Smells like victory (so far anyway).
Greetings guys and gals (sorry for the long post),
I'm a noob who just brewed his first batch yesterday. After some encouragement from a couple fellow hop heads at work over the last six months, I finally decided to dive into this wonderfully crazy hobby (and yes...obsession).
I bought "How to Brew" and "Homebrewing for Dummies" and started lurking on this sight (along with all the major supplier websites) about a month before I even received my brew kit (from my wife this Christmas). I was obsessed (and enlightened by all of you) before I even got my feet/brew kettle wet!
After reading/re-reading and highlighting the instructions, and making separate notes for reference to keep me on track, I kicked off my first batch at 11:00 yesterday. As a way of paying homage to my first "favorite" craft beer, I selected AHS's Moose Drool clone to be my first. Everything seemed to come off without a hitch (thanks to being somewhat OCD, making notes, carefully regulating my temps, watching the timer closely, and just being organized and prepared). After everything was said and done, my OG came in at 1.050 (target being 1.052) and my batch was sitting in a cool dark closet, I kept looking at it...finally I was in the game! It was a fun and rewarding day.
Like a nervous parent, I checked in on it throughout the evening, questioning my pitching technique, re-reading John Palmer's chapter on fermentation/yeast, etc. Finally....last night during halftime of the football game....bubbles in the airlock! This morning...she's bubbling right along at a steady pace and the airlock smells heavenly (yes I'm proud to be an airlock sniffer).
I'm already excited about my brew that's on deck....AHS Winter Wonder Warmer. It's a bit bigger and I'll probably need set up a blow off tube, but it sounds like fun! I plan to rack my current batch to secondary when the time is right to free up my bucket (need a few more of those). Time to get cracking on my keezer plans.
Here's a picture of my brew below. Just kidding...I chose New Belgium's Snow Day as my brew day beverage of choice. Delicious!
One final thought, I'm glad I have a turkey fryer and did this in my garage. It smelled really good to me, but don't think my wife would dig the aroma throughout the house for days.
Cheers! And again, sorry for the long drawn out post!
Greetings guys and gals (sorry for the long post),
I'm a noob who just brewed his first batch yesterday. After some encouragement from a couple fellow hop heads at work over the last six months, I finally decided to dive into this wonderfully crazy hobby (and yes...obsession).
I bought "How to Brew" and "Homebrewing for Dummies" and started lurking on this sight (along with all the major supplier websites) about a month before I even received my brew kit (from my wife this Christmas). I was obsessed (and enlightened by all of you) before I even got my feet/brew kettle wet!
After reading/re-reading and highlighting the instructions, and making separate notes for reference to keep me on track, I kicked off my first batch at 11:00 yesterday. As a way of paying homage to my first "favorite" craft beer, I selected AHS's Moose Drool clone to be my first. Everything seemed to come off without a hitch (thanks to being somewhat OCD, making notes, carefully regulating my temps, watching the timer closely, and just being organized and prepared). After everything was said and done, my OG came in at 1.050 (target being 1.052) and my batch was sitting in a cool dark closet, I kept looking at it...finally I was in the game! It was a fun and rewarding day.
Like a nervous parent, I checked in on it throughout the evening, questioning my pitching technique, re-reading John Palmer's chapter on fermentation/yeast, etc. Finally....last night during halftime of the football game....bubbles in the airlock! This morning...she's bubbling right along at a steady pace and the airlock smells heavenly (yes I'm proud to be an airlock sniffer).
I'm already excited about my brew that's on deck....AHS Winter Wonder Warmer. It's a bit bigger and I'll probably need set up a blow off tube, but it sounds like fun! I plan to rack my current batch to secondary when the time is right to free up my bucket (need a few more of those). Time to get cracking on my keezer plans.
Here's a picture of my brew below. Just kidding...I chose New Belgium's Snow Day as my brew day beverage of choice. Delicious!
One final thought, I'm glad I have a turkey fryer and did this in my garage. It smelled really good to me, but don't think my wife would dig the aroma throughout the house for days.
Cheers! And again, sorry for the long drawn out post!
