I've been doing a lot of reading today, so figured I'd start a thread to discuss homebrew

BrewingTechniques Online has a lot of interesting articles. I'm going to follow some of it to start all-grain brewing soon.

BT - Parti-Gyle Brewing looks particularly interesting...

I have pretty much read through How to Brew and just started Radical Brewing.

I also have plans for an all grain set up. I am thinking a HERMS type with keggles and all electric heating so I can do it inside safely.

I will check out those links. I need to check the sq of my stout today. It's been about 4 days and is probably ready or very close. I need to get another cornelius keg.

I also need to stock up on some kegs. Cheapest I could find.

5 Gallon Cornelius Keg - Ball Lock

This is what I'm going to brew next I think:

Alaskan Amber Clone

(5 gallons, extract with grains)

OG = 1.054 FG = 1.015 Bitterness = 20 IBUs

Ingredients

1 lb. two-row pale malt

1/2 lb. medium crystal malt ( 60L )

1/2 lb. light crystal malt ( 20L )

5 lbs. Munton's unhopped light dried malt extract (DME) (7 lbs liquid )

4 AAU Cascade hops (1 oz. of 4% alpha acid)

4 AAU Saaz hops (1 oz. of 4% alpha acid)

1 tsp. Irish moss (last 15 minutes of the boil)

German ale yeast slurry (Wyeast 1007, White Labs WLP-029 or equivalent)

7/8 cups light DME for priming

Step by Step

Crush pale and crystal malts. Steep in 2.5 gallons water at 150

I haven't brewed in a while, but have done it on and off again. I've vowed however to front the cash for a conical fermenter next go around.

I haven't brewed in a while, but have done it on and off again. I've vowed however to front the cash for a conical fermenter next go around.

The price for the commercial conical fermenters just doesn't seem worth it. For the price glass carboy seems to be the ticket.

I think I am going to order up the stuff for a bourbon aged imperial stout this weekend.

I'm looking into a real brew kettle right now, and I'd love to build a setup where I used CO2 to move everything along and never exposed anything to the air

I also ordered some birch syrup, given that that's what life&limb used for bottle conditioning

Edited January 2, 201016 yr by grawk

The price for the commercial conical fermenters just doesn't seem worth it. For the price glass carboy seems to be the ticket

For me, the advantage isn't financial, obviously. The advantages in using it for both both primary and secondary fermentation is well worth the expense.

For me, the advantage isn't financial, obviously. The advantages in using it for both both primary and secondary fermentation is well worth the expense.

Word. When we were heavily into brewing this was the best purchase we made, bar none. The quality of our brews was much less variable because there were many fewer bad batches.

I'm looking into a real brew kettle right now, and I'd love to build a setup where I used CO2 to move everything along and never exposed anything to the air

I also ordered some birch syrup, given that that's what life&limb used for bottle conditioning

I plan on doing the keg conversion. Not that much work and it's a lot cheaper than a purpose built kettle.

If you are using glass carboys they make double tube caps.

Carboy cap- 3, 5 & 6 Gallon Carboys :: Midwest Supplies Homebrewing and Winemaking Supplies

Racking cane in one and CO2 in the other.

For me, the advantage isn't financial, obviously. The advantages in using it for both both primary and secondary fermentation is well worth the expense.

I can see the advantage and once I get everything else done and set up I could see getting one.

I'm going to wait for you guys to have you set ups finished and copy what you guys end up with. Although, I'm having a good time just doing it the way I have been, which has been fairly simple and produced good beer.

The stout is in the keg. I am thinking of adding 6 to 8 oz. of Sumatran cold brewed coffee. I also have some light oak chips that I am considering adding in a grain sock. I think I would boil it first so some of the stronger flavors of the oak leeches off.

When do you put in the bacon? I think some BBQ sauce would be good too.

Coffee Bacon Stout, interesting idea. I have some good turkey bacon in the fridge.

I'm brewing the chocolate double stout again tonight. They were low on liquid malt extract so it's 7 lbs of amber extract, 2 lbs of dried amber extract, and 2 lbs of a stout grain mix from the lhbs. 2 oz centenial and 1 oz of fuggles for the 60 minute boil, another oz of fuggles for the final 15.

I'll oak it when it goes in the keg.

Nice. I'm pretty happy with the way my stout turned out. The carbonation settled down nicely and it taste good. I'm hoping to hit my homebrew shop this week to buy another corny keg and some stuff for another recipe, not sure yet.

I was thinking a pliny clone but the amount of hops necessary is out of control.

I did a stout yesterday with 11lbs of pale extract, 1 lbs light DME, 3lbs grain mix, and 2 oz Warrior hops (15% AA). I also did a starter a couple days prior which gave me about a cup of yeast. OG was 1.92. Started fermenting in about an hour and I ended up loosing 3/4 a gallon to blow off.

Once it's done going to secondary with oak soaked in PVW lot B.

Did you guys read that in the review of ...uh...some beer...Rogue Santa Reserve?...Life & Limb?...that Hops everywhere are low this year? Any truth to that at all? Is that affecting you guys at all?

Sorry, not finding the reference, but basically the guy started out by saying he was expecting something maltier because of the problem, but it ended up not being.

hops is definitely more expensive because of a shortage

Installed [url=http://schmidling.com/empp.htm]JSP EasyMasher

Installed [url=http://schmidling.com/empp.htm]JSP EasyMasher

Not surprisingly, I am losing the technology battle.

I'm looking into building a mixmasher, right now, too. There's a big gap between "too small" and "too big" in terms of motors...I'm thinking of just going to harbor freight, buying a cheap drill, and using that.