homebrewers

[aoxo1]

Anyone here do any homebrewing? I'm in the middle of making my first batch (cooling down in the sink right now). Had a boil over and small fire at the start of the boil, but otherwise so far so good. I'm kind of nervous about maintaining the temp in my place for the next few weeks, as we usually get a couple days around 100 per week and my A/C ain't great.

I just got a kit from a local homebrew place to start, but obviously at some point I would like to do my own recipes. Any suggestions?

[JCoz]

Anyone here do any homebrewing? I'm in the middle of making my first batch (cooling down in the sink right now). Had a boil over and small fire at the start of the boil, but otherwise so far so good. I'm kind of nervous about maintaining the temp in my place for the next few weeks, as we usually get a couple days around 100 per week and my A/C ain't great.

I just got a kit from a local homebrew place to start, but obviously at some point I would like to do my own recipes. Any suggestions?

Actually I have been reading a few books and subscribed to a magazine, prepping for my first batch in a month or two. The mag I found gives all kinds of clone recipes for most beers you can think of or buy at the store.

You should post on how that batch ends up.

[peeker643]

Anyone here do any homebrewing? I'm in the middle of making my first batch (cooling down in the sink right now). Had a boil over and small fire at the start of the boil, but otherwise so far so good. I'm kind of nervous about maintaining the temp in my place for the next few weeks, as we usually get a couple days around 100 per week and my A/C ain't great.

I just got a kit from a local homebrew place to start, but obviously at some point I would like to do my own recipes. Any suggestions?

Missed this thread. My neighbor brews his own and makes his own wine. German wheats, Irish reds, pale ales, stouts, the whole 9 yards. They have a huge number of blueberry plants in their yard so blue berry wine is fermenting as we speak.

Anyway, I'll ask him if he has any recipes that I can post for ya. What would ya be interested in that I can find from him? Not limited to those mentioned. Those just happened to be in his fridge a week or so ago.

[aoxo1]

Anyone here do any homebrewing? I'm in the middle of making my first batch (cooling down in the sink right now). Had a boil over and small fire at the start of the boil, but otherwise so far so good. I'm kind of nervous about maintaining the temp in my place for the next few weeks, as we usually get a couple days around 100 per week and my A/C ain't great.

I just got a kit from a local homebrew place to start, but obviously at some point I would like to do my own recipes. Any suggestions?

Actually I have been reading a few books and subscribed to a magazine, prepping for my first batch in a month or two. The mag I found gives all kinds of clone recipes for most beers you can think of or buy at the store.

You should post on how that batch ends up.

Fermenting seems like it is about done. Going to bottle this weekend, probably Sunday during football. I'm not optimistic, as I had the temp range wrong (thought 70-80F, when it should be 60-70F) for the first day or two so it is a little darker than it should be and there are probably some bad tasting by products. We'll see. Supposed to be a pale ale. Should know how it tastes by middle of next week.

Missed this thread. My neighbor brews his own and makes his own wine. German wheats, Irish reds, pale ales, stouts, the whole 9 yards. They have a huge number of blueberry plants in their yard so blue berry wine is fermenting as we speak.

Anyway, I'll ask him if he has any recipes that I can post for ya. What would ya be interested in that I can find from him? Not limited to those mentioned. Those just happened to be in his fridge a week or so ago.

I'm mostly a fan of pale ales, Irish stouts, IPAs, and Pilsners, although I like everything short of Lambics. Would prefer not to brew something too sweet like a Belgian, as I can only drink one of those at a time.

If he has any suggestions on what would be good for a place that can maintain 70-80F temperatures, I would be open to that. To get below that I have to run the A/C all day, and I can't get very far below...

[peeker643]

I'm mostly a fan of pale ales, Irish stouts, IPAs, and Pilsners, although I like everything short of Lambics. Would prefer not to brew something too sweet like a Belgian, as I can only drink one of those at a time.

If he has any suggestions on what would be good for a place that can maintain 70-80F temperatures, I would be open to that. To get below that I have to run the A/C all day, and I can't get very far below...

Email sent.

[aoxo1]

Bottled Sunday after the Browns game, let it carbonate at room temp, put the first bottle in the fridge tonight (24 22oz bottles total).

