I’d love to get there but brewing beer from scratch freaks me out, seems like there’s so much room for error. Wouldn’t you need a massive pot for boiling too? I don’t even own a hydrometer yet, which I know I should.. but how do I safely and cleanly use one if I use a carboy for primary, tie a string to one end and drop it down the bottle neck?
Update on my NE/WCIPA.. it didn’t really start fermenting after 2 1/2 days, so I threw in another packet of US-05 yeast, along with my dry hops, and it’s going full tilt now. I’m thinking I’ll wait a week or so for the yeast/krausen to settle, then wait a couple more days before bottling into Grolsh swingtops with 1 or 1 1/2 Coopers carb drops.