Home Brewing Miscellany: fermentation, drying hops, stocking up, etc.

So the strong ale is bubbling away in its primary fermentation, hops are drying, two brews in the first week of secondary fermentation, one brew is in its second week and two others are in their third week. Time to rest a bit and think to the future.

I ordered ingredients and a hop screen today from Northern Brewer. The ingredients included a 33# jerrycan of liquid malt extract and misc specialty grains. Never ordered one of those 33 pounders before. I think I'll be able to use it up in 5 or 6 batches so I there shouldn't be a problem with it going bad. I have some faucets to order as well, but, I can get a better price from The Beverage Factory so I'll order those separately.

Other future plans include weighing, bagging, vacuum packing and freezing the hops. I think I'll be taking a break from brewing for a while now that I have six batches of beer. Thats 30 gallons of beer :-) Actually a little less, we drank about 2 gallons of the Belgian style kegs. I guess that's the downside of having in kegs. Its too easy to dispense.