Pretty good. Nice color. I would rate it as a poor man's Sierra Nevada, which I am definitely happy with. If I had bought it at a store, I would likely think it isn't quite hoppy enough or with quite enough alcohol, but that it was pretty close and a decent beer.

[peeker643]

Bottled Sunday after the Browns game, let it carbonate at room temp, put the first bottle in the fridge tonight (24 22oz bottles total).

Pretty good. Nice color. I would rate it as a poor man's Sierra Nevada, which I am definitely happy with. If I had bought it at a store, I would likely think it isn't quite hoppy enough or with quite enough alcohol, but that it was pretty close and a decent beer.

Nice- Still waiting to hear back from the guy I know who does it. Guy's a Penn Sate fan....could take him a while to formulate his thoughts.

[aoxo1]

Bottled Sunday after the Browns game, let it carbonate at room temp, put the first bottle in the fridge tonight (24 22oz bottles total).

Pretty good. Nice color. I would rate it as a poor man's Sierra Nevada, which I am definitely happy with. If I had bought it at a store, I would likely think it isn't quite hoppy enough or with quite enough alcohol, but that it was pretty close and a decent beer.

Nice- Still waiting to hear back from the guy I know who does it. Guy's a Penn Sate fan....could take him a while to formulate his thoughts.

Got some stuff for an IPA. 5 gallons (~50 bottles) for $40. That's pretty good. Figure I can polish off one batch of beer just as the other is ready to bottle, although that leaves me still having to buy some. Maybe I need to get another set of bottles...

Although I was checking out kegging systems, only $200 to be able to keg it, which would be freaking awesome. Figure I could fit 4 of those kegs into a regular sized fridge, or get one of those meat fridges that open on the top and could fit a huge number of brews in there. That would open up nitrogen beers as well. Hmmm....

/dreaming of the ultimate home bar, with 4-6 brews on tap.

[Ziner]

Just put my 3rd batch in the primary. Damn if home brewing isn't addictive. Anyone doing it? I need to start branching out and trying my own recipes but I am not really sure how I go about deciding which ingredients will combine to make something tasty.

First Batch was an Apricot Blonde for summer, turned out fantastic
Second is a 5 hop Pale Ale
Third is a Pumpkin Ale.

[peeker643]

You're doing kits then, correct? JCoz is into home brew. I brew with the neighbors as well. You'll move from kits to all-grain and a lot of equipment if you stick with it.

We're to the point where two of the four guys in our neighborhood are growing hops. 25-foot high rope nets with different plants growing different rungs.

Harvested enough this year to brew a few batches of really good stuff and now have a chiller plate, forced carbonation and kegs. Eliminates the effing bottling which is the bane of home brewing.

Helps when one of the guys is an engineer for Lubrizol. The knowledge and access to various outfitting needs is huge.

[motherscratcher]

It's something I've though about. What would you guys rec for a good primer? Get a kit? Or go do a batch at Brewmasters or something?

[peeker643]

It's something I've though about. What would you guys rec for a good primer? Get a kit? Or go do a batch at Brewmasters or something?

You don't learn to brew at Brewmasters. You go there and measure some shit, dick around, get loaded and pick up your stuff after its done.

If you truly want to get started maybe try a kit. But even a kit is vastly different than brewing a big batch and using grains, doing the fermenting, etc.

But a kit is the way most guys start. Keep in mind you're talking weeks in most cases from the time you brew to the time you drink. If you like doing it and get into it you'll need to do it regularly to have a steady supply and you need to take the time into consideration if you're brewing seasonals.

[Ziner]

Yes. Strictly kits right now. I want to switch to all grain but I haven't had the time to make the devices to do so. Have seen some nifty ideas using coolers online. What do you use?

Motha, go get a kit, it's pretty fun. The first batch is the only one that seems like it takes forever.

I disagree with Peeker. I have accumulated about 100 bottles and 4 growlers in the last month or so. I had a blast doing so. I'd be looking in to legging if my house didn't come with a really nice beer fridge in the basement.

[peeker643]

Yes. Strictly kits right now. I want to switch to all grain but I haven't had the time to make the devices to do so. Have seen some nifty ideas using coolers online. What do you use?

