Hi everyone. I've been lurking for a while and figured I should join and get it over with. I started brewing about a year a go. I guess it's the standard story how I got started: "wife gets a BIAB beer making kit for her birthday and I start making beer with it."
I did a couple 1 gallon batches and have been getting my 5 gallon stuff together. So far I haven't dumped a batch, and I even made a Porter that was pretty darned good. I have a 5 gallon batch of American Pale Ale festering (will bottle this weekend) and a 1 gallon Lager in diacetyl rest right now. I'm having fun learning and trying not to piss off the wife. I recently joined a home-brew club locally and have been learning a lot talking and brewing with other club members. I hope to be able to contribute to discussions here as well.
My current dilemma is trying to figure out the best way to go with a wort chiller. I have an immersion unit that seems to work fairly slowly and use a lot of water, which is a significant factor here in California. One of the guys in my brew club has a counterflow chiller that I got to use and it was much quicker than the immersion unit I have and seemed to use about half the amount of water. My boss just picked a plate chiller, so he's trying to sell me on that idea. The more I read, the more I see people have religion about whether spent hops and trub transferred to the fermenter is a good thing or not, so I'm trying to reconcile all the info and decide whether to ditch the immersion chiller and get something else or keep it and maybe add a whirlpool jet to it. Anyway, thanks for reading. :fro:
I did a couple 1 gallon batches and have been getting my 5 gallon stuff together. So far I haven't dumped a batch, and I even made a Porter that was pretty darned good. I have a 5 gallon batch of American Pale Ale festering (will bottle this weekend) and a 1 gallon Lager in diacetyl rest right now. I'm having fun learning and trying not to piss off the wife. I recently joined a home-brew club locally and have been learning a lot talking and brewing with other club members. I hope to be able to contribute to discussions here as well.
My current dilemma is trying to figure out the best way to go with a wort chiller. I have an immersion unit that seems to work fairly slowly and use a lot of water, which is a significant factor here in California. One of the guys in my brew club has a counterflow chiller that I got to use and it was much quicker than the immersion unit I have and seemed to use about half the amount of water. My boss just picked a plate chiller, so he's trying to sell me on that idea. The more I read, the more I see people have religion about whether spent hops and trub transferred to the fermenter is a good thing or not, so I'm trying to reconcile all the info and decide whether to ditch the immersion chiller and get something else or keep it and maybe add a whirlpool jet to it. Anyway, thanks for reading. :fro:
