Post by JoergPost by D AshHowdy, y'all!
It occurred to me last evening as I sat on the floor admiring the
motion in the fermenter that my fascination with the motion, bubbling
and foaming inside that carboy was exactly like and just as strong as
when I was an actual newbie brewer in 1987. A holdover that I've
never gotten rid of.
So, I thought I'd ask the group-- What is your #1 'Newbie' thing that
you simply can't shake? Anything.
(I'm guessing 2 things are most common-- the one I just mentioned and
impatience waiting for a batch to age in the bottle, so that by the
appointed "just right" date, the 2 cases are nearly gone.)((of
course, that last bottle that was forgotten for 6 months down-cellar
is the ambrosia you'd been intending for the whole batch; the earlier
bottles were 'meh' to 'nice' as aging progressed)) <-- yup! that's
gonna be me . . . again! {;-)
#1 Worrying about infection, sanitation.
#2 Boil-overs (never had one but saw the aftermath in a
micro-brewery).
#3 Can't wait to taste when it comes off the fermenter.
#4 Will there be a nice loud *POP* when opening the flip-top bottle
with "smoke" coming out and will it taste good?
The concern of whether I have enough bottles at bottling time has been
alleviated via a little spreadsheet I made. Once in a while we do an
inventory to make sure the numbers remain accurate. Some day I might
transform that into a database. Currently we have enough bottles for
2.34078125 five-gallon batches :-)
LOL! Nice list. Your #1 ought to be the first to go, however. Once
there's alcohol in the fermenter (2nd day, nice CO2 blanket on top of
the beer) you're pretty much protected, so you can relax and go have a
homebrew!
Your #2: Perhaps a trick or two I learned may help you. Keep a cheap
trigger-type sprayer bottle filled with distilled water next to the
stove. When foam begins to threaten to take over the world, spray that
back down quickly with the sprayer. Second, once things are to the point
that the hops are in and I can stop slowly stirring the wort,I'll put
the cover on and leave about an inch gap to one side. If I step away too
far or for too long, I'll hear sphtttttt sphtttttTTTT and I'll run back
to see the heavy boil ONLY on the gap's side and wort beginning to spurt
out and just running over. Move the lid gap frequently to keep this from
happening. I monitor from a kitchen chair not far from the range, so
I've managed to learn to relax, have a homebrew. (note the recurring
theme?)
#3 Day 5 in the bottle: "Hmmm. I can only imagine what this is going to
taste like in two weeks. The guy who said he created this one called it
Golden Elixer and said it was really really tasty! Hmmm. Well, it *did*
ferment really well, and five days is not **that**much less than a week
. . . . and I primed with DME . . . . . hmmmmmm I wonder what it's gonna
taste like . . . . . in a couple more days . . . . . hmmmmmm."
LOL Relax! Have a homebrew! Satisfy your curiosity and be like every
other home brewer I've ever had the honor and pleasure of meeting. It
is, after all, the brewer's duty to ensure quality, you know!
#4 That's one I share! I usually bottle with honey; it does take longer,
but I can't say all that much. I find I get a very creamy head when I
use honey, much finer bubbles than with DME. I've never used plain sugar
to prime, so I can't compare to that. But again, you can aleviate the
suffering by . . . Relaxing! Have a homebrew! (yup! recurring theme)
--
Have a great day! (you know the mantra by now, right?)((rinse your
empties immediatly! tell friends to return *clean* empties if they want
more gift 6-packs/4-packs (just how good of a friend deserves more than
an occassional 22 ouncer, anyway, if he/she won't help in some way?!)))
Huge Evil Grin! "Oh, it's a lot of fun painting this fence! See?" said
Tom Sawyer.