beer kit came yesterday. sick day!
i tried the Big River Brown Ale as my first batch; have an IPA kit for next time. the kit came with two plastic buckets (a fermenter and a bottling bucket) and a glass carboy- so i could've done 2-step fermentation, but decided to just do one this time.
Things i learned: i need a friggin wort chiller. it took like 4 hrs to get that crap cooled down. i mistakenly put the hot wort in the carboy with the cold water to try and cool it down, and it was way too big for the sink and the bathtub took forever to fill with cold water and cool it down. not enough ice. so i think before i do this again i will attempt to make/buy a wort chiller.
also: the temp still doesn't seem to want to cool down, even though i put it in the basement. it was at like 78 degrees this morning, and should be lower for best fermentation. i put it on the concrete floor with like 1 thin towel under it so hopefully it'll cool down today.
if it ends up tasting like crap, i won't be surprised. but i figured the first one would quite possibly end up that way. anyway, i'm excited! thanks for the urging!
i tried the Big River Brown Ale as my first batch; have an IPA kit for next time. the kit came with two plastic buckets (a fermenter and a bottling bucket) and a glass carboy- so i could've done 2-step fermentation, but decided to just do one this time.
Things i learned: i need a friggin wort chiller. it took like 4 hrs to get that crap cooled down. i mistakenly put the hot wort in the carboy with the cold water to try and cool it down, and it was way too big for the sink and the bathtub took forever to fill with cold water and cool it down. not enough ice. so i think before i do this again i will attempt to make/buy a wort chiller.
also: the temp still doesn't seem to want to cool down, even though i put it in the basement. it was at like 78 degrees this morning, and should be lower for best fermentation. i put it on the concrete floor with like 1 thin towel under it so hopefully it'll cool down today.
if it ends up tasting like crap, i won't be surprised. but i figured the first one would quite possibly end up that way. anyway, i'm excited! thanks for the urging!