Kegs are here

Woke up this morning with a big box from Midwest Brewers Supply on my doorstep:

I also got my inline temperature controller so I can turn my chest freezer into a refrigerator. Right now I have all the components to build phase one of the Keezer, so I think that will be my project this weekend.

Brew Day +1

Less than 24 hours after pitching my yeast I had an airlock full of foam!  It has since died down, but I still have a nice krausen...yeast starter ftw.

Brew Day!!

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.

Aeration Perfection

I'm anxious to try my first batch so I'm giving my yeast a head start by aerating my wort as I rack it.  This is for a fish aquarium, but has an inline HEPA filter so I don't get any bacteria in my wort.  I'm going to start brewing right after Halloween...  =]

And as always, more pics on my Flickr page

No Turning Back

Went to my local homebrew store and picked up everything I will be needing for my first batch of beer:

More pics on my Flickr page

First Purchase

Actually put my money where my mouth is and bought a chest freezer.  Got this 7.2cu ft Frigidaire on craigslist for $40!  Cleaned it up and it looks brand new.

More Keezer pics on my Flickr page

Planning

After going over my finances for the past year, I realized that a very large portion of my disposable income was going towards nightlife related expenditures. A few months ago, I decided to invest some of that money into a pool table and entertainment center to motivate me to stay in rather than go out.  I'm now spending significantly less on entertainment, and with the money I save by not paying cover/parking/ridiculous drink prices, I have been able to step up the quality of spirits, wines and brews.

The next step was to start buying small kegs of beer and build a kegerator to complete my man-cave.  After about a week of research, I planned out my 5 tap keezer:

More Keezer pics on my Flickr page