I'm finally close to being finished!

[wizdumb1]

After 5 years of picking stuff up here and there and a couple busy years I'm about done.

I spent hours running everything and cleaning it out last night. I had another few hours fighting with temp probes not reading Temps right. I found I had two wires reversed on the PID, Silly mistake.

Now I just have to clean up the area and organize the wire mess so they aren't just hanging from the panel. Eventually I'll finish that area of the basement, But that will wait until lumber prices are normal.

 

[Sammy86]

Looks fantastic! Congratulations!

 

[stevehaun]

Strong work!

 

[T Murph]

Looks great. Good work.

 

[FromZwolle]

After 5 years of picking stuff up here and there and a couple busy years I'm about done.

Ha! never gonna happen.

 

[FromZwolle]

you might be done, "for now".

nice build.

 

[wizdumb1]

you might be done, "for now".

nice build.

Thanks!

And yes your right. I may be eying a better fermenter and a few other toys.
Kegerator is just a single tap for now and so on....lol I don't think it will ever be done.

 

[luizartur]

Congratulations!! Great work, looks simple and pretty clean! Well done.

 

[wizdumb1]

Made my first beer Sunday!

I was 8 points off of my OG. It came in at 1.063 instead of 1.071 and I ended up with 5 gallons in the fermenter when I targeted 6 gallons. I'm guessing I have an air leak in the dip tube because I couldn't get the last gallon out of the pot. It stopped right at the top of the dip tube and lost suction. Pot was too awkward to tip and still hot so I took a loss. I'll have to figure that out before the next brew day.

Balancing temps between the HLT and MLT was a chore until I found out there is a 4 degree difference between the 2. I spent a half hour upping and downing the temps until I found it. Probably didn't help being a few degrees up and under for the time during the mash, Maybe counts for my loss in OG. All my water measurements seemed to be dead on except for the loss in my boil pot. My grind seemed ok but maybe I will have to check it all out. Not bad for my first go at it in years.

Chilling took longer than I figured, About 40 minutes. I don't think my tap water is all that cold.

In all I have figured out some of the little headaches along the way and it actually went smoother than I expected. Took me about 6 1/2 hrs with everything prepped the night before and about an 1hr 1/2 cleanup. Made for a late night dinner for me....lol I see a few areas I can cut some time so I'll have to work on that.

Now it's happily bubbling away, Had activity 7 hrs later. I did forget to put together how I was going to set up my fermenter so Last minute I had to toss some stuff together clean and sanitize. Regret tossing duct tape on it....lol But it works.

Even in the basement the whole house smelled, Wife was not happy. Will have to work out some ventilation also. The steam condenser worked by keeping the moisture levels down but did not control the odour.

 

[Sammy86]

Welp, you made beer...the only question left is what's next? LoL

 

[wizdumb1]

Welp, you made beer...the only question left is what's next? LoL

What's next is to make more beer but do it better each time. Was a bit chaotic for a little but fun.