War Eagle brewer in Auburn, AL

[mat1583]

First of all, War Eagle! My friend and I are new to the homebrew scene, but I've had an intense interest in craft brews for the last 3-4 years. I was super excited when one of my wife's coworkers approached me about wanting to start homebrewing. We went in 50/50 on the equipment purchase and split the ingredient cost 3 ways with another buddy.

This past Saturday we bottled our first batch of an American Amber after 1 week in the primary and 1 week in the secondary dry hopped with Willamette. Pre-conditioned final gravity was right on the spot and the beer tasted great. We can't wait to try our first batch after it's been bottle conditioned. This is proving to be an incredibly interesting and exciting hobby. Anyway, here's our setup:

10 gallon all-grain
-Mash tun: 10 gallon igloo cooler with torpedo screen & SS 2-piece ball valve
-Boil kettle: 80qt aluminum boil kettle from Academy Sports
-Immersion chiller: 50ft 3/8" soft copper tubing with garden hose attachment.
-Burner: 58,000 BTU Turkey fryer burner from Academy Sports
-Primary fermentation: 6.5 gallon glass carboy
-Secondary fermentation: 6 gallon BetterBottle
-Kegging - 5 gallon used corny keg.

First batch recipe:
Name/weight(lbs)
Pale Malt (2 Row) US 9.5
Cara-Pils/Dextrin 1.25
Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L 0.1
Caramel/Crystal Malt - 120L 0.2
Barley Roasted 0.2

Name/oz/time boiled
Magnum 1 60
Centennial 0.25 15
Willamette 1 10
Willamette 3 dry hopped 1 week

I'll make sure to post again in a week or two when we pour the first final beer to let y'all know how it turned out. I'm so thankful these forums exist. We had SO many questions in the beginning that were answered a bazillion times on here. :rockin:

 

[knuckleheadbrewing]

shhhhhhh Homebrew in AL is illegal....


SOunds like your on the right path! If your beer tastes good from the bottling bucket...it;s gonna be great carbed and cold!

 

[GIusedtoBe]

Roll Tide! Sorry couldn't help myself. Sounds like you are off to a good start with your brewing.

Welcome,
Alan

 

[tuckferrorists]

Geaux tigers!!!

 

[mat1583]

shhhhhhh Homebrew in AL is illegal....


SOunds like your on the right path! If your beer tastes good from the bottling bucket...it;s gonna be great carbed and cold!

I never stated it was brewed in Alabama

We learned a lot on our first brew day and had a few very minor "mishaps". We couldn't get the burner working correctly at first, but fortunately it was during a test boil to get the boil off rate. Our grain absorption rate was a little off, so we ended up with a little more pre-boil volume than expected. I also forgot to purchase some whirfloc, so the beer is a little hazy. Everything else went smoothly until we went to rack to the secondary and realized our glass carboy stoppers didn't fit the better bottle. We improvised with some duct tape wrapped around the smaller stopper (and sanitized). Pure engineering genius. What else would you expect from an Auburn grad?

 

[KingHippo]

Welcome... Tell your wives goodbye

 

[mat1583]

As promised, here's the very first pour of our very first batch:

The smell was awesome! Dry hopping was a risky approach for new brewers, but it turned out great. The taste was excellent as well (of course I'm a big partial to my own work). It was a little hoppy for an American Amber/Red, but not too bitter to take away from the great malt flavors. Carbonation was almost perfect. It formed a great 1" head that lingered for a few minutes, and lacing all down to the last drop. Honestly, we were very surprised our very first batch as homebrewers turned out so well. We're already looking forward to the next!

 

[southernhomebrewer]

WAR EAGLE!
06' alum

I've been brewing for a few years and just upgraded to a 26 gal kettle! This site is great and I've got a lot of help from the people on it.

Enjoy!

 

[MVKTR2]

Roll Tide and congrats on your success! As I write this I've got one window open to HBT and another to al.com checking up on fall practice in Tuscaloosa.

This is an amazing, rewarding, and tasty hobby. God's speed!

Phillip