Homebrewers - Whats in the fermenter?

[BeerAdvocate]

Hit up your friends for some bottles. Its going to take a little over a month for your beer to ferment then carb up, so you should have enough bottles in no time.
If you do want to wait to brew, just put the ingredient kit in the fridge

[cricky101]

Originally Posted by BeerAdvocate

Hit up your friends for some bottles. Its going to take a little over a month for your beer to ferment then carb up, so you should have enough bottles in no time.
If you do want to wait to brew, just put the ingredient kit in the fridge

Awesome. Thanks! I'll be able to collect more than enough bottles in a month

[St. Lou Stu]

Originally Posted by cricky101

Awesome. Thanks! I'll be able to collect more than enough bottles in a month

Also... give the local breweries a call.
Schlafly, here in STL, will allow you to come in and pick through their bad bottle bin. I am clueless as to why they are considered bad. You can walk out with cases and cases.

You'd be surprised how few bottles you can come up with by your own consumption and still hold down a job.
Figure you need 50-60 per batch, 3 weeks to carb. So... if you brew 3 weekends in a row, you'd need 180 bottles before you could crack any of the stuff you have bottled open. Once you get rolling (if you decide to stick with bottling rather than kegging) you'd have about 300 bottles on hand (empty or full) at any given time.

I love bottling!

[cricky101]

Originally Posted by BeerAdvocate

Hit up your friends for some bottles. Its going to take a little over a month for your beer to ferment then carb up, so you should have enough bottles in no time.
If you do want to wait to brew, just put the ingredient kit in the fridge

Just set up a time to meet a guy on Craig's List selling a bunch of label-free empties for $4/case - he said he's got 10 cases. Apparently he moved to kegging and doesn't need the bottles anymore.

[potlimit]

Well there it is... my first one. Wanted to take a sec to thank you guys for your input. I can almost guarantee you it's infected as there were multiple opportunities for that to happen, but I'm not really concerned about it. Just happy I got it under my belt and already thinking about the next one.

Again, thanks guys, much appreciated.

[kaisersozei]

Originally Posted by potlimit

Well there it is... my first one. Wanted to take a sec to thank you guys for your input. I can almost guarantee you it's infected as there were multiple opportunities for that to happen, but I'm not really concerned about it. Just happy I got it under my belt and already thinking about the next one.

Again, thanks guys, much appreciated.

Great job! I wouldn't worry too much about whether it's infected. Beer is pretty resilient, and as long as you were "passably clean," you'll probably be fine.

[St. Lou Stu]

Originally Posted by potlimit

Well there it is... my first one. Wanted to take a sec to thank you guys for your input. I can almost guarantee you it's infected as there were multiple opportunities for that to happen, but I'm not really concerned about it. Just happy I got it under my belt and already thinking about the next one.

Again, thanks guys, much appreciated.

Nice!!
You'll be fine. Especially with first time use equipment... it's hard to infect.
Is that the Brown Ale you talked about? Should be good for a Christmas drink!

[potlimit]

Originally Posted by St. Lou Stu

Nice!!
You'll be fine. Especially with first time use equipment... it's hard to infect.
Is that the Brown Ale you talked about? Should be good for a Christmas drink!

It sure is Tim! I think I'll be alright, I was pretty anal about sanitizing. Only problem I encountered resulted from the fact I couldn't find the lid to the pot and so some of the tin foil I had covering it in the ice bath plopped in a bit for a minute (but it was still around 125 degrees at that point anyway).

Already on Midwest's site trying to figure out what to brew next. And SERIOUSLY considering a wort chiller... it was excrutiating waiting for it to cool.

[BeerAdvocate]

Originally Posted by potlimit

It sure is Tim! I think I'll be alright, I was pretty anal about sanitizing. Only problem I encountered resulted from the fact I couldn't find the lid to the pot and so some of the tin foil I had covering it in the ice bath plopped in a bit for a minute (but it was still around 125 degrees at that point anyway).

Already on Midwest's site trying to figure out what to brew next. And SERIOUSLY considering a wort chiller... it was excrutiating waiting for it to cool.

The two best kits from Midwest that I have done are Hanks Hefe and the HopHead IPA.
I use mostly Austin Homebrew supply now. You cant beat their selection!

[MarkinAZ]

Originally Posted by potlimit

Already on Midwest's site trying to figure out what to brew next. And SERIOUSLY considering a wort chiller... it was excrutiating waiting for it to cool...

I hear you there Mason. When I would finish my boil, I would then transfer the pot into a large utility sink in the wash room and pack a couple of bags of ice around it. Then fill up the basin with some cold water. This would reduce the wait time down a bit prior to transferring into my 6 gallon glass fermenter.

When we moved to another house that didn't have a utility sink, I brought out my daughters wading pool, placed a couple of bricks in the bottom and filled with water. At the end of the boil, I would transfer the pot onto the bricks and then turn on the hose, causing circulation within the wading pool. 60 degree water circulating again brought down the temperature inside the pot.

A good wort chiller is key though

[St. Lou Stu]

Originally Posted by potlimit

It sure is Tim! I think I'll be alright, I was pretty anal about sanitizing. Only problem I encountered resulted from the fact I couldn't find the lid to the pot and so some of the tin foil I had covering it in the ice bath plopped in a bit for a minute (but it was still around 125 degrees at that point anyway).

Already on Midwest's site trying to figure out what to brew next. And SERIOUSLY considering a wort chiller... it was excrutiating waiting for it to cool.

Cooling IS a PITA... you especially want to look into a chiller if you decide to make some IPA or AIPAs... cooling the wort quickly is critical in saving late hop addition aromas.

Glad everything worked out well. Cheers, heres to speeding head first down another slope!