First time Brewer In Kerman CA

[Straykiller]

Hey guys, i wanted to introduce myself and get some advice in the process as well as tell you about my gear that has a lot of history. Ive been wanting to get into brewing for quite some time but wanted to jump into all grain brewing from the start. I was fortunate enough to find someone local selling their 10 gallon set up with almost everything i needed to get started, 2 10 gal stainless boil and mash tun, 4 glass carboys, 3 coke kegs, pump, 2 copper cooling loops, fly sparse arm, a couple extra fermenting bucks and a lot of little extras. I figure it was someone who was just getting out of the hobby and selling off their stuff. Turns out when i went to pick the stuff up it was from the owner of a newly opened brewing in Clovis, It was what they had used before they made the jump up to they larger system when the oped the brewery. Pretty cool and very nice people, they told me about how they started brewing beer in their garage, soon friends would come over when they were brewing and then later all the wife's began to pitch the yeast and it became a little tradition get together every time they brewed. I think it is pretty cool for them to share the story with me. There was a catch thought buying all this gear, I had to promise to bring them a beer once I brewed a batch.

So now that story time is over i have a few questions to ask. I purchased a Keg from my local home brew shop to convert into my HLT to use with the fly sparge but i am wondering if i should use if for my brew kettle instead and use the pot as my HLT. Ive read about people having boil overs when their pot is full and using the keggle would allow for full 10 gallon batches down the road(only plan on 5 gal batches at the moment). What are your thoughts? Im welding up a 3 tier stand for my set up and need to decide what I'm using and where to determine the heights of the tiers. I also bought a 200,000 BTU burner that is a monster, i can barley turn it up before the flames are leaping up the side of the pots. I think the concave bottom of the keg might hold the flame in a little better come boil time allowing me to crank it up a bit.

Any recommendations for a first brew? i would like to brew something light and crisp with a good amount of hop flavor, Its pretty hot where I'm am. I generally like IPA's, hefeweizen, Hoppy Ales, pretty much anything besides bud light lol. I just picked up a 9cu chest freezer as my fermentation chamber and a temp controller so i can also lager.

Anyways just wanted to talk about my new gear as I'm excited to jump in to this hobbie head first. Ive been sitting on this gear a few weeks while i acquired everything else i need so i am anxious. Any recommendations or help you can offer me would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, I'm looking forward to drinking a lot of good beer soon.

Cheers

Justin

 

[ChelisHubby]

Ed Worts Bee cave pale ale is a simple good beer. If you want it with more hop flavor double the last 2 hop additions and maybe a dry hop after 4 days of fermenting.

 

[Straykiller]

Thanks for the tip I will check it out

 

[mmeadows24]

Congrats Stray. I definitely would go with any variation of a simple pale ale for your first batch. It'll help you nail down your equipment's quirks. If you haven't already you might wanna check out the San Joaquin Worthogs Brewclub. They just had their meeting Saturday but they have a bunch of experienced homebrewers and several pro-brewers who still hangout who could help. By any chance was it Zone 9's system? Those guys are pretty cool. Nice to have a backstory to your gear.

 

[Straykiller]

Yes sir it was, very nice guys. I'll check out the brew club as well, I have an IPA fermenting in the chest freezer now(finished at 1:30am last night, last time I start that late lol), all I can say is I'm glad I bought a blow off tube. there definitely are some quirks I need to get used to I'll be doing a easy ale next go around.