Homebrewers - What’s on Tap?

[gyroprotagonist 2,592]

I brewed a Maibock yesterday.  I called up the homebrew store (in Richardson) on monday and they were still open.  The guy would mill the grain and package everything up you ordered, so was in and out of there really fast.  Only one other person in there at the time.

He did say that some guy came in in Sunday and bought 30 bags of grain.  not pounds, bags.  Even stuff like 5lbs Chocolate grain.  WTF is anyone going to do with that much?

Trying out that Tilt automatic gravity reader for the first time.  Seems to work OK and will keep me from opening the fermenter to check gravity.

[LongestHorn 759]

Great thread. Anyone remember Austin Brewing Supply back in the 90’s on North Loop? Or the Southwest Brewing News? Our kitchen ceiling had molasses on it back in those days. Some of those guys are still brewing fine beers today. See Chip at Live Oak.


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[Damor 1,236]

Just finished kegging my oatmeal stout, and racked a bitter to secondary.

I'm a little ashamed of how light my other kegs are becoming.  May have to put in an order from AHS.

[deft 6,842]

Brewed for the first time in a long time. I’ve got wlp029 Kolsch in the ferm chamber at 58 just waiting for it to kick off.

 

I had been doing biab for a long time but ended up having efficiencies all over the map. I decided to go back to mashing in a cooler (still with a bag tho). At the same time, I also went with changing out the brew stand configuration. I nailed the OG that abw called for as well so I’m pretty happy.

 

Here it is before I started and set up my hoses. Still loving electric brewing though the auber ezboil PID is confusing as shit to use.

 

 

Edit: pitched the damn stir bar into the wort......again

[Horn_Spanker 524]

On 4/25/2020 at 8:58 PM, deft said:

Brewed for the first time in a long time. I’ve got wlp029 Kolsch in the ferm chamber at 58 just waiting for it to kick off.

 

I had been doing biab for a long time but ended up having efficiencies all over the map. I decided to go back to mashing in a cooler (still with a bag tho). At the same time, I also went with changing out the brew stand configuration. I nailed the OG that abw called for as well so I’m pretty happy.

 

Here it is before I started and set up my hoses. Still loving electric brewing though the auber ezboil PID is confusing as shit to use.

 

 

Edit: pitched the damn stir bar into the wort......again

Check out George's (Barley and Hops) PIDs on Youtube.  He's in Coppers Cove.  He's more into distilling, which is where my interests are.

[deft 6,842]

Sometimes it’s the simple things in life that bring joy. Decided to make a new hlt and it worked great. In the middle of a schwarz right now to toss onto the wlp029 cake from the Kolsch.

[deft 6,842]

Recommendations for cleaning element?

[deft 6,842]

Gonna do a double batch this weekend of the famous cream of three crops beer. I’ll pitch us05 for one carboy but I’m thinking maybe saflager k97 for the other? Anybody used this? I have a ferm chamber but would prefer to do both of them in the same chamber.


I mean I could just pitch a kveik slurry or my oly saisonmonster slurry and just let that fermenter rip and run in the garage heat.

[deft 6,842]

My Speedo is so full....

[chesthair 231]

jumping into the game.  training wheels locked and loaded.  luckily my buddy helping out is a biochemist or some shit like that so ill sit back and watch.  ordered the alaskan amber clone from homebrewers website as our trial run.  have you guys tried the clone recipes?  do they work well?  thinking about tank 7 for our next run and want to figure out octoberfests and christmas ales before it cools off.  anyway, just looking for some tips on recipes.  

[Continental Op 3,934]

Haven't brewed in forever.  Did a one gallon biab fuck around IPA to tinker with the grain bill for my IPAs a little bit.  Hopped it with columbus, citra, and sabro.  Efficiency was for shit and my gravity reading was a little low so we'll see how it turns out. 

