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firedutyonly

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Ok I'm trying to get my act together here for 1st time out. I tend to overthink stuff. So far I bought 10 gallon kettle with false bottom and temp gauge, stainless steel wort chiller, Bayou propane burner,( 2) 6 1/2 gal glass carboys, and finally, found a used glass door refrigerator(kinda wanted this to watch progress without opening the fridge door)..Just set up the fridge yesterday it has a thermostat in line which keeps it exactly at whatever temp I want. I want to brew lagers. I'll be kegging. Already have a converted old fridge with CO2 setup from when I bought kegged beer. I bought one used soda keg. Am I ready? THANKS AGAIN Also the fermentation fridge is in my garage, which doesn't get direct sunlight, but it does get some light as there are a couple windows. Is that a problem?
 
That all depends on what mashing method you are going to start with. If going extract then you won't need the false bottom. The kettle doesn't need a false bottom if you are not using it as a mash tun or not using whole-leaf hops. There are a few other small things you're going to need. Not sure if you didn't list them, or don't have them. Cleaner, sanitizer, the all important giant spoon/mash paddle, hydrometer/refractometer, maybe a few other things.

Direct sunlight is an issue for skunking, indirect light isn't usually. Happy Brewing!
 
You have more stuff than what most people start with. You're good to go as long as you have all the little things. I'd highly recommend a small scale for hop measuring.

How do you plan on mashing?
 
Just a few things you didn't mention. Not sure if you have them.

Hydrometer
Spoon to stir wort
Auto siphon
Tubing for chiller and transferring, hose clamps for tubing
Airlock and bungs for fermenters
food scale to measure ingredients - I use this a lot
Cleaner
Sanitizer
Bucket for each, cleaner & sanitizer, spray bottle for sanitizer
 
You have more stuff than what most people start with. You're good to go as long as you have all the little things. I'd highly recommend a small scale for hop measuring.

How do you plan on mashing?

If you have two kettles you can actually mash on a stove in your boil kettle. One kettle does double duty for treated strike water or decoction boils, while the main kettle can do stepped mashes. This way you don't have to stress over your mash temps in a plastic cooler.
 
Dude, you're totally going all in right at the start.
As others have mentioned, there are other small things you should have along with the big stuff.
So, I'll mention some general things. First, make sure you've read up on what you're doing. John Palmer's How To Brew has a free read online - though that is the first edition, and he's updated things since then. I think he's on edition 5 now? Also, Charlie Papazian's Complete Joy of Homebrewing is another great book to have. I do recommend homebrewers have both of them on hand.
I would also recommend starting simple - don't brew an all-grain lager the first time out - go with a pale ale, extract or extract with steeping grains. Don't make things more complicated than they have to be until you have the basics down. The other way leads to frustration and quitting.
Also, the things that make for good beer are sanitation, yeast health / quantity, sanitation, temperature control (in brewing and fermenting) sanitation, patience and sanitation.
Keeping things clean is imperitive - you don't want unwanted bugs getting your beer (unless you are brewing a sour, which is a whole 'nother can of worms. (Making sure your yeast are happy - that you are pitching an appropriate amount, your wort is a good temp, it's good temp through fermentation etc. And patience. Kits and recipes say to give it X days to work. Yeast don't have calendars; they finish when they finish. Don't watch it like a hawk, opening the lid every day to take samples. There's no reason for that. I'll watch mine to make sure things appear to be starting in an appropriate time, then I walk away. Forget about it for a couple weeks (unless there's areason to come back early, like dry-hopping.) With time and experience, you'll learn what works best for you.
Take notes. Write down (paper or online) your recipe, timings, expected and actual boil rates, graviites, amounts and so on. They will be of use when you want to recreate a recipe or troubleshoot.
Above all: RELAX. It's just beer. You'll have some batches that don't work out, for any of a number of reasons. It's OK. There's sometimes things to correct the batch, or worst case is a drain pour. Learn from your experiences and move on.
 
