The wife got me a complete system for Christmas

[smorris]

Now I have to learn to work with the 2 stage system, a lot more complicated but I;m sure after a couple times I'll get the hang of it. She also got me all the ingredients for my first batch of Red Eye Amber Ale. I think I'll keep her for a while.

 

[Michael_Currie]

Nice! What was your setup before this?

 

[smorris]

For the last year I have been using a Mr. Beer she got me last year, which served well to get me more interested and I learned the fundamentals. I'll probably fire it up today and start a batch.

 

[smorris]

So I did my 1st 5 gallon recipe today, hopefully I got it right, time will tell...

The wife got me these ingredients from the Brewshak down the street, I had to go buy a kettle for the boiling so I picked up an enameled steel pot which should work for the time being.

6.6 # Pale Malt

Grain:
8 oz Cara-pils
8 oz Special B
8 ox Crystal 90
1 oz Roasted Barley

Hops:
1 oz Centennial for first boil
1 oz Cascade at 40 min.
1 oz Centennial finish.

Other:
2 tsp Irish Moss
1 tsb Gypsum
2 packs of London Ale yeast

I have no idea what this is going to taste like but it had a pleasant and hoppy scent while boiling. The initial SG was 1.04 corrected to 1.044 for 90 degree wort if I read the guage correctly. So now I wait for 10 days....

 

[strat40]

So I did my 1st 5 gallon recipe today, hopefully I got it right, time will tell...

The wife got me these ingredients from the Brewshak down the street, I had to go buy a kettle for the boiling so I picked up an enameled steel pot which should work for the time being.

6.6 # Pale Malt

Grain:
8 oz Cara-pils
8 oz Special B
8 ox Crystal 90
1 oz Roasted Barley

Hops:
1 oz Centennial for first boil
1 oz Cascade at 40 min.
1 oz Centennial finish.

Other:
2 tsp Irish Moss
1 tsb Gypsum
2 packs of London Ale yeast

I have no idea what this is going to taste like but it had a pleasant and hoppy scent while boiling. The initial SG was 1.04 corrected to 1.044 for 90 degree wort if I read the guage correctly. So now I wait for 10 days....

I think that will make a fine ale, and you probably won't have to wait too long to drink it either. I don't know what the alpa acid level of your hops are, but if they hold to the norm, it should be full, crisp and refreshing.
Now I have to go grab a brew of my own now....

 

[richanne]

Don't throw the Mr. Beer away. We are all-grain brewers now, and we still keep our Mr. Beer around. It's handy if you want to test out a new recipe in a smaller batch, or for brewing up a small batch of mead. It's a handy little 2.5 gallon fermenter that is easy to clean and sanitize. If you're really dead set on throwing yours away, ship it to us. We could use another one.

 

[Janx]

Woohoo! Congrats on going all-grain. You'll never regret it. And once you get the hang, it's easy as pie.

I think you'll find that the quality of your beer is much improved over extract brewing. Enjoy!

Janx

 

[smorris]

I was palnning to hang onto the Mr. Beer for expermenting in small batches. Hadn't thought about the mead but the wife wants me to try making some, thanks for the idea.

 

[Rahbek]

Now I have to learn to work with the 2 stage system, a lot more complicated but I;m sure after a couple times I'll get the hang of it. She also got me all the ingredients for my first batch of Red Eye Amber Ale. I think I'll keep her for a while.

Congrats on getting the setup! And yes, it sounds like you might hang on the missus...

I'm sure you won't regret moving on to all-grain, maybe you can pass the mr. beer on to a friend and promote this great hobby?