Took the dive!

Well after a few months of digging around these forums, and reading over everything I could get on Home Brewing, I finally picked up my equipment yesterday.

I just moved from Columbus, Georgia to Indianapolis and had to put off getting the equipment, because I knew if I bought the equipment before I would have had to transport a wort filled Carboy for 700 miles, didn't sound like a good prospect!.

I'm glad I did wait, the LHBS "Great Fermentations" is outstanding. I was planning on getting a kit from Northern, but decided to swing by the LHBS just to poke around and maybe pick up a ingredient kit to save a little on shipping. However once there, I found that the prices either right with or under what they were on-line. Needless to say I walked out with a nice shiny Home Brew kit! The timing was good as I walked out with a few cases of free bottles, haven't done a count yet but it looks like about 45ish 12 oz bottles and maybe 20-30 22 oz bottles.

My first Brew will be a Sweet Stout, which is what Anita at Great Fermentations pulled for me after I asked if they had any "boxed" Cream Stout recipes.

The ingredient list is as follows..

6.6 Lbs Light Extract
1.5 Lbs 40 L Crystal Malt, crushed
2.0 oz Chocolate Malt, Crushed
8.0 oz Roasted Barley, Crushed
4.0 OZ Malto-Dextrin pwder
8.0 oz Lactose
7.0 oz HBUs Northern Brewer hops
1.0 tsp Irish Moss

I have to say the aroma of those fresh ground grains sitting on the front seat on the way home made my mouth water!

If everything works out today I will be brewing my first batch tonight!

Congratulations and welcome aboard

Glad to see another whisky drinker on the forum! Looks like you've got everything you need for a batch. What yeast came with the kit? I ask because kit yeast is sometimes dead if the kit is old or stored poorly. If the LHBS seemed to move inventory quickly then you likely have no worry. With decent prices in a big city like Indy then they most likely do.

Cheers!

Whiskey® said:

7.0 oz HBUs Northern Brewer hops

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Is that right? 7.0 oz of hops? That has to be a typo.

Welcome, to the hobby, to the forum and to Indiana!

If you are ever down in Bloomington let me know I am always down to have a beer or two.

You going to Irish Fest this weekend at all? I will be up there on Sat.

Cheers

jfrizzell said:

Is that right? 7.0 oz of hops? That has to be a typo.

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Most likely meant to be 7 HBU's?

Welcome and good job.

How are you going to steep your grains? Free floating or will you use a bag of some sort?

Have you read up on the process? We don't want to read where your beer has a funny taste because you "boiled" the grains for an hour.

MAke sure your equipment is sanitized and prepare your SWMBO for the...uh...interesting smells that will waft through the house.

It'll be a great beer.

One rule...once it's in the fermenter, forget about it and go buy another batch for next weekend.

GOOK LUCK.

BierMuncher said:

MAke sure your equipment is sanitized and prepare your SWMBO for the...uh...interesting smells that will waft through the house.

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Shhhhhh!!!! The farts are supposed to be a secret!!!!

Thanks for the tips, just about to get started. I'm sanitizing all the "brew day" stuff with Star-San, at the moment.

I believe the 7 oz is a typo as I was given a small baggy full of hop pellets with "1 oz 6.5 HBU written on the side.

Just about to get 2 gallons of water heated up to 150ish degrees so I can Steep the grains.

I'll keep everyone updated!

Disregard, jumped to conclusions!

Another One Rides the Bus!!!!


Welcome to the insanity and LOVE of a wonderful hobbie!!!!

Well I've got a pretty healthy fermentation!

Nice thick Krausen, and she's bubbling along at about a bubble a second.

It's kind of interesting the feeling of elation when you see that fermentation.

I pulled the airlock for now and am using a racking cane and tubing into a bowl of Star-San as a blow off. I'd hate to leave it alone for the weekend but will be in Ohio until Sunday afternoon.

Sorry to keep added to the thread....

Came back from my weekend trip to find my blow off tube gunked up and a beer smelling brown ooze in my blow off bowl. The Krausen has coated the up to the neck of the fermenter.


So far so good!

I'm glad I swapped the lock for the half-assed blow off tube, would have been a mess indeed!

So far of the 5/16 tubing I'm still getting about a bubble a second, it's only been 48 hours now so I guess the vigorous fermentation is a good thing.