Homebrewers - What’s on Tap?

[Dark Horse 2279]

I set up something like this:  http://www.mrmalty.com/chiller.php when i brew 10 gallon batches and especially lagers
you need two pumps, but it works really well. 
- using pump 1, you recirculate your hot wort from kettle spigot to back into the bottom of the kettle. position the hose to that it flows and makes a whirpool around the immersion chiller
- the immersion chiller starts off using faucet water to get the wort down to around 100F.  Then switch to using pump 2 which takes in water from a cooler filled with ice/water.  Move the return/drain hose to send the water back into the cooler.
it's does not take too long to get the temp down to 60-65F.
In place of pump 2, you could just use a (clean) big spoon/paddle to keep the wort moving around the coils.

This is what I do. It’s fantastic.

[PvilleStang 2875]

4 hours ago, Damor said:

Thanks for the chiller advice.  I think I'm going to start simple, since I'm just trying to figure out this Mash & Boil thing.  I ordered a longer immersion chiller (50') and a cheap pump.  Since I don't have a garden hose attachment for my sink, I figure I'll fill a bucket with tap water and pump from that first, then add some ice later to drop the temperature more.  There seems to be a popular mod to the M&B to recirculate, but I think I'll hold off on that until I better understand how the thing works.

 I also figured I'd graduate from just adding liquid yeast directly, but I'm still lazy short on time, so I ordered some Propper Starter to try out.

This is the beginning of the end for my liver.

Ha.  I used the faucet adapter (like $2 at Austin Homebrew IIRC) at first, but have graduated to using a hose spigot.  I wouldn't waste electricity pumping chilling water, honestly.

[PvilleStang 2875]

On that note, finished up my first brew since pre-Pville-Dad stage.  Did the Yellow Rose clone, 13ish lbs of Belgian Pilsen, 1 oz bittering hops, 1.5 oz flavor hops, 1.5 oz aroma.  1.050 OG.

To address the absolute miss on the OG.  Went into AHB for the first time in 6 months to get materials (got CO2 there not long ago, but didn't spy on the grain room), and they got rid of the big mill.   Used the small mill, and figured a 15 lb bag should have been more than sufficient for a 13 lb grain bill, but alas, I screwed the pooch on that one.  Filled the 15 lb bag to the brim with about 12 lbs of grain, no room to close.  Killed the mill, got a second bag, and with a little spillage, finished.   15 lb bag (which used to fit 12 lbs before) now fits about 8-9 lbs with room to seal.  

That, on top of leaving the entire counterflow chiller full of wort, and experimenting with a hybrid fly / batch sparge, left me with a light OG.  Lessons learned for next time.

[gyroprotagonist 2592]

On 1/22/2019 at 12:36 PM, gyroprotagonist said:

I set up something like this:  http://www.mrmalty.com/chiller.php when i brew 10 gallon batches and especially lagers

you need two pumps, but it works really well. 

- using pump 1, you recirculate your hot wort from kettle spigot to back into the bottom of the kettle. position the hose to that it flows and makes a whirpool around the immersion chiller

- the immersion chiller starts off using faucet water to get the wort down to around 100F.  Then switch to using pump 2 which takes in water from a cooler filled with ice/water.  Move the return/drain hose to send the water back into the cooler.

it's does not take too long to get the temp down to 60-65F.

In place of pump 2, you could just use a (clean) big spoon/paddle to keep the wort moving around the coils.

"In place of pump 2 pump 1, you could just use a (clean) big spoon/paddle to keep the wort moving around the coils."  typo.  

I got a new mash tun for xmas that I need to try out.

[Damor 1236]

Tried out the Mash & Boil today with the Austin Homebrew Chocolate Orange ale that came with it.




I don't have anything to compare it to since this was my first all-grain brew, but I was pretty damn pleased.  Brewing inside was a little weird, but I can get used to it, as easy as it made setup and cleanup.



My probably needlessly complex chilling setup worked fine.

Next up will be the Zaragoza's Chalice kit which came with all the stuff my bride got me.  It'll be close enough to Cinco de Mayo at that point.  Thinking about adding some jalapeno to that one -- any tips?

[PvilleStang 2875]

On 2/3/2019 at 8:50 PM, Damor said:

Tried out the Mash & Boil today with the Austin Homebrew Chocolate Orange ale that came with it.




I don't have anything to compare it to since this was my first all-grain brew, but I was pretty damn pleased.  Brewing inside was a little weird, but I can get used to it, as easy as it made setup and cleanup.



