aygov
Well-Known Member
On the 13th of December I made the leap into home brewing and I'm fairly certain I owe most of the success to the knowledge and members of this forum. Well, that and a bit of dumb luck. 
This is my second post and there is a good reason for that. Every little question that popped into my head, every little scenario that I ran into I searched the forums here for and found at least one and often multiple threads pertaining to it. Answers were plain and concise and when there wasn't a consensus there was always enough information for me to feel like I had made an informed decision.
My first brew was the 6 Malt Amber Ale extract kit from AHS and it has turned out excellent, although it's more of a brown ale than an amber. I kept it in primary for almost 4 weeks (I was 3 days shy because I needed to bottle on a weekend), bottled it and it carbed up nicely. I served a 12 pack of it at my wife's birthday party and got pretty positive reviews even though it was only 2 weeks in the bottle and still a bit young. One guy even told me that he only wanted to drink my beer the rest of the night. I have a co-worker who brews mead who I gave a few bottle and he's already asking me for more and telling me I need to brew it again. Overall I'd say it was a great success but I did learn a few things:
Cooling wort in the snow is not as awesome as it sounds. Yes, I saved on ice, but my cool down took 45 minutes.
Fermenting on top of the dryer in the utility room with the furnace is also not optimal. For the first 2 days of fermentation the temp strip on the bucket was steady at 65-66ish but one day I came home to find temp had rocketed up to 72. I'm pretty sure the perfect storm of extra cold weather causing the furnace to run pretty often combined with my MIL doing 4 loads of laundry contributed to a hefty increase in heat in the room. I've since found that the pantry seems rock solid temperature wise and is much less susceptible to temp swings.
Finally RDWHAHB. Once my beer was in the fermenter I took a very zen approach to it. I didn't freak out when the airlock hadn't bubbled until a day and a half later. I just monitored the temp and patiently waited until the 4 week mark was near. I didn't freak out when I realized I had racked almost all the beer to the bottling bucket and had forgot to boil my priming sugar. I went ahead boiled the sugar, cooled it, and gently stirred it in.
Bottom line is my beer wanted to be beer, rather good beer I must say, and in spite of some stupid stuff I did it persevered.
This is my second post and there is a good reason for that. Every little question that popped into my head, every little scenario that I ran into I searched the forums here for and found at least one and often multiple threads pertaining to it. Answers were plain and concise and when there wasn't a consensus there was always enough information for me to feel like I had made an informed decision.
My first brew was the 6 Malt Amber Ale extract kit from AHS and it has turned out excellent, although it's more of a brown ale than an amber. I kept it in primary for almost 4 weeks (I was 3 days shy because I needed to bottle on a weekend), bottled it and it carbed up nicely. I served a 12 pack of it at my wife's birthday party and got pretty positive reviews even though it was only 2 weeks in the bottle and still a bit young. One guy even told me that he only wanted to drink my beer the rest of the night. I have a co-worker who brews mead who I gave a few bottle and he's already asking me for more and telling me I need to brew it again. Overall I'd say it was a great success but I did learn a few things:
Cooling wort in the snow is not as awesome as it sounds. Yes, I saved on ice, but my cool down took 45 minutes.
Fermenting on top of the dryer in the utility room with the furnace is also not optimal. For the first 2 days of fermentation the temp strip on the bucket was steady at 65-66ish but one day I came home to find temp had rocketed up to 72. I'm pretty sure the perfect storm of extra cold weather causing the furnace to run pretty often combined with my MIL doing 4 loads of laundry contributed to a hefty increase in heat in the room. I've since found that the pantry seems rock solid temperature wise and is much less susceptible to temp swings.
Finally RDWHAHB. Once my beer was in the fermenter I took a very zen approach to it. I didn't freak out when the airlock hadn't bubbled until a day and a half later. I just monitored the temp and patiently waited until the 4 week mark was near. I didn't freak out when I realized I had racked almost all the beer to the bottling bucket and had forgot to boil my priming sugar. I went ahead boiled the sugar, cooled it, and gently stirred it in.
Bottom line is my beer wanted to be beer, rather good beer I must say, and in spite of some stupid stuff I did it persevered.
![Craft A Brew - Safale S-04 Dry Yeast - Fermentis - English Ale Dry Yeast - For English and American Ales and Hard Apple Ciders - Ingredients for Home Brewing - Beer Making Supplies - [1 Pack]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41fVGNh6JfL._SL500_.jpg)
