And very happy I've found this forum, especially with such a prominent thread relating to brewing with Mr. Beer
It's been really enlightening reading through a good portion of this thread and finding answers to many of the things I've been contemplating over this last week of my initiation into the mindset of RDWHAHB.
Started my first batch last Thursday which is an Englishman's nut brown ale with 1lb of Morgan's caramalt (amber) UME, used about a 1/2 pack of booster and safale s-04 dry. Got the water I used from a mountain spring here.
Temperatures have been pretty high here going from as low as 19 degrees centigrade some nights, but generally closer to 25-26 deg. C, up to 34-35 deg. C daytimes. Have the fermenter in a small, plastic storage box ,water bath and the crappy thermometer at hand, submerged next to the fermenter in the bath, with all of this in a filing cabinet drawer in my garage. Generally the thermometer is showing 26-27 deg. C.
back on this Monday there was a bit of Krauzen around the sides of the keg but it seemed like there wasn't much in the way of action, not much bubbling, so pitched the second half of the sachet of safale. Has been bubbling away nicely since then.
Initial plan is roughly a 2-2-2. 16 days fermenting, 2-3 weeks conditioning, then hopefully I can see through the lagering.
Got a 5 gallon plastic water bottle (#6 on the bottom) from work, quite a few HMEs, UMEs, hops, yeasts in stock, just waiting for another couple of Mr.B fermenters a standard 6.5 gallon fermenter/bottling bucket (and a spigot assembly and airlock/bung for the water bottle) to arrive as I've realised I need to get multiple batches on the go.
I reckon Sticky wicket oatmeal stout is the next project, followed by the American Devil IPA:fro:
Anyway, just want to say thanks for this brilliant resource, and some pretty humourous banter/comments, and I look forward to gaining more knowledge and expertise from you guys in my new hobby.