You should see if they honor any competitors coupons.
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I chilled with the lid on the pot in an ice bath for a long time before I finally got a wort chiller. The chiller just makes the process a whole lot faster. I got my chiller on craigslist for $15. It's something you could hold out on until you found a good deal.
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Blew my first stopper and airlock during the night. Made quite a mess in the chest freezer. I keep telling myself that I should use a blowoff tube for the 1st week with every batch to be safe. Lesson learned.
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Well, the damage is done. Order placed.

I went with this kit: http://www.midwestsupplies.com/every...ent-kit-8.html. I decided I'd learn what I'm doing with this kit before getting into it even more so.

$223.27 shipped to my door.
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Looking like I should get my bottles this week, so my first brew should get bottled this weekend. Then I'll be brewing a vanilla bourbon stout.
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Found out my thermometer I have been using is off around 10-20 degrees! So I have been way over on my mash temps. No wonder the last few beers have not reached FG and tasted awfully sweet. Hope I caught it soon enough and cooled it down on the honey nut brown I made yesterday.
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Does anyone have experience dealing with treating water for brewing?

I found my city's water quality report online (PDF) but I'm no chemist, and am not really sure what I should be looking for as far as if my tap water is OK for mashing/brewing or not ...

I've noticed some off flavors in my lighter recipes, but am not sure if it's my water or something else.
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Here's a really good assessment of brewing water profiles:

http://www.howtobrew.com/section3/chapter15-2.html

As far as the mash is concerned, you're looking for things that will impact your pH. It appears that you have very soft water.

I use tap water quite a bit and don't worry too much about my water chemistry, although I do pay attention to the chlorine level so I typically boil my water or let it sit for awhile before using it.
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I have a bottling related question. Im about to bottle my second batch and got my hands on a bunch of 1 liter glass fliptop bottles.these glass bottles are bigger than the liter plastic bottles the kit came with. Now my set up makes exactly 8 liters of beer in the plastic bottles with almost nothing left. Should i A. fill up the glass bottles and adujust the priming sugar making fewer bottles or B. make the full 8 bottles with less beer in each bottle. i would prefer to have 8 bottles but im not sure if the extra air space would cause any issues with carbonation or oxidation. any suggestions?
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Extra air space in the bottles will cause "bottle bombs" and they will explode.
You want to fill the bottles up and leave about an inch of head space.
I found out the hard way the first time I bottled.
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My kit is scheduled to arrive. I think I'll try to put it to use Sunday.

This is going to be my first brew: http://www.midwestsupplies.com/revie.../list/id/1276/
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Duane, Try the Hanks Hefe kit from Midwest, next.
I think its the best one they make!
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That was the plan. Hefe is really the reason why I decided to get into making it myself and is typically a $2.50+ purchase for a decent one it seems. I really wanted to make Hefe, but I almost seemed to be a bit intimidated to try it for my first batch. Seems some of the stuff I read talked about holding it closer to 62 degrees than I could maintain at room temp like most other stuff out there. If holding a temp closer to the 62 degree range was the requirement, I wanted to see how the stuff might possibly fit in my vinotemp or small fridge. That said, when I do get around to ordering it, what is your recommendation for the yeast?

Also, I want to make some kristallweizen, which to my understanding is just a filtered version of the hefeweizen. What would I need to do in the process to do the filtration?
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The type of yeast you use for a Hefe is very important. Its almost what makes it a Hefe.
I always use the WhiteLabs 300 Hefeweizen.
In the summer time I brew two batches of this back to back and just rack the 2nd batch onto the yeat cake of the 1st batch.
Regarding the fermenting temp: The higher temp = more banana flavor; the lower the temp = more clove flavor
But I ferment in my basement and never really payed that much attention to the temp and it always turned out great, so dont worry too much unless you wait and make it in the heat of summer and do not have a cool place to put your fermenter
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+1

It also ferments well in the 68-72 range. Not sure how it would do at lower temps, Zymurgy had an article on this topic last issue, I think.
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This has pushed the cap of the carboy, twice. We have a blowoff tube on this, also. Belgian yeast is aggressive!!!!
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I made a belgian strong that pushed yeast through the blowoff tube for 4 days straight. The Belgians have definitely perfected aggressive yeasts that attenuate well!

Just bottled up a scottish that wound up being more of a 90 than a wee heavy. Added some yeast at bottling. First time doing this, hope they don't blow.
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I'm kinda disappointed with my order from Midwest. If I had known this was just a standard Brewers Best Deluxe kit with 2 cases of bottles and a cheapo kettle, I would have ordered the kit/bottles/ingredients kit from Bell's General Store for $156.29 shipped and then gotten this kettle http://www.amazon.com/Winware-Stainl...7712164&sr=8-1 (which I'm sure is much better than this one http://www.midwestsupplies.com/homeb...-5-gallon.html ) for just $2 more.
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Shoulda used a coupon.
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Didn't have any current codes. I tried.
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