(Official) FWHC Secret Santa-- What Did You Get? Thread

Hey Dex. Did you put the bar in there? Got a pic of the new arrangement?

 

I remember the work you did on that from another thread. Be good to see the finished product.

 

Awesome!!!

 

Tomorrow I will be brewing the Mr Beer kit that Pete gave me. I haven't made beer in 9 years, but prior to the arrival to my second child I was an avid home brewer. Prior to the arrival of my daughter I was making 15 gallon batches at a time. So this kit has rekindled my desire to make beer again.

I take the opportunity to make this 2 gallon kit as a great challenge. Pete has give me an American Light kit, AKA Budweiser. Many home brewers will scoff at brewing such a style of beer, yet I view it as a great challenge. As brewing the lightest of beers has a very narrow margin for error.

I am pre boiling 4 gallons of water tonight to knock out any chlorine off flavors. The kit calls for 2.5 gallons, 4 gallons or water now will allow me to have a seriously healthy hour long boil tomorrow and still leave 2.5 gallons. Many years ago my brewing was banished to outdoors, tomorrow will be no different, even if it is below zero. I will set up the propane burner, just won't be mashing this time. I will use the single digit or negative outdoor temperatures to quickly chill my wort down to pitching temperature. The ought to be some serious cold break. I no longer have my oxygen bottle but my neighbor has one, I still have my stone and regulator, This yeast is going to be mighty happy tomorrow night.

So Pete, thanks for the challenge. You have given me the most basic of brewing kits and possibly the hardest style of beer to brew and I must now brew it. It has been a very long time since I have made beer and I look forward to it.

If you think CAD is bad I can tell you that I had a very bad case of Brewing Apparatus Acquisition Disease (BAAD) prior to kids. I think the mash tun and fermenters are coming back out this spring.

 

I know nothing of brewing. How do you guys get the fizz in your beer?

 

Oh lovely. I've been drinking poo of little things all this time.

 

Ya. Well at least I read it while moving some "vitamins" along. What comes around goes around.

 

Pete, I'm not an alcoholic. Well, maybe mildly. LOL But I was moving some of my own "vitamins" along. Same position Dennis is in while splitting wood.

 

Ooops. I think I just hit the report button by mistake. On my own reply! Dam phone.!

 

T.M.I.?

 

It's how they used to make real root beer, even the stuff the kiddies drink. I made a big batch for my kids with a top fermenting yeast, only let it go about 24 hours. Man, that stuff was smooth! Draw it from the bottom of the bucket, discard the top couple inches.

 

Putting some of the gear to use. Refraftometer, O2 stone, iodaphor, various thermometers. Unfortunately my neighbors O2 tank turned out to be empty and the gas places are closed and I cant get it filled. So the stone will have to go unused and I will have to resort to the stir vigoursly to oxygenate the wort.

I realized that I shouldn't boil the prehopped extract but I wanted to use the outdoor burner anyway. So I boiled up about a gallon and a half of water and added the extract. Not quite enough to justify using the plate chiller and pumps though. Doesn't matter, it is cooling off quite rapidly on a day like today.

And now in the fermenter. Gravity 1.032.

 

I am a victim of baad also, just in the past 4 months I've started all grain brewing and the equipment list is growing. Although I think my CAD may be winning as I am close to buying a MS 460.