Smokey Fisherman

[smokeyfisherman]

Well as much as i hate referring to myself as a "newb" or "noob" i suppose that is what you would call me seeing as i have never brewed before but i just got all my equipment together to get started.

i have a brewers best kit with 6.5 g primary and 5 g glass carboy upgrade.
picked up a true brew ingredient kit (IPA) to get started with as well as a copy of clone brews. sort of kicking myself for the true brew kit now but i was told my first batch would run smoother if i had everything in one spot. f**k it, the true brew IPA is going in the fermenter first but will be followed immediatly after with a sierra nevada pale ale clone.

also grabbed a "brew belt" because the temp in my house fluctuates so much, and for the past few days i have been experimenting with the belt using a fermenter filled with water. got the temp sitting at about 69 (thermometer on bucket says 68-70, and glass thermometer in water says 68.5 at the bottom and 69.5 at the top of the water column)

i have a few questions that i will be needing answers to as i go along but for now i just wanted to create a thread introducing myself and my intentions for first/second batch. (i know there is a introduction section but i wanted to kill two birds with one stone. i will post questions in here as well. mods feel free to move it if it is an issue).

i will be brewing on friday because it is my next day off from work, and i do not want to be rushed doing it after work. i want to be able to take me time and not f**k anything up. (do i have to use those stars or will the mods not mind swearing? i know some sections of my other forum dont allow swearing... which leads to another question. any NEFers on here?)

 

[nakros]

It sounds like you're all ready to go!

68-70 is a pretty good temperature, you can definitely brew in that.

As far as the swearing, don't worry, the board is nice enough to blank it out for you.

Beer is _REALLY_ hard to mess up. On Friday, brew it, have a blast, take notes about your starting gravity, the recipe, your process, etc... (You'll probably end up with a killer beer and want to repeat it).

I'm up to around 50 batches of beer, 10 batches of wine and 6 batches of cider in the year I've been brewing. The only problems or bad batches I've had so far were due to fruit flies in the middle of the summer (I curse those little bastards. Three batches of beer dumped into the woods out back). Other than that, it's been better beer than I can buy at the local beer store.

So brew and be happy! RDWHAHB. If there are any questions, I guarantee someone here will have an answer. Read as much as you can on this board -- it's easily the best source of brewing information around with the friendliest folk you could possibly wish to deal with.

 

[Brewin06111]

Depending on the yeast you could get off flavors when you ferment at 70 degrees..The other thing to realize is fermentation creates heat and it is not uncommon for the bucket to raise 5 degrees or more than the ambient temp of the room...

Other than that...You are good to go!

 

[smokeyfisherman]

one thing i keep hearing over and over again is the whole "temperature on the inside of the bucket during fermentation can be as high as 10 degrees over what the thermometer on the outside of the bucket says" and "fermentation creates heat"

so i got to thinking about ways of knowing the internal temp without opening the bucket to stick a thermometer into the wort. thinking about taking a meat thermometer and inserting the metal rod into the side of the bucket leaving only the dial on the outside and sealing it up really good so it is air/leak tight.


has anyone heaard of this, or done it themselves? (i suppose i could search for it...)