The Second Attempt

OK, last Friday Daddy Yard Sale (aka Kyle) and I started the second attempt at brewing perfection. This time it is a Honey Amber using liquid yeast - again, all from a kit we bought online. The initial brewing went fine, actually much better than last time - no sanitizer spillage. But after more than 24 hours, no fermentation had started. Which led to a phone call to our brewery supply store, which led to the suggestion to cool down the fermenter. To give you an indication of how sophisticated our brewing process is, take a look at the advanced apparati that we created at the suggestion of the brewery supply store dude. Yes, it is a wet towel draped over the fermenter and a fan blowing on it. I apologize for the somewhat blurry pictures but it looked good in the lensfinder at the time...

Keep in mind that the advanced equipment we've employed was not to help the fermentation to start, but to help out in the ultimate quality of the brew since the temperature in the house was about 75 degrees (thus the temperature of the fermenter) and it really needed to be between 68 and 72 degrees (more than I can bear to pay the electric company for the additional air conditioning). The fermentation as it turns out started a several hours later, but well within the window of the lifespan of our good friend Mr. Yeastcell. Check out the crazy bubbling action of the airlock.

So, when my wife came home to find the closet door open with the electric shock mat at the closet entrance (to keep out the ever curious cats) and the fan blowing on the wet towel draped fermenter (the above stated advanced apparati), she knew what a good thing we had going. After telling me what a great job I'd done, she suggested in no uncertain terms that the Sh_t had to get the hell out of the house and into a better place - the garage. I thought long and hard about her suggestion for about 5 minutes and after visiting our local Home Depot found an inexpensive refrigerator and some good advice from a home brewer working at Home Depot (a Home Depot home brewer...hhhmmm...). And this is what we've advanced to - a refrigerator with an outside temperature control to keep the fermenter at the optimum yeasty temperature. All the credit for the refrigerator and the controller go to my sweet wife - Thank You Baby!!!