Knuttel Makes Beer: day 2, maintenance

Ok, so I realize it is technically day 3, by date, but here is the rundown of what happened on day 2.

As far as music is concerned, I played it Rush's Moving Pictures during the day, and followed that with Black Sabbath's Vol. 4 at night.  As I have stated before, this is vital to the growth of the yeast, as the beer is living.  Suck on that vegans, you guys technically drink beer.

Moving on, there really wasn't that much maintenance.  I mean, it's still fermenting, so the best thing to do is to keep it out of light and everything, so I have speakers set up right next to the batches, and the wire runs out and over top the tarp that's covering them.  So when I put on some music for them, I don't have to expose them to light.  The one batch was definitely fermenting the last time I opened the tarp up, didn't really check the other one, but I don't see any reason it won't.

I also took a trip to the local Homebrewing store yesterday to learn more about this great, mysterious, and arcane art (that some people treat as a science).  I learned a lot on this trip, and realized that if I am going to really take this seriously, I am going to need to brew these batches at 5 gallons a piece (would turn out to be like just over 2 cases).  Technically I am brewing about 5 gallons right now, but they are two separate containers, and the one is definitely not designed for any brewing.  I did some research and I could probably pick up some food buckets to do brewing in from like a bakery or something, as they get them all the time.  They get their ingredients in these, and so long as they're the proper size, it will do fine for fermenting as it is a food grade bucket, and there shouldn't be any plasticizing of the flavor -- they also sell buckets similar to those at like Home Depot and stuff, and while they are not approved by the FDA, they are essentially the same material.  Given that one was definitely used for food, while the other was not though, and that one would likely be free, I think it's a given what I would look for first.  Basically the same thing is sold at the Homebrew Store at like just under 20 bucks.  Also learned I would need a second bucket for bottling (and this would pretty much be just for bottling, as beer could also be fermented in a carboy, as some prefer because they can come in glass also), sugars must be added just prior to bottling, this completes the fermentation process and gives the beer carbonation.

Basically my head is just overflowing with beer ideas, and at the very least I need more equipment to test them out.  Shit, going to be making alot of beer though.  Whatevs, like that's a bad thing.

-- Knuttel

P.S. figured I'd give a link or whatever to the homebrew store I visited, even though there's like nothing on their website.  They were pretty damn helpful there -- http://www.winebarleyandhops.com/