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Chad

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The Pizza thread (yes, I lurk here more than you might think) got me wanting to talk about homebrewing.

 I've been homebrewing beer for a little over a year now. mainly do 5-gallon all-grain batches, which I serve out of cornelius kegs. I only had to bottle one time to realize how bad that sucked, and immediately moved to kegs instead. I'm still very "wet behind the ears" when it comes to this stuff. I may actually do my first brew of the year this weekend if it's not too cold. Probably a dry stout or a "milkshake IPA".

 

Any other homebrewers here?

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12 minutes ago, Chad said:

The Pizza thread (yes, I lurk here more than you might think) got me wanting to talk about homebrewing.

 I've been homebrewing beer for a little over a year now. mainly do 5-gallon all-grain batches, which I serve out of cornelius kegs. I only had to bottle one time to realize how bad that sucked, and immediately moved to kegs instead. I'm still very "wet behind the ears" when it comes to this stuff. I may actually do my first brew of the year this weekend if it's not too cold. Probably a dry stout or a "milkshake IPA".

 

Any other homebrewers here?

Tried it one time about 20 years ago with my Mr. Beer kit.  It was awesome.

 

I have friends that are brewers and partake in the spoils quite often.

 

Bill

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8 minutes ago, Chad said:

Any other homebrewers here?

 

I've been brewing since 1995. Hard to believe but there was no vast Internet of opinions/information/misinformation back then.  It was all very underground and fun. Had to read books and go to the LHBS (Local Home Brew Shop) hang out and talk to the "experts"....guys that did it 6-months longer than me.

 

You got smart faster than I did. I bottled for a couple of years before moving to kegging. I was always asking people to save bottles for me, hitting up bars to save me Grolsch swing tops, etc. Can't tell you how many limes and cigarette butts I fished out of Corona bottles only to discover you don't want you beer in clear glass. Kegging is for sure the way to g.

 

I started with spaghetti pot on the stove and cooling the wort in a Michigan snow bank. Like A/V gear it is fun to learn, upgrade and go bigger. Currently I have a single tier stand that I build for brewing with 30 gallon pots. I typically brew 15 or 20 gallons at a time and have a 3-keg commercial cooler that I converted to hold 12 cornie-kegs with 8 serving taps. So I can server 8 an condition the others. Also have two other fridges for Hops, yeast, lagering and clod crashing beers.

 

The two biggest things I implemented that made my beer go from good to great was pitching the correct amount of yeast. You simply must make a starter on a stir plate. And temperature control for fermentation. If you beer tastes like home brew it has been fermented too warm. With a little time and patience anyone can brew fantastic beer. Its a lot like being into cooking or smoking meats. You can make stuff as good as ANY commercial operation.

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The Pizza thread (yes, I lurk here more than you might think) got me wanting to talk about homebrewing.
 I've been homebrewing beer for a little over a year now. mainly do 5-gallon all-grain batches, which I serve out of cornelius kegs. I only had to bottle one time to realize how bad that sucked, and immediately moved to kegs instead. I'm still very "wet behind the ears" when it comes to this stuff. I may actually do my first brew of the year this weekend if it's not too cold. Probably a dry stout or a "milkshake IPA".
 
Any other homebrewers here?
I've been brewing for a few years and have a small list of recipes that I brew on rotation (winter warmer, APA, Oktoberfest, and Meade). When I find time this spring, I'm hoping to do a barley wine or a Westvleteren clone.

Like you, I keg everything because I'd seen others bottling...nope. If you've ever got questions, I'm no pro, but could tell you equipment that helps (and stuff to avoid), and some ways to make things yourself (ie: wort chiller).

Sent from my SM-G930U using Tapatalk

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2 hours ago, rplace said:

I've been brewing since 1995. Hard to believe but there was no vast Internet of opinions/information/misinformation back then.

Not hard to believe! I only wish I would have started back then, even with the lack of available information.

 

I'm lucky in that we have a really good LHBS here in Indy (Great Fermentations) - and they have been very helpful in my learning.

 

2 hours ago, rplace said:

Currently I have a single tier stand that I build for brewing with 30 gallon pots. I typically brew 15 or 20 gallons at a time and have a 3-keg commercial cooler that I converted to hold 12 cornie-kegs with 8 serving taps. So I can server 8 an condition the others. Also have two other fridges for Hops, yeast, lagering and clod crashing beers

That sounds amazing. I started with a couple stove-top 1-gallon extract kits, and immediately got bit by the bug and upgraded to a 5-gallon all-grain setup. I'm trying to find time to have my dad teach me welding (finally, probably 25 years past when I SHOULD have learned) by building a brew stand -- I currently use an old desk that I move for setting the mash tun and HLT on. It's janky as hell.

