BTW, how come your post is time-stamped later than my reply? Interesting, when I watch this thread unlogged, I can see the time stamp in your post saying Jul 5, 2005 11:33:31 PM. After I sign in, it changes to Jul 6, 2005 12:33:31 PM. I swear no beer today yet!Unlogged After sign in:

Ooops , I paid attention to the date only and did not notice that both time stamps were just around midnight! Thought it's always UTC. Thanks for your explanation and that interesting link. And yes, I'm quite familiar with Pilsner Urquell . It's still considered the flagship of Czech beers and sure is one of my favorites, as you can see:


Regards, Ivang.

RobSab --

You're right -- the guy was amazing! I couldn't do most of those things sober, let alone drunk. I think that one aspect of home brew that will be good is that you drink it at home -- no driving involved unless you want to include coming in from the picnic area behind my apartment building on my electric mobility scooter

My equipment arrived -- all 70 pounds of it! I spent some time yesterday unpacking and checking it all out and set about turning my dining room into a brew house. I made one very large mistake. Instead of getting a neighbor to help me to move my dining room table off to the side of the room, I tried to do it myself with the result that a joint for one of the table legs gave way. It looks pretty bad, but I was able to get the leg back under the table and pushed it up against the wall, so it isn't going anywhere. And I worried that I might spill something on the tabletop and mar it -- well no more worries about that. The kit I bought included a plastic 6 1/2 gallon primary fermentation tank and top, a 5 gallon glass carboy for secondary fermentation, and a plastic 6 1/2 gallon bottling bucket with spigot. A rubber stopper with airlock came with it that will be used in both the primary and secondary fermentation tanks. To clean everything, a scrub brush for bottles and one for the carboy were included as was a small package of sanitizer. I will try the sanitizer, but in the past, I have used a dilute solution of chlorine bleach and found that to work well for me. There is a plastic racking tube (a long stiff tube that will reach down to the bottom of the fermentation bucket), soft plastic siphoning tubing and a bottle filler (a tube with a valve that opens when it is pressed into the bottom of a bottle when filling it). A hydrometer and a crude liquid crystal thermometer are included with the kit. There is a bottle capper and a package of bottle caps with the kit. To complete the kit, there is an instructional DVD and a 71 page booklet. I added to my initial order 36 twenty two ounce bottles and two recipe kits for a light bodied ale. My total order ran about $150 and the shipping from Minneapolis to Raleigh was about $40. My present plans are to spend some time reviewing the instructional materials and to boil on either Tuesday or Wednesday. When I write about that, I will detail more about what is included in the recipe kits.