First and foremost (sp?): i spent A LOT of time reading on here, went through the entire FAQ sticky, read 'How to brew', the first section of 'The Joy of Homebrewing', countless random threads, and a bunch of searches via this site. All i have to say after that long winded sentence is that i would've messed up big time without learning from all you **** ups who went ahead of me and i really appreciate it.
That having been said...
things of note:
1. Initially boiled ~2 gallons of water. placed them inside spigot bucket
2. instructions called for a 1.5G boil for the wort... i did about 4 gallons (is that ok? i thought i read somewhere that the more you boil for your wort, the higher the OG. not sure)
3. i must be retarded, i couldn't get a reading out of the hydrometer. i placed ~4oz of "beer" into a glass, and placed the hydro in... nothing. oh well, beer looked fine, and smelled like something that will turn into beer, so i'm not going to complain
4. rehydrated my dry yeast (didn't have time to make a starter) about 60 minutes ahead of time, instructions said 15 minutes, i assume this wont make a difference? i stirred the yeast every 15 minutes or so to create even suspension.
5. no less than 6-7 hours later, my blow-off was quite active. glad i did that and didn't airlock it right away.
6. took me about 6 hours from (waking up) first sanitization of spigot/bucket, all the way through cleaning EVERYTHING up. this time will trim down next time... right? i want to get good enough to do this on a work night :rockin:
lastly...4 gallons of wort in a 5 gallon pot, and i didn't get ANYWHERE close to a boil-over... did i do something wrong!?!
That having been said...
things of note:
1. Initially boiled ~2 gallons of water. placed them inside spigot bucket
2. instructions called for a 1.5G boil for the wort... i did about 4 gallons (is that ok? i thought i read somewhere that the more you boil for your wort, the higher the OG. not sure)
3. i must be retarded, i couldn't get a reading out of the hydrometer. i placed ~4oz of "beer" into a glass, and placed the hydro in... nothing. oh well, beer looked fine, and smelled like something that will turn into beer, so i'm not going to complain
4. rehydrated my dry yeast (didn't have time to make a starter) about 60 minutes ahead of time, instructions said 15 minutes, i assume this wont make a difference? i stirred the yeast every 15 minutes or so to create even suspension.
5. no less than 6-7 hours later, my blow-off was quite active. glad i did that and didn't airlock it right away.
6. took me about 6 hours from (waking up) first sanitization of spigot/bucket, all the way through cleaning EVERYTHING up. this time will trim down next time... right? i want to get good enough to do this on a work night :rockin:
lastly...4 gallons of wort in a 5 gallon pot, and i didn't get ANYWHERE close to a boil-over... did i do something wrong!?!