Home Brew Kit - Starter Kit or Piece meal?

So…I just remembere…I own a kegerator…maybe I keg half of it, bottle some of it?

Have anyone bottled from a keg? Is it a easy as putting it in a bottle and capping the bottle?

Back when I did homebrewing, my friends and I found that plastic jugs seemed to put off flavors into our beer. We really liked the glass bottles. This was especially important for ales as refrigeration of lagers seemed to make the plastic not an issue.

Turns out, the kegerator is dead. So, I’ll need to buy a fridge so I can control my fermentation temp.

So the question is - floor, top opening freezer, or a standard fridge? Either will receive an STC-1000 thermostat mod.

ITS ALIVE!!! I forgot about the compressor delay. It eventually came on…but, it’s still gross and needs a significant cleaning.

Kegorator is almost clean…taking a break. Once I’m done, I’ll boil my make up water tonight, and let the kegorator cool it down. I’ll have my first batch made by noon tomorrow.

So, I’ll still end up with a chest freezer by Christmas, but now I can pick one instead of just buying whats in stock. The kegorator has finite temp control, so I’m good for now.

How do you prevent the inside of your fermentation chamber from growing mold and mildew? I imagine as the beer ferments, moisture and particulate matter will escape the airlock…how to I keep the inside of the fridge clean when it is an enclosed environment sitting at 70 degree F?

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Boiling the makeup water is a pain 2 quarts at a time…do y’all do this and if so, how are you sterling the water you use in beginner extract batches?

For some reason, it just now occurred to me I could have used the 5 gallon pot, cooled it in the sink and used and the siphon…

I dont believe you are correct in this assumption, your airlock should catch particulates and moisture. After all it is filled with water.

I started about 9 years ago; and for sure, If I was starting today, I’d do a Brew-in-the-bag. Best price for the beginner as well as offering a way to start with extract brewing, and practice all the intermediate steps up to fully automated with just one pot. And the money you save, you spend on getting a better pot to start.

So whose house is having the first brew day for this sig?

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Here we go…I set up a camera in the kegorator…no need for me to open the door until I rack to the secondary…if I do…may pass on this one.

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It’s a little slow getting started…but there is some activity. I’ve got formation on the surface, and have seen a couple CO2 burps…I think :wink:

I’ve got the ambient air set to 70 degrees. I’m reading I should lower it to 60 since the internal temp of the carboy will remain 5 - 7 degrees higher…does that match y’alls way of thinking?

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I try to tape the temp gauge to the side of the carboy, it gives you a slightly better temp reading. If just doing ambient I would drop a few degrees, but it all depends on what yeast you use. Some yeast perform better at 80 than 70.

It’s alive! Here’s a clip

https://1drv.ms/v/s!Ankcbyz55Pbpgadc9n1zJh987UcJ4g

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I had one brew so aggressively I had to rig one of these up. no matter what I did it kept blowing the lid off.

exactly. It was an Imperial Belgian white. I ended up with a 13% ABV on that bad boy.

I opened my temp control environment for the first time today. We’ve been fermenting for about 4 weeks. I’d like to bottle on Tuesday or Wednesday.

  • I’ve got a little mold on the outside of my carboy…so lesson 1: spritz the outside sani solution of the carboy to help keep it clean!
  • But now, how do I know if it’s safe to bottle and drink? I think I’m only seeing some air bubbles on the surface…any other way I can test to see if it’s worth bottling?
  • About a week and half ago, we were at about 1 minute between burps. In the last few minutes, I’ve seen no activity at all. Will it still carbonate using corn sugar?

Pics attached (hard to photo through the carboy glass). Thanks ahead of time for your feedback.

Wife said the brown liquid tasted like beer! So we bottled today, but the green bottles did not work well…so we’ll see. I’ve got them segregated in an enclosed shower, so hopefully no issues. Ran out of caps towards the end, so also hoping couple of screw cap champagne bottle work okay.

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Champagne bottled beer, the mans drink.

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