My probably needlessly complex chilling setup worked fine.

Next up will be the Zaragoza's Chalice kit which came with all the stuff my bride got me.  It'll be close enough to Cinco de Mayo at that point.  Thinking about adding some jalapeno to that one -- any tips?

Yeah, you're going to need to work on your image hosting setup...

[Damor 1236]

Sumbitch. Linking to Google Photos has worked in the past, I'll try Tapa.

[Druggist 303]

Just missed out on a used kegerator today.  Still bottling.  On a brighter note, the citra-cascade pale I brewed a few weeks back should be ready to try by this weekend.

[Druggist 303]

On 2/7/2019 at 3:47 PM, Druggist said:

Just missed out on a used kegerator today.  Still bottling.  On a brighter note, the citra-cascade pale I brewed a few weeks back should be ready to try by this weekend.

Tried it today.  Possibly my best beer yet.  Really clean and no off flavors to speak of.  

Currently, I am trying to make fairly basic ipas and pale ales to get my process down.  This was my first with a starter with the stir plate my dad got me and it went from 1.060 down to 1.008. Big win as I love them dry with minimal sweetness. The recipe is:

90/10 2-row and English crystal

1/2 ounce each citra and cascade at 60, 15, 5, and flameout with a 10 min whirlpool, no dry hops (forgot)

anyway, my brother’s family was in town for my wife’s bday and we polished off 6.  Really excited as I fucked something up the last 2 batches.  Need to slow down to let it clean up a bit more.

[PvilleStang 2875]

Good stuff!  I really screwed the pooch on my last brew.  Left too much in the bottom of the kettle / in the chiller, and forgot the yeast fuel and whirlfloc.  Came out at 1.050, and the yeast really didn't blow the lid off like it usually does.  Was dreading moving it last week, but moved it and took a measurement on 2/6, came out around 1.006, so I'm getting around 5.5% out of a complete f- up, so I'm not too sad.  It's a hazy yellow rose clone, so we'll just call it a East Coast IPA. 

 

ETA: Wife just sent me this link, good read: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/amazing-ways-artificial-intelligence-can-used-make-beer-bernard-marr/

Edited February 11, 2019 by PvilleStang

[Damor 1236]

So as I totally nerd out and go overboard on this, do y'all find any of the homebrew message boards better than the others?

Anyone a member of AHA?

Edited February 12, 2019 by Damor

[NCMountaineer 100]

Figured I'd swing by and see what you guys have been crafting up, it's been a while.

I've been messing with some Saison ideas for home brews lately. Same base beer, just variations on how I treat it in secondary. Some of the better results I've come up with so far:

Lime and Oak cubes soaked in tequila
Blackberry
Juniper Berry and Lime 

[PvilleStang 2875]

2 hours ago, Damor said:

So as I totally nerd out and go overboard on this, do y'all find any of the homebrew message boards better than the others?

Anyone a member of AHA?

Honestly, I've gotten some good advice here and on TOS, and just read up here and there online.  

[Dark Horse 2279]

3 hours ago, Damor said:

So as I totally nerd out and go overboard on this, do y'all find any of the homebrew message boards better than the others?

Anyone a member of AHA?

I preferred this thread, but I would occasionally go to Homebrewtalk. 

 

I had a AHA membership for a few years when I was first learning. Access to all back issues of Zymergy was nice. 

[Zepol87 9185]

Yep. When I started I would only do to HBT but the old site was the best Homebrew knowledge I've ever found

[Damor 1236]

Thanks.  I'll continue asking my stupid questions here -- I don't know that I dare to peek at the thread at Kevin's Shitville Hut.

I've got a birthday coming up, I'll tell the boys they can get me an AHA membership.

[Druggist 303]

When I was first brewing, I listened to most of the old Can you brew it/Brewing with style/the Jamil show podcasts.  It is now defunct and the info is outdated as far as some styles go, but they are pretty funny and full of good info from some pretty badass home brewers (the main guy is now professional).  Shit ton of old commercials to FF thru though.

[Zepol87 9185]

Really enjoyed those podcast and live Sunday shows back in the day

[Damor 1236]

I understand there are several ways of calculating efficiency -- Palmer's seems to be a quick estimate compared with generic lager malt, but there are all kinds of online calculators which get very detailed.  Do y'all calculate efficiency, and if so, what's your preferred method?

I ask because in trying out this Mash & Boil thing, my first batch was >70% ending kettle efficiency, and the second was in the 50s.  Trying to understand what changed and how I can get better.

