Hello from the California desert

[troy2000]

Hello,

seems like every time I have a question about homebrewing, I wind up here. So I decided to just join, and be done with it.

I've only brewed one batch so far: 2 gallons of 'American Light Beer' from a Mr. Beer kit I picked up on sale at Kmart. It came out about like you'd expect: drinkable, sort of. I decided I'd have to do better than that next time around, so I started rounding up information and equipment.

I dug out a couple of old 5 gal carboys from Arrowhead Water, the tinted glass ones, and cleaned years of crud out of them. Then I went to Walmart online and found a mini-fridge on sale for $99.00 plus tax, with free delivery. I compared its outside dimensions to one we have at work, and figured it would work just fine as a fermenting chamber. Unfortunately, it turned out to be smaller inside than the work fridge.

I had been planning to buy a 6.5 gal carboy for my primary fermenter, and use the arrowhead bottles for conditioning. But I had to remove the door shelving and notch the foam insulation all the way to the door skin, just to squeeze a 5 gal one in. So I duct taped a slab of 1" foam board to the outside of the door, to make up for the foam I cut out inside.

I also ordered an STC-1000 dual stage microcontroller, the one referred to as 'the ebay controller.' When I get it wired up, I'll plug the fridge into one side, and a reptile mat or the old light-bulb-in-a-can into the other side. Either one should fit fine behind the carboy, on the shelf created by the inset for the compressor unit.

Hopefully I'll be posting about my first batch pretty soon, instead of about my equipment....

 

[eltorrente]

Welcome. Be prepared to go crazy with this hobby - it's a lot of fun and very rewarding.

Quit doing cheap Kmart batches, and start out with some more acceptable kits. After a few of those, figure out your own recipes, or modify existing ones. You may eventually decide to get into all-grain brewing - which will give you even better beer, and allow much more flexibility.

Don't even bother with secondary fermenters unless you are planning on letting them sit there for months and months. 99% of the time, you want to leave it in the primary until fermentation is done, then either bottle it or keg it. Don't mess with your beer unless you have to.

Temperature control is critical, so it's good that you're getting that taken care of.

 

[troy2000]

Welcome. Be prepared to go crazy with this hobby - it's a lot of fun and very rewarding.

Quit doing cheap Kmart batches, and start out with some more acceptable kits. After a few of those, figure out your own recipes, or modify existing ones. You may eventually decide to get into all-grain brewing - which will give you even better beer, and allow much more flexibility.

Don't even bother with secondary fermenters unless you are planning on letting them sit there for months and months. 99% of the time, you want to leave it in the primary until fermentation is done, then either bottle it or keg it. Don't mess with your beer unless you have to.

Temperature control is critical, so it's good that you're getting that taken care of.

Well, the whole point of studying up and putting equipment together was to get away from Kmart batches; one was enough.

But for my next batch I have a can of HME meant for a saison, that came with a packet of Belle Saison yeast. It's for 2 gallons, and that will get me halfway to a four gallon batch. So I figure it's a good time to try all-grain mashing on a small scale, and see if I can create a couple of gallons of wort to combine with the wort from the HME....

I'll probably be in the forums asking a few questions about that, before I try it. I've been reading everything I can get my hands on first, so hopefully I'll at least know what questions to ask.

 

[Cyclman]

Welcome to the group, from CO. The forum stickies and the wiki have lots of good infomation to get started.

 

[KeystoneHomebrew]

I envy your dedication. Very nice setup.

Besides being the greatest hobby known to man, it is one that rewards everything you put into it.

Cheers!

 

[troy2000]

I started a thread chronicling my efforts to round up the tools of the trade, including a temperature control setup for the fridge:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/collecting-toys-get-started-435024/