Edited July 26, 2020 by Continental Op

[Continental Op 3,934]

On 7/21/2020 at 6:13 PM, chesthair said:

jumping into the game.  training wheels locked and loaded.  luckily my buddy helping out is a biochemist or some shit like that so ill sit back and watch.  ordered the alaskan amber clone from homebrewers website as our trial run.  have you guys tried the clone recipes?  do they work well?  thinking about tank 7 for our next run and want to figure out octoberfests and christmas ales before it cools off.  anyway, just looking for some tips on recipes.  

American Homebrew Association website is a good source for recipes.  Also, get something like beersmith and mess around with it.  

[chesthair 231]

Ok, first batch done.  It was a'ight but we learned where we fucked up so next batch will be this weekend.  Was going to do a marzen but that looks a little advanced so we are going to try a Whole Hog clone.  Happy enough with the results that i am going to order kegs and other equipment, we were old school this time, pot on a turkey burner, fermented in a plastic barrel and bottle conditioned.  I think the better equipment will help.  Anyone have any Christmas ale recipes?  

[deft 6,842]

Brewed up a plain old blonde today to be out into the group barrel in two weeks. Fun times, haven’t brewed since mid summer I think. In fact, I kegged the us05 cream ale I had posted about just a few posts up and racked the blonde on that. I guess we’ll see how lagered 05 beer tastes. Bettin on smoov

[Dark Horse 2,279]

Any of y’all fucked around with Philly Sour yet? I got a couple of packets this weekend, will probably brew a simple American sour recipe to see how it does in a few weeks. I’m out of keg space at the moment. 

[dingleberryswitzer 2,724]

If anyone has a tried and true recipe for a dark ipa/cascadian dark/dry hopped porter or something like that, point me in the right direction plz. 

[Continental Op 3,934]

Just got a saison in the can.  Pilsner/vienna/wheat in the grain bill.  Willamette and Amarillo hops.  WL Belgian Saison II.  Hoping for something in the ballpark of Tank 7. 

Next up:  English bitter.

I need to brew more. 

Edited November 29, 2020 by Continental Op

[Dark Horse 2,279]

16 hours ago, dingleberryswitzer said:

If anyone has a tried and true recipe for a dark ipa/cascadian dark/dry hopped porter or something like that, point me in the right direction plz. 

The only one you need IMO

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/firestone-walker-wookey-jack-clone-attempt.333436/

 

[Continental Op 3,934]

On 11/28/2020 at 11:01 PM, Continental Op said:

Just got a saison in the can.  Pilsner/vienna/wheat in the grain bill.  Willamette and Amarillo hops.  WL Belgian Saison II.  Hoping for something in the ballpark of Tank 7. 

Next up:  English bitter.

I need to brew more. 

Just took the first tug out of the keg.  Probably my best batch of homebrew to date. 

[Dark Horse 2,279]

On 10/30/2020 at 8:52 PM, Dark Horse said:

Any of y’all fucked around with Philly Sour yet? I got a couple of packets this weekend, will probably brew a simple American sour recipe to see how it does in a few weeks. I’m out of keg space at the moment. 

So this turned out shockingly well.  I made a simple "American Lambic" recipe, pitched one packet of Philly Sour for 5 gallons.  It soured over 2-3 days, then I pitched Belle Saison and it was done within 7 days.  

Maybe it's because I don't like really low pH, remove your teeth enamel sours, but I will definitely play around with this yeast more.

[LosIllini 91]

Thought I'd bump this thread and see what the homebrew crowd was up to.  What'ya got brewing?

Haven't brewed in a couple of months, but, have a smooth adjunct lager made w/ WLP940 MX lager yeast (one of my favorite yeasts), a Spotted Cow cream ale clone w/ 2565 Kolsch yeast (very tasty), and a nice Pilsner, all kegged and lagering. 

They all definitely get better with cold/ conditioning time.  Going to need to bottle/ make room for summer beers soon.

[Dark Horse 2,279]

I got a Kegland all rounder and have been cranking out pressure fermented lagers: a Munich dunkel, a schwartzbier,  and a Czech pils. I really like this method for making fast lagers since my fermentation chamber is a bottleneck. 
 