 

I have a temp regulator on an upright freezer in my garage where I keep my 2 kegs, and taps on the door. Will eventually "upgrade" to a chest freezer to convert into a "keezer" for more capacity. I also plan on upgrading to 10-gallon setup after this year. Although now I'm thinking going with 20gal! 5gal certainly doesn't last long enough. One brew I made (a raspberry wheat) was gone 2 days after I tapped the keg. It was too good!

 

If I end up brewing this weekend I'll post some pics.

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2 hours ago, Chad said:

Not hard to believe! I only wish I would have started back then, even with the lack of available information.

 

I'm lucky in that we have a really good LHBS here in Indy (Great Fermentations) - and they have been very helpful in my learning.

 

That sounds amazing. I started with a couple stove-top 1-gallon extract kits, and immediately got bit by the bug and upgraded to a 5-gallon all-grain setup. I'm trying to find time to have my dad teach me welding (finally, probably 25 years past when I SHOULD have learned) by building a brew stand -- I currently use an old desk that I move for setting the mash tun and HLT on. It's janky as hell.

 

I have a temp regulator on an upright freezer in my garage where I keep my 2 kegs, and taps on the door. Will eventually "upgrade" to a chest freezer to convert into a "keezer" for more capacity. I also plan on upgrading to 10-gallon setup after this year. Although now I'm thinking going with 20gal! 5gal certainly doesn't last long enough. One brew I made (a raspberry wheat) was gone 2 days after I tapped the keg. It was too good!

 

If I end up brewing this weekend I'll post some pics.

as with good pizza and beer....

 

what is everyone doing for yeast....

 

are you continuing the yeast cultures...

 

from the initial brew ???

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Long ago there were only a handful of decent yeasts. I had built up a yeast library by culturing small traces from bottles with live yeast still in them and growing them up. I stored samples in test tubes with a mix of things that prevented the cell walls from being broken when frozen. When I needed that yeast again I could take a small amount and grow it back up to size.

 

Now there are several decent companies that sell various yeasts for the style/type of beer you want to make. And yes the yeast makes a huge difference in the final product.

 

I try to plan my brews so that I can grow a sufficient amount for a lighter gravity beer (end products has less alcohol) lighter color, and less hoppy. Then reuse that yeast for 2-6 more batches with stronger beers, darker beers and more hoppy beers. Not a hard fast rule but typically you try to go up in alcohol, darkness and hops. For me the yeast is the most interesting part of brewing.

 

I've made several beers using coffee....but that is for another thread, no?

 

Found a few pictures of my Port-o-Beer contraption I built. It is a cooler on wheels that holds two 3-gallong kegs. Its had a few iterations over the years but now it has a small paintball C02 canister and a regulator for dispensing. Everything self-contained inside the cooler. It's been to numerous St. Patrick's Day parades and will go to another on the 17th. The last picture is of it at the UofM v PSU game at PSU a few years back. I was the only one in head to toe Michigan garb. I was not the most popular person there, but I did have my own beer. BTW, I'm taking these pictures I'm not in any of them.

 

PortOBeer.jpg.c3ab1eed0575106e93067b8c4568e5e4.jpg5aa1a81896640_SPD2010004(Large).thumb.jpg.6e3c36e07f9cd1ec7a7ceab4a1306869.jpgIMG_20131012_121137.jpg.d328833feb7ef9f0f61de2f192c9f278.jpg

 

 

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5 minutes ago, rplace said:

Long ago there were only a handful of decent yeasts. I had built up a yeast library by culturing small traces from bottles with live yeast still in them and growing them up. I stored samples in test tubes with a mix of things that prevented the cell walls from being broken when frozen. When I needed that yeast again I could take a small amount and grow it back up to size.

 

Now there are several decent companies that sell various yeasts for the style/type of beer you want to make. And yes the yeast makes a huge difference in the final product.

 

I try to plan my brews so that I can grow a sufficient amount for a lighter gravity beer (end products has less alcohol) lighter color, and less hoppy. Then reuse that yeast for 2-6 more batches with stronger beers, darker beers and more hoppy beers. Not a hard fast rule but typically you try to go up in alcohol, darkness and hops. For me the yeast is the most interesting part of brewing.

 

I've made several beers using coffee....but that is for another thread, no?

 

Found a few pictures of my Port-o-Beer contraption I built. It is a cooler on wheels that holds two 3-gallong kegs. Its had a few iterations over the years but now it has a small paintball C02 canister and a regulator for dispensing. Everything self-contained inside the cooler. It's been to numerous St. Patrick's Day parades and will go to another on the 17th. The last picture is of it at the UofM v PSU game at PSU a few years back. I was the only one in head to toe Michigan garb. I was not the most popular person there, but I did have my own beer. BTW, I'm taking these pictures I'm not in any of them.

