Hey all! I've been lurking here for a while and finally took the dive into homebrewing! I caught the bug while I was in Afghanistan a few years back (one of my friends there homebrewed) but was scared off due to the size of my kitchen (small apartment). I moved into a new place and was talking to the landlord about homebrewing (privately owned/managed complex). He asked me what was stopping me - I explained the sink wasn't big enough for my stock pot, faucet not tall enough to fill it, worried he'd be bothered, etc. He said he would look into it. Next day he calls up to say so long as I had a trappist ale going soon he could have our maintenence guy out the next day with a new sink/faucet and an in sink filtration system (the type with the small faucet on the side). So the order went out to Midwest, goods arrived Saturday along with my maintenance guy, and a brew concocted on Sunday night/Monday morning (shift worker here). First batch is the raspberry red to appease the lady and then a trappist noble ale this weekend once the raspberry goes into the secondary.
Can anyone say greatest landlord on earth?
So a few things that went wrong (questions already answered through search, have already relaxed and had a brew!) -
1 - Steeped grains WAY too long; I read the time for the boil and steeped them for an hour. Ooops.
2 - Didn't bring temp up to boil before adding LME - though I did pull it from the heat so that's a plus!
3 - The yeast (wyeast activator) was swelled slightly from shipping - made a starter and they seemed quite happy.
4 - Cooled the wort...too much. Didn't realize when I pitched the yeast there was enough ice to make the north sea jealous.
All seems well now. Airlock this morning was happily bubbling away with the most delicious smell on earth. Even the lady seemed happy with it (here's to hoping it comes out good).
Only question I have concerns the hydrometer readings. I didn't take one when I pitched for the starting gravity - is it the change between starting and final gravities that is important before racking into a secondary or just getting to the ballpark of the final gravity? And would sanitizing a soup ladle be acceptable for taking a sample or should I buy a turkey baster? Ladle is stainless fyi.
Thanks so much for all the info I've gotten on here to date and hoping to have some good results in the coming weeks/months.
Can anyone say greatest landlord on earth?
So a few things that went wrong (questions already answered through search, have already relaxed and had a brew!) -
1 - Steeped grains WAY too long; I read the time for the boil and steeped them for an hour. Ooops.
2 - Didn't bring temp up to boil before adding LME - though I did pull it from the heat so that's a plus!
3 - The yeast (wyeast activator) was swelled slightly from shipping - made a starter and they seemed quite happy.
4 - Cooled the wort...too much. Didn't realize when I pitched the yeast there was enough ice to make the north sea jealous.
All seems well now. Airlock this morning was happily bubbling away with the most delicious smell on earth. Even the lady seemed happy with it (here's to hoping it comes out good).
Only question I have concerns the hydrometer readings. I didn't take one when I pitched for the starting gravity - is it the change between starting and final gravities that is important before racking into a secondary or just getting to the ballpark of the final gravity? And would sanitizing a soup ladle be acceptable for taking a sample or should I buy a turkey baster? Ladle is stainless fyi.
Thanks so much for all the info I've gotten on here to date and hoping to have some good results in the coming weeks/months.
