Homebrewers

[dougp]

How many homebrewers do we have on the forums? I know I've seen it posted a few times, and I know Magnus is but is there anyone else? I just finished carbing up my second batch since switching to all-grain and kegging.

Quite a fun hobby, but damn is it expensive and addicting (not in terms of drinking the fruit of your labor, but getting new toys and trying to perfect your recipes.)

Anyone have a good recipe?

 

[iamwiz82]

I just switched to all grain as well, on my second batch. First is bottled and will be ready in the next 10 days or so and second is racked to secondary. Ended up building a wort chiller and lauter tub myself and both have worked out really well.

 

[JoeyP]

I've made about 60 batches all grain on my basement brewery. What are you looking for?

 

[dougp]

Yah, I built my mash tun as well, but one of the club members sold me his immersion for really cheap. I prefer to keg, as I bottled when I was doing Mr. Beer and it was a bitch. I also built my own temp controller, and plan on doing a stir plate for yeast starters. I actually just got a 7CF freezer to turn into a keezer for 4 kegs - woohoo.

 

[dougp]

I've made about 60 batches all grain on my basement brewery. What are you looking for?

Oh, you're one of those guys.

Just kidding, what do you think your most brewed beer is? Do you continue to play with batches or are you going for consistency?

 

[child of wonder]

I brew occasionally. Been really enjoying a Pale Ale wet and dry hopped with Citra a friend and I made.

 

[Drako]

I used to home brew - brings back some great memories of some great, good, and horrible batches.

 

[crashtestdummy]

Just started my first ever batch a couple weeks ago. I've got a brown ale fermenting.

 

[Jeraden]

I've been doing it for about 5 years now. Though I still just do mini-mashes, doubt I'll ever go all-grain. Just kegged up an American IPA earlier tonight!

 

[Crusty]

I started brewing back in March, 16 batches so far. I've got a few recipes I could share, but they are at home(I'm visiting family for the week). An Imperial Red Ale, and an Oatmeal Stout have been my best brews so far.

If I remember when I get home I'll post the red ale recipe. It's nice and hoppy with a good malt backbone to balance it out. ~8% ABV, ~50 IBUs IIRC.

edit: Here's a picture for now....

 

[jagec]

I've been doing it for about 2 years, and recently started up a club with some friends. My favorite recipe, which I tweak and try to make a little better every time, is the Westvleteren 12 clone on Homebrewtalk. It's big, complex, expensive, and SOOOOO good.

I'm currently trying to set up a RIMS rig, but so far it has been an expensive PITA. I would recommend sticking to batch sparging for you all-grain people.

Oh, and having good homebrew on tap in your house leads to much more regular drinking than is probably healthy.

 

[Harrod]

I started last week with a hard cider, not really sure how it will turn out though.

 

[Crusty]

I've been doing it for about 2 years, and recently started up a club with some friends. My favorite recipe, which I tweak and try to make a little better every time, is the Westvleteren 12 clone on Homebrewtalk. It's big, complex, expensive, and SOOOOO good.

I'm currently trying to set up a RIMS rig, but so far it has been an expensive PITA. I would recommend sticking to batch sparging for you all-grain people.

Oh, and having good homebrew on tap in your house leads to much more regular drinking than is probably healthy.

Yeah, I'm doing batch sparges in a 10GL Igloo cooler and I get around 70% efficiency. I've been thinking of building a RIMS setup, but first I'd rather get my fermentation chamber built. Being in Texas, fermenting in my house during the summer with ambient air pretty much forces me to stick to Belgians during the summer.

 

[dougp]

Yeah, I'm doing batch sparges in a 10GL Igloo cooler and I get around 70% efficiency. I've been thinking of building a RIMS setup, but first I'd rather get my fermentation chamber built. Being in Texas, fermenting in my house during the summer with ambient air pretty much forces me to stick to Belgians during the summer.

Crusty, I use two smaller dorm fridges, one as my "kegerator" and the other as my fermentation chamber with my temp controller. It shouldn't cost you more than $100 if you get the two stage controller on eBay and a fridge from Craigslist. Really easy and it's improved my brewing (hey, what isn't an improvement from a Mr. Beer?)

So far I attempted a Black Rye IPA, but it ended up not being hoppy enough to be an IPA, so it's more of a porter but I think it came out fantastic. Just kegged up my Honey Blonde ale - we'll need to get together sometime, I'm in the San Antonio area a few times a year and there are great breweries out in Austin and such.

