Home Brewing
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- Toa5t0
Pacific Storm Porter and Half Nelson AIPA. Bottled for the first time, normally keg. Should be ready next week.
- vaxorcist0
I went to University of Warwick, in the UK for a year, there was a group there calling themselves the "Real Ale Society" who brewed their own ale and drank lots of it... once they forgot to properly clean something.... and they were known as the "real ill society' ever after....
- dasohr0
bumpy bump.
going to buy a brew kit with this year's bonus (yes, it wasn't that much). going for plastic buckets over glass carboys. anyone have some hinters, pointers, suggestions?
- 5timuli0
Brewed 3 batches, pitched one (Bell's Two Hearted clone – ended up like orange milk even after 3 weeks cold crashing), the other two were meh.
I think my problems happen somewhere between cooling the wort and transferring to the primary carboy. Either that or transferring to the bottling bucket.
I haven't tried in a while, maybe I'll pick it up again next year.
- Crack_Junkie0
I'm a huge homebrew fan.
Mainly IPAs and stouts. Find a great local homebrew shop that can special order fresh hops and grains. Then find a partner to help. It's way better (and easier) when you have a second pair of hands helping out with things like keeping time and sanitizing.
- Impressive rig. I'm still using a basic brew kit. Thinking of expanding. Any tips?monoboy
- bulletfactory0
I love brewing! Have made 3-4 in years past, but nothing over the last year or two.... all about to change. I think I'll make a Maibock in Februaryish. I usually make ales and pale ales; a porter was on the list for last year, but didn't get around to it (much to the dismay of my friends).
Brooklyn Home Brew is only a few blocks away and has everything I could ever imagine needing. You guys are getting me jonesing to dust off the equipment.- if you ever feel like grabbing a beer. i'm on 9th st. btwn 7/8th ave.Douglas
- wait, no shit? I'm on 5th btwn 8th and the park. absolutely!bulletfactory
- melq0
I've been brewing for close to 15 years. Just this year switched to all-grain and wish I would have put the time into building an AG rig a long time ago. The quality of the beer resulting from AG versus extract is huge, in my opinion. A significant savings when buying ingredients, too.
After a few batches of pale ale to get the process down I recently brewed a raspberry lambic that will be ready in February. It's a fairly standard ale ferment, racked onto eight pounds of raspberries with a lambic culture added. I expect good things.
New rig:
- All grain? I wish I had a 15gal pot to brew AG. <jealous>Crack_Junkie
- nice!bulletfactory
- vaxorcist0
I knew a bunch of people in England at a university who brewed their own beer, they were called "The Real Ale Society" until one year they forgot to clean some pipes and they all got really sick, forever to be known as "The Real ill Society"
- nocomply0
Hey guys. This thread made me start thinking about the itch to give home brewing a shot. I'm going to be approaching it from a bit of a different perspective than most though.
I don't want to make the best, most complex, most creative beer ever. I just want to make a solid, passable, blue-collar beer that's CHEAP. I hear conflicting reports on whether or not home brewing can save you money, but this link seems to suggest it's possible with relative ease: http://eartheasy.com/eat_homebre…
I know it sounds weird, but I'm more concerned with keeping it easy, low-tech, and saving money than I am with producing and amazing beer. Of course I'm also excited about the process and I think it will be fun. Is this going to be possible, or is it a waste of my time?
If anyone cares to elaborate with a few details it'd be greatly appreciated.
- buying a case of bud light would probably be quicker and cheaper in the end.Douglas
- You can spend as much or little on a batch as you like. I've brewed 5 gallon batches for $20 and for $120.melq
- Here's a great book to get you started: http://www.amazon.co…
melq - Thanks guys!nocomply
- dasohr0
Any suggestions for recommended reading? Websites? Recipes?
