Quote :

"a Sierra Nevada clone"

Pale Ale? Celebration? Torpedo?

1/31/2011 1:19:35 PM

Quote :

"My only other option is to buy a step drill (~$50), but I'd rather have someone experienced do the work than buy a tool I've never used and will never use again. "

have you considered a step bit? http://www.brewhardware.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=53:weldless-sight-glass-kit&catid=38:accessories&Itemid=62

1/31/2011 1:22:35 PM

^^yeah, just the regular Pale Ale. Though I'd love to try making a Torpedo clone..

I just got into this hobby and there's already a mile-long list of beers I'd like to try.

I'll be brewing a Rogue Hazelnut Brown clone this week.

[Edited on January 31, 2011 at 1:45 PM. Reason : d]

1/31/2011 1:44:30 PM

^please post the recipe... we need more recipe sharing here

sounds good!

1/31/2011 2:08:33 PM

the hop bill on the torpedo clone i saw was preventative

1/31/2011 2:11:17 PM

^^^^ Thanks for the link. That's the same tool I was reffering to but most run $50+
(http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-100662408/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053)

I think I'll take that option, I don't mind shelling out $15 to do it myself.

1/31/2011 2:43:45 PM

you can trust that retailer too. it's run by one of the best and most helpful homebrewers on the internet BobbyM or BobbyfromNJ depending on which forums you may frequent.

1/31/2011 2:59:08 PM

A friend and I are going to start making some meads and hippocras. I know quagmire02 has made some mead. Anyone else on here done it?

Got a few sites bookmarked. Mainly this one has a lot of good info:

http://www.stormthecastle.com/mead

We already have a lot of friends that brew their own beers and share them so instead of just adding another batch of beers to the mix we thought we would try and do something different and focus on some things such as mead, hippocras, mulled wines etc.

2/1/2011 12:50:15 PM

There's a reason they aren't popular to brew.

2/1/2011 1:12:26 PM

haha why would that be?

I have had some really, really good mead when it is aged properly and not harvested immediately/too quickly. I tend to also like the slightly more dry meads that aren't as overly sweet(which is what a lot of people don't like about meads). Either way, we will be starting with small batches so if no one else wants them we will drink them ourselves

2/1/2011 1:26:12 PM

Quote :

"What are some good beginner recipes or extract kits you guys have used/brewed? "

at least in my experience, saison and hefeweizen are both fairly easy beginner brews - featuring simple ingredient requirements and yeasts/profiles that will be a little more forgiving of a lack of temperature control

2/1/2011 5:57:24 PM

Quote :

"The plan is to have my wife make me some awesome artwork for all my brews"

I considered making big magnet labels to slap on the keggerator depending on what i had on tap, but when the 5 gallons of oatmeal stout and 2.5 gallons of octoberfest only lasted me a month, i figured why bother if i'm going to have to be designing two labels a month and who knows when i'd re-use them again

Quote :

"What are some good beginner recipes or extract kits you guys have used/brewed?"

I'm trying this one next: http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewing/recipe-kits/extract-kits/extract-ale-kits/phat-tyre-ale-extract-kit.html Brewing this sunday, i'll let you know how it turns out in a month.

Oh, and because I still really think this thread needs at least one pic per page, here's my contribution to 16:


[Edited on February 1, 2011 at 7:30 PM. Reason : pic]

2/1/2011 7:26:07 PM

^ Yeah Northern seems to have some good options, thanks for the suggestion.

I also forgot to ask what size brew pot do you guys use or recommend? I'm thinking about getting my own pot soon.

2/1/2011 11:54:36 PM

For extract, 5 gallon. For all-grain, 8-to-10-gallons.

Pretty much any Northern Brewer kit is about as easy as it gets considering the 1-page full of instructions they give you, specific to the brew, best kits around.

I've only brewed one kit, my first beer. I've had much better success just using known good extract recipes like from the book Brewing Classic Styles... etc.

2/2/2011 12:08:24 AM

Quote :

"There's a reason they aren't popular to brew. "

Quote :

"haha why would that be?"

1.) in general, honey is more expensive per pound than fruit (wine) or grains (beer)
2.) takes just as long to mature as wine
3.) mead, like wine, can vary quite a bit in taste (also depends on if you're making a straight mead, cyser, melomel, metheglin, or pyment...hippocras/hypocras is "fake" mead and is usually marketed as "meade") and so, like wine and beer, is generally an acquired taste...given its comparatively high cost, it's a taste most people don't bother acquiring

all that said, beer is the most time-intensive (in regards to actual work to get it all together for fermentation) of them all, followed by wine...mead is pretty easy, even if you use fruit (melomel as a general term, cyser if using apples or pyment if using grapes) or spices (metheglin)

a great mead to start off with is joe's ancient orange: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f80/joes-ancient-orange-mead-49106/

2/2/2011 8:32:21 AM

stuffed about 5oz of course ground dark roast coffee in a muslin bag into my secondary carboy last night. then racked my english oatmeal stout from primary onto the coffee bed. I will leave it for roughly 72 hours and bottle on Friday. 4.40% ABV. a much lighter, drinkable cousin to Terrapin Wake N Bake is what i'm going for.

2/2/2011 10:16:48 AM

Quote :

" I will leave it for roughly 72 hours"

I did 8oz. for 24 hours and it was pretty strong in my C&C Stout... maybe 5oz. longer would be ok though. did you just stuff it in dry? or sanitize it in anyway? just curious as I ran into a lot of questions adding coffee to my stout.

Sounds good though, I'd be interested in the recipe for that clone.

[Edited on February 2, 2011 at 10:45 AM. Reason : .]

2/2/2011 10:42:26 AM

48 hours is what the Terrapin team said to do, but logistics forced me to rack last night and may force me not to bottle until Friday. I tried to get a dark roast that wasn't overly pungent because of this.


I sanitized a muslin bag and then poured the course grains into it and stuffed into the carboy.

2/2/2011 10:56:13 AM

Anyone here use a Keggle for brewing? I'm thinking about getting one to upgrade my setup from my little 4 gallon pot i'm using.

So far I've only done extract recipes, but plan to switch to all-grain on my next batch. Thinking a keggle would be a cost effective upgrade. Thoughts?

2/2/2011 11:27:28 AM

Just finished building and testing a new immersion chiller. The system works pretty well, though I may have some upgrades to make later on.

Standard 3/8 Copper pipe which was 25ft. attached a fountain pump which pumps cold water from a bucket filled with ice into the unit.

The total cost was around 40 bucks (copper tubing/clear vinyl tubing), I already had the fountain pump from a project freshman year.

Can't wait to use it on a brew day!

[Edited on February 2, 2011 at 6:25 PM. Reason : Spelling]

2/2/2011 6:24:49 PM

^that's the next thing I'm planning on building, after my stir plate.

2/3/2011 8:24:35 AM

I just have to say how happy it makes me to come in here and see so many hardcore homebrewers!!!

I might have to setup some sort of beer trade with y'all.

2/3/2011 10:46:28 AM

yea my chiller setup worked great. just went to lowes, got some 3/8" copper pipe, a compression coupler, 2 dishwasher hose connections, and a short hose. coiled it up, immersed it, and it took it from 212F to 68F in 11 mins with an icebath

2/3/2011 2:53:14 PM

question: brewers that brew with honey...how much do you use for a 5 gal boil? i'm thinking about using honey in my next brew to really get the OG way up there (jackin up those fermentable sugars)

how much, and at what part of the boil do you add?

2/3/2011 3:07:08 PM

1lb typically, late addition, as honey can burn. but quantity of honey highly subjective to target OG and appropriate balance of the sugar with the malts.

i would highly suggest not to up the sugars just to get a higher alcohol beer, from what i've heard from everyone that's tried it, it tastes like cheap shit. if you're brewing beer just to get drunk, then ok, but you're missing the real fun in it. the real way to get higher OG is to increase the mash with malts, make it dark and make it hoppy, and be patient as they typically take a longer time to ferment.

2/4/2011 12:19:07 AM

yeah, up the malt bill if you want a higher OG, higher ABV. Save the honey for recipes that really need it, like spiced ales.

2/4/2011 8:20:46 AM

^^can you relink the carbonation scale based on beer styles link you posted awhile back? didn't you post one? I remember seeing one recently, trying to decide how much priming sugar i want to use for the oatmeal coffee stout i'm bottling tonight.

2/4/2011 8:54:41 AM

This is the one I use, among others:
http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/priming.html
http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator/carbonation.html
http://kotmf.com/tools/prime.php

I always double check the volumes with BeerSmith:
http://pastebin.com/vFKDMBPS

But in all honesty it doesn't matter that much, just keep your darker ales between 1.5-2.2 and lambic ales upwards of 2.6-3.0, and everything else between 2.2-2.6.
You can see more clearly what I mean in this chart:
http://www.kegerators.com/carbonation-table.php

BJCP doesn't specify CO2 volumes, just mouthfeel, so each style has a range and MOST overlap 2.0-2.4 range, which equates to medium to medium/high carbonation. Or just look it up in Brewing Classic Styles

[Edited on February 4, 2011 at 11:33 AM. Reason : .]

2/4/2011 11:04:28 AM

Here's a good article I came across on Mead:
http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/attachments/0000/1305/Springzym95-Mead.pdf

2/4/2011 11:32:26 AM

Quick Question - I'm brewing a 5 gallon batch tomorrow of an extract recipe which calls for boiling 2.5 gallons. I've got an 8 gallon kettle and i'm planning on boiling 4-5 gallons instead. Does this change anything significant on the recipe? From what i've read the hop utilization should go up... are there any issues with doing this?

2/5/2011 10:53:27 AM

Quote :

" I just have to say how happy it makes me to come in here and see so many hardcore homebrewers!!! I might have to setup some sort of beer trade with y'all. "

That sounds like a great idea, however I would have to brew a couple of more batches until I have something worthy of trading.

2/5/2011 11:28:36 AM

^^ like you said hop utilization will go up (around 8 percent if you double volume, I believe), and your beer will be more bitter

could always plug everything into a calculator or brewing software to see where the increased volume will put you

you'll also get less caramelization of the wort sugars, though I don't know to what extent (I expect it's not very significant) - could be beneficial to some styles but certainly not to others

[Edited on February 5, 2011 at 11:46 AM. Reason : ']

2/5/2011 11:43:13 AM

Quote :

"Quick Question - I'm brewing a 5 gallon batch tomorrow of an extract recipe which calls for boiling 2.5 gallons. I've got an 8 gallon kettle and i'm planning on boiling 4-5 gallons instead. Does this change anything significant on the recipe? From what i've read the hop utilization should go up... are there any issues with doing this? "

if you are doing a full boil go ahead and boil 6-7 gallons. you'll lose a gallon to evaporation and another .5-1 through the transfer/fermentation/trub/racking processes. This will leave you with a full 5 gallon batch to bottle when it's all done.

and like was said there will be some utilization changes, but really you'll be fine and i wouldn't worry too much about it. Just steep your grains in a gallon or two of water, then top your kettle off with the remaining water and start your boil.

2/7/2011 8:47:38 AM

Thanks fellas, i really appreciate it. I'll definitely boil about 6-7 gallons next time.

Brew Day went well this Sunday. I was really worried early on saturday when my wyeast smack pack didn't inflate. I made the yeast starter anyways and although it took longer than expected for the starter to really get active, it still worked great. About 12 hours after pitching the yeast the krausen had already blown out the airlock. Bad news for my wife and the once squaky clean smell of the bathroom, great news for me and the beer.

2/7/2011 5:51:35 PM

Even the White House home brews...
http://beernews.org/2011/02/white-house-honey-ale-homebrewing-is-back-in-style/#more-16823

2/7/2011 6:24:36 PM

bottled up a batch of amber ale on Saturday. Should be ready to crack my first bottle of it during march madness. the recipe actually calls the beer Howlin Red Ale or something to that affect, it would be a whole lot cooler if NCSU had a chance of making the tourney this year so I could have a howlin beer while cheering on the wolfpack.

2/7/2011 7:02:10 PM

^^cool

[Edited on February 7, 2011 at 7:12 PM. Reason : ^^]

2/7/2011 7:12:43 PM

placing an order today for some various odds and ends. New airlock, some PBW and Star-San, a couple carboy thermometer stickers, etc. Anyone have any other small homebrew items they can't live without?

2/8/2011 11:03:41 AM

All of the above.

I like my Carboy Dryer Draining Rack and I keep various sized stoppers around so I can plug apple cider jugs, glass, and BB carboys. I also keep various airlocks around, I have the single trap, double trap, and overflow cap, digital scale for measuring hops, hop hanger, spring loaded bottle filler, carboy handle... the little details that make things just a bit easier.