In other news, my wife is trying to kill my liver, as she ordered me 4 more recipe kits for my birthday, including a 16-lb Old Chub clone which will max the capacity on the Mash & Boil.  Gotta get to work.

[NCMountaineer 100]

Generally I use the calculator in Beersmith to help out on that.

Best way I have come across so far is simply rice hulls. When I was starting off at Gizmo our efficiency was all over the place and it was affecting quality in a big way. We started off adding about a third of a bag in our mash (7 barrel system) and our efficiency within a matter of a few batches was consistently close to target with slight variation. For a 5 gal batch I'd probably say go with about a quarter to a half lb added to your mash, surprisingly makes a world of difference. 

[Damor 1236]

Thanks, I'll have to check out Beersmith.

Oddly enough, my last two batches have both had crappy efficiency, and those were the only ones I've thus far used rice hulls.  I'm assuming the improvement you saw was due to more even/effectve sparging?  I did do more vorlaufing on my last two batches -- I wonder if that could have somehow sequestered off some of the first runnings or something, although intuitively I'd think it would help efficiency.

I guess I have no choice other than to keep making a bunch more until I get better at it.

[Al_4_ISU 12447]

Making a honey wheat today. Think summer.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[deft 6834]

Brewed an Irish red today (late I know) but tossed voss kveik slurry with it and also kegged a dry Irish stout. With the force carbing, it should be ready by Saturday celebrations.

I spent four days last week on a bourbon trail tour for a bachelors party getaway. I know there’s been a few surly distillers on here. Any experience?

[Druggist 303]

I brewed a German Pilsner about 15 months ago.  It didn’t dry out as much as I hoped and I under primed it when bottling.  It was flat even after about 3-4 months i the bottle.  

I left it in the back of the pantry and just tried one.  It finally carbonated and is pretty good, even though it is a bit sweet.  

I just bought a used 2-tap kegerator.  And now need kegs, regulator, and CO2.  Gonna be done bottling soon!

[PvilleStang 2875]

On 3/15/2019 at 6:19 PM, Druggist said:

I brewed a German Pilsner about 15 months ago.  It didn’t dry out as much as I hoped and I under primed it when bottling.  It was flat even after about 3-4 months i the bottle.  

 I left it in the back of the pantry and just tried one.  It finally carbonated and is pretty good, even though it is a bit sweet.  

I just bought a used 2-tap kegerator.  And now need kegs, regulator, and CO2.  Gonna be done bottling soon!

You in Austin?  Got a few corny kegs I might be willing to part with.

[deft 6834]

Brewed an Irish red today (late I know) but tossed voss kveik slurry with it and also kegged a dry Irish stout. With the force carbing, it should be ready by Saturday celebrations.

I spent four days last week on a bourbon trail tour for a bachelors party getaway. I know there’s been a few surly distillers on here. Any experience?

Went from 1.054 to 1.010 by this morning. I cold crashed but didn’t get the chance to rack to a keg.

[Druggist 303]

On 3/17/2019 at 1:19 PM, PvilleStang said:

You in Austin?  Got a few corny kegs I might be willing to part with.

I am and that would be awesome.  In Big Bend right now.  I’ll shoot you a message when I am back.

[deft 6834]

6 month Flanders red out, saison in.

 

 

Best shot I could get of the pellicle after being in the dark for 180 days

 

 

 

Look on our homebrew, ye mighty, and despair.

[LosIllini 91]

On 3/15/2019 at 6:19 PM, Druggist said:

I just bought a used 2-tap kegerator.  And now need kegs, regulator, and CO2.  Gonna be done bottling soon! 

That's absolutely the way to go.  I bottled for way too long.  Depending upon the size of your kegerator/ and assuming you can fit two corny kegs into it, get at least a double regulator.  You'll get to where you have two kegs on tap.  I have a Taprite T752HP, $95 on Amazon Prime.  Works great.  Set up w/ red gas hoses and ball locks.

Cheapest new CO2 bottle I found was at Specs, think it was $70 or $80, and came filled.  $17 tank swap-outs there too (they don't fill on-site/ and the bottles are decently full of gas vs. others).  Get a decent length lock/ hose/ picnic tap, along with the plastic tube portion of a gravity bottle-filler (fits inside the picnic tap perfectly), and you have a workable growler/ bottle filler.  Bunch of threads on how to set this up.  Plenty of used kegs out there from brewers/ ex-brewers.  Easy to replace gