First post, first brew.... fingers crossed!

I've been lurking here (and around the internets in general learning about brewing) for about a month, and I just finished my first brew day, so I thought I'd post up some pics.

I've been resisting this hobby for a while because I was afraid I would wind up sinking too much time and money into it, but a certain chain of events found me in possession of a nice CO2 + tower setup, then came the $50 craigslist chest freezer conversion, then the realization that it was cheating to fill it with commercial brews, and well.... the rest is history.

I always like checking out pics of other people's stuff, so here are a few of mine:

Test boil just after I got my kettle & burner:


FedEx lost my starter kit, blaming it on temp holiday staff, so I wasn't able to get a brew day in before the holidays. This left me with some downtime for other projects. The various side projects are a main part of the appeal of this hobby for me, and I fully realize the idiocy of doing this stuff before even brewing a single batch. Bear with me.




We live in Nor Cal, but we don't have a place in our house that's consistently warm enough to ferment ales in the winter. So obviously the only solution is a dual stage temperature-controlled fermentation chamber:




Adding some flashing so the door magnets will still work:




Construction done (not yet wired):




I also like the idea of harvesting my own yeast or doing starters from liquid, and as it happens I had more than enough spare parts to put together a quick/minimalist stir plate. I'm well aware this was not needed in the slightest for the extract recipe I wound up with, but I was able to use the little stir bar to cool the hydration water slightly quicker:






Okay here's my actual brew setup. My "sculpture" is what I call Stonehenge meets San Quentin. Stone-like. Austere. Can you see it? For some reason I decided I needed a plate chiller which I picked up from kegcowboy.com. Wow, that thing is super-effective, but it does add some complexity:




I did a More Beer! American IPA. Their store is pretty close, and they seem to have fresh ingredients. Here's my cheater "Info Station" which is actually just the top of my fermentation cabinet. I put my equipment and recipe into BeerSmith, and I got mostly matching numbers for gravity, color, etc. The one exception was IBU's, so American IPA should be, which would be fine w/ me. I will consider this a success if this thing is even remotely drinkable. Time will tell.



Went straight from boil kettle through plate chiller into carboy. 70 degrees seems good to me:

 

(continued)

After the bubbles cleared, OG looked close to 1.060 (recipe said 1.058 - 1.062) which also seems... nominal:




Cleaning "in place" and backflushing w/ some PBW to take care of the plate chiller:




Done! Now we wait...





Thanks again to everyone on here for the great info and guidance... this was my first brew, but it was pretty fun, so I'm pretty sure it won't be my last. If it's drinkable, even better!

 

Dear God!


That is an amazing 'first' time setup. very cool equipment. I like the plate chiller. what are your plans for serving? will you be bottling or going to a keg?

 

I wouldn't be afraid of sinking to much time or money into your new hobby: JUST ACCEPT THAT YOU WILL.

 

Wow, You jumped right in with both feet. Great looking set up.

Now learning the art of patience is the hardest part about this hobby.

Welcome.

 

Pretty ingenuitive set up for fridge.

 

Can you go into a little more detail about your heat / cool box? It seems pretty b'd'ss.

 

+1....Brilliant!

 

Very cool! Odds are you'll be planning your next batch and picking up another carboy any day now!!

 

Nice setup, man! most of us brew for awhile before building stuff like that, VEDDY, VEDDY NICE!
welcome to this greatest of all hobbies! looks like you're all setup to make some nice beer! now get brewin'!!!

 

I already have a keezer and CO2 setup rigged for commercial kegs, and I've read enough horror stories about bottling that I'm planning to go straight to kegging. The one downside is that I can see myself brewing a lot more than my wife and I can (or should anyway) drink ourselves, but I figure I can always pick up a few growlers to share.

 

Sure, I got some ideas from a few posts I saw in the "show us your fermentation closets" thread on here. Primarily this one (which I thought was cool for re-using the fridge door): 4.6 cu ft Fridge to 10.1 cu ft Fermentation Chamber Conversion.

I decided I wanted to keep it mobile so I put it on a platform w/ casters so I could move it around and in/out of the garage.

It's cooler than I want for ales in my garage these days (down to 40's or 50's overnight), so I added a Love TSS2 dual stage temp controller -- the cooling relay controls the fridge, and the heating one is wired to a tiny 200W space heater I found on Amazon. I stole this idea from someone on here too, but I don't have the link anymore to give them credit:

http://www.amazon.com/Lasko-MyHeat-Personal-Ceramic-Heater/dp/B003XDTWN2

I did a quick test of the cold setting, and the thing froze a pint glass of water and iced over a half-full 5gal bucket within a few hours. In actual use the heating side seems more than adequate to keep the ambient temps within my specified 2-degree band without cycling the heater too much.

 

Yeah, so about that... I've already rationalized brewing again this weekend, and I have another 6.5gal carboy sitting in my garage.

I also wanted to muck around with liquid yeast, so I've got a starter going on the plate in the fermentation chamber. It might be a few degrees cooler than ideal in there, but we'll see how it goes.

 

You can't see me, but I'm standing up and applauding right now. I may have just shed a tear, too.

 

well played, you! i know many of us wish we were that well informed and prepared when we first started out.