26

10/2/2011 1:20:20 PM

had a friend over, brewed up an oatmeal stout all grain last night

we made 10 gallons, using mostly the same equipment i have for 5 gallon batches, so, had to do two boils.

lessons learned? if we do this again we need a bigger kettle.

10/9/2011 9:26:32 AM

where do i begin? what will i need? and whats a easy first brew?

10/12/2011 2:59:19 PM

like 5 posts up:
/message_topic.aspx?topic=558927&page=25#15010727

Only one correction, I have the Ultra kit, not the Deluxe:
http://store.brewhut.com/thebrewhutultrabrewingkit.aspx

As for recipes, the easiest to brew by far are American Amber, Pale, IPA, Brown, Porter, or Oatmeal or Sweet Stout.

Anything Belgian, Fruit, Lager, or Imperial are more advanced.

[Edited on October 12, 2011 at 3:31 PM. Reason : .]

10/12/2011 3:25:55 PM

^^^ Wow pilgrim that shoulda been a no brainer... I hate brewing one batch of beer at a time. LOL, the copious ammounts of beer I drink kinda make up for it, though by the time I would get a second batch done I think I'd be completely hammered.

Just made a Reserve Molasses Stout.

7 lbs extract. 2 lbs honey. 2 lbs molasses and a bunch of specialty grains steeped.

Should be done in two weeks. Hoping to have a bottle carbed for halloween but that may not work out.

10/13/2011 7:59:55 AM

brewed with a friend who had never done all grain before, and wanted to see the process... admittedly it was my second batch . he took one of the five gallon batches home with him, i kept one.

well, my mashing/lautering tun can handle the volume, just the brew kettle cannot.

so, mashed and batch sparged and held half the wort to the side, boiled first batch up as normal.

cleaned the tun, and kept the second batch of wort in the tun. mostly to try and not have the temp get played with too much. when the first was done, chilled, and moved to a bucket, cleaned the kettle, and boiled the second batch.

it'll be interesting to see if there's noticeable differences in the two batches.

90 min boil times.

it was a long day, starting with toasting flaked oats. i'm a little concerned b/c i bought the wrong amount of hops, so each batch had 1oz instead of 2oz... but low alpha acid stuff, so it shouldnt be too big of a deal. also missed the sparge temp by ~2 degrees.

bottled a batch of chocolate infused milk stout also.

with cleaning/prep/bottling/brewing it took about 8 hours.

also, made and used a prechiller for my wort chiller for the first time. ran out of ice for the prechiller cooler after the first batch... good thing i had a freezer full of chilly willies and liquor. served as a good backup... lined the coil with chilly willies. when it's hot outside, my spigot water in texas is ~80degrees... not cool enough for getting the wort to pitchable temps quick enough.

also the first batch i've used a turkey fryer and propane as the primary heat source. big time fan of this and doing it outside. wont be going back.

planning out an english pale ale for brewing saturday afternoon. mmmm maris otter.

[Edited on October 13, 2011 at 10:36 AM. Reason : e]

[Edited on October 13, 2011 at 10:38 AM. Reason : e]

10/13/2011 10:35:47 AM

jesus i have been out of the game. after moving and settling in, a busy summer and a handful of weddings i haven't touched my brew stuff in months. Hopefully i can set aside some time soon.

10/13/2011 10:47:40 AM

not sure if it'll show up... but here's a pic of the first bottle of my milk stout. carbonated 7 days, a little young still. however, the recipe was a clone for left hand milk stout... then i aged on cocoa nibs... it's absurdly good.

this weekend was brewing a simple english pale ale in order get a full appreciation of maris otter grains.

(yes, i buy water... the tap water where im at here in southeastern texas is absurdly hard.)

racked the above mentioned oatmeal stout, and my god the sample was delicious. cannot wait for that one.

