BeerBorg

I've been sick for about 3 weeks now and haven't been able to make my next brew. Starting to feel much better and I'll be doing the Brewer's Best Vienna Lager Extract kit I picked up awhile back. Got the water cooling to 50 deg. and checked all equipment that I'll need. I did find my thermometer was off by 10 deg. (go figure). Being my first steeping kit I thought I would use spring water for steeping and boiling (just found out my tap water has chloramine and will not come out in boiling).Kind of excited to be doing a steeping being only my 5th brew, wanting to get it done to taste it. The kit procedures says it will take about 6 weeks from fermentation to the end of lagering and I think I'll let it go in the bottles for 4 weeks for carbonation and conditioning. This Newbie has his sights on bigger and better things to come in the future but baby steps first.

Congrats. Every step feels HUGE before you do it and then pretty small afterwards when you wonder why you didn't do it sooner.

Feel better and good luck with your next brew!

Kealia wrote:Congrats. Every step feels HUGE before you do it and then pretty small afterwards when you wonder why you didn't do it sooner.

Feel better and good luck with your next brew!

I completely agree which is why I am an advocate for baby steps rather than to try and cram a whole bunch of new stuff in at once. Did that my first 5 gallon batch and was probably one of the worse batches I made complete with bottle bombs for good measure.

Good luck and have a blast!!!

Glad you are feeling better and hope your brew day goes well.

You can use something called Camden tablets to treat your tap water for chloramines if you don't want to use bottled water.

Thanks Brewbirds. will be sure to look into the Camden tabs, even though spring water only runs about 85 cents a gal. it could get expensive after awhile.

This sounds great! Put me firmly in the "Baby steps, baby" camp. There are people who have jumped right in doing all-grain from the start, and for many, it works out just fine. But I started with Mr. Beer kits, which are probably the simplest method out there, and took things a step at a time, with guidance. I definitely believe I progressed faster by starting slower, and experienced fewer disappointments, less confusion, and far less frustration this way. And having a firm foundation in something like steeping helps you build your confidence and gain experience for the next step.

Brew on, brother!

Got it done! Not as hard as I first thought. Started at 7 am finished at about 10:30. Only real problem I had was my measuring cup, it kept wanting to pour under the spout. I changed to a smaller cup and everything went fine after that. I now have 2 LBK's in the fridge at 56 deg. One has the Brewfirm Lager yeast and the other has Saflager S-23 can't wait to taste the difference between the two yeasts.

Good deal! I was just like you, hesitated, thought about it then just went ahead and did it. It sounded at the time more complicated than it actually was. One step at a time, pretty soon you will be confident enough to do a partial mash!