Don't Worry, Be Hoppy

Fermentation is progressing along nicely! It's definitely slowed since Monday, when fermentation was at its greatest. And let me tell you, the beer "burps" that are coming out of my airlock smell awesome, nothing like the beer that I put in there on Saturday. It has a very sweet smell, almost fruity, possibly from the 2 lbs of honey I put in 40 minutes into the boil.

Tomorrow morning I'll transfer it into my secondary fermenter (a 5-gal glass carboy), then I'll get my first look at the brew. The closet in my basement under the steps has worked well for fermenting. It's out of the way, completely dark, has a near constant temperature since there are no supply air grills and has a concrete floor in the event that I spill something. I think I'm going to clean out all of the stuff under there and deck it out with shelving, lighting, hooks...basically I'm going to turn it into my little brewery.

And for an update on my bottle search, I'm doing no better than I was the other day. I have put some feelers out with some guys at work, but that hasn't resulted in anything yet, so tomorrow I might scavenge MU's football stadium parking lots after the homecoming game...wish me luck!