20Camaro11
New Member
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2013
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- Reaction score
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Warning: Longish post
I thought I would post and just say thank you to the community here on the Home Brew Forums. My soon to be wife purchased me a brewers kit for Christmas since I enjoyed my import and micro-brews so much. Not wanting to disappoint her, I started my research to figure what else I would need and how to get started with my $100 plastic buckets. As helpful as the included how-to guide was, I figured it was probably best to investigate further and stumbled upon this website.
I settled on building an electric kettle using a how-to guide found on this forum.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f170/simple-electric-brewery-378252/
I chose this route because I rent an apartment and brewing 5 gallon batches on an electric stove top seemed to be inefficient and using propane outside was a liability with all the children in the neighborhood lest I sit outside for the entire process. The controller looks a bit rough, but has worked very well so far.
I chose to use the all-grain BIAB method with my foray into this hobby. The first batch turned out to be an expensive home brewed O'Douls as I forgot to crush the grains. I pitched the entire batch...yes I know, don't pitch beer, but in this case I felt it was okay. The second batch turned out pretty well. I haven't really worried too much about efficiency or recipes since I am still learning and honing my skills. I did mash in too hot on the second brew (158F) which lowered my gravity some from what I was expecting, After fermenting 2 weeks and bottle conditioning 3 weeks, the beer is very good and I am not embarrassed by the product at any level. The beer had a very clean, mild flavor with the malt to hop balance balanced well to my tastes and had a final ABV somewhere around 4.5-5%. I wish I had remembered to right down the recipe. I just put my 3rd attempt into the fermenter yesterday and the airlock is bubbling away....so thanks to everyone who contributes. I think I have a new hobby.
PS. all you new brewers....All-Grain is the way to go IMO.
I thought I would post and just say thank you to the community here on the Home Brew Forums. My soon to be wife purchased me a brewers kit for Christmas since I enjoyed my import and micro-brews so much. Not wanting to disappoint her, I started my research to figure what else I would need and how to get started with my $100 plastic buckets. As helpful as the included how-to guide was, I figured it was probably best to investigate further and stumbled upon this website.
I settled on building an electric kettle using a how-to guide found on this forum.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f170/simple-electric-brewery-378252/
I chose this route because I rent an apartment and brewing 5 gallon batches on an electric stove top seemed to be inefficient and using propane outside was a liability with all the children in the neighborhood lest I sit outside for the entire process. The controller looks a bit rough, but has worked very well so far.
I chose to use the all-grain BIAB method with my foray into this hobby. The first batch turned out to be an expensive home brewed O'Douls as I forgot to crush the grains. I pitched the entire batch...yes I know, don't pitch beer, but in this case I felt it was okay. The second batch turned out pretty well. I haven't really worried too much about efficiency or recipes since I am still learning and honing my skills. I did mash in too hot on the second brew (158F) which lowered my gravity some from what I was expecting, After fermenting 2 weeks and bottle conditioning 3 weeks, the beer is very good and I am not embarrassed by the product at any level. The beer had a very clean, mild flavor with the malt to hop balance balanced well to my tastes and had a final ABV somewhere around 4.5-5%. I wish I had remembered to right down the recipe. I just put my 3rd attempt into the fermenter yesterday and the airlock is bubbling away....so thanks to everyone who contributes. I think I have a new hobby.
PS. all you new brewers....All-Grain is the way to go IMO.
