First time brewer here. Thought I would post just to put it out there. I brewed an Irish stout. I put a bunch of time and research into getting prepared and went as far enough to get a wine thief because of my new fear of getting the brew infected. I washed everything with oxyclean Saturday night in preparation but waited till Sunday to sanitize. I made a batch of Star San in the primary bucket and shut the lid tight and gave it a good shake for awhile. I then transfered the Star San into a seperate 5 gal bucket and put all my gear into there, thermometer, wine thief, stirrer, etc. I then proceeded to pour 2 gallons of spring water into my pot and added my grain bag. Minor note, I managed to pour the grains by accident into the sink, DOH! Was not to concerned as I knew there was going to be some serious boiling in the near future. I got the pot up to 160 and held it for 10 minutes. I then pulled the grain bad out and placed in into a strainer over the pot and dumped 2 cups of sterilized water onto the grain bag and let it drip. I then dumped the grains into the garbage and added another gallon and a half of spring water. I got it up to a rolling boil and took it off the burner. I then added my malt extract and got it boiling again only to add the hops. 60 minutes and 2 small boil overs, DOH, I put the pot in the sink for the ice bath. I soon realized that I did not have enough ice so I tried a multitude of things to try and lower the temperature but after reading into the degrees of how the brew could get infected, I transfered it into the primary bucket, got my wine thief full for a hydrometer reading and vigorously stirred the brew before adding the yeast. I snapped the lid on good and tight and filled the airlock with Star San and put it in my dining room. I noticed activity before I went to bed but it was vigorously going at it today and since I will be gone all day, I popped the lid to get just a little more venting, and put a weight on top. So, there you have it. My first brew. So, next Sunday transfer from primary to secondary and then some more waiting before it goes into the corny.
On a separate note, I caught the home brewing bug when my wife got me a Mr. Brew kit. I did that with great success and since my new brew kit came with a corny, I transfered that into my corny and force carb'd it. I am glad I did that because I was able to learn how to clean, sanitize, and take apart the corny. I had a slight issue with a leak but I did some troubleshooting and I think I learned a couple of things about seating the lid.
Well, thanks for taking the time to read this!!!!!!!!!
On a separate note, I caught the home brewing bug when my wife got me a Mr. Brew kit. I did that with great success and since my new brew kit came with a corny, I transfered that into my corny and force carb'd it. I am glad I did that because I was able to learn how to clean, sanitize, and take apart the corny. I had a slight issue with a leak but I did some troubleshooting and I think I learned a couple of things about seating the lid.
Well, thanks for taking the time to read this!!!!!!!!!