[sparkleberry]

i live in silverlake and have had great success brewing ipa, pale ales and porters with city water. i carbon filter and that's about it. though i have been playing around with bru n water and am seeing a little gypsum may improve things, but i'm not super worried about having perfect water. 

also, last summer, to combat high temps, i made a basic cooler out of 4x8 sheets of sheathing i got at home depot.  i made the box big enough to fit two 5 gallon buckets and used frozen bottles of water to hold temps. i just bought a chest freezer and super happy i did.

welcome and brew on!

cheers.

rpl

[garc_mall]

Only time I do a secondary is when I run out of 6-gallon fermenters, but don't have time to bottle. Maybe when I start kegging and run out of kegs...

Also I agree with the recommendation to start the fermentation cooler, and let it warm up to ambient temp.

Welcome to the obsession. We call it a hobby to outsiders though, otherwise they get suspicious.

[mattybartender]

Okay...the big day is here. So, following everyone's differing opinions:

Obviously chill the wort in an ice bath to get it to around 72*
Siphon to 6 gallon fermenter at 5 gallons
Pitch yeast
Keep in cool closet for a couple-three days
Bring out in to real world
Ferment as needed...

May the beer gods be kind to me...

[garc_mall]

Looks good.

Only thing I would suggest is having a blow-off tube, or at least have one ready. Those higher temp ferments can get pretty active.

[denny]

The closer you can get it to 65F before pitching, the better off you'll be IMO.