re: Homebrewing: In-Process Thread

So I needed someone to help me carry my kettle full of wort out to the burner around 1pm....I wondered over to my friends house just down the street looking for someone. He said hey, wanna take a ride over to a house on Strait lane (super rich street...Dirk Nowitski(sp) lives on that street and maybe Ross Perot).....they are tearing down the house and selling off the salvage. Sure...why not....off we go .....













My friend failed to tell me he had bought a solid marble statue....Thing weighed at least a thousand pounds....









Slow drive home on crappy dallas roads....













4 hours later......boiling.

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Tiffany's lamp?

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That was an entire tiffany cieling....15' square.

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FLR celing in Chicago.

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Not that grand.....oh...the guy that bought and is tearing down this house lives next door and is going to use this 5 ac lot as his garden....$10 million property.....

First time using the chugger pump and chill plate. Worked ok....wort was at 90 into the carboy. Had to go to an ice bath to get it down to 70. Seems like the pump moved it too fast thru the plate.

Is there anything special I need to do to my bottles before bottling other than washing and rinsing with starsan? I am in secondary fermentation now and plan on bottling Friday.

I am super jacked about this new hobby. It has me looking up all kinds of good info for the future and updating my wishlist constantly.

Some folks sterilize them with boiling water, some folks bake them in the oven

I just rinse them well after I use them, then run them through a dishwasher cycle with the sanitation option and no soap, then dunk them in sanitizer and put on the bottle tree to dry.

Be sure to use this

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I planned on boiling them straight out of the box the soaking in starsan for reccomended length of time. I am just wondering if there is any other techniques or ways to sanitize fully before bottling.

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I usually just soak my bottles in PBW, rinse, then soak in starsan. I wash out my bottles after each use with just some running water.

How to Homebrew by John Palmer is the book I highly recommend (as do many others).

If you have the means, fermentation temperature control is a highly recommended first purchase. This could be anything as simple as a swamp cooler. I used one of these at first. I took one of those igloo cube ice chests and i would fill it 1/2 way or less with water, and put a floating thermometer in there. For a standard ale, i'd shoot for a steady 68-70 degree temperature. Well, take you fermenter, place in the cooler with water, and alternate out 2 or 3 frozen water bottles.

Or, if you have the money, buy yourself a chest freezer and a temperature controller (i have a Johnson).

Another thing i've done with every brew since #5, is a yeast starter. My first 4 brews my fermentation had a big lag time before it started, and sometimes wouldn't start at all, meaning i had to swirl the hell out of my fermenter. Ever since i've done yeast starters, guaranteed fermentation was a go (as long as my temps were correct).

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I know I will get a lot of responses disagreeing with me here, but I have a different opinion.
A while back I asked which of these three things should be my next upgrade:
Fermentation Control
Kegging
All-grain

I honestly don't remember the responses, but I ended up going kegging then all-grain.
I could not be happier with those two choices. if you are flexible with your brewing, you can make beer according to the temperature where you keep your fermenter. My fermenters have been in a closet, and it stays right around 65-68, which is in the wheelhouse of lots of yeasts. During the hotter summer months I will take advantage of the heat, rather than fighting it, and make a Berliner weisse or a saison.

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To each his own. I went temp control because it was most important to me, at that time. I was also new and wasn't quite ready to go all-grain. I believe i went all-grain on batch #8.

Kegging is still on my to do list. It's just costly.

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I know I will get a lot of responses disagreeing with me here, but I have a different opinion.
A while back I asked which of these three things should be my next upgrade:
Fermentation Control
Kegging
All-grain

I honestly don't remember the responses, but I ended up going kegging then all-grain.
I could not be happier with those two choices. if you are flexible with your brewing, you can make beer according to the temperature where you keep your fermenter. My fermenters have been in a closet, and it stays right around 65-68, which is in the wheelhouse of lots of yeasts. During the hotter summer months I will take advantage of the heat, rather than fighting it, and make a Berliner weisse or a saison.

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I'm lucky that I have a beer room that I can keep at perfect ale fermentation temps year round. So I never had to make that choice.

But kegging is far and away the best decision I ever made for my homebrew. After bottling a couple 5-gallon batches, I was done with that. I'll bottle a few from the keg for competitions or sharing with friends, but I'll never bottle an entire batch again.

I'm very happy I went all grain, but you can still make some very good beers with extract brewing.

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I'm sure I will go all-grain but I'm still green at this. I don't want to get in over my head so quick. I have watched a lot of videos on and read a lot of y'all's post about it on here. I wouldn't mind seeing it done in person but I a,m the only one of my friends that homebrew.

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I was in the same boat too, at one point. Was worried about making the jump to all grain. But it turned out to be much easier than I expected, and the grains cost way less than extracts do. Also easier to customize your recipes.

I live in the Gonzales area. I'm about 15mins south of Baton Rouge.