Recent content by Radagascar

I'm new to homebrewing, but what I tried for my last batch is freezing a gallon of store bought drinking water 1-2 hours before adding the yeast and pouring it in the wort to cool it. Seemed to work alright and I'm *assuming* the store bought drinking water is pure enough to add to the wort...

Thanks a lot guys, the next time I brew I'll probably do the partial boil again to help chill the wort faster since I have no ice and it takes forever. My next topic of research is if I should leave the beer in the primary for 3 weeks or the listed 2.

I don't have any device to measure the OG. Perhaps that should be my next investment?

So I did my second one-gallon batch of beer today and it was a red ale kit from Northern Brewer. I started with a gallon of water (the recipe calls for 1.25 gallons initially) in hopes of boiling away 1/4 of it so I could add some ice water to help the wort cool. After my 45 minute boil and...