Since then I’ve made a meh Saison and a tripel that’s conditioning. 

[gyroprotagonist 2,592]

'bout to do a 5 or 10 gal Maibock i think.  been a year since i have brewed. see if i can remember how.

[LosIllini 91]

Not a lot of traffic in this thread these days.  Thought I'd check back in, and see if anyone was brewing?

Sounds like Homebrew Headquarters in Dallas closed last month, which is unfortunate.  Loved that store.

Guess Haltom City/ Ft. Worth for brew supplies are the last brick and mortars in DFW.

[Dark Horse 2,279]

Still homebrewing, just don't have a ton to share. 

I'm thinking about going to an all in one electric system to replace my two vessel RIMS set up.  They just seem to make brew day a lot easier.

Currently have a Munich Dunkel, peach philly sour, and raspberry philly sour on tap.  Planning on doing a saison brett next.

[dcbc 14,465]

2 hours ago, Dark Horse said:

Still homebrewing, just don't have a ton to share. 

I'm thinking about going to an all in one electric system to replace my two vessel RIMS set up.  They just seem to make brew day a lot easier.

Currently have a Munich Dunkel, peach philly sour, and raspberry philly sour on tap.  Planning on doing a saison brett next.

I finally got to where 6--7 hour brew days in a 100 degree garage was less appealing than driving to the store for beer.  So I sold the 3 vessel gas fired RIMS and ordered an appliance (I forget which one, but the Microsoft guy was invested in it).  Anyway, that thing kept getting pushed back and during that time, I fell out of the hobby.  So I got my money back (they went bust and the appliance no longer has software support; so good for me on that decision), and used the money to buy a big induction cooktop.

I kept a fermenter and some kegs, and if I ever decide to do it again, I'm just going to do the Coleman cooler conversion and brew on a turkey fryer.  The beer was good and I didn't have to be in the garage for the natural gas hookup.  But truth be told, I need to sell that stuff because as good as the product was by the end of things, it's a lot of work.

[Dark Horse 2,279]

Yeah, you definitely have to enjoy the process. It’s definitely not a money/time saver. 

 

The New England IPA-ization of craft beer has made me appreciate homebrewing more. I really like to be able to enjoy a brown ale, English mild, a regular ass 6% non-flavored stout, etc. 

[Damor 1,236]

I still consider myself quite green, but I'm still enjoying it using my pretty simple Mash & Boil electric setup.  Because COVID/everything sucks, I went through a dry spell for most of this year but restarted a couple months ago.  Chilling wort for a porter right now, with a stout in secondary, a saison carbonating, and an ESB, rye IPA, and grapefruit IPA currently on tap.

I agree with the sentiment that it's nice to be able to just brew some simple basics that get easily overlooked.  One of my favorites last year was a barely >3% mild.

[dcbc 14,465]

44 minutes ago, Dark Horse said:

Yeah, you definitely have to enjoy the process. It’s definitely not a money/time saver. 

 

The New England IPA-ization of craft beer has made me appreciate homebrewing more. I really like to be able to enjoy a brown ale, English mild, a regular ass 6% non-flavored stout, etc. 

Ain't that the damned truth.

[gyroprotagonist 2,592]

bump

damn, for the Dallas surly the Homebrew HQ closed down back in Sept 2021.  I had just gone in a month prior to get supplies and finally checked back on it earlier this week.

Looks like the only other brew stores in the area are in Cowtown.  anyone been to those homebrew stores in the Ft worth area?  I want to brew this weekend, but don't trust getting liquid yeast shipped to Texas right now in this heat.

Google maps did show a new place that was slated to open in Plano in August.

[deft 6,842]

Bump for the same reason as gyro

AHS closed their brick and mortar and their online ordering has gone to shit I see.  San Antonio's last home-brew shop (that I know of), Home-brew Party, just closed.  Sad world.

