hello!

[sonofgreengenes]

I'm new to the homebrewing hobby but I've been doing a great deal of reading as preparation before my first brew, which I did on Monday night (Labor Day) with my old lady.

I live in rural southwest VA so we have some temperature fluctuation through the various seasons, and from what I've gathered about the process of brewing, temperature control is a big deal. So I've made a small temperature controlled (willhi single stage controller) minifridge/fermenting chamber. We're using a True Brew bucket fermenter. It's ghetto but it seems to be working, 2 days later I've noticed a relative small temperature envelope it will maintain of about 58-62f.

Anyway, this is our first brew, hoping for the best but not expecting anything too outstanding. I'm hoping to put together a less "kit" style recipe for the next batch.

 

[redwards81]

Welcome and best of luck lets us know how it turns out.

 

[Cyclman]

Welcome to the group, from CO. The forum stickies and wiki have lots of great / free info. Temp control is an outstanding place to start. My next recommendation is starters, stirplate, and O2 injection. With those and temp control, you can make outstanding beer.

 

[Sammy86]

Welcome! I went to Roanoke College, where are you in VA?

 

[Homercidal]

Welcome! cool handle, BTW. From someone who used to watch Kaptain Kangaroo as a kid. Man does that bring back some memories! (some of them are a little fuzzy though...)

 

[sonofgreengenes]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

cyclman: Funny you should mention that, as I was just searching for more information about yeast starters. I'll dig deeper and hopefully give it a shot on my next brew attempt. I already feel like my electric range just isn't going to cut it so I might cobble together a propane burner/boiler setup.

Sammy: Tri-Cities area, so basically Bristol.

Homercidal: I have to confess, my username is actually from the title of a Frank Zappa song, which I can only assume was directly borrowed from Cpt. Kangaroo.

 

[Homercidal]

I have several of Zappa's albums. I should look it up. It's been a while since I listened to him. Maybe the kids are old enough to hear some of them...

 

[sonofgreengenes]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7VAOuIePVo

 

[Levi43]

Happy to welcome you here.