[Edited on October 17, 2011 at 11:36 AM. Reason : e]

10/17/2011 11:34:56 AM

Anyone looking to purchase some Pin-lock kegs? I've got a few for sale. $20 each

10/21/2011 4:32:56 PM

Brewed a pumpkin ale yesterday for my wife and I's one year anniversary/celebration of our first child next month. First time brewing a beer in over a year. I took a basic Ale Kit and modified it to a Pumpkin Ale. Everything turned out fine except I am afraid we over hopped the beer. The wort tasted good but had a harsh and bitter after taste and the smell coming out of the airlock is pretty strong of hoppiness as well. Here is our batch:

Grains and Malt:
2 oz Special B
8 oz Crystal 80L
2 oz Roasted Barley
6 oz Carmel Malt (Crystal 120L)
6 lbs Barley Malt Extract

Hops:
1 oz Hallertau 60 mins
1 oz Fuggles 2 min

Spices:
1 Cup Brown Sugar 60 min
1 tsp cinnamom 5 min
1 tsp nutmeg 5 min
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice 5 min
30 oz canned pumpkin that we baked for an hour at 350 for 1 hour (boiled 45 minutes)

forgot what the yeast was, need to track that down.

We basically followed the instructions for the kit with the obvious adjustments for the pumpkin and spices. What do you guys think, and is there any way to tone down the hoppiness at all now or is it too late?

[Edited on October 24, 2011 at 6:47 PM. Reason : ,]

10/24/2011 6:45:43 PM

At a 5 gallon batch size, the highest IBU I can calculate is 18 IBU's... that's not that high at all.... I wouldn't do a thing. Chances are you're just smelling the 1oz. of Fuggles as those are the aroma hops.

RDWHAHB

[Edited on October 24, 2011 at 8:15 PM. Reason : /]

10/24/2011 8:09:41 PM

Yeah, you're definitely fine with the hops. Unless you got some kind of mutant super high AA hops, haha.

10/25/2011 4:02:32 PM

we just started a home brew club at work. We are using our studio kitchen for production and meeting the first wed. of each month to begin production. We have done the math and each person should get a case a month. Next wednesday we are doing 2 batches IPA 2 Stout...excited about this

10/25/2011 4:42:54 PM

pdrankin, we need to have a fraternity brew-off.

10/25/2011 9:53:05 PM

i am looking for a cheap kegging setup. anyone have anything for sale?

11/1/2011 10:33:00 AM

^craigslist usually has kegging setups for sale in droves.

11/1/2011 10:40:16 AM

heading to American Brewmasters tonight to pick up supplies for my next two batches. Have no clue what I am going to make yet (probably something lighter, I have a porter in the keg right now).

11/2/2011 11:30:51 AM

^^Yeah, but people on craigslist have pretty much lost their minds thinking their setups are worth twice what they really are, haha.

11/2/2011 11:55:27 AM

rigged up my MLT cooler conversion last night



didnt take much time at all. only thing i need to do is put a better seal on the inside to prevent small drop leakage.

11/4/2011 9:56:39 AM

yeah when i finally built one i was like "well that was fucking easy, what took me two years to getting around to doing it?"

hardest part was sourcing the right stainless fender washers.

11/4/2011 10:09:55 AM

the hardest part for me is trying to find a conical rubber washer stop to go over the 1/2" brass nipple. cant find it anywhere, and also i cant find anything other than a zinc coated conduit locknut. I would like to get a SS locknut in there. i soaked em in vinegar & hydrogen peroxide. seems to work well for the brass items...the locknuts i couldnt tell...

