Well, I finally did it! The first beer of the unoffical Texas Republic Brewery (TRB) is sitting in the primary. I chose to go with the AHS Texas Red, an Ale kit from AHB. I had a great time brewing the beer with three buddies and two SWMBOs. I have litterally been studying the craft for the last year and a half and it's a great feeling to finally have something show for it. The brewing went really well (didn't have a boilover but close) and, I just want to highlight some issues good and bad.
I used a SS 26qt pot sitting on a nice Camp Chef 60k BTU burner. The burner is really nice because it has leg attachments that raised the pot to a perfect height. I broke the burner in to burn off some of the paint and did a test boil to see how long it would take it to get 5gal to a roiling boil. All-in-all it took about 30 minutes to get up to boil which isn't bad.
Note: I splurged ($25) on a digital Cooking Thermo Timer. Basically, a thermometer with a set temp alarm and a timer. This thing made it really easy for me to be doing other things and not worry about watching the temp. Highly recommended.
My wort chiller has not arrived from AHB yet so I had to do an ice bath which is not the best. But, I did make good use of my square igloo cooler with the lid removed...perfect size. I got to desired pitching temp. in about 18 - 20 minutes.
At the end I did notice something that I forgot to do. I did not account for boil evaporation of the wort. So, I was about 3/4 of a gallon short of 5 gal. Today, I'm going to do a test boil and measure to I know how much more to add. Plus, once my 6.5gal primary is done I'm going to mark the 5 gal point on it so I know if i'm short.
I had a great time and look foward to letting you guys hear and watch the TRB grow.
I used a SS 26qt pot sitting on a nice Camp Chef 60k BTU burner. The burner is really nice because it has leg attachments that raised the pot to a perfect height. I broke the burner in to burn off some of the paint and did a test boil to see how long it would take it to get 5gal to a roiling boil. All-in-all it took about 30 minutes to get up to boil which isn't bad.
Note: I splurged ($25) on a digital Cooking Thermo Timer. Basically, a thermometer with a set temp alarm and a timer. This thing made it really easy for me to be doing other things and not worry about watching the temp. Highly recommended.
My wort chiller has not arrived from AHB yet so I had to do an ice bath which is not the best. But, I did make good use of my square igloo cooler with the lid removed...perfect size. I got to desired pitching temp. in about 18 - 20 minutes.
At the end I did notice something that I forgot to do. I did not account for boil evaporation of the wort. So, I was about 3/4 of a gallon short of 5 gal. Today, I'm going to do a test boil and measure to I know how much more to add. Plus, once my 6.5gal primary is done I'm going to mark the 5 gal point on it so I know if i'm short.
I had a great time and look foward to letting you guys hear and watch the TRB grow.
