Aabrewedxxxx
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Nov 30, 2006
- Messages
- 56
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Hello, my name is Adrian. You all can call me Age if you like. I live in northern NJ 5 minutes from NYC. I run a business and go to school.
Ever since I was 16 I've wanted to brew my own beer. I am 21 now and started my first batch this sunday. It was a big mess but I had fun and I can't wait to see how it turned out.
First of all I wanted to brew enough for everyone on new years. So I bought 2 10 gallon buckets to brew 200 bottles of beer more or less. I didn't want to buy all the siphons for bottling so I bought a couple of spigots. I didn't want to buy the airlocks either so I bought a 1/2inch airline to put in the lid and run into a cup of water. And I built my own wort chiller which is sweet. I got two starter boxes full of DME LME bottle priming sugar and hops. One is called "irish stout" and the other "canadian ale".
Brewing this sunday was very interesting. I started at 7PM thinking it would be a quick thing. I finnished at 3am. And I had lots of very intersting problems. Like I cleaned and sanitized everything and finnished boiling the wort but then forgot to drill the hole in the fermentor for the spigot and on the lid for the airlock. I also didn't have a drill bit that was wide enough to fit the spigot and then the drill made a crooked hole and the spigot leaked so I got a big garbage bag washed it a crapload put it in my fermentor and poured 10 gallons of wort in that. Then I had to drill the hole on the lid but the drill ran out of batteries. So I cut a big hole into the lid put some epoxy on a funnel and then put the airlock hose ontop of the funnels. Then after I got the beer in the stupid fermentor I forgot to add 1 pound of DME to my irish stout. So i shrugged and added an extra pound of DME to the canadian ale. Which seemed to absolutely no effect.
In terms of the lid and funnel airlock thing; they worked great until the next morning when the epoxy on the funnel didn't hold and the fermentor blew it off and there was foam and beer everywhere in the garage. Which was good sign because that means my babies were fermenting with 5 hours lag time! The mess wasn't too bad either It took me one and a half hours to clean up it went from one side of the garage tot he other side (2 car garage). And when I finnished cleaning up, foam was pouring out of the lid so I had to buy a hose, santize it, and syphon a gallon out of each fermentor. Then I had a big hole on my fermentor lid and te only thing that fit it was the funnel so I had to Duct tape the funnel down. But the ducttape dosent give that good of a seal so my airlock dosent work. The air just ecapes from the sides of the funnel. It is a Good thing I piched 4 packs of yeast per fermentor (2 cups of activated yeast) hopefully I won't get any contamination. Also I think it is too cold! My garage and basement everywhere is an even 67-69F. So I had to buy a cheapy heater and set it next to my babies to keep them nice and warm.(also to keep me warm since I spend alot of time in the garage)
Eventhough my experience would be considered a bad one. I learned A LOT from it. I am motivated for my next batch and I found a 5 gallon cooler in my basement so I can start all-grain brewing with my next batch! All I have to build is a manifold. I asked for a water report from my city and am now getting more serious into this art. I would like to learn and share experiences and hence signed up here.
I havent even tasted my beer yet this is what I have learned:
Lesson #1: Don't brew 10 gallons of beer in a 10 gallon bucket. LEAVE SPACE TO FERMENT!
Lesson #2: If you build your own airlock make sure the epoxy dries before using it!
Lesson #3: Drill holes and place spigots in the fermentor BEFORE even starting your wort.
Lesson #4: Don't boil large amounts of wort inside unless you want a really angry household. (three famlies live in my building and they all were spraying crap in the hallways to get rid of the smell)
I look forward to getting to know you all and I hope my crazy newbie experience gave you all a good laugh!
What crazy experiences did you guys have?
-Age
Ever since I was 16 I've wanted to brew my own beer. I am 21 now and started my first batch this sunday. It was a big mess but I had fun and I can't wait to see how it turned out.
First of all I wanted to brew enough for everyone on new years. So I bought 2 10 gallon buckets to brew 200 bottles of beer more or less. I didn't want to buy all the siphons for bottling so I bought a couple of spigots. I didn't want to buy the airlocks either so I bought a 1/2inch airline to put in the lid and run into a cup of water. And I built my own wort chiller which is sweet. I got two starter boxes full of DME LME bottle priming sugar and hops. One is called "irish stout" and the other "canadian ale".
Brewing this sunday was very interesting. I started at 7PM thinking it would be a quick thing. I finnished at 3am. And I had lots of very intersting problems. Like I cleaned and sanitized everything and finnished boiling the wort but then forgot to drill the hole in the fermentor for the spigot and on the lid for the airlock. I also didn't have a drill bit that was wide enough to fit the spigot and then the drill made a crooked hole and the spigot leaked so I got a big garbage bag washed it a crapload put it in my fermentor and poured 10 gallons of wort in that. Then I had to drill the hole on the lid but the drill ran out of batteries. So I cut a big hole into the lid put some epoxy on a funnel and then put the airlock hose ontop of the funnels. Then after I got the beer in the stupid fermentor I forgot to add 1 pound of DME to my irish stout. So i shrugged and added an extra pound of DME to the canadian ale. Which seemed to absolutely no effect.
In terms of the lid and funnel airlock thing; they worked great until the next morning when the epoxy on the funnel didn't hold and the fermentor blew it off and there was foam and beer everywhere in the garage. Which was good sign because that means my babies were fermenting with 5 hours lag time! The mess wasn't too bad either It took me one and a half hours to clean up it went from one side of the garage tot he other side (2 car garage). And when I finnished cleaning up, foam was pouring out of the lid so I had to buy a hose, santize it, and syphon a gallon out of each fermentor. Then I had a big hole on my fermentor lid and te only thing that fit it was the funnel so I had to Duct tape the funnel down. But the ducttape dosent give that good of a seal so my airlock dosent work. The air just ecapes from the sides of the funnel. It is a Good thing I piched 4 packs of yeast per fermentor (2 cups of activated yeast) hopefully I won't get any contamination. Also I think it is too cold! My garage and basement everywhere is an even 67-69F. So I had to buy a cheapy heater and set it next to my babies to keep them nice and warm.(also to keep me warm since I spend alot of time in the garage)
Eventhough my experience would be considered a bad one. I learned A LOT from it. I am motivated for my next batch and I found a 5 gallon cooler in my basement so I can start all-grain brewing with my next batch! All I have to build is a manifold. I asked for a water report from my city and am now getting more serious into this art. I would like to learn and share experiences and hence signed up here.
I havent even tasted my beer yet this is what I have learned:
Lesson #1: Don't brew 10 gallons of beer in a 10 gallon bucket. LEAVE SPACE TO FERMENT!
Lesson #2: If you build your own airlock make sure the epoxy dries before using it!
Lesson #3: Drill holes and place spigots in the fermentor BEFORE even starting your wort.
Lesson #4: Don't boil large amounts of wort inside unless you want a really angry household. (three famlies live in my building and they all were spraying crap in the hallways to get rid of the smell)
I look forward to getting to know you all and I hope my crazy newbie experience gave you all a good laugh!
What crazy experiences did you guys have?
-Age
