After asking about 50 questions and with all of you help, I successfully brewed my first beer yesterday! Some thoughts from my first time and a set of pictures for you to enjoy below.
-A 10 gallon brew kettle is much bigger than you think it’ll be!
-The initial cleaning and setup took longer than I thought but was well worth it when I started brewing
-My wort cooled much quicker than I imagined. Put the kettle in a cold water deep sink and added an 8 pound bag of ice,was down in the 80’s after about 30 minutes.
-My Igloo cooler fermentor was much more efficient than I thought it would be. Added some water and ice and the darn thing dropped to 45 degrees! After adding some warm water a couple of times it’s not right at 60 and the carboy is reading 65!
Thank you again to everyone.
http://instagram.com/flbrewer
Welcome to the addiction man. your pics are great, im glad you had a pleasant experience. a few thoughts.
- Get some long stick matches. the hairs on your knuckles will thank you.
- 10 gallon pots are big for 2-3 gallon concentrated extract boils, but they are good for 5 gallon extract boils.
3. an immersion chiller will take you chill times from 30 minutes down to about 3-4 minutes if you dont mind spending the dough.
Cheers:)
Just a quick update, came home today and checked the temp again and heard that ever important burp out of my airlock! It’s been about 21 hours since I pitched. Exciting!
Welcome to the Airlock sniffer life ;D
Just got back from staring at the carboy and watching bubbles, will have to head back and smell.
I think we’ve created a HOMEBREWER !!!
Congratulations! Pics looked good!
As far as the time to set up and clean, etc, the more brews you do, the better your process will get. You will develop a good system for doing this… When I first jumped into all grain, it took me 8 hours from start to finish. Now, I average 5 hours.
Don’t hesitate to ask any and all questions you have. This forum is fantastic.