Aye Carumba!

First homebrew in 10 years, I'm less than 24 hours from the boil and and it's been one to remember.

First problem was during the boil. Using my brand new, 32 quart stainless steel brew kettle, I got my water boiling, poured in the extract - promptly scorched the extract on the area of the brew kettle in direct contact with the electric stove burner. CRAP! Well, I just didn't scrap the bottom of the kettle during the boil. Long term affect? Don't know.

Second - I've had two blow outs in my primary. One was caused by my leaving the cap on the air lock. Despite the holes in the cap, it was enough to allow all the CO2 to escape. Blew open the fermenter lid. So I take the air lock off, clean it off, refill it, and put it back on. Less than four hours later I have this....



I'm not too worried - I think that both blow offs are really just indications of a good, strong, fermentation process.

Whaddya think?....

i agree - a good strong fermentation
maybe use a blow off tube for the first few days of heavy fermentation and then go back to the air lock

I think you are well on the way. There might be a bit of caramel in the batch, but unless you are making a pale, no biggee.

KTwo said:

First problem was during the boil. Using my brand new, 32 quart stainless steel brew kettle, I got my water boiling, poured in the extract - promptly scorched the extract on the area of the brew kettle in direct contact with the electric stove burner. CRAP! Well, I just didn't scrap the bottom of the kettle during the boil. Long term affect? Don't know.

Click to expand...

When I'm brewing inside on my electric stove I use a old wire coat hanger cut and bent into a star shape just to keep my kettle 1/8th of an inch off the burner . . . still boils OK and keeps me from scortching anything

Pumbaa said:

When I'm brewing inside on my electric stove I use a old wire coat hanger cut and bent into a star shape just to keep my kettle 1/8th of an inch off the burner . . . still boils OK and keeps me from scortching anything

Click to expand...

I think that now that I've "knocked the cob webs off" with regard to breweing by getting my first batch down, I'm going to use the large propane burner that came with my smoker next time. It was a little cold last night for me to do that, and I spent too much time hovering over the pot to have done that outside. Big flame = more even heat. I shouldn't have a scorching problem.