Hello from Cleveland

[GLish830]

Hello all,

I have extensive knowledge of drinking beer and zero knowledge of making beer. For Xmas my wife got me this giant box, I am not sure how she got it by the tree. It was a grainfather brewer and the how to brew book by palmer. I read the book twice and watched tons of videos and realized my wife got me a pretty sweet setup and a more complicated one than the normal starter setup. Over the last 2 weeks I have been accumulating everything I think I need and am ready to go with my first beer, a red irish ale.

I have to say forums like this are amazing sources of information, I dont think I would have tried without it. So thank you.

Garth

 

[Sammy86]

Welcome to the community! Your wife is a keeper buying you that piece of machinery without ever brewing a batch! Congratulations and good luck! If you have questions, ask...there is a lot of knowledge floating around here!

 

[GLish830]

no doubt about it, I never even mentioned brewing to her. I always thought about it, I guess after 25 years she knows me better than i do.

 

[TsunamiMike]

Congrats, an electric like a grain father is amazing! I have been doing extract brews since the start of the pandemic and although I have many new pieces to make it easier I keep wanting to look at the Anvil Electric.

I did go a different direction after bottling 4 brews as it is truly a pain, my wife told me to go get a kegerator and start kegging instead. Part of me thinks she wanted her kitchen back but the other part of me was too excited to worry about that! SO I am still brewing extracts almost 2 years later and kegging all of my brews. I have a NE Hazy Wheat I am actually kegging today and starting to carbonate.

BTW I am in North Ridgeville, welcome to the forums...

 

[GLish830]

Thanks Mike, I have only brewed the one all grain last Friday. I was pretty nervous because everybody said to start with extract. I think that must be from holding temperature on a boiling pot without a thermostat. Honestly, that Grainfather takes all the guess work out of it. A monkey could make beer in that thing. Kegging sounds easier. I have an old fridge, where did you buy the tank and kegs?

 

[TsunamiMike]

Yeah my buddy who lives in Aurora just got the Anvil unit and its like a large kitchen appliance! He used to do extract as well and will never go back, he uses a guy that is local to him <mybrewsupply.com in Solon> that he tells him the style, abv, hops he wants and he puts a recipe together for him and allows my buddy to tweak it but all in all the guy has been great for him as he does the measurements and mills all of the grains. What size batches are you brewing, 5 gal?

I wanted to get all new kegs and a new CO2 bottle so I wouldn't have any issues up front, I ended up finding the best price on the bottle and kegs at beveragelements.com . I found there prices were the best on this equipment, I ended up going nitro on a stout I did for the holiday and got my attachments and n2 bottle through them as well.

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

Welcome to the forum and the hobby, @GLish830 !

 

[Coookies58]

Welcome Garth. Also a Cleveland brewer here. I brew smaller batches on a similar type system. Love it. Also agree with kegging. Your wife is indeed cool, but not sure she realizes what she got herself into. This is a hobby that grows and grows.

 

[Upstate12866]

You should try some great lakes clone recipes and report back on the ones that nail it! And check out label peelers in Ravenna for really really good prices.