Gettin my feet wet for real this time

In the past I have helped brew a few batches with my buddy, but this Saturday will be the first batch I brew with my own equipment at my own place !!!!

My brother bought me a Mr. Beer kit for Christmas, I haven't gotten around to brewing it, but it made me think...what am I waiting for. I love great beer, and my best friends brew...duh...so I got all the equipment and ingredients together since then.

So...I'm goin in full grain from Day 1. I remember the process from helping out, and I have read/ and continute to read a ton (Papazian is king). So it should be interesting.

I just want to say thanks for this site, I read a few things that seem big time helpful from some of you people. I had my doubts about the false bottom vs stuck mashes, so I took it out and went with the SS braid for the maiden voyage on Saturday. Wish me (us) luck. On Saturday Hopalicious will be born.

I love the smeall of fresh hops in the morning. I'll report back.

Way to start out on the dark side of all grain brewing. I hope your session goes well.

Welcome! Good luck with your foray into the obsession!

Thank you both for the words of encouragement. My brew buddy got sick with strep, so he couldn't show up, so we postponed that brew, but I was too excited to wait, so I brewed a dry mead, and an ESB. Everything went great. My lack of attention made a mess around the kitchen (overflowing wash water), but everything else went great. I am pumped. Onward and upward!!

Ah heck WormBoy, we've all destroyed our kitchen at some point during the brew session. My wife and I have a 1 butt kitchen, which means only 1 butt can fit in at anyone time so she kindly requested that I take brew day outside. I gladly obliged and built my first gravity fed systems.

My only words of encouragement are that if you have a problem such as a stuck sparge or incomplete conversion, boil-over or anything just don't panic. It is actually kind of tough to totally screw up a brew day even when you feel the worst has happened. Sounds like you're well on your way.

The only advice I like to give brewers who are getting into AG is to taste your beer at numerous points along the way; during beginning of mass, end of mass, before first hop addition, after final hop addition, after primary and secondary. This advice was given to me from a ver experienced brewer and it has helped me to understand where and how a flavour profile is developed.

Brew On.
Jeffrey

runhard said:

Sounds like you're well on your way.

Brew On.
Jeffrey

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I read my post and I hope you don't take this sentence out of context. What I meant to say is that you're well on your way to enjoying this ever engrossing hobby.

Braver (and richer) than I. I'm sticking with Extract (mini-mash) brews till i start kegging. Then when i have money maybe i'll get into AG. Welcome to this obsession known as a 'hobby'

Eschewing the extracts and jumping right into to the AG process?? Impressive!

Runhard, I laughed at your "1 butt kitchen" line. That was good. Mine is too, only because SWMBO won't go near anything resembling a stove:cross: I brew outside too, though, cuz she can't stand the smell of boiling wort.

Wow Bernie, thats funny, my wife is the same way. She said to me, that smell (steeping grain or boiling wort) is just like Kip's brewery (my friend), and I said yah, mmmmmm. And she said YUCK. I said honey, this we have to break it off.
No, she's super supportive.
Dead - Luckily the freeze on finances happened after I purchased all my equipment! She knows it makes me happy so she lets it run it's course.

Update: The mead started bubbling, but still no action with the bear. I think its because of temp. The mead is in a closet on the first floor (~69 degrees), and the beer is down in the Basement at 60 degrees exactly. So that is a little behind. I do see slight krausen formation on top, but no bubbles through the blow off yet. Is this uncommon?
Runhard- Thanks for the words of encouragement. I didn't mind the kitchen, I drip a lot of hoses during connect/disconnect and sometimes don't pay attention and bleed em dry enough, which I guess is to be expected. But the amount of time it takes the two burners on the stove to get things boiling might force me out on the deck with a propane tank and a burner. The wait was painful! Thank you all, I'm very excited. I think this weekend will be a belgian blonde and a Hoegarden clone. I'll report back.