I brewed up a rye ipa last weekend and plugged in my Ferm chamber during the boil.  It wouldn't come down enough for me to pitch my slurry of ale yeast or a us05 packet so I brought the fermenter inside and pitched a slurry of saisonmonster at 75 degrees or so.  It took a day to take off but then shot off like a rocket.  Wtf knows what a saison ipa is going to teste like but I just threw 1.5 ounces of chinook in for dry hopping in primary.  It looks like it's stopped at 1.014 according to my tilt (awesome btw) so I'll let the hop oils soak in for another few days and then keg this frankenbeer.  

[gyroprotagonist 2,592]

for Dallas peeps, the new Homebrew store in North Dallas is OK.  it's in a warehouse type deal that they have turned into a store front.  They don't have as much grain as HBHQ did.  I have been by about 3 times so far and the guys are friendly.  One knows brewing and one does not really seem to.  It's kinda east of Preston Rd between Campbell and Frankfort.  near my kids school at least.

@deft yes, tilts are awesome.  

[Damor 1,236]

Had been meaning to bump this myself.  I had some time off a couple weeks ago and finally brewed for the first time since January.  Making a Kölsch, a kinda bastardized Kölsch recipe from AHS that's going to get serrano peppers, and the AHS recipe Kwiek farmhouse ale (love that one) that's fermenting at ambient garage temperature.

Very sad to hear about their storefront.  I almost always order online from them, and wondered what the hell was up.  Most of the stuff I've gotten in my last few orders has been Northern Brewer branded, and a lot  has been packaged all wonky.  I can't imagine they'd disappear entirely given their other affiliations, but I guess nothing is safe these days.

[PvilleStang 2,875]

So is SoCoHomebrew still open?  I was getting more impressed with their offerings as of the last few times I was brewing.  I made it up to the new AHS brick and mortar once to fill a CO2 bottle, and they stopped doing walk-in fills, rather you'd have to swap your bottle for a full one.  And I don't want to swap a good hydro bottle for one that's almost out of hydro, so I up and left and drove to SoCo Homebrew.

 

That said, I'm probably going to start parting out some of my homebrew supplies.  Mostly want to get rid of my Keggle and maybe a burner or two, as I've got very little time since going up to two kids these days (my Surly posting was highly affected, too!)   I'll try to get an inventory going soon as to stuff I'm parting ways with, and hopefully won't have to post it up elsewhere.

[sith_horn 2,379]

3 hours ago, PvilleStang said:

So is SoCoHomebrew still open?

 

https://socohomebrew.com/contact-us/

Phone:  512-428-6564
Email:  info@socohomebrew.com

 

[dcbc 14,465]

I've been out of the hobby for a few years, but recently had the opportunity to help out a friend who's new to things, which is perfect for me.  Anyway, it reminded me that I still have some gear that's sitting around.  I sold the brew stand and controllers, but still some good stuff left over.  If anyone is interested, shoot me a message and I'll come up with a price.

 

What I've got (off the top of my head)

6 Corny kegs (pin lock)

15 gallon Corny Keg (used as a fermenter; dip tube cut off by about an inch)

10 gallon Corny Keg

1/2 Barrel Sanke Keg with Fermetor Adapter. 

7 Gallon SS Brewtech Brew Bucket (Brand New/Unused).

Bench Capper

Assorted Fittings, keg QDs, oxygen tank adapter with stone, magnetic stir bars, who knows what

 

I'm in Tyler, but I'm in Houston/Austin/Dallas on occasion and can throw it in the car if you're not in a hurry.

Edited October 18, 2022 by dcbc

[deft 6,842]

Hello....hello.....hello....

echo....echo....echo....

[PvilleStang 2,875]

I do miss me some brew days, but kids have definitely gotten in the way of that.  Might be selling off some stuff in the near future if anyone needs anything.

[deft 6,842]

Just got back from the SA Homebrew supply. Gonna fire up the electric kettle this weekend when I’m not at fiesta and make centennial blonde (thinking m54 San Francisco steam ale yeast) and a hefe with imperial stefon g01.

