"John O" <johno@#no^spam&heathkit.com> wrote in message news:LJcBd.8291$>
I'm a realtive newbie, on my second year with a modded ECB. I've been doing[color=blue]
> lots of turkeys and little stuff lately. When this machine has had its
> day, I plan on a picking up a WSM. The store I visited last night doesn't
> have whole briskets, so I got a shoulder (can't mess those up) and a
> corned beef flat. The flat is for fun, just to see if I can get one done
> right.[/color]

like cooking those corned beef flats--usuall soak them in water for a couple
days then season heavily with black pepper&cracked coriander---end up with
kinda pastrami
[color=blue]
> I'm really torqued about my beer in the basement, and having read the last
> couple months' posts I've set my standard a little lower for this first
> brew. My primary ferment is in a cool basement, and it took a good 20
> hours to start going. However, I did fast-cool the wort by putting the
> fermenter in the sink filled with cold water. (I had to be somewhere) I
> was concerned about cooling it too fast, but maybe I did OK, by accident.[/color]

Wife said do it in basement but I put it in her closet so it stays
warm<BFG>--cooled my wort the same way--real fast it seemed-- and the yeast
took about 3-4hrs to get started--now puffing happily away
btw probably will do it in basement as soon as there is some plumbing for
wash tubs etc

see ya

Buzz---in Wisc