Long (in so many ways) weekend AND first AG in the carboy

First off - a bit drunk, just finished my first AG batch, got good efficiency, did BM's centennial blonde.

Ok... my weekend... A 3 dayer - university took MLK day off (yet not veterans day... but that's a rant I wont start here).

Friday - I pick up ingredients for my first AG batch, planning on brewing on Sunday.

Saturday - out the door at the asscrack of dawn - wife had a dogshow she was going to and I needed to work on my motorcycle that's been down for about 2 months and was at my father's house (he has a garage... I just have a cold, cold carport). Got most of what needed to be done, um... done and then my uncle calls - wanting to go do something with my dad. We have 1 car, and the wife had said car... so I had to go home early rather than finishing the bike that day.

Sunday - don't get out the door till 2 f*kn 30. Wife didn't get home till 3 in the damn morning (passed out at her friends house - damn girl doesn't sleep). Should have brewed in the morning but counted on getting out the door earlier... got in a bit of a spat that I'm still in the doghouse for (incidentally - sunday was the aniversary of a childhood dog's death... she takes it hard every year... *sigh*)

Monday (today - as I type this at least). I'd planned on sewing up a bag and doing DB's stovetop mash thing. Couldn't find a needle, couldn't find thread, sewing machine had gotten damp in storage and was grumpy. Picked up all the stuff to do a cooler conversion (including cooler) for just under $70.

Saw a subaru legacy station wagon "make offer" in the window. Needs some work but shows promise. Running on 3 of 4, but has good compression in all 4 cylinders, doesn't seem to smoke, etc. Guy wanted $600, offered $200, paid $300. Hope that with $400 or so worth of parts it'll be road worthy... we'll see I suppose.... Anyways, I never buy a car without my dad taking a look. I'm an ok mechanic, he's a better mechanic.

Due to a miscommunication I had to leave mid brew - luckilly after the mash, before the boil (brought right up to boil, covered with lid, left, came back, removed lid and got back to brewing).

Wow that's a long ass post.

I'll tell ya one thing... brewing at night is more fun... why you ask? Because I"M ****ING DRUNK!!!! (I don't drink before 5 pm unless it's a special occasion....)

So in 3 days... I:
Pissed off my wife
Brewed my first batch of Ag beer
Bought a car
Fixed my bike

But ya think I did my homework?

Congrats on the first AG. It looked like it was one of those weekends, where you need a couple days off to recover. Welcome to the AG club!

I need to recover... from the weekend... this week ;-)

Now I just need to track down a keggle or bigger brewpot. Mine's a 7.5 which was just barely adequate for BM's centennial blonde. Based on refractometer readings, a third sparge (batch) would have been worth it, BUT I did hit 10 brix (1.040 at 6 gallons).

Yeah, I'm with you on the 7.5 gallon pot. I'm on the hunt for a bigger pot as well. I just started kegging though, so the 7.5 gallon will have to do for now.

One thing that shocks me is how much more trub there is in the carboy vs. extract batches. I guess it's POSSIBLE that the beer is done... but I see no krausen so I doubt it (too early to take gravity readings IMHO). It was dark when I was vorlaufing and it was my first time (gosh... that almost sounds dirty)... so I don't think the runnings were as clear as they could have been.

All I can say is that the cooler mash tun is the best $70 I've spent in a while.

Are you dumping straight from your kettle? A good whirlpool and you can siphon around a ton of trub in the kettle.

What was your OG and your fermentation temp. Something doesn't sound right. My beer from Sunday is chugging along.

Forgot to measure OG (a bit drunk by the end of the brew session) - but in the kettle, well mixed the refractometer read 10 - which correlates 10 1.039 at 6 gallons pre boil. Ended up topping off with tap water (we'll see if that bites me) for 5.5 in the fermenter. Not sure what that translates to - but my OG should be right in the range that it should be.

I used the autosiphon to transfer from the kettle. Didn't whirlpool (once again... bit drunk...) and left the siphon unattended dumping into the carboy. Got distracted and came back to see that the siphon had sucked some trub into the fermenter. I think most stayed in the kettle, but drunk plus first time... well we all know how that goes...

Fermentation temp is 60ish. I didn't rehydrate the yeast and wort temp may have been a bit too cool at pitching (it's freezing ass cold outside). If there's no activity tomorrow night (48 hours) I'll re-pitch. I have a feeling, though, that by tomorrow AM it'll be chugging along.

Nice thing about fermentation closet being kind of a PITA to get to - it's easier to leave it alone!

Is there a way you can raise that temp (if you using an ale yeast)? It might help getting that thing started.

She's started. Not super active yet, but a healthy head of krausen. Next time I may toss a heatpad underneath for the first 24 hours.

Eventually I'll set up a temp controlled fermentation chamber - either ala deathbrewer (AC and foam, controlled by external thermostat) or a chest freezer. BUT that'll be mostly for repeatability. This summer it may be a nescessity, but even then - we keep the AC around 70 - still within acceptable fermentation ranges. I know yeasts ferment cleanest at lower temperatures, heck - john out at rougue ferments at 60.

All that to say - I'll start temp control if I find it nescessary. My beers have been great so far. Could they be better? I'm sure - but I'm happy with them and right now, that's all I care about. If I can get away with no temp control then my winter beers will start a bit slow and my summer beers will be a bit fruity...

I'm borrowing a ferm-wrap right now, and it's fantastic. Glad your beer started. Let us know how it turns out.

See - I checked out the fermwrap, haven't used one but what concerns me is that there's no temperature control and from what the guy at the brewstore said - it runs around 80 - a bit high for most yeasts.

I forgot to mention that I do also have a fishtank heater and cooler setup that I used on my first 2 brews (outside) that worked marvelous. I'd be a bit concerned, however, about using it in the closet (evaporation).

Yeah...I have the ferma-wrap hooked up to a ranco controller. But I think you could hook it up to a light timer, set some times, and be ok.

Yeah, I don't know how a fishtank heater and cooler would work in a closet. I've never used one. Usually my problem is heat, not cold. Last year, I used an electric blanket in a party tub. It worked pretty good.