As to the question of light. IMO, Yes you will want to keep light from the windows off the beer. It will skunk the beer. If the refrigerator has lights that stay on, remove them.

What you have is ahead of most at your stage of the game. As said already you may have things you don't need yet. For instance, if you are going to do extract beers, you don't need that big a kettle or the false bottom. You will probably want the size and false bottom in the future so the purchase was a good one.

For the kegerator, what kind of kegs did you tap when you purchased? The are usually a totally different hook up that what is used in a home brew set up.
 
Don't forget the most important thing ....a chill pill. Don't worry you will get through it:D
 
"Auto siphon
Tubing for chiller and transferring, hose clamps for tubing
food scale to measure ingredients - I use this a lot
Cleaner
Sanitizer
Bucket for each, cleaner & sanitizer, spray bottle for sanitizer"
THANKS alot I need all this
...I'll be extract brewing to start with...Is an auto siphon same as a wine thief?
Kinda worried about moving it from secondary to the keg...should I be worried about oxygen?
 
I already bought the adapters for soda keg to my Beermeister, Thank You...and again NO direct sunlight will hit that fermentation fridge...But some indirect light does light up the garage a bit. Is that a problem?
 
"Auto siphon
Tubing for chiller and transferring, hose clamps for tubing
food scale to measure ingredients - I use this a lot
Cleaner
Sanitizer
Bucket for each, cleaner & sanitizer, spray bottle for sanitizer"
THANKS alot I need all this
...I'll be extract brewing to start with...Is an auto siphon same as a wine thief?
Kinda worried about moving it from secondary to the keg...should I be worried about oxygen?

An auto syphon is not the same as wine thief. An auto syphon is used to easily start a transfer from one vessel to another. A wine thief is used to "steel" a sample, usually for hydrometer readings. I don't have a wine thief, I use a large battery for that (make sure you squeeze the battery ball before putting it in the wort)

You'll mentioned secondary in you post. Most people here do not use, or recommend using a secondary. Leave the beer in the primary until you are ready to keg or bottle.

If you are kegging, you can either syphon the beer to the keg, or push it with co2. I do not keg, so you would have to research how to do the push method.

You should always be aware of minimizing oxygen, but don't freak out over it either. As the saying goes, relax don't worry have a home brew (RDWHAHB, you'll see that a lot around here)

As for the light in the garage, I would right up a way to hang something in front of the glass door. Black tee shirt, card board, anything.

RDWHAHB.
 
I ferment in my bottling buckets with a spigot. Yeast settles 1/2 inch below the spigot so I rarely pull any into the bottle(or soon to be keg). Simplifies transfer to just attach a hose and open the valve. Granted this is for beers that do not need long ferments or lagering...
 
Beware. Whenever I open the door of my fridge to check if the light is on... it is.
 
back when I used carboys for fermenters, I wrapped then in dark towels to keep the light out, later I made some black covers for each one. Now I have built a temperature controlled fermentation closet that is dark inside when closed. Hope that helps
 
Ok so my favorite of all beers if Haupbrow Dunkel on tap, with guinness a close second. I was told the Dunkel is a Lager. I have the fridge to do that. Anyone recommend any kit specifically? There is a ton on Amazon. may just go to the shop thats been helping me
 
You seem to be brewing the boy scout method - be prepared. :D

You've got some great advice here so far. Let me just add, don't expect an award-winning brew your first time. You won't brew your best beer this time. There's no way. I don't say that to discourage you. I say that to set realistic expectations. If you have good equipment (seems like you do) and follow directions (recipe), you should brew good beer. Once you get better at this, you'll brew excellent beer. Years from now, if you keep at it, you'll brew elite beer. Just not today. ;)

Patience is probably the key ingredient to great beer. Best of luck to you!
 
Yeah, I tend to overthink stuff. Always have a plan to back up the back up plan. Attention to detail always... I'll jump in with low to moderate expectations...Thanks
 
a 6-pack...you will want that to help make all the sanitization go by a little faster...
 

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