Going Solo in Riverside

Hi all,

I've brewed a bunch with a buddy from work and I'm finally going solo!

Borrowing most of his equipment (I'll be building up my own collection) and using his recipe for a nice amber.

In any case, "HI!" and very glad to find this place!

Cheers
M

Welcome from your neighbor to the East! You're off to a good start with a brew buddy, More Beer in Riverside and now Homebrewtalk.com! Your sure to be a very successful brewer!

Moose

Welcome!

So got the brew going yesterday - kind of "lowest common denominator" equipment. One burner, three pots (one on the stove for the parge water, one a keggle), and siphon for getting into the first carboy.

Only 5g - wanted to start a bit smaller on the first solo run. Mash started good. Got water up to about 155, grain dropped the temp so I added some heat. Temp gauge was sticky and didn't have a floatie so didn't notice the temp spike up to just under 170. . . panic. . . added some cool water to drop it back down to about 150-155. Continued with the mash. . .

Forgot to up the temp to 170 at the end of the mash - does that matter?

Sparge went well. Gravity fed, manual pour sparge water over a stir-fry spoon-thing. . . nice sprinkle. Don't think I got a full 5g out before I stopped (thinking I had gotten too much. . . I'll be marking my own equipment! heh heh

Boil went very well. Hops in at beginning, at 30, and at 45 with moss going in at 50.

Cool-down went very well. Got the temp down fast, pulled the cooler, then swirled it a bunch before siphoning it into the carboy.

It's now bubbling away nicely.

Congrats on your first beer. My first one was an amber as well, it was actually pretty tasty considering everthing I did wrong LOl

Glad you are here!

I don't think the low temp sparge will make any noticeable difference for you. Did you take a hydrometer reading? PH reading? Starch conversion test? Just curious how your numbers landed, if you did.

Moose

OK all you folks in Riverside/Moreno Valley. I'm sitting here in downtown Riverside at the Marriott. I looked earlier today for a place to buy some decent craft beer. Found nothing. Any recommendations?

Hello and welcome! After living there for 30 years I moved away from the I.E. about 5 years ago. I miss Glamis and a couple restaurants (Rosa Maria's in San Bernardino...). I love Idaho enough that I don't miss much else though.

C17-EHSE said:

OK all you folks in Riverside/Moreno Valley. I'm sitting here in downtown Riverside at the Marriott. I looked earlier today for a place to buy some decent craft beer. Found nothing. Any recommendations?

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Try The Big Cheese on Mission Inn right by the 91 - pizza is good, beer is better.

cracked1 said:

Hello and welcome! After living there for 30 years I moved away from the I.E. about 5 years ago. I miss Glamis and a couple restaurants (Rosa Maria's in San Bernardino...). I love Idaho enough that I don't miss much else though.

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heh - you moved north and I moved south. I'm from Western Washington, originally.

So, my OG was 1.067 (target was 1.064 according to the recipe) and when I moved it to secondary it was 1.024 so I'm hoping good things.

Going to move it to keg this weekend. Hope to get my kegerator kit (from kegcowboy) before that so I can get it all together!

Kegerator is in, beer has been on tap for a bit and seems to be a HUGE hit. Just trying to open up some time to brew the next. . .

a bit over-carb'd but that seems to work nice when I stick it in a growler for friends. . .