Hello from Chicago

[cheech1006]

Hello all! Glad to be joining Homebrewtalk.com!

I've been home brewing for about 8 months now. I think I'm on my 6th or 7th batch right now. Most of my beers have been pretty good, but I'm looking for ways to make them better.

Cheers!

Mike

 

[vitalbrew]

Hey Mike! I'm new to posting on the forums too but am on batch 9 now similar to you. Planning to brew Saturday, but I don't have my recipe finalized yet...Doh!

 

[Pappers_]

Hello from another Chicago-ite!

There are a few homebrew clubs in the Chicago area, which you might enjoy checking out http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/pages/directories/find-a-club I'm a member of Brewers of South Suburbia (B.O.S.S.) http://www.singingboysbrewing.com/The-Blog.html?entry=boss-brewers-of-south-suburbia

Cheers and welcome!

 

[2Guys]

Hey guys, im about to start my 1st batch this week, any tips on things you guys had to learn after your first batchs??

 

[vitalbrew]

Hey guys, im about to start my 1st batch this week, any tips on things you guys had to learn after your first batchs??

Here's what I forgot on my first batch. Take a gravity reading with your hydrometer once you get your wort up to the full volume (~5.5 gallons for my set up) and it is cooled down to about 70 degrees. Without it you won't know what your final alcohol content is, and of course on this first one you want to be able to confirm to your friends that it's over 5% or whatever your recipe yields. So you need to siphon off some wort into your measuring cylinder and plop in the hydrometer and write down the original gravity -OG. Do this right before you pitch your yeast. Later after the gravity reading stops changing, you'll take the number where it stops (final gravity -FG) and the OG and calculate the alcohol by volume - ABV.

Other tips - assuming you're doing extract - watch your boil and stir a lot so it doesn't boil up all over you. Without a cooling coil you can cool it down fast after the boil by making an ice bath in your sink and sitting your brew pot in it. And get something good to drink while you're brewing.

 

[kh54s10]

Temperatures, cleanliness and patience.
I put my first batch in the basement and it was much warmer than I expected. I got strange flavors (tasted when checking the gravity) It has been a month and a half and still 2-3 more weeks bottle conditioning to tell if it mellowed enough. (advised to age it a long time)
Get some Starsan if you do not already have some an sanitize everything that touches the beer after cooling..
Do not get impatient. The recipes with kits give minimum times - let primary fermentation go longer. Many add 2-3 extra weeks and skip the secondary. Expect bottle conditioning to take a couple of weeks longer that the kit instructions say.
Have fun.

 

[Niilo]

Welcome Mike! Where you at in the city? I'm in Lakeview. I brew with several people from the north and west side. I don't make it to the south side that much.

 

[2yellowdogs]

Brewed my first batch late July, a Better Beer Kit- American Ale. Bottled after 2 weeks, cracked first beer about a week and a half later. Bitter aftertaste, high alcohol, but smooth at first, nice head. After some reading, I may have fermented too high a temp (steady around 72F). My next batch will be an IPA that I will rack to secondary and leave it much longer. Any sugestions would be greatly appreciated. I live in the Northwest suburbs of IL. Cheers!

 

[2Guys]

thanks vital, im going to have to keep that in mind.. ive watched many videos and things so i kind of have a good checklist to make sure i dont skip any steps.

me and my buddy havent decided if were doing a kit yet. we were gonna go to the HBS in st charles, has anyone been there and is that a good HBS??

 

[glenn514]

Welcome, cheech1006, to this little corner of insanity called "brewing." Lemme see...Che-kah-go...isn't that the really, REALLY big suburb of Marengo?

glenn514

 

[cheech1006]

Welcome Mike! Where you at in the city? I'm in Lakeview. I brew with several people from the north and west side. I don't make it to the south side that much.

I'm downtown, near Greektown. Don't get up north much...

 

[BirdmanBrewingCo]

Welcome Cheech!