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Well, the prep work and advice paid off. Everything went swimmingly other than two minor issues. First, I only got my OG up to 1.052. I measured at 67 and added a correction (+0.0007 right?) Target was 1.058 to 1.062. Not entirely sure why it ended up low. I took the reading after aerating by...

Never have I been more offended. But seriously, all very good advice. I have done all of the above except get some towels ready and I do believe I'm ready to brew. While I'm sure I will still make some mistakes, the information I've found on this forum has been invaluable and the member have...

Yeah, I realized I forgot to graduate my carboy after I sanitized. So I went ahead and did it a minute ago. I'll just have to sanitize again tomorrow morning. We do have beer at hand to facilitate the process. I hesitate to mention the name, but I will say it won a blue ribbon in 1893. I'll be...

Everyone, I appreciate the comments. I'm certainly not a perfectionist, but I like to be prepared. It's the Eagle Scout in me. The city water is quite good (Raleigh). Source is surface water, so it's pretty soft and quarterly reports never mention coliforms. Regardless, I'm now boiling 2.5...

Tomorrow my assistant brewer (SWMBO) and I are brewing our first beer: a Brewers Best Smoked Porter. I can't wait. :ban: I'm wondering what are some key things I can do tonight to make tomorrow go as smoothly as possible. So far, I've done the following: 1. checked kit for all ingredients and...

Thanks for the heads up about the mold; I'll try to minimize the chance for water leaking under the tape. The more I think about it, the more I believe I may have created an additional potential for breakage by restricting the carboy's ability to expand in response to higher temperatures. This...

As I'm reading threads here, I'm seeing that some of you guys are brewing huge (to me) batches of beer: 25 gallon kettles, 20+ gallon fermenters, etc. Now don't get me wrong, I love a tasty beverage, but that's a lot of beer. Do you brew less often, give some away, stockpile, swim in it like...

Okay, here's how it turned out. Not pretty, but hopefully it should minimize the potential for injury if the glass ever happens to break.

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but after reading this I'm slightly terrified of using my brand new 6.5 gal carboy. So, I'm taking the tape approach and found Scotch extreme packing tape. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001AFKV0S/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20 It has cross threaded fibers and...

I've been to American Brewmaster (AM) only twice: once before contemplating brewing to buy a gift and again a couple days ago just to walk through and see what they had. AM definitely has a much larger stocking space, as they're a dedicated LHBS. Thye have a larger selection of malts, a grinder...

Didn't see a better place to post this, so I'm putting it here. I wanted to give a thumbs up to Fifth Season Gardening in Raleigh. I'm just getting started with home brewing and these guys were extraordinarily helpful. 5th season was initially a hydroponics supply store that branched off into...

Hah, you're a wise man, Gary. We just got married in October, so I'm still learning the happy wife = happy life axiom. We'll go with the smoked porter as I'm certain there will be some newb mistakes and a forgiving beer will go a long way to improve our confidence. I can see these forums are...

I'm planning to brew my first beer right around the first of the year and have not yet decided what style to start with. The LHBS carries brewers best kits and I'd like to do one of the following: american amber ale, american pale ale, india pale ale, red ale, smoked porter. Can anyone speak to...

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