Motha, go get a kit, it's pretty fun. The first batch is the only one that seems like it takes forever.

I disagree with Peeker. I have accumulated about 100 bottles and 4 growlers in the last month or so. I had a blast doing so. I'd be looking in to legging if my house didn't come with a really nice beer fridge in the basement.

What do we use for what part? It's all kegs now. We all have growlers and bottles if we want to bottle a little for transport or whatever, but mostly it's kegged and kept cool.

Ice down the chill plate to run the beer through wound copper lines inside and it's literally cold in seconds.

We shorten the fermentation time by forcing CO2 into the keg for a couple days and then bleeding it off. When we tap it we put it back under 10psi of co2 again.
The chill plate and copper sit in a cooler that we drilled to accomodate two taps. So we can have a porter and an ale hooked up out of that one cooler.

It's a lot more technical and streamlined than when we were washing bottles. And it's the sterilizing bottles that sucks. Not actually the bottling. Although capping sometimes is an inexact science and renders a bottle flat.

[Ziner]

Sorry, should have been more specific. My buddy has a kegerator, and he preaches the advantages all the time, but I will stick with bottles and growlers for a while because like I said I have a fancy pants beer fridge that I need to use for something. Although I just thought about how awesome it would be if I sold it and replaced the hole it leaves under the counter for an actual kegerator.

I meant more the all grain brewing. I have only done LME thus far, I can see that getting old. So I want to do the all grain, but I need to find the time to make a contraption to make it easy enough that I'll do it everytime. Like I said i watched something on youtube where someone used a big cooler, filled it with malt, let it steep and then drained it out of a special plug. Something along those lines is what I am thinking I'd do.

[motherscratcher]

Dumb Question:

If you put a kegerator in your house, how long does a keg last and how long is it good for once tapped?

[peeker643]

Dumb Question:

If you put a kegerator in your house, how long does a keg last and how long is it good for once tapped?

If you purge the air and keep the keg under pressure with CO2 it can (and has for us) remianed fresh for a couple months. Honestly it doesn't seem to last that long because the soda kegs we use are maybe 5gallons which isn't a tremendous amount. There's approx 10 12oz glasses in a gallon so you're talking ~ 50 12oz beers in a 5 gallon batch of beer.

[Erie Warrior]

Seriously thought about getting into it, but I really don't need an excuse to drink more. There's a 70% chance I'd get alcohol poisoning weekly if I had 5 gallons of a solid Imperial IPA in the garage at all times.

[Ziner]

I appreciate the beer I drink more. Tend to have a few then switch over as to not blow through it so quick.

EW once you star you'll be hooked. Didn't have the time before but I am obsessed now

[Ziner]

Peeker, where is my all grain info.

[peeker643]

Peeker, where is my all grain info.

I still have no clue specifically what you want me to provide. JCoz, you have any idea?

Here- here's a basic bible. http://www.howtobrew.com/sitemap.html

Get s a little technical and boring but ifyou read it a few times it becomes clearer.

All a matter of temperature and time when steeping the grains. Lower mash temp is thinner and more bitter wort.

Higher mash temp is sweeter and thicker.

Start with 1.5 quarts of water per lb of grain at 150* for an hour and go from there.

Of course, you also have to determine what hops you're cooking with and what ones are finishing hops. And that's after you decide which kind of beer.

But 1.5 per lb at 150-155* for an hour will always get ya in the neighborhood

[Ziner]

What I am getting at is I have only done Malt Extract thus far. I want to get in to all grain, I am unsure how I go about doing that, there are a million different methods online. Many involve Coolers or Water jugs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlkJUF-tXww

Do you not do this? I get the concept of all grain, but the filtering seems to be where people differ in order to get their wort. More of the devices used rather than the method. Does that make sense?

[Ziner]

http://www.howtobrew.com/section3/chapter18.html

basically what devices do you use to do this

[mattvan1]

Yes. Strictly kits right now. I want to switch to all grain but I haven't had the time to make the devices to do so. Have seen some nifty ideas using coolers online. What do you use?

Motha, go get a kit, it's pretty fun. The first batch is the only one that seems like it takes forever.

