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Hello from Florida

unclevername

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Hello everyone, My name is Brad Freeman and I live in the greater Tampa Bay area.  I used to brew when I was in college back in the 80's, but not have not done so in many many years. At that time I was only brewing extract beers and had never even heard of anyone brewing all grains other than the big breweries.  Recently the wifey and I became empty nesters and decided to put the empty bedrooms to good use and make a brewery out them  :) ;D.  So we have new hobby, making beer.

In the past few weeks I have assembled my brewery and plan to the first run this coming weekend.  It will be an all grain IPA and I am leaning toward the NATCA Jack IPA recipe I saw on the beersmith recipe web site.

My mash tun is a converted 10 gallon water cooler.  My brew kettle is a 10 gallon bayou classic.  I have a 6.5 gallon bucket for my primary and a glass 5 gal carboy for my secondary.  I read Brad Smiths book last weekend and am loaded with just enough knowledge to get into a little trouble.

I am buying the beersmith software as well.
 
Brad -
Good luck on the first batch since your return to home brewing!  Beersmith is a great tool!  Wishing you nothing but the best with the upcoming brew!
 
Made my first run yesterday and all in all it went pretty well I think.  It took about five hours, mostly because of my inefficiency.  But I hit the specific gravities pretty closely and the wort is a beautiful amber.  I tasted the wort and it was a very nice balance, of malt and hops, albeit very thick with sugar.  Last night the fermentation came to life and this morning it was chugging pretty good.  It was a great day, 72 degrees and sunny.  A great day to hang out and make beer.
 
Sounds like a good brew day.  5 hours is typical.  I tend to spend too much time watching the fermentation activity in the carboy.  It is kind of mesmerizing. 
 
I know there is another forum for questions like this, but since I already have information on my brew here I am going to ask the question here.

My fermentation was very strong for Monday and Tuesday. It started to slow on Wednesday and today, on Thursday it has slowed considerably. I had planned on racking the wort to the secondary on Sunday but now I am wondering if I shouldn't do it earlier.  My question is there a benefit for moving to the secondary quickly, or inversely, leaving it in the primary for longer?
 
Leave it in the primary.  Moving the beer risks infection, aeration, and doesn't noticeably improve the beer.  These days unless I am dry hopping I let it ride.
 
This is a typical fermentation.  Don't rush it.  There is a lot of benefit leaving it on the yeast and almost no benefit ever racking to a secondary.  After a week, it is good to let the temp rise naturally a couple degrees which helps the yeast metabolize off flavors they create.

 
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