Starting anew

[CoastalCowboy]

I think I may finally be able to put down roots. I used to brew, years ago, when I lived in upstate New York. I had to pull up and move to Indiana for work, brewed a little bit there, and then I had to move to a couple different cities in that state, losing bits and pieces of my setup along the way. Now I'm in Tejas de la Norte, planning, looking at catalogs, and waiting for what they insist upon calling "winter" down here in the coastal bend area of Texas. Once it gets cool enough, I'll start brewing. I live in a badly-insulated dubba-wide, and it's too expensive to keep the temperature below 80 degrees at the moment. I figure, by the time "spring" rolls around here, I'll be able to build a climate-controlled "artificial celler" in a corner of one of the rooms. Until then, I'll wait for things to cool down in general so I can brew during "winter".

I love the people here. I love being able to walk to the Gulf from my home just to surf fish. I'm not so thrilled with the climate, but the people are worth that little inconvenience.

My first batch was all-grain, with almost entirely improvised equipment (I did buy a fermenting bucket and an airlock). No, I wasn't arrogant. I'm a biologist, so mixing and measuring were already under my belt. Now I'm almost back at the improvising level, taking stock of what I have (found my capper, yesterday, and think I know where my PhilMill is likely to be) and what I don't (Alas, poor Phil's Phalse Bottom, I knew him, Horatio.).

Bryan

 

[conpewter]

Great that you are getting back into the hobby!

For your temperature control you could always put the fermenter in a bucket of water and add frozen water bottles to keep it down to temp. I have a small freezer with a temp controller on it that doesn't use much electricity at all (since it is so well insulated).

 

[CoastalCowboy]

What you propose would be a great idea, if I didn't have to, on a moment's notice, hop off to Paige from time to time to help for days to a week with some properties my landlord owns (he gives me a break on the rent). Unfortunately, I need a "fire and forget" system for fermentation. (I can do this, since I'm self-employed, and what I get in rent break makes up for what I lose in customer work.)