Very first brew steeping now.

[Goolsbymd]

Well, wife will be coming home and seeing im about half way through my first home brew. Stopped at a LHBS on the way home, all they sold were 5 gal kits so i just substituted and made up a 2.5g kit as I'm the only one drinking beer in this house. Got about 3 gallons steeping currently, extract syrup is in a warm water bath to thin out, 3 gal car boy is cleaned with San star along with stopper and air lock. Picked up a big old aluminum stock pot, boiled water in it for an hour to form my protective layer. Got in a bag of bear paw honey brown ale. Think everything is good to good.

 

[JimRausch]

Welcome!
Brew on!

 

[Goolsbymd]

Extract is in, both sets of hops are in. Smelling good, even wife said it smelled good. 30 more mins then going to an ice bath and into my fermenter adding yeast, agitating and capping to rest.

 

[Goolsbymd]

Transferred to the carboy, the dang funnel mouth was to wide to fit into the carboy mouth so i mixed up another batch of star san and ran it through my auto siphon. Took a hydrometer reading orginal gravity is listed at 1.053 my gravity reading was roughly 1.058 figured it was close enough, not that I even know to to fix, but ill just drink a few beers to it reads what I want. Added in the yeast, shook it up for 5 mins using a tennis ball and put in the stopper with air lock. Will let you know how it turns out in a few weeks before bottling.

 

[Hopinista]

Do yourself a favor and start making 5 gallon batches, you're going to drink it all. I promise

 

[Walzenbrew]

Welcome to the obsess...I mean hobby!

And listen to the posters above- might as well get gear for 5 gallons and use it for 2.5 gal than start small and end up spending more money later to go bigger.

 

[icebob]

^what he said!

 

[Goolsbymd]

Well, my boil pot is a 6 gal pot, and my bottling bucket is about 6 gallons. I guess only thing I would need is a bigger carboy and get me a propane burner, my gas stove took forever

 

[DennisinIowa]

And teach the swmbo how to run the bottle filler.

 

[Goolsbymd]

Well things got a little crazy over the last week. SWMBO gave me a big job at getting stuff i need together. I guess making a mess while using her propane stove top burner paid off. She told me to move it all outside so I am waiting on a burner to come in, also... Stir plate/dme/2k flask to start yeast, 3 ball lock cornys, Wednesday my 3 tap set from keg connections will be here, picking up a 7cuft freezer and johnson controller x2 (one for old garage fridge), NB chinook ipa kit, also a cream ale kit from NB, gonna head to the LHBS and get some 6 gal carboys(might move to better bottles). Been a busy week for sure, but gonna be busier next week.

I have since removed the blowoff tube and put the air lock back in, the head has lowered considerably since last week. Looking good, no gravity test since OG will check next Monday.

Just how i am, when I get into something i love (like bbq) i jump in the deep end and learn to swim quick. I don't think I'll be sticking around extract brewing to much longer, depending on SWMBO.

 

[Goolsbymd]

Pitched yeast 9 days ago, went to check gravity reading today just to see where it's at. Hydrometer gave me a reading of 1.011 which gives me about 6.1ish ABV. I don't plan on taking it out of the primary till at least Monday, maybe even later, going to let it clear and everything drop out. It's still very cloudy, could barely see hydrometer in the beaker.

Beer stats:
Brown Ale 2.5G batch
Brewed on 24Mar14 with a SG of 1.058
Used an entire WLP001 vial.
Fermented started around 73* made a make shift swamp cooler. Dropped down to 69/70s.
9 days after pitching gravity reading of 1.011. Planning on keeping in fermenter another week, maybe bottle Monday at the earliest. Tasted pretty good for warm flat beer.

Everything look good? suggestions?

 

[Babybatch]

Well things got a little crazy over the last week. SWMBO gave me a big job at getting stuff i need together. I guess making a mess while using her propane stove top burner paid off. She told me to move it all outside so I am waiting on a burner to come in, also... Stir plate/dme/2k flask to start yeast, 3 ball lock cornys, Wednesday my 3 tap set from keg connections will be here, picking up a 7cuft freezer and johnson controller x2 (one for old garage fridge), NB chinook ipa kit, also a cream ale kit from NB, gonna head to the LHBS and get some 6 gal carboys(might move to better bottles). Been a busy week for sure, but gonna be busier next week.

I have since removed the blowoff tube and put the air lock back in, the head has lowered considerably since last week. Looking good, no gravity test since OG will check next Monday.

Just how i am, when I get into something i love (like bbq) i jump in the deep end and learn to swim quick. I don't think I'll be sticking around extract brewing to much longer, depending on SWMBO.

Get it! That'll teach her!!! :rockin:

 

[davygoat2]

Good Luck! you have been infected with the homebrew bug.
You'll never look at beer the same again.