About to start first batch! *cue Hootie* Hold My Hand...

Starter Kit and recipe kit in from Northern Brewer today. Just waiting on kettle from AHS to arrive this afternoon. I'll be brewing tomorrow afternoon!

Many questions to come in this thread, but thought I'd just share my excitement right now.

Congrats! What are you brewing?

Puff Puff Pass.


Oh. You meant the blowfish kind of Hootie.

Welcome...and I hope it turns out great!

I'm also a newbie, and this is my first post here, though I've been lurking.
I'm waiting on a simple Canadian lager to finish fermenting (secondary)...that was my first try. Looking forward to it.

Niederhofer said:

Congrats! What are you brewing?

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going with NB's nut brown ale extract kit. pretty easy, ready to drink relatively quickly, and supposed to be a good beginner kit.

Don’t do it! You’ll be ruined and there is no going back.

Nice! I'm brewing an All Grain Nut Brown tomorrow. It'll be my first nut brown. Although I did a Newcastle clone kit (extract) earlier in the year.

Good luck on your maiden brew day.

Mike M said:

Don’t do it! You’ll be ruined and there is no going back.

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I'm already ruined so I guess I have nothing to lose!

Just opened the first bottle of my Brown last night! Waiting is the hardest part of brewing!

Tip for the day: Take off any bubble wrap and dump the packing peanuts before you start!

Congrats!! Your gonna love it. I'm a relatively new brewer as well and haven't enjoyed a hobby like this in forever! Nothing like the first time you say,
"I MADE BEER!!"

ok, been reading about late addition and I think I wanna go that route. that just means I add about half of the LME at the beginning and then the other half during the last 15 minutes, right?

link to kit ingredients

when i do mine i do all my extract in the last 15 minutes, but i have seen others do it that way too.

back from church early. gonna eat lunch and then get started.

question: when I boil, is there a target temp I'm going for?

apologeticus said:

question: when I boil, is there a target temp I'm going for?

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temp? Bubbles

A gently rolling boil to be exact.

In absence of a strainer, any tips on separating hops out when I rack to fermenter?

nevermind, I have a strainer I can use

Take pics to document your 1st brewday.

JalaPeno said:

Take pics to document your 1st brewday.

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will do!

half way through my boil now and everything is ok. I've made a couple of small mistakes (like turning on the wrong burner after I added LME - woops! but noticed it after only a couple of minutes) but everything is good so far.

ok, I'm rehydrating my yeast and it doesn't seem to be foaming up as much as I expected. does this look normal? I used warm water, waited 15 min and stirred a bit

http://img.skitch.com/20091121-fsx12fcy2rjfipb3s21ex72g13.png

(sorry, I can't use the IMG tags yet since I don't have 25 posts. forum rules)

exp. date on the yeast package is 06/2011

for your viewing pleasure, I give you my maiden voyage



steeping specialty grains



can't RDWHAHB yet so I'll have to settle for store bought this time



while I was doing this ^^ wifey was doing this



warming the LME next to the stove for the late addition to come



now cooling the wort



now in primary (yes, I did remove the red cap later )



now in the closet getting ready to bubble away (I hope!)



and the temp is just right for it!



now for the hardest part: waiting...

achieved bubblage just a few hours in. now my dog barks at the air lock when it bubbles.

apologeticus said:

achieved bubblage just a few hours in. now my dog barks at the air lock when it bubbles.

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Awesome man. I can tell you that either the first or 100th time you make a good homebrew you never get tired of it. Yeah, your yeast looked good btw. I typically don't rehydrate unless my OG is 1.060 or so. I'd let it sit in the primary for 2-3 weeks and then bottle.

Good luck, I'll be looking forward to seeing some pics of the final product!

J