- www.homebrewtalk.com…melq
- Also, Charlie Papazian's book, linked in the notes of the post above this one.melq
- spot130
Last year I wanted to save some money on beer and went the home brew route. I started out buying 100 bottles of Grolsh:
The problem I had was cleaning the bottles. You really need to clean and dry them after every beer because if you get even a bit of crap stuck to the bottom, it spoils your beer. This year I want to go the keg / co2 route and try and actually make enough beer to keep me going. I'm looking at the following gear:
http://www.torontobrewing.ca/
http://www.blichmannengineering.…- lol @ buying a 100 bottles of grolsh to save money...sine
- epic_rim0
you can make beer hella cheap. I know sailors that do it in a bag. I would worry more about your ability to control the temperature during the fermentation process. That's more of a limiting factor if your home/apt swings wildly from day to night.
the ingredients and equipment are cheap for extract brews. dont' get caught up in marketing.
- RIZ0
So this company has won a bunch of awards using this machine they have developed... No shit - I've tried it before and the quality of beer that it produces is really, really good!
- RIZ0
- dMullins0
I am about 50% of the way through my equipment purchases at this point (6+ months later). Here are my notes/equipment.
Equipment Setup:
$135 floor burner http://www.northernbrewer.com/de…$35 leg extensions http://www.northernbrewer.com/de…
$30 Fermenting bucket (note the options for airlock grommet and airlock): http://www.northernbrewer.com/br…
$13 Auto Siphon: http://www.northernbrewer.com/bL…
$30 Better bottle: http://www.northernbrewer.com/br…
$2 Better bottle stopper with airhole for airlock: http://www.northernbrewer.com/br…
$1 three piece airlock: http://www.northernbrewer.com/br…
$2 bubble airlock: http://www.northernbrewer.com/br…
$7 hydrometer: http://www.northernbrewer.com/br…
$40 mash paddle: http://www.northernbrewer.com/br…
$170 immersion chiller: http://www.northernbrewer.com/br…
$70 pre-chiller: http://www.northernbrewer.com/br…
$220 http://www.amazon.com/Home-Brewi…
$140 http://www.northernbrewer.com/br… It's not necessary to have a double body regulator, but it does allow you to carb one keg while serving the other. I also have a single body regulator hooked up to a 3-keg distribution manifold, but they all have to be at the same pressure (carbing or serving). $650 kegerator http://www.beveragefactory.com/d… (This is the one that I got.It came with an empty 5lb CO2 tank and the single regulator and manifold. You can add a bunch of options if you don't purchase the hook-up equipment when you buy your kegs. )
$14 line cleaner for kegerator http://www.northernbrewer.com/br…
Cleaning/Sanitizing:
$20 cleaner http://www.northernbrewer.com/de…$16 no-rinse sanitizer http://www.northernbrewer.com/br…
I got my kegerator from beveragefactory.com. They seemed to have the best deals for the product.
http://www.beveragefactory.com/d…Reading:
$12 "How to Brew: Everything You Need To Know To Brew Beer Right The First Time" http://www.amazon.com/How-Brew-E…Kegs:
5-Gallon Portable Keg w/ Built-in Tap $60 http://www.amazon.com/KegWorks-P…
- rybration0
^ + $18 protect yo brew kit from the end of the World alarm.
- dMullins0
Here are some notes I sent a friend recently:
A good place to start with equipment, beer kits, books, etc is www.NorthernBrewer.com. They have plenty of starter kits which have a lot of the equipment below and can get you brewing right out of the gate and then you can add to your gear.
Here's what you really need to get started. I'll start with everything needed to brew an extract batch of beer (as opposed to "all grain"). We can talk all grain some other time, because there are MANY options for AG brewing.
