sort of electrical defense system. Like an electric fence for the carboy, that won't turn off for a two weeks. Once you close the lid on the bucket, the circuit is closed, and any tampering results in a 10kV kick-in-the-a$$. And they should come with more than one bucket.
 
Thanks everyone, but my OP wasn't really overly serious, just kinda laughing at all the non-stuff that's un-happening with my first brew. :)

It's too bad our culture seems to think of growing older as some sort of curse, when in actuality it's GREAT. Two things come to mind: first and foremost is that I've got the experience in general, and in starting new endeavors specifically, to understand the learning process. I know I can study all I want, but only getting a project underway will anwer all questions; and that mistakes will be made but in all likelihood won't include any show stoppers. I was a little worried about my lack of good hydrometer reading, yeast starter, etc., etc., but have seen RDWHAHB too many times to get wrapped around the axle over any of it. Second, a little age helps mellow the incessant demand for instant gratification. I know this gig takes time, and that's part of the old-time charm I was looking forward to enjoying -- the good things in life take time. I'm 100% comfortable with giving it all it wants.

Cool thing about getting into homebrewing is the learning about beer itself; for instance, I never knew why an IPA tasted so distinct, and really didn't care for it. But now that I know the history, whys and wherefores, I like it all of a sudden. And unlike some folks we hear from here, I like store bought beer just fine ... in fact, Full Sail IPA is this week's favorite beer. My favorites come and go like the winds, and who knows what my own efforts will bring?

Ain't it grand? And yeah, it IS an exciting hobby! Zowie!
 
serie_zowie.jpg
 
If I had known that you were part of the aged crowd, I would have seen the humor:) Speaking of excitement - wait until you're dodging bullets, knives, frying pans, etc.. because your pail lid shot through your ceiling and your wort repaints your walls a funky brown color. Now, that's exciting!
 
See there? It's a real word. It's on the internet so it has to be true. So pfhpfhlpfhlpfhltt!


Ah yes, it's SO nice being mature... :p
 
becuse they think for some reason that the designers of the kit, really didn't know what they were doing and this (Perfectly balanced and well thought out before it was even going to be made INTO A KIT TO SELL)recipe might really suck...That the professional brewer and the company that put a couple million on the line to sell the kit are full of **** and don't know what they are doing.

Actually, I really do suspect this could be the case with mine. My LHBS clearly grabbed a bag of this and a can of that and a pinch of this together for their "starter" kit. Bag of unhopped Muttons DME (extra-pale) and a can of LME (pale malt) from another vendor - can did not indicate if it was pre-hopped. Zerox'ed instructions. Another baggie with a small pack of sanitizer and a pack containing 3/4 cup of corn sugar. I would venture that it is probably pretty easy to grab the wrong can or bag off the stock shelf if you're not paying attention. :) It hardly appeared to come from any sort of professional brewer selling a kit.

In any event, I'm not worried... either way it is beer. It's beer I'm making. I might like it - I might not. Unless there's something horribly wrong, I'm probably going to drink it either way. :)
 
Actually, I really do suspect this could be the case with mine. My LHBS clearly grabbed a bag of this and a can of that and a pinch of this together for their "starter" kit. Bag of unhopped Muttons DME (extra-pale) and a can of LME (pale malt) from another vendor - can did not indicate if it was pre-hopped. Zerox'ed instructions. Another baggie with a small pack of sanitizer and a pack containing 3/4 cup of corn sugar. I would venture that it is probably pretty easy to grab the wrong can or bag off the stock shelf if you're not paying attention. :) It hardly appeared to come from any sort of professional brewer selling a kit.

In any event, I'm not worried... either way it is beer. It's beer I'm making. I might like it - I might not. Unless there's something horribly wrong, I'm probably going to drink it either way. :)

Cisco - not to be argumentative, but to put your mind at ease, what you got was probably a canned beer kit with pre-hopped extract. Most of those you need one can of the hopped stuff and then either corn sugar or DME for the additional fermentables (I do NOT recommend corn sugar, but that is what the instructions on the can will tell you). Your LHBS probably just made some better instructions, but ultimately, what your making is a canned kit that did come from a big company.