 

[xSauronx]

just honey meade now, pretty much not planning on doing beer again any time soon.

 

[Crusty]

I started brewing back in March, 16 batches so far. I've got a few recipes I could share, but they are at home(I'm visiting family for the week). An Imperial Red Ale, and an Oatmeal Stout have been my best brews so far.

If I remember when I get home I'll post the red ale recipe. It's nice and hoppy with a good malt backbone to balance it out. ~8% ABV, ~50 IBUs IIRC.

edit: Here's a picture for now....

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.25 gal   
Bottling Volume: 5.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.071 SG
Estimated Color: 17.0 SRM
Estimated IBU: 53.5 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 60.00 %
Boil Time: 75 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU         
15 lbs                Brewers Malt 2-Row (Briess) (1.8 SRM)    Grain         1        88.2 %        
1 lbs 8.0 oz          Caramel Malt - 120L (Briess) (120.0 SRM) Grain         2        8.8 %         
8.0 oz                Aromatic Malt (Briess) (20.0 SRM)        Grain         3        2.9 %         
2.25 oz               Tettnang [4.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min        Hop           4        29.0 IBUs     
1.00 Items            Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins)        Fining        5        -             
1.00 oz               Citra [13.50 %] - Boil 15.0 min          Hop           6        17.5 IBUs     
1.00 oz               Citra [13.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min           Hop           7        7.0 IBUs      
0.50 oz               Orange Peel, Sweet (Boil 5.0 mins)       Spice         8        -             
1.0 pkg               Super San Diego (White Labs #WLP090)     Yeast         9        -             
1.00 oz               Citra [13.50 %] - Dry Hop 10.0 Days      Hop           10       0.0 IBUs


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Light Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 17 lbs
----------------------------
Name              Description                             Step Temperat Step Time     
Mash In           Add 23.25 qt of water at 159.5 F        148.0 F       75 min        

Sparge: Batch sparge with 2 steps (0.43gal, 4.21gal) of 168.0 F water

 

[JoeyP]

Oh, you're one of those guys.

Just kidding, what do you think your most brewed beer is? Do you continue to play with batches or are you going for consistency?

Most common brews are light ales and lagers. Favorites are Irish Red, oatmeal coffee chocolate stout (exact clone of Founders breakfast stout), pils.

I don't enter competitions for two reasons: I don't need someone's opinion to tell me that the beer I made does not fit a certain style, and I don't feel I need to go back and correct my recipes to satisfy some "judge" besides myself. All my beers taste great, people enjoy them, and I have fun making them.

 

[JM Aggie08]

What equipment are you guys using? I'll be moving into a house this coming summer, and am interested in picking this up.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

What equipment are you guys using? I'll be moving into a house this coming summer, and am interested in picking this up.

Your local brew supply store will sell a kit to get you started. If there's no one local, try brewyourownbrew Home brewing is an excellent hobby but, you don't save any money over buying good beers in the store. The thing I like is learning about techniques and the amazing variety you can create from 4 ingredients. Once you've had a good home brew, you can never go back to mass produced crap. Your tastes will also change with regards to malt and hops because as with any food, it's a learned experience.

 

[Crusty]

What equipment are you guys using? I'll be moving into a house this coming summer, and am interested in picking this up.

I started with a beginners kit from my LHBS, but that only came with a few buckets and some basic tools. I've since built my own 10GL Round Igloo cooler MLT w/ a false bottom and upgraded to an 8GL boil kettle that doubles as a HLT during mashing. Still gravity feeding everything. Next up for brewing gear I think is a new kettle w/ some ports and a pump.

Cooling my wort in the summer in TX sucks, it really sucks. I've got a 50' immersion chiller that I use w/ tap water until I hit 100F then I recirculate ice water w/ a small aquarium pump. It generally takes at least 30 minutes to get to pitching temp from the end of the boil.

 

[NetWareHead]

I bought a huge propane burner to use for canning and came to the conclusion that I can also use it for brewing. This is a hobby I would love to gt into and will be exploring it maybe next year.

I also have secured access to a source of honey from a local beekeeper and mead may be a possibility as well.

 

[dougp]

What equipment are you guys using? I'll be moving into a house this coming summer, and am interested in picking this up.

