Hello all,
I live in the about 35 miles west of Chicago, and I just made my first batch of beer. I'm excited about absorbing as much info as possible here, but I just really want to make some good beers.
I just brewed (last week) an extract Dubbel that came in a kit made by one of my local wine/beer brew shops. The process went pretty smooth, except my electric stovetop had some trouble boiling the 5+ gallons of water. I am considering getting a propane burner for outside to speed up the boiling, but I also started with cold water which prolonged the heating process. I made my own wort chiller. It isn't pretty, but it worked well and chilled in about 10-15 minutes. (I had a Lowe's gift card so the parts were "free")
I'm going to transfer it into the secondary tomorrow or Tuesday, and I am just trying to learn as much as possible before I attempt a second batch. Time to start doing a little forum reading.
Dave
I live in the about 35 miles west of Chicago, and I just made my first batch of beer. I'm excited about absorbing as much info as possible here, but I just really want to make some good beers.
I just brewed (last week) an extract Dubbel that came in a kit made by one of my local wine/beer brew shops. The process went pretty smooth, except my electric stovetop had some trouble boiling the 5+ gallons of water. I am considering getting a propane burner for outside to speed up the boiling, but I also started with cold water which prolonged the heating process. I made my own wort chiller. It isn't pretty, but it worked well and chilled in about 10-15 minutes. (I had a Lowe's gift card so the parts were "free")
I'm going to transfer it into the secondary tomorrow or Tuesday, and I am just trying to learn as much as possible before I attempt a second batch. Time to start doing a little forum reading.
Dave
