First Beer and Wine Brews

Greetings all,

Well I have decided to share my experiences with brewing with you the eager audience of internet trolls, family and friends.

First on the list is my first brew. This was a dive off the deep end like many new adventures are. I went down and purchased a wheat ale beer kit (which contains the pre-made "beer flavor") and the yeast, I also got a bag of dextrose which is a kind of sugar. I also picked up a brewing vessel which is a 24L do-dad and some other misc items. I was so excited I got strait into it! And man was it a mess :D

The yeast in the kit said 28C to 22C which I thought was crazy because everything I had read said 18C was the bomb. Well... I followed instructions, I kept it inside on the floor and kept it around 24-26C for a few days.

Later after badgering my local brew shop who was more then happy to give hints said the yeast in the bear kits is shit and I should be striving for those lower temperatures (18C).

Well dammit. I wasn't going to let a little thing like this get in my way! I am a SCIENTIST (Right ken? :P ) So I broke into the old fridge in the garage and stripped it bare, but now the problem... Even at the hottest temperature in the frdige I could only get it to 5C. I needed another 13C to hit my goal!! So while the beer sat on the floor at an unacceptable 24C I started work on the fridge and decided to brew a wine as well. I mean why not right? :)

so I went back to the brew shop and picked up a nice glass bottle, we went to the markets and bought a bunch of cherries since they are in season and lychee. Slapped them into the blender and off we went.

Since of course I pulled the pits out, don't be so lazy!

So I got a nice mess poured it all in and added the wine yeast.

As you can see looks good eh?








And then I had a break through, a revelation with the fridge. I could buy an expensive thermostat or I could lie to the thermostat... I could trick it. Tell it lies. Mahahah. But how?

Insulate the little bastard! I found that if I added foam, in this case from boxes that had PC parts inside, around the thermostat area it would keep the cold air colder then what was on the other side of the insulation because that area is so much larger :) If you want a more detailed explanation come round we'll have a few beers and I'll confuse you more.

So I insulated it and BLAM! I had my gift.