2/8/2011 11:55:33 AM

i was thinking about that spring loaded bottle filler. How do you like it?


i plan to get a digital scale, but probably from a local store instead of ordering online

2/8/2011 12:00:05 PM

I love it, it's just so easy, just hold the wand in one hand, the bottle in the other, it makes bottling super quick and leaves the perfect amount of room at the top when you take the wand out.

2/8/2011 12:14:46 PM

yeah i may pick one up. a lot of people complain about the gravity style filler wands, but i've never had any trouble with it. it can leak occassionally but i'm pretty careful.

2/8/2011 1:25:54 PM

Dude, I love my spring loaded bottle filler. I just put my bottling bucket on the counter right above my dishwasher, sit all of my empty/sanitized bottles in the dishwasher rack and fill them all up. No problems whatsoever. This way, if it spills it goes right into my dishwasher and I dont have a messy floor.

2/8/2011 1:32:55 PM

ended up getting the following

PBW
Star San
three-piece airlock
fermometer x 2
siphon sprayer
solid carboy bung
auto siphon clamp
tube clamp
spring tip bottle filler
yeast nutrient blend


these are things i always say in the middle of brewing that i wish i had. well the airlock is a replacement for one i damaged this last batch.

will probably place the order for my blichmann kettle and aeration pump assembly when i get my tax refund.

2/8/2011 4:39:28 PM

cool. the clamp for the siphon is a good idea if you brew by yourself, but if you have a friend I still prefer working the siphon down from the top as you take the beer out, reduces some of the settlement that gets stirred up from the siphon if it just sits on the bottom. i guess you can still kinda do that with the clamp every minute or so.

totally jealous you're getting a blichmann, my wife i don't think would let me spend our tax return on that expensive of brewing equipment hopefully by the summer.

[Edited on February 8, 2011 at 5:25 PM. Reason : .]

2/8/2011 5:13:44 PM

I probably shouldn't...haha...and save it responsibly but i love to brew and i look at more as an investment than just a purchase

2/8/2011 6:28:08 PM

my setup for sparging is as follows:

i drilled 3/16 holes in the bottom of one bucket, and put inside of another bucket that has a spicket on the bottom. this is my false bottom setup. when the MLT is done, i pour it all into the top bucket, and drain the wort out through the filter, and out of the spicket into my brew pot.

my question is, what is the BEST method for adding sparge water to the grain bed to get 75% efficiency? i guess i'm doing more of a fly sparge?

[Edited on February 9, 2011 at 12:55 PM. Reason : .]

2/9/2011 12:55:04 PM

so you are using 3 seperate vessels to sparge from? a mash tun, a bucket with holes, and then a bucket with a spigot? sounds like a lot of unneccessary equipment and potential to disturb the grain bed or extract some unwanted tannins.

it sounds to me like you are mixing fly sparging and batch sparging along with the vorlauf step.

a batch sparge would have you dough in using water from your HLT, let the mash sit for x amount of time, vorlauf a small amount of wort until it runs clear, and add that back to the top of the grain bed, drain the wort into your kettle, and then repeat. this gives you time to heat more water while the first batch is resting/draining.

fly sparge is a consistent flow of supplied water from the HLT onto the grain bed while a consistent flow of wort is leaving the mash tun and into the kettle. This is harder for some due to not having a large supply of hot water, or a tiered set up.

maybe i misunderstand, but it sounds like you are trying to do half of one with half of the other.

2/9/2011 1:52:44 PM

what to brew next??? this is a difficult decision


i've narrowed this batch down to either..

1. Jamil's Evil Twin
2. Janet's Brown
3. Girlfriend's Choice (which could be anything. She wants to brew)

I think after this batch i'm going to do a nice hefe or saison to be ready for early summer. But i've had my eyes on the Evil Twin for quite awhile.

2/10/2011 4:21:49 PM

http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewing/recipe-kits/partial-mash-kits/ryepa-partial-mash-kit-1.html?options=cart

anyone brewed this one or one similar? i'd like to think it'd be similar to bear republic hop rod rye.

after about a year off of brewing (due to lots of things) i'm about to order some stuff again. feels good man.

2/11/2011 10:45:33 AM