11/4/2011 4:46:09 PM

Brewed 2 batches yesterday 11/05/11

===============================
American Barleywine
===============================
Recipe Specifics
Boil Size (Gal):    3.50    
Batch Size (Gal):    5.00
Anticipated OG:       1.115
Anticipated SRM:    17-20              
Anticipated IBU:    100
Anticipated ABV: ~12%
Wort Boil Time:    60 Minutes      

Grain/Extract/Sugar
----------------------------------------
12.00 lbs.     Golden/Light LME - America    
6 oz.     Crystal 10L - America    
6 oz.     Crystal 20L - America    
3 oz.     Special B Malt - Belgian    
3 oz.     Pale Chocolate Malt - Great Britain
1.0 lb.     Corn Sugar - Generic

Hops
----------------------------------------
5 oz.  Magnum (15.2% AA) Pellet @60 min
1 oz.  Chinook (13% AA) Pellet @0 min
2 oz.  Centennial (9.2% AA) Pellet @0 min
2 oz.  Amarillo Gold (10.9% AA) Pellet @0 min

Yeast
----------------------------------------
White Labs WLP001 California Ale (3 vials)


===============================
Southern English Maple Nut Brown Ale
===============================
Recipe Specifics
Boil Size (Gal):    3.50    
Batch Size (Gal):    5.00
Anticipated OG:       1.041
Anticipated SRM:    25              
Anticipated IBU:    18
Anticipated ABV:  3.8%
Wort Boil Time:    60 Minutes      

Grain/Extract/Sugar
----------------------------------------
3.8 lbs.     Golden/Light LME - America    
11 oz.     Simpsons English Dark Crystal (70-80L)
7 oz.     Crystal 120L - America    
6 oz.     Special Roast
4 oz.     Pale Chocolate Malt - Great Britain
3 oz.     Carafa II
8 oz.     Pure Maple Syrup (@5 min)

Hops
----------------------------------------
1 oz.  East Kent Goldings (4.9% AA) Pellet @60 min

Yeast
----------------------------------------
White Labs WLP002 English Ale

11/6/2011 9:55:09 PM

I'll give you one guess as to which one's which

On a side note, the barleywine had about 10oz. of hops and the strainer popped out of the funnel when pouring into the carboy so it is going to have to sit on a couple oz. of hops for the duration of primary, should be ok as long as I get it racked in the 7-10 day period and not wait 2-3 weeks. Other than that everything went smoothly, almost forgot the flameout hops.







[Edited on November 6, 2011 at 11:48 PM. Reason : .]

11/6/2011 11:44:40 PM

yesterday was so glorious outside that i deemed it "Immortal Brew Day" and brewed something that i think will be immortal...

I based my brew off Founders KBS...added different amounts of things like coffee grounds & dark chocolate, and did a 90 minute boil instead of 60 using Nugget and Williamette. It was a glorious afternoon and a glorious full boil in my new 8gal 304SS kettle!!

Will add pics shortly

11/7/2011 2:47:57 PM

^and post the recipe!

Saturday was Learn to Homebrew Day.
http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/pages/events/learn-to-homebrew-day

[Edited on November 7, 2011 at 2:57 PM. Reason : ,]

11/7/2011 2:51:41 PM

just a pic right before hot break...



i got my best efficiency yet (about 74%)...i'll post recipe soon

[Edited on November 7, 2011 at 3:19 PM. Reason : .]

11/7/2011 3:19:04 PM

i presume kona for secondary? going oak chips or oak cube route, french oak medium toast? which bourbon? inquiring minds want to know!

[Edited on November 7, 2011 at 4:38 PM. Reason : /]

11/7/2011 4:38:11 PM

Kona would be correct, medium toast oak chips soaked in Woodford Reserve bourbon!

11/7/2011 5:05:24 PM

^just did that to my Barleywine, except I'm using cubes as I'll be aging it for awhile.





[Edited on November 13, 2011 at 7:39 PM. Reason : .]

11/13/2011 7:39:08 PM

kegged my Scottish Heather Ale last night and brewed a Northern Brown Ale. The raspberry stout has aged nicely and I can now drink a glass (too sweet for me, it was made for the girlfriend).

11/15/2011 9:59:22 AM

http://www.williamsbrewing.com/BREWERY-WITH-BROWN-ALE-P2198C73.aspx

thinking about getting this for my first time. good or any other suggestions?

11/26/2011 1:56:13 PM

Looks fine except for the "fresh" hops. It looks like they include whole-leaf hops....those are a pain in the ass to use compared to the pellets...especially for your FIRST batch. Not saying it cant be done, but I've been brewing for a few years and still prefer pellets over whole leaf.

I'd buy an autosiphon and a hop bag to use. These two tools will make your life eleventybillion times easier.

Also, make sure your water volumes are correct for whole leaf hops. They retain more water than pellets do. I'll assume their recipe they includes the correct volumes, but just a heads up.

[Edited on November 27, 2011 at 9:48 AM. Reason : .]

11/27/2011 9:46:18 AM

^autosiphon a must, for hops i use a stainless herb ball

http://store.brewhut.com/3inchstainlesssteelherbball.aspx

11/28/2011 12:45:04 PM

^^Pretty much a novice here too with only a handful of batches under my belt but does he really need a siphon with that kit? Both buckets have spigots it looks like. Kind of nice if you ask me, except it might be tough to sanitize the spigot?

11/28/2011 2:51:34 PM

No doesn't have to have it, but he doesn't have to have a hop bag either... just makes things easier and helps reduce settled yeast from entering secondary/bottling, but the spigot is offset off the bottom so probably not a necessity.

11/28/2011 3:01:38 PM

would you rather have a kit with the spigots or a kit that you would siphon with the autosiphon?

11/28/2011 9:48:25 PM

I NEVER use the spigots anymore. Autosiphon FTW! You can rack your beer off the TOP of your yeast and get muuch MUCH clearer beer.

Also, I'd highly recommend building a hopspider. It takes all of 3 minutes and $5 to build, and it saves you a lot of trouble with your hop additions. I used to use a hopsack, but it gets a little tedious having to pull it out of your kettle and open it up to add each hop addition. With a hopspider you just toss your hops right in there and dont have to even think about it.

[Edited on November 28, 2011 at 11:20 PM. Reason : ,]

11/28/2011 11:17:59 PM

http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/brewing/starter-kits/basic-starter-kit.html

would this be a better starter kit?

11/28/2011 11:30:19 PM

I'd lean towards the second kit personally.

With the first kit, you're gonna want to buy an autosiphon. It does include a thermometer (you'll want to upgrade to a nice quick-read digital thermometer ($15 at walmart) though, as the kind included takes FOREVER to measure a temp, and cannot be calibrated for accuracy...) and a hydrometer cylinder.

The second kit includes an autosiphon, but does NOT include a thermometer or a hydrometer cylinder. Once you add in the price of a kit, it's almost exactly the same price as the first kit.

Hydrometer cylinders are stupid cheap, and you'll want to upgrade your thermometer at some point anyway.


[Edited on November 29, 2011 at 9:40 PM. Reason : .]

11/29/2011 9:27:47 PM

nm

[Edited on November 29, 2011 at 9:36 PM. Reason : nm, I'm drunk]

11/29/2011 9:34:38 PM

we made 9 gallons of this this weekend

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f68/russian-imperial-stout-2011-hbt-competition-category-winner-238807/

adjusted a little to put into two 6 gall buckets, and have extra head space.... and well, that's all the grains we could fit into my mash tun. our measured OG was at ~1.101, so it's going to be pretty strong. we couldn't find the right challenger hops, so adjusted the amount down to match with our 7.0 AA challengers.

made a 5 gallon batch out of the third runnings too, that's nice and dark, but with a more normal OG.

plan is to primary for a month, then secondary until may/june/july time frame. also, i dont have the ability to age at 60F for secondary, so that'll be a little different, hoping that it's not too much of an effect. it'll be ~72-74.

we split a 3L starter with light DME, that had been priming for three days.

4 hours later, i had bubbles in the blow off tube. 18 hours later it basically looks like the jar is boiling. brewed saturday morning, and as of this morning when i went to work it's still is bubbling very vigorously. glad we have extra headspace in the bucket

also, used a 20gal kettle this weekend. i might have to pick one of those up for these larger batches. living in crawfish country they are all over the place and relatively inexpensive.

12/12/2011 9:10:29 AM

awesome!

12/12/2011 11:05:18 AM

so i just purchased a used Haier dual tap kegerator. i am pretty pumped about it. The one thing i need to do is replace the beer lines in it because they are old and gross. Does anyone know the easiest way to do this?

The kegerator came with the beer lines connected to commercial keg taps...I have (2) ball lock beer lines that i can use if the hookups are easy to the tower.

Can anyone offer insight, pics, video, so that I can make sure I'm doing this right? Thanks

12/13/2011 3:47:57 PM

the keg lines won't be too hard to replace probably.

The top (cap) of my tower pops off, albeit it takes some effort. Once the top is off, it is a little easier to see how the lines are connected. It may be as easy as unscrewing them from the taps, or you may need to cut the connector off the end of the current beer line. Once the lines are disconnected from the tower, you can pull them out through the kegerator and feed the new ones back in.

12/13/2011 10:00:38 PM

Liker the poster that was on this page earlier, I'm looking for a first time kit. Besides the second one he posted that some of you tentatively agreed was okay, does anyone have a recommendation on a specific kit from a specific company?

12/14/2011 12:09:29 AM

my recommendation from page 25:
/message_topic.aspx?topic=558927&page=25#15010727

http://store.brewhut.com/thebrewhutultrabrewingkit.aspx
and added:
20 QT. STAINLESS STEEL BREWING POT

[Edited on December 14, 2011 at 4:41 PM. Reason : ,]

12/14/2011 4:38:29 PM

last week, i bottled an all grain english pale ale, and an all grain oatmeal stout on the same night.

the oatmeal stout had been in secondary for a couple of months.

8 days later (last night), i tried one of each.

the oatmeal stout is glorious, but flat as hell. the epa was carbed fine, but did not have nearly as long of a fermentation period (no secondary, only primary for like 3 weeks).

there's some sweetness on the stout, and for the priming sugar i used two pots with the same amount of priming sugar for each of the two batches.

am i fucked? should i wait a few more days before making some sort of decision?

sucks because it's really, really good. just flat.

the epa is pretty meh. drinkable though.



[Edited on December 15, 2011 at 11:49 AM. Reason : e]

no bottle sediment in the oatmeal stout at all. MAH YEASTIES WAT HAPPON

[Edited on December 15, 2011 at 11:50 AM. Reason : ]

12/15/2011 11:48:57 AM

what temperature was your flat batch carbonating at? should be around room temp.

you really dont have much of a choice but to wait longer if its not carbed yet, other than possibly put more dissolved corn sugar in each bottle and recap. thats the only thing i can think of...

12/15/2011 12:18:19 PM

73-75 in a closet... temperature has been weird here in houston the last week... high in the 30s last week to high of 81 today. lol.

just found this write up..

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/bottling-tips-homebrewer-94812/#post1030387

perhaps the epa isn't ready yet either.. it was really yeasty. guess i need to be more patient.

and get a kegerator.

12/15/2011 12:36:32 PM

can anyone give me a tip on force carbonating?

i am going to keg my 1st 5gal tonight. set the C02 on 30psi, rock back and forth on its side for 5 mins in short strokes to infuse the gas, then what...cut off the gas or turn it down to 10psi (or another serving pressure??)

**i am ashamed, as an engineer. i should know that it is a function of temperature and pressure in terms of acquiring a specific CO2 volume in the beer. my beer is around 36F, so i think it should take somewhere around 10PSI to get it to 2.5 volumes of CO2.

do i keep the gas on 10PSI after force carbing for 5 mins so that i can pour? that is my question.

[Edited on December 15, 2011 at 3:06 PM. Reason : .]

12/15/2011 2:54:36 PM