 

PortOBeer.jpg.c3ab1eed0575106e93067b8c4568e5e4.jpg5aa1a81896640_SPD2010004(Large).thumb.jpg.6e3c36e07f9cd1ec7a7ceab4a1306869.jpgIMG_20131012_121137.jpg.d328833feb7ef9f0f61de2f192c9f278.jpg

 

 

yes coffee beer !

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8 hours ago, rplace said:

The two biggest things I implemented that made my beer go from good to great was pitching the correct amount of yeast.

Great advice, one of the best ones I have received.  Though I haven't gotten it down, I have found out that yeast plays a big part in general.  Switching from the stuff that comes from a kit to better grade made a huge difference in my last wheat brew. 

 

I have brewed several times, only once from scratch.  Since going to school the last three years, I haven't had much time to.  I am looking forward to brewing again.  last thing I made was a Keg Kettle, turning a 16 gallon keg into a kettle.  I would like to make 10 gallons of my favorites.  which should yield enough to fill my soda keg, a 2.5 gallon for portable kegerators and a couple of 6 packs for sharing at parties.  I like IPAs and Dead Guy Ale. 

 

Check out http://www.howtobrew.com/  its a great site and the book is worth the purchase.

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Didn’t I see some of you on that show Moonshiners?

 

I went to a business once that had all the equipment, recipes and all ingredients. They taught us how to do everything including bottling. I made a Lager and it sucked. Very bitter. I think I bottled it too soon, they said minimum of 14 days; but, 21 days preferred. It was the holiday season and i was having company so i bottled it on day 14. 

Never tried it again.

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12 hours ago, BigStewMan said:

Didn’t I see some of you on that show Moonshiners?

 

I went to a business once that had all the equipment, recipes and all ingredients. They taught us how to do everything including bottling. I made a Lager and it sucked. Very bitter. I think I bottled it too soon, they said minimum of 14 days; but, 21 days preferred. It was the holiday season and i was having company so i bottled it on day 14. 

Never tried it again.

Lagering requires pretty strict temperature control (lower temps) during fermentation phase - which is why I haven't made a lager myself yet. I really want to make a Marzen/Oktoberfest though, so I'll have to figure something out. (temporarily using my upright freezer for fermenting instead of dispensing perhaps)

 

Whelp... I know of a project I need to do (was planning on a jockey box anyway, but I like this design)

 

SPD2010 004 (Large).jpg

 

As for yeast... I haven't tried harvesting my yeast after fermentation yet. Too scared I'd contaminate it somehow. I just buy new yeast (usually in a wyeast smack-pack) for each brew day. I have made 1 starter, when I made a clone of Three Floyds' Mummy Dust (6.0% ABV). It came out pretty well.

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Twenty-five years ago, I kept three or four glass carboys brewing constantly, dispensing from a tap on a spare refrigerator with four, five gallon kegs. It's been ten years since my last batch, and I've had the bug again, now that I'm retired. I keep getting sidetracked with other interests, though. I just ordered a Sig P320 Carry in .357sig.

SSH

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Brewed a simple Irish Dry Stout on Saturday. Here are some pics. 

 

grains.jpg

The grains.

 

brewstand.jpg

The janky, makeshift "brewstand" (not fully in position here)

 

beer.jpg

Gotta have a beer when you make beer. State law. Normally I drink one of my own homebrews during a brew day, but I was sadly out. So, I chose to drink some Barley Buddy Brown from one of my favorite local breweries, The Bier Brewery. Man this stuff is good.

 

tunes.jpg

Also gotta have some tunes. Using my KMC 3 (the KHorns are "in the shop", AKA, "not built or even purchased yet" -- cut me some slack)

 

mash.jpg

Mash in. I always love the aroma mashing gives off. So yummy!

 

boil.jpg

The boil. About 7.2 Gallons of sweet, sweet wort here.

 

fermenting.jpg

And finally, 6 hours later (including cleanup / prep time), here's the beer in the Fast Ferment vessel.

 

In 2 weeks, I get to put that beer in a keg, carbonate it, and a few days after that I get to drink it!

 

:emotion-22:

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Looks great, Chad. I'm way behind on production this year. Hopefully you have motivated me to get rolling. This weekend St. Patrick's Day parade with my Port 'O Brew from above. But for sure the weekend of 3/24 grains will be heated and liquids will be boiled.

 

@CECAA850 It is a fantastic time waster and money suck. Get going. You already have the tunes covered in your shop, er brewery.

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Little late to the party here. I've been brewing for about 4 years now since I moved in to the new house. The two neighbors got me into it, which has been really nice since I haven't needed to buy any of the equipment to get into the hobby. We're mostly all-grain unless there's a good deal on extract kits that are hard to pass up. I've got a 3 year old Columbus plant growing. Harvested one ounce from it last year. It's fun to watch those things grow almost exponentially. 

 

Stop by if you're in the KC area for some homebrew and heritage Klipsch. We also do meade and will be taking the dive into beekeeping this spring. Good times ahead.

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