Brewday 9-22 -- My First!

My first brewday! Northern Brewer's Honey Kolsch. Figured it would be a good entrance to hombrewing, as most of my friends and my gf drink utter crap for beer, i need to start them off light.

Gathering ingredients:



Set us up the pot! (check out my awesome brewpot I got at Home Depot for $15! It's a 30qt basket for a turkey fryer)


The Boil. Not much chance of a boilover, eh? I wonder how much more liquid I could fit in next time:

Chill out (I didn't have a lid for the pot, so I sanitized some aluminum foil)



Then everything happened all at once with no one to take pics of it, so it's all together here:





It looks like it's running a little warm (yeast tops out at 78deg according to the package), but bubbling wonderfully, so we'll see if it cools off today.

Congrats on getting your first batch in the fermenter. It looks like all went well.

Wrap it in a wet towel and throw some ice packs around it. If I'm thinking correctly, Kolsh yeast work better (provide a crisper, smoother end product) when on the cooler side of things.

Good job, though!

Welcome to the club

Thanks for the wet towel tip! I have it nicely cooled to a balmy 70degrees.

Nice stuff...I know many folks like to ferment Kolsh yeast a bit lower in temp. How are you set for lagering it?

yeah, it will still be a good beer, but the cooler the better...i keep mine at about 60. also, don't forget to age that kolsch...they have a kinda sulfur taste at first, but don't worry...in a month or so it'll be really good!