Received the rest of my excuses to brew

[JMan551]

So I came home to two boxes on my porch full of the rest of the things I 'needed' to start brewing. I got a couple of extract kits and a vile of yeast, along with a bunch of extra little tools (racking cane, tubing, beer theif, etc). I also purchased an 8 gallon kettle...a little disappointed with it at the moment but I'm going to email the company and see what they say.

Lastly, my girlfriend is out of town this weekend. Tomorrow is April Brews Day (local beer fest), so I'm thinking Sunday might be my first brew day!

JER

 

[mrk305]

I am brewing sunday, also. If you are planning on doing a full boil with that 8 gallon pot you better figure out how you are going to cool that big boy down. Most of us use an immersion chiller which I did not see on your list of stuff.

Watch out for a boil over. When it first starts to boil you really need to keep an eye on it. My first batch was inside on the stove. Let's just say I wasn't watching it good enough.

 

[JMan551]

I do have 25ish feet of copper tubing that I was going to attempt to make into an immersion chiller. At some point in my brew career I hope to get a pump and modify my IC into a Whirlpool IC.

Thank you for the advice. I've read so much about the dreaded boil over. I'll probably be extra vigilant, get board, turn my back and then have to deal with a mess. All part of the curve, right?

JER

 

[mrk305]

For me in Georgia, 25 feet of copper tubing worked okay in the winter when ground water tenps were down. In the summer I had to upgrade to a 50 footer and now use the 25 as a pre-chiller in a bucket of ice water.

 

[Dougan]

I put mine in a big barrel of ice water. Not great but does the job the best I can do until I move out of the apartment... in case you didn't have a chacne to make your chiller. This method would suffice for the short term.

 

[lumpher]

i have a 50' immersion chiller, and love it. it chills an 11 gallon batch in about 20 minutes in texas heat