I just started my second batch from a kit yesterday and I thought I'd share a couple of observations/experiences that might help other beginners or elicit helpful comments:
I bought an inexpensive 5 gal kettle to make the wort. It took forever for the water to boil on my cook top electric stove. I think that the bottom of the kettle, because it was thin and had a larger diameter than the heating coils, expanded and bowed up so that it no longer was making contact with the area where the heating element was. Once I realized this, I placed a couple of quarters, about 90 degrees apart, under the edges of the pot. Now the bottom stayed in contact with the stove top and it boiled easily.
Question: When you steep the crushed grains from a kit, should you try to get all the "dust" from the grains in your pot or let them shake out of the steeping bag before you immerse it? Should you squeeze extra liquid from the bag when you're done steeping or just wait till it stops dripping when you remove it?
After I pitched the yeast, I snapped the lid on my fermenting bucket completely. For my first batch, bubbles started coming through the airlock in just a few hours. This time after 30 hours, no bubbles. Although everything I've read says not to worry, I worried. I pushed down on the lid just to see if I could just maybe push out a little air just to see if it was working. But nothing much happened. The lid was pretty rigid. For the heck of it, I pushed down the edge of the lid and then some air bubbles came out of the air lock. So I pushed down the edges of the lid all the way around and now there's plenty of activity. So even if you completely snap the bucket's lid down all the way around, I'd recommend just using some extra pressure around the edge to make sure the seal is tight.
Also, check out coppertubingsales.com. They have wort chiller kits. No instructions and the shipping is a bit pricy. But if you check out YouTube, you can figure it out. I put together a kit the day before brew day and it worked great.( I would recommend a tubing bending coil or tool.)
I bought an inexpensive 5 gal kettle to make the wort. It took forever for the water to boil on my cook top electric stove. I think that the bottom of the kettle, because it was thin and had a larger diameter than the heating coils, expanded and bowed up so that it no longer was making contact with the area where the heating element was. Once I realized this, I placed a couple of quarters, about 90 degrees apart, under the edges of the pot. Now the bottom stayed in contact with the stove top and it boiled easily.
Question: When you steep the crushed grains from a kit, should you try to get all the "dust" from the grains in your pot or let them shake out of the steeping bag before you immerse it? Should you squeeze extra liquid from the bag when you're done steeping or just wait till it stops dripping when you remove it?
After I pitched the yeast, I snapped the lid on my fermenting bucket completely. For my first batch, bubbles started coming through the airlock in just a few hours. This time after 30 hours, no bubbles. Although everything I've read says not to worry, I worried. I pushed down on the lid just to see if I could just maybe push out a little air just to see if it was working. But nothing much happened. The lid was pretty rigid. For the heck of it, I pushed down the edge of the lid and then some air bubbles came out of the air lock. So I pushed down the edges of the lid all the way around and now there's plenty of activity. So even if you completely snap the bucket's lid down all the way around, I'd recommend just using some extra pressure around the edge to make sure the seal is tight.
Also, check out coppertubingsales.com. They have wort chiller kits. No instructions and the shipping is a bit pricy. But if you check out YouTube, you can figure it out. I put together a kit the day before brew day and it worked great.( I would recommend a tubing bending coil or tool.)