A boil pot. I have a fifteen gallon pot with a drain valve I attached near the bottom. It has a screen on the inside to prevent the hop leaves from pouring into the fermentation bucket. This way I can produce approx 12 gallons of wort to ferment into 2-6.5 gallon buckets with lids. The lids have a small hole in the top with a gasket that you put an airlock in. Since my boil pot sits on a burner that is raised off the ground, I pour the beer from the valve into the buckets without any hoses, which also oxygenates the wort. You will need a mash paddle to stir the wort. You will need a chiller to cool the wort rapidly prior to transferring it into the primary fermentation buckets. My recommendation on the chiller is to get something that is a little more diesel that you need so you won't have to upgrade for a while. We use a copper coil pre-chiller in between the hose and a copper coil immersion chiller that goes into the boil pot. You'll need the clear hoses that connect the chillers together and to the hose and outflowing from the immersion chiller into the yard. You'll need athermometer. Other thiings you need for the boil: a scale to weigh ingredients; grain bags to steeping grain in hot water (160 degrees) prior to the boil. You may also want to use hop bags--i just pour leaf hops into the boil.
Side Note: You can get away without using a chiller at first if you're brewing inside on the stove with a smaller pot. Fill the sink up with ice water and immerse the brew pot into it. Stir the wort taking temperature readings as it cools. If you intend to brew on the stovetop with a smaller pot, you can add water to the concentration in the bucket and don't need as big of a pot either. I haven't done this so I'm not as familiar with it, but it's fairly straight forward.
Prior to pitching the yeast into the buckets you'll want to take an initial gravity reading. There are several ways to do this. I use a barrel thief and pour some of the wort into a a cylinder and test using a hydrometer. Then I taste it, which is the first indication of how this may end up, but you can also see how the taste changes throughout the process.
After primary fermentation, I transfer from the buckets to smaller 5 gallon better bottles. They're smaller because you lose some volume during the first transfer and you need more head-room in the buckets for bubbling during primary fermentation. (Also, look up blow-off tubes for use during primary fermentation.) The buckets will need rubber stoppers for the airlocks. If you're looking to brew additional batches while you have batches fermenting, buy an airlock for every bucket or bottle you have--they're cheap.
To transfer beer from Primary to Secondary fermentation, you'll need some mechanism to get the beer from the bucket into the bottle. I use an auto siphon.
Note, my chilling method is not the only way to do it. There are also counterflow chillers and plate chillers. I can discuss the pro's and con's of these as well as our method if you want. Just let me know.
The next step is getting it from the secondary fermenter into a keg or a bottle to condition/carb it. You'll use the autosiphon for that.
----
Some question and answers back and forth below:
• "Are grain bags re-usable? Should I buy bunches of those?"
The grain bags aren't really re-usable. Some hop bags are nylon and you could reuse those; I don't always use a hop bag, but I haven't tried the nylon ones.
• "When it comes to cleaning the equipment, what's the best practice? Should I break everything down and clean/soak them the night before, and then wash with fresh water before I begin? Do I need to break down all of the pieces, such as the bulkheads and the thermometers, and physically remove them from the kettles? Trying to make sure I don't cut any corners that would affect the final product."
I don't have thermometers attached to my kettles, but I do have the bulkheads. I don't remove them when cleaning. I usually clean everything either right before I start or right after I finish. I always sanitize right before I start with a no-rinse sanitizer. I use the PBW to clean and soak dirty equipment like kegs, etc, but only for about 20 minutes.
• "I'm confused about raw water weight vs. burn off. If I have a 15-gal. kettle, so I imagine I could run two batches at once in that kettle and ferment the batch in two of the 6-gal. carboys (link below that you suggested). How do I make sure I have the right measurements? Do I just fill up one of the carboys twice and dump it into kettle and begin to brew, or do I need excess/less water to begin. Wasn't sure how adding ingredients affected the water weight also, if at all. If I fill the carboys to transfer water to the kettle do I then need to clean the carboy again before I transfer the wort to second fermentation in the same carboy? Should I have extra carboys just for transferring?