Also, your LHBS could possibly have really good in house recipes too, I have seen that many times. So, just because it was a can of this and a bag of that don't assume the person developing that can to bag mixture isn't very good at recipe formulation.
 
Cisco - not to be argumentative, but to put your mind at ease, what you got was probably a canned beer kit with pre-hopped extract. Most of those you need one can of the hopped stuff and then either corn sugar or DME for the additional fermentables (I do NOT recommend corn sugar, but that is what the instructions on the can will tell you). Your LHBS probably just made some better instructions, but ultimately, what your making is a canned kit that did come from a big company.

Also, your LHBS could possibly have really good in house recipes too, I have seen that many times. So, just because it was a can of this and a bag of that don't assume the person developing that can to bag mixture isn't very good at recipe formulation.

I agree, the LHBS knows what they are doing...they have brewed the recipes they sell several times before they make the kit or provide the recipe...until you get a few batches under your belt, trust the kit or recipe...don't f with them.
 
Wonder if any of y'all can point me to a simple DIY immersion wort chiller? I bought the tubing (50' @$40) and already fashioned one chiller coil, the other half is for a friend. Anyway, now I need to figure a way to hook 'er up to the sink (already have garden hose adapter for faucet). I understand garden hose has a 3/8" I. D. and all you need is a couple hose clamps? Also understand compression fittings'll work, but I never know wtf to buy. Anyway, I'd appreciate a little guidance. And please type very slowly and show lotsa pictures, I'm not very smart.

ChillOut.jpg
 
In the DIY section of the forum there are some videos and pics for you, I will just say that I had HORRIBLE luck with compression fittings. I ended up throwing out $10 worth of fittings and going to another store for solder ones.
 
Thanks for that. I tried looking through the DIY forum, and, in short, got nowhere (ol' Dummy here's gonna need a little baby sitting in the form of links). I did see the vid where the guy uses a torch to solder up a professional looking rig, however, but there's a learning curve I hope to avoid if there's any chance at all of it ... so that six months later I can start kicking myself for being chicken and having crappy results with my halfass POS and going ahead and doing it right.

But for the moment I yet hope I can buy a $7 garden hose and take 5 minutes to fix myself up with a wort chiller... I'm so optimistic...:fro:
 
Oh, and trust me, plumbing soldering has no learning curve, just additional equipment to buy. It really is quite easy.
 
... additional equipment to buy. ....

Umm, that's what I meant.


PS: I just dropped by the LHBS this afternoon and dropped another BTU, whereas I really need to knock it off or I'll have to get a job, and nobody wants that (least of all any potential employer). A BTU, by the way, is a Basic Toy Unit, or $100. Got a 21" SS spoon though, life is sweet.
:ban:


Whoops, one more PS: Yeah, I've seen that vid, it's the one I was talking about. But even if soldering doesn't scare me, and it doesn't, really, I still have no clue how to get from the elbow to the faucet. Crud, I hope that made sense, I'm on beer no. 3 (Full Sail Amber) and get messed up way too easy.
 
Gee, hanging out with SWMBO I thought $100 was a WMSU* but I like your BTU better!

*WalMart Spending Unit
 
I see where your coming from, but, imo only, you can spend $20-30 on soldering stuff (or find a friend with a torch) or $10-$15 on crimp fittings. I can tell you that the first one will not end up being wasted money. The second one could quite possibly end up in the trash.

Once you get to standard soldered fittings Home Depot etc... sell solder on hose connectors, or like I did, barbed connectors that have a hose connection on one side and then you solder on a barbed fitting.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/made-my-immersion-chiller-not-sure-if-worth-84887/
is my foray into ICs
 
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