Our baby is past due, so why not brew some beer?!

[j33p4x4]

My wife quite literally was due this past Thursday, its Sunday night and still no baby, so I figured why wait any longer

I've been stalking around on the forums here for a few weeks as I soak up as much info as could before finally starting my first all-grain brew (its my second attempt at a batch, first was a Mr. Beer kit that actually turned out okay). I decided on a Brooklyn Brew Shop kit, "Everyday IPA" since I could use a lot of the 'tools' in future batches.

I put together a whole 'build process,' for those interested, but wanted to post something up here to say hello and get involved in the community.

 

[dwarven_stout]

First baby? Due dates are weird things... most first kids are late, sometimes by as much as two weeks! (OTOH, one friend had her first a full month early, at normal weight and size).

Glad to see you here, and when you have more questions feel free to ask!

 

[GreenDragon]

Welcome to the club! My wife is due Thanksgiving. I have enough beer to hold me over till after the kid develops a sleep cycle I think. I am in the process of making a pumpkin cider for the wife since she won't be able to drink until Woodchuck's pumpkin cider is already gone.

 

[badmajon]

Good stuff. Welcome.

 

[broadbill]

that is going to be one-well aged beer! You brew it and get it fermenting, the baby comes, and you don't get back to it for 10-12 weeks! I'm only half-kidding...

congratulations and good luck!

 

[j33p4x4]

that is going to be one-well aged beer! You brew it and get it fermenting, the baby comes, and you don't get back to it for 10-12 weeks! I'm only half-kidding...

congratulations and good luck!

Haha, this will be our third so while we have the 'new baby routine' down, it may take that long to get back to my brew with everything else going on!

 

[iron_city_ap]

If/When my wife gets pregnant and the baby is born, I'm going to brew a barley wine to drink @ baby's 1st birthday.

 

[commonsenseman]

My first baby was 6 days late, longest 6 days of my life!

 

[HopSong]

Heck, ours was about a month late.. possibly bad time conversion.. but my boy was 10#15oz.. now he's 6'9". Wish I was into brewing regularly back then. I started many years before that.. as in 1963 with Pabst Blue Ribbon Hop Flavored ME.. and, as I remember, Star Yeast? Didn't turn out very tasty.. but kicked like a mule.. Quit for ~25 years and brewed one IPA.. turned out VERY nice for a LME brew.. Quit for another 20+yrs and here I am again.. trying to start from scratch.. but, mama ain't gonna be past due again.. cuz is she does.. "IT'S A MIRACLE"

 

[Homercidal]

You know as soon as you mash in, it's coming.

 

[djfriesen]

Good thing that's done and it's on the yeast. Everything is good to go.

I got that same kit and am pretty happy with it. I brewed it without knowing 1/3 of what you do, and it still turned out ok. A little fusel-y, but definitely drinkable. I reused it for a porter that has been in primary for 3 weeks, and I just bought ingredients for my next brew today. Congrats on the new one, and on the first brew.

 

[Rozycki]

You know as soon as you mash in, it's coming.

My wife was due Thursday and that is what I was afraid of. She had our son Wednesday and I got to brew today.

 

[runningweird]

Good job on not freaking out on the due date, they are so subjective and go from a guessing date anyway.

My last kid was born 4 days over the calculated date - in my living room - I got to deliver. Neat.

Cheers and good luck with the brewing - kids seem to sort themselves out on their own. They seem to be designed to survive our stupidity - so far mine haven't started drinking from the tap.

 

[j33p4x4]

So I was worried about my fermenting temps - my house stays around 78-79 since fall hasn't hit Orlando yet. I moved it into a cooler standing on end long-ways and added a frozen bottle in there with the fermenter to bring down the temps. The bubbles have stopped for a two days now, I'm not going to toss it, but I'm just wondering if I got it too cold and if I've sent my yeast to hibernation. I had a thermometer in there today to check what the temperature was in there and its ranging from 58-65F depending on how new the frozen bottle I have in there. I thought I read that you have to go under 45F to stop yeast, but I'm wondering if I'll do better just leaving it out around 78 or so and hope for this cool-front to drop the temps down some more.

Any advice? Should I keep it cooler and just let it do its thing slowly, or let it go up to 78 and risk it getting too high of a temp.