There's definitely evaporation going on. You can get about two 6-gallon carboys by filling the 15-gallon kettle to about 14.5 gallons. Some kits will tell you how much water to start with. You can use a program like beersmith to calculate as well. I wouldn't worry as much about the other ingredients. Regarding transferring, I go from boil kettle to a 6.5-gallon bucket (for primary) to a 5 gallon carboy (for seconday).
• "Riffing off of the question above, I'm curious about how recipe kits are portioned, and what I should try first. I would like to start with one of my personal favorites, something like this: http://www.northernbrewer.com/sh… or really any type of IPA or Pale ALe, but then I noted the links on that page about 2-stage fermentation (which you recommended and I believe I have the proper equipment for), and the yeast starter (which really threw me off because their explanation was kind of vague). I also don't really see mention of how much volume each of the kits yields, which really made me throw my hands up and write this email. Yah, if you have any suggestions for a starter recipe or two, that would be great. Probably going to buy a couple just to practice with, and hopefully come out with a decent batch in the first few tries.
Usually kits are portioned to yield about 5 gallons and will tell you how much water to start with for the boil. You'll lose volume some during the boil and a little more during primary fermentation. That's why the primary fermentation vessel is bigger than the secondary; the difference in size is reduce head-room in the container so there is less air. Lot's of higher gravity beers recommend a yeast starter. I haven't tried this yet because it's a fairly involved process that includes cultivating yeast from basically a smaller batch of beer in order to increase yeast growth/activity before pitching into the primary. I've just bought two packets of yeast (I like the liquid wyeast but don't recommend mail ordering this during the summer) and pitched twice as much. The trade off here seems to be time vs. expense.
As far as a kit to try first, pick anything you're stoked to brew. Make sure you have everything before you start. Plan what you're going to do and follow the plan and any instructions. I do recommend starting with an extract kit.• "Carboys. Based on some of your notes before, I am not positive I have everything I need for these. I bought the three-piece airlock and the bubble airlock, as well as the bottle stopper. I think I bought an extra airlock, huh? Which is better to use, or there a difference? Is that everything I need for each of the carboys to have?"
Sounds right to me. I usually use the 3-piece airlocks on the buckets and the bubble airlocks on the carboys. You can use either one; it's more preference through experience. If you're doing primary fermentation in the carboys you may find one works better. You may need to rig a blow-off tube when primary fermenting higher-abv beers. The reason being these types of beers like to push out a bunch of foam through the airlock during the 2nd and 3rd day. This consists of hooking a tube up to the first part of the three-part airlock (the piece that fits into the stopper) and running the other end of the tube into a bucket where the end is submerged in sanitized solution. You are creating a large airlock and giving the foam a place to go without making a mess.
• "Regarding key line cleaner: http://www.northernbrewer.com/br…
cleaner http://www.northernbrewer.com/de… (is this used for cleaning everything but the keg lines? kettle, mash paddles, carboys, chiller, etc?)"Yep, anything funky but the keg lines. It's kind of like oxyclean (which i have also used when i run out of PBW). I soak the kegs, buckets, etc for a little bit and it loosens anything up. Rinse well.
" Regarding sanitizers: no-rinse sanitizer http://www.northernbrewer.com/br… (what is the difference between this and the cleaner above??)
This is actually a sanitizer, not a cleanser. It won't get crud off your bucket lids or remove residue from anything, but you want to rinse everything that touches your beer after leaving the boil kettle with this. Think of it as purell for your gear. It kills bacteria that could really affect your yeast and beer taste/quality. Use it after PBW. For example, I will wash my buckets and carboys after fermenting. Then, next time I will sanitize before use.
- fooler0
That WilliamsWarn system is pretty cool but it seems like the Keurig Coffee Maker of home brewing systems, and at $5660.00 it's out of most home brewers price range.
I'd rather have this system. it's still expensive at $1900 but I'd feel more like I accomplished something after I was done.
With that said I still do pretty well with my $100 kit that has a glass car boy and plastic 5 gallon 2nd fermentation/bottling bucket.