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My brewing co-worker uses the Midwest kits almost exclusively. He used to do all-grain in Alaska, but he left most of his equipment there. He is of the opinion, after many years of doign this, that "it's all good" and he's perfectly satisfied with using the kits. And the dry, generic yeast. But technically, he does agree with what VTE says, but we don't have access to that stuff as easily as you guys do/

 
^^^^ :violin:

Since we just got 6 inches of snow here, I am NOT simpathetic to you, island boy! Where the hell is summer?

 
My brewing co-worker uses the Midwest kits almost exclusively. He used to do all-grain in Alaska, but he left most of his equipment there. He is of the opinion, after many years of doign this, that "it's all good" and he's perfectly satisfied with using the kits. And the dry, generic yeast. But technically, he does agree with what VTE says, but we don't have access to that stuff as easily as you guys do/
I must add my :violin: too.

I'd love to be around scantily dressed women who would do anything for a green card and soak in the island sun.

BTW, the Twin Cities will be getting rain/sleet/snow tonight, tomorrow, and Saturday morning. :deadhorse:

 
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I must add my :violin: too.
I'd love to be around scantily dressed women who would do anything for a green card and soak in the island sun.

BTW, the Twin Cities will be getting rain/sleet/snow tonight, tomorrow, and Saturday morning. :deadhorse:
**** I got the boat washed, gassed, and ready to hit the lake!!

 
Geez, VT, you're always sick lately. Did you forget how to wash your hands or something?

 
In a vain attempt to get this thread back on topic, I currently have a 5 gallon batch of Classic English Pale Ale fermenting in my dining room. The process was fun and easier than I expected. The only part that sucked was trying to boil 3 gallons of water on an electric cook top. It took well over a half hour to get from 160 degrees (where I was steeping the grains) to a boil before adding the malt.

I put it in the primary fermenter on Saturday afternoon, and I plan on transferring it to a glass secondary tomorrow afternoon.

 
^^ Nice work getting this thread back on track! We're really bad about that around here. Fortunately no one has yet brought up how superior RPN is, especially with the new HP-35s, which makes ANY Casio or TI look like a toy.

I brewed up a pale ale after the October 2006 exam. It's a nice thing to do to pass the time and wind down from the big effort. Pale ale will kick your ***, though.

 
^^ Nice work getting this thread back on track! We're really bad about that around here. Fortunately no one has yet brought up how superior RPN is, especially with the new HP-35s, which makes ANY Casio or TI look like a toy.
I brewed up a pale ale after the October 2006 exam. It's a nice thing to do to pass the time and wind down from the big effort. Pale ale will kick your ***, though.
Just about anything will kick my *** at this point. I got pretty sauced off of 4 Red Hooks yesterday. I hadn't had a drink for 3 months prior to that due to some medicine I was taking, plus I have lost nearly 50 pounds since then. I need to get back into drinking shape.

 
I transferred my Java Stout from the primary to the secondary, brewing the coffee and adding it to the secondary with the wort. I will probably try to bottle it next weekend, then comes the 2 to 4 week wait!

 
Since I have some free time this weekend, and my first attempt at brewing beer won't be ready for consumption for another 2 weeks, I bought some ingredients today. I found a recipe online for a Fat Tire clone (amber ale, brewed in Colorado, my favorite beer...can't get it in Kentucky). Since everybody seems to say that Brewer's Best kits aren't the greatest, I'll be interested to see how the quality of this beer matches up to my first batch. I'm using a lot more specialty grain, all dry extract, and liquid yeast (all per the recipe), so I'm hoping it will taste good, and if I'm lucky, it'll taste just like Fat Tire.

The think I'm most worried about is cooling the wort. Last time, I was only able to get it down to about 89 degrees F in about a half hour, but that was fine for the dry yeast from the kit (recommended between 80 and 92 degrees). This time, the liquid yeast wants between 70 and 75 degrees. Does anybody have tips for quickly cooling the wort? Have you ever mixed in cold water, and if so, did it contaminate the batch with wild yeast?

 
^ I use a counterflow wort chiller. You connect one end to the faucet and run cold water through it, the other end wastes heated water down the drain. It basically acts as a heat exchanger.

FermtechWortChiller.jpg


 
That looks expensive. I got it down to 78 degrees using an ice water bath in my sink, and adding chilled water to top off the batch to 5 gallons. Fermentation hasn't begun yet, but the yeast said it takes 5 to 15 hours, so I won't get worried until tomorrow morning.

 

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