I made a lagunitas IPA clone with peach extract added to the keg. It is awesome and could definitely compete with store bought brews. Not quite as hoppy as I like, but very good which I think the peach hides the hops
Things for others
I kind of did a swamp bath to keep the temperatures but the outside Fermometer constistently showed around 74 so the inside could have been much hotter. It turned out great anyway, don't let everyone here discourage you about keeping it at a perfect temp. I am sure it could taste a bit better but most palates can't tell anyway IMHO.
Always do a blow off tube to begin with. Don't listen to anything else. My very first fermentation of an IPA with white labs California and it was pretty violent and kept clogging the s air lock and pushing the star San out of it. It made me a nervous wreck at work until I changed it to the blow off tube. Why risk it for the first several days?
It's not that difficult to get quality beer as long as you have some common sense and sanitize your stuff. Just dive in and do it.
Things for others
I kind of did a swamp bath to keep the temperatures but the outside Fermometer constistently showed around 74 so the inside could have been much hotter. It turned out great anyway, don't let everyone here discourage you about keeping it at a perfect temp. I am sure it could taste a bit better but most palates can't tell anyway IMHO.
Always do a blow off tube to begin with. Don't listen to anything else. My very first fermentation of an IPA with white labs California and it was pretty violent and kept clogging the s air lock and pushing the star San out of it. It made me a nervous wreck at work until I changed it to the blow off tube. Why risk it for the first several days?
It's not that difficult to get quality beer as long as you have some common sense and sanitize your stuff. Just dive in and do it.