I disagree with Peeker. I have accumulated about 100 bottles and 4 growlers in the last month or so. I had a blast doing so. I'd be looking in to legging if my house didn't come with a really nice beer fridge in the basement.

What do we use for what part? It's all kegs now. We all have growlers and bottles if we want to bottle a little for transport or whatever, but mostly it's kegged and kept cool.

Ice down the chill plate to run the beer through wound copper lines inside and it's literally cold in seconds.

We shorten the fermentation time by forcing CO2 into the keg for a couple days and then bleeding it off. When we tap it we put it back under 10psi of co2 again.
The chill plate and copper sit in a cooler that we drilled to accomodate two taps. So we can have a porter and an ale hooked up out of that one cooler.

It's a lot more technical and streamlined than when we were washing bottles. And it's the sterilizing bottles that sucks. Not actually the bottling. Although capping sometimes is an inexact science and renders a bottle flat.

Any reason to to use a chiller to cool the wort other than time? Does it make better tasting beer of is it just a convenience?

[peeker643]

Yes. Strictly kits right now. I want to switch to all grain but I haven't had the time to make the devices to do so. Have seen some nifty ideas using coolers online. What do you use?

Motha, go get a kit, it's pretty fun. The first batch is the only one that seems like it takes forever.

I disagree with Peeker. I have accumulated about 100 bottles and 4 growlers in the last month or so. I had a blast doing so. I'd be looking in to legging if my house didn't come with a really nice beer fridge in the basement.

What do we use for what part? It's all kegs now. We all have growlers and bottles if we want to bottle a little for transport or whatever, but mostly it's kegged and kept cool.

Ice down the chill plate to run the beer through wound copper lines inside and it's literally cold in seconds.

We shorten the fermentation time by forcing CO2 into the keg for a couple days and then bleeding it off. When we tap it we put it back under 10psi of co2 again.
The chill plate and copper sit in a cooler that we drilled to accomodate two taps. So we can have a porter and an ale hooked up out of that one cooler.

It's a lot more technical and streamlined than when we were washing bottles. And it's the sterilizing bottles that sucks. Not actually the bottling. Although capping sometimes is an inexact science and renders a bottle flat.

Any reason to to use a chiller to cool the wort other than time? Does it make better tasting beer of is it just a convenience?

We could us the chiller for the wort but typically don't. Never been in enough of a hurry where a that cooling off period benefits us. The wort is still going to require time to ferment anyway.

We use the chiller more for serving it. Chill plate on ice in a fitted cooler. Feed through wound copper that's quite cold and cold beer comes out the tap regardless of whether it was warm/ambient to start.

Really, because we don't refrigerate kegs, the chiller replaces the kegerator. in our process.

Obviously you could chill wort faster and force carbonate to kick the process into high gear faster, but we don't go that far as we always have something available to drink and something fermenting to replace it.

[mattvan1]

Really, because we don't refrigerate kegs, the chiller replaces the kegerator. in our process.

Thanks. I missed the above fact the first time.

[mattvan1]

Sampled the Octoberfest and Scottish Ale last night. Both turned out well. Thanks to Peeks 4 of us chipped in and bought 2 5 gal soda kegs and a portable CO2 system. This was the first time to use forced CO2 fermentation and skipped bottling. Makes the process so much simplier that we'll probably start doing 2 batches per month.

Lot of receipes to choose from

http://www.defalcos.com/basic-brew-recipes.html

[peeker643]

Sampled the Octoberfest and Scottish Ale last night. Both turned out well. Thanks to Peeks 4 of us chipped in and bought 2 5 gal soda kegs and a portable CO2 system. This was the first time to use forced CO2 fermentation and skipped bottling. Makes the process so much simplier that we'll probably start doing 2 batches per month.

Lot of receipes to choose from

http://www.defalcos.com/basic-brew-recipes.html

Well done sir.

We had 3 5 gallon kegs of homebrew for a family clambake yesterday and one was pumpkin ale, completely made from grains and pumpkins. It was tremendous.

Now you have a full blown obsession to deal with.

[motherscratcher]

There seem to be a lot of different kits out there that look pretty much the same. Anyone have a recommendation on which one to get? Or anything specific to make sure the kit has?