Trying to get them fermented and cleaned up in time for neighborhood Memorial Day Party.

[dcbc 14,465]

Ha, I was doing the sales pitch again.  And then I read a couple of posts up. Won't someone buy my memories.  See two posts up.

Edited April 26 by dcbc

[deft 6,842]

It’s a long way from sa to Tyler. Hell I may still quit after these batches. I just don’t have interest in drinking 5 gallons of the same beer at a time.

[dcbc 14,465]

33 minutes ago, deft said:

It’s a long way from sa to Tyler. Hell I may still quit after these batches. I just don’t have interest in drinking 5 gallons of the same beer at a time.

Drinking it wasn't so much the issue.  It was the once-per-month, 6--7-hour brew sessions in the garage.  I sold the big brew rig and ordered the Countertop Model the Microsoft guy was involved in.  The first production run took so long that I got out of the hobby, asked for my money back, and used it to buy an induction cooktop for the kitchen.  I made the right decision.

[Anastasis 23,463]

On 10/18/2022 at 10:24 AM, dcbc said:

I've been out of the hobby for a few years, but recently had the opportunity to help out a friend who's new to things, which is perfect for me.  Anyway, it reminded me that I still have some gear that's sitting around.  I sold the brew stand and controllers, but still some good stuff left over.  If anyone is interested, shoot me a message and I'll come up with a price.

 

What I've got (off the top of my head)

6 Corny kegs (pin lock)

15 gallon Corny Keg (used as a fermenter; dip tube cut off by about an inch)

10 gallon Corny Keg

1/2 Barrel Sanke Keg with Fermetor Adapter. 

7 Gallon SS Brewtech Brew Bucket (Brand New/Unused).

Bench Capper

Assorted Fittings, keg QDs, oxygen tank adapter with stone, magnetic stir bars, who knows what

 

I'm in Tyler, but I'm in Houston/Austin/Dallas on occasion and can throw it in the car if you're not in a hurry.

Yep. Got a lot of stuff that I need to clear out. Just don’t have the time to brew. But got a lot of top quality shit. Brew kettles, conical fermenter etc. 

[deft 6,842]

Conical eh?

[Anastasis 23,463]

4 minutes ago, deft said:

Conical eh?

Sitting right next to the keg boil kettle and the stack of ball lock cornies. 

[dcbc 14,465]

His is probably the real deal with the right angle.  Mine is a a "brew bucket.  It has sort of a conical bottom so you can pull off above the cake once you drop your yeast, etc.  But not big money like an actual conical.

 

Edited April 27 by dcbc

[Anastasis 23,463]

3 hours ago, dcbc said:

His is probably the real deal with the right angle.  Mine is a a "brew bucket.  It has sort of a conical bottom so you can pull off above the cake once you drop your yeast, etc.  But not big money like an actual conical.

 

Mine is like 25 years old. I switched back to fermenting in buckets a long time ago. 

[deft 6,842]

Mad e a yeast starter last night for no reason. Pretty sure I’m not using this tomorrow but just felt like it. Seeing krausen this morning(sorry it’s no longer there as of 20:33) is still cool no matter what. Feels good man.

[dcbc 14,465]

18 hours ago, Anastasis said:

Mine is like 25 years old. I switched back to fermenting in buckets a long time ago. 

I never used this one.  I used to ferment in a 15 gallon corny keg with the dip tube cut down an inch.

[sith_horn 2,379]

On 4/26/2024 at 11:09 PM, deft said:

It’s a long way from sa to Tyler. Hell I may still quit after these batches. I just don’t have interest in drinking 5 gallons of the same beer at a time.

Likewise. Have you considered brewing smaller batches? I've haven't done so, but have read on homebrewtalk you can brew smaller batches in your 5 gal equipment -- as low as 2 gal batches for primary. Others mention 2.5 to 3 gal in the same thread linked.