Today I bought the last of the equipment needed to start brewing:
- 20qt Stainless Steel Stew Pot
- Metal Brewer's Spoon
- Wine Thief
- Rubbermaid Bin (to fill w/ ice to cool my wort)
The whole process took about 3 hours from the time I put the water on the stove to the end of cleanup. The ice bath of saltwater (thanks MythBusters!!) really helped get the wort to a pitchable temperature in record time. I ended up with a little over 3 gallons of boiling water that I was able to cool down to about 85 F in less than 20 minutes. I had 2 gallons of sterilized mineral water in the freezer, so when I mixed the two the final temp going into the carboy was about 67 F. The whole time I was cooling the wort, I had my aerator working its magic, and I left it in the carboy for another 20 minutes after pitching the yeast. Instead of using a plastic airlock, I opted for a 3 foot section of 1" surgical tubing with the other end in a 48oz beer stein half-filled with vodka.
Now I'm just going to cover it up and let the yeast do their thing.
