Just finished putting my first ever home brew into the primary fermenter. Now, I wait. :-)

It's an Irish stout extract kit.

And I'm already planning what to make next :-)
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Brewed a stove top all grain brown ale yesterday. Had the recipe with me when I went to school and somehow lost it between there and the home brew supply. Pulled together the basics but forgot the biscuit malt. I think it will still be ok. Bubbling away in primary now.

Homebrewing makes my wife happy in the winter because it gives me a reason to keep the house at 68 instead of my normal 60-65.
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My son asked for a Home Brew kit for Christmas, any pointers on where I should look?
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http://midwestsupplies.com/ or http://northernbrewer.com/ have homebrew kits, or better yet check out your local home brew supply. One suggestion I would make is to get a kit with a glass secondary.
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Midwest has the best prices. This is what I started out with
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/brewing-starter-kit.html
I called them and for a little more money I upgraded the bucket to another glass carboy. I agree, that glass is the way to go!
And its nice to have two carboys, that way you can have two beers going at once!
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Dont forget about Austin Homebrew supply


http://www.austinhomebrew.com/


Pukin Spice in the kegorator now with a Red IPA carbonating in the keezer ;o) Thinking of a Honkers Ale Clone next!
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Just reading through. Wifey-Claus is getting me a gift certificate for a homebrew shop here in SA and I am going to start brewing in 2011. Woooohooooo!!!! How many of you here do Extract vs MiniMash vs all grain?
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Sounds like a great gift, Chip! :-) :-)

I'm about 50% extract (always with a specialty grain step,) and 50% partial-mash. Been doing that for years & years, and have been perfectly happy with the results! As soon as I finish renovating my garage/workspace, I'll make the jump to all grain.
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Frist brew is an English Brown Ale.bottling next week.
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Bottling my Irish stout this weekend. Hopefully I'll have part of a day on Sunday to myself after the Christmas rush to get it done.

Then it's on to a Bell's Three-Hearted clone.
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Last night a brewed a batch of Austin Homebrew supplies Green Belt Pale Ale with their special GreenBelt yeast. It has my two favorite hops Simcoe & Amarillo in it, so I am curious how much more the yeast brings them out.
I plan on washing this yeast a few times, so hopefully is a good one!
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Matt (matt-n-ga) and My first batch, we made an Irish Stout and this picture was taken last night after we racked it to the secondary (did I get the lingo right?:-)) Sorry for the crappy cell phone pic

Image

We tasted a sample and it tasted like flat, warm stout so we took this as a good sign. We plan on bottling New Years Day.
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:-)

Lookin' good, brutha!
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Nice Albert!!
Enjoy!
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Grabbing stuff for a brown ale tomorrow.

Tonight I am soaking about 100 bottles that I have had in my basement for a while. I think stripping the labels off of bottles is possibly the worst part of brewing, but I can't stand drinking homebrew from a bottle with someone elses label on it.
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Got a Surly Furious extract clone from Midwest (called Ferocious) I'm going to try this weekend.
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Hey Albert, I don't have the bottling pics, have you got them ? post em if you do.

We (awsmith4 and I) bottle our first brew on New Years Eve. It is now comfortably resting in the aging cellar (garage refridgerator)
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:-):-) :-)
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:-) :-) :-)
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I did a nice, tame little RIS on 02-JAN. :-)

OG was 1.115 when I pitched.

I'm experimenting with White Labs WLP099 this time to see how it does.
Fermenting like a ***** right now at 59°F.
My calcs say this yeast is capable of taking it all the way down to 1.011!
It may end up being a 13.7% ABV monster if it does!

Everything looks excessive here... but I did a no-sparge mash and planned on 50% efficiency and only got 54%. My planning worked for once! I need to get a fly sparge setup.

Amount Item Type % or IBU
12.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 45.45 %
2.00 lb Special B (Dingemans) (147.5 SRM) Grain 9.09 %
1.00 lb Aromatic Malt (Briess) (20.0 SRM) Grain 4.55 %
1.00 lb Caramunich Malt (56.0 SRM) Grain 4.55 %
1.00 lb Melanoiden Malt (20.0 SRM) Grain 4.55 %
1.00 lb Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 4.55 %
1.00 lb Roasted Barley (Briess) (300.0 SRM) Grain 4.55 %
1.00 lb Victory Malt (biscuit) (Briess) (28.0
SRM) Grain 4.55 %
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 2.27 %
0.50 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 2.27 %
60 min 2.00 lb Light Dry Extract (8.0 SRM) Dry Extract
45 min 2.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (45 min) Hops
35 min 1.00 oz Centennial [10.00 %] (35 min) Hops
30 min 1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (30 min) Hops
15 min 2.00 lb Light Dry Extract (8.0 SRM) Dry Extract
15 min 1.00 oz Centennial [10.00 %] (15 min) Hops
15 min 1.00 lb Brown Sugar, Dark [Boil for 15 min] Sugar
15 min 1.00 lb Molasses (80.0 SRM) Sugar
15 min 1.10 items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 min) Misc
10 min 4.00 oz Bittersweet Baker's Chocolate (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
5 min 1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (5 min) Hops


**Edit.... that isn't the hop schedule I used though... :-)
I also used 2.75oz of Challenger somewhere and reduced and swapped some of the others... that must be on my other 'puter.
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