You can start small, a lot of places are offering 1gal kits that are pretty low price. I skipped over the plastic buckets and went to carboys, but I use Better Bottles instead of glass. That's really all just preference. I use a 60QT Ice Cube cooler w/ a manifold I created myself as a mash tun and heat water in my economy SS double ported (thermometer and ball valve) from homebrewing.org and as I stated above, I use two dorm fridges. Now that I have a freezer to setup my taps in, one fridge is my fermentation fridge and the other will be my cold crashing fridge/lager fridge.

Do you still live in College Station?

If I could do it from scratch (and if I had the room), I'd like it to be more automated.

Your local brew supply store will sell a kit to get you started. If there's no one local, try brewyourownbrew Home brewing is an excellent hobby but, you don't save any money over buying good beers in the store. The thing I like is learning about techniques and the amazing variety you can create from 4 ingredients. Once you've had a good home brew, you can never go back to mass produced crap. Your tastes will also change with regards to malt and hops because as with any food, it's a learned experience.

Eh, you can - quite considerably. My ingredients for my porter cost me around $20 for a 5 gallon batch - unless you're doing some crazy hops or an imperial, it should be drastically cheaper in terms of ingredient cost.

I started with a beginners kit from my LHBS, but that only came with a few buckets and some basic tools. I've since built my own 10GL Round Igloo cooler MLT w/ a false bottom and upgraded to an 8GL boil kettle that doubles as a HLT during mashing. Still gravity feeding everything. Next up for brewing gear I think is a new kettle w/ some ports and a pump.

Cooling my wort in the summer in TX sucks, it really sucks. I've got a 50' immersion chiller that I use w/ tap water until I hit 100F then I recirculate ice water w/ a small aquarium pump. It generally takes at least 30 minutes to get to pitching temp from the end of the boil.

I'm going to switch to that method, right now I have a prechiller in ice that then goes through to the immersion chiller. If you were pumping that cold water through to begin with, you'd probably get your pitch temp in 15 minutes.

 

[KB]

I do brewing and winemaking. I am using a Mr Beer kit I got free from a friend and do natural carbing. It works OK. I would be interested in upgrading my supplies, getting a tank, regulator, keg for carbing and do some barrel aging, but the costs just add up too much. I think my next brew is going to be the presidential honey porter.

http://obamafoodorama.blogspot.com/2012/09/white-house-releases-homebrewed-beer.html

 

[Crusty]

I'm going to switch to that method, right now I have a prechiller in ice that then goes through to the immersion chiller. If you were pumping that cold water through to begin with, you'd probably get your pitch temp in 15 minutes.

It takes a considerable amount of ice to start with ice water from the beginning using an immersion chiller. I tried it once and we used almost 10lbs of ice trying to get to pitching temp. Doing it my way takes advantage of the ambient water temp until it's no longer efficient and only then uses ice. Doing this I can just dump the ice tray from my freezer into a bucket w/ a gallon of water and recirculate. I've found that starting around 100F will end up equalizing in the mid 60's.

For reference, my tap water in the summer comes out around 80F.

 

[Ayrahvon]

I've been a homebrewer for a few years, but I'm only building my own homebrew kit now. I was living in the same city as my parent's and my father had a great setup that he would let me use. I've been slowly looking for deals for my brew setup and this is what I've gotten so far!

http://www.bayouclassicoutlet.com/8...llon-stainless-steel-brew-kettle-800-408.html (If you have the time to wait on better prices, you can find this occasionally for closer to $160-$170.)

Loved the idea for this 8 gallon kettle. Can be used for all heating of your water and for the mash if you have the right method of heating to the correct temperatures. Any suggestions on sparging when your kettle is going to be your mash vessel as well?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ls_o01_s00_i00

I used to heat everything on a large gas stove, but my new place is all electric and I needed an affordable heating source. Already have a gas grill so this seemed like the best solution.

The only two things I haven't figured out for my new setup is how I will sparge if my mash is in the kettle (as in, where am I heating the sparge water when my 8 gallon kettle is already in use?), and if I'm going to fork over the cash for a kegging system or just go with bottling.

So far I haven't found a keg setup that is both affordable and easy to set up compared to a bottling system. If anyone has any recommendations on that front I'd love to hear them!

As for my best brew so far? I'd have to go with Orfy's Hob Goblin clone which can be found over at homebrew talk. I made some adjustments based on what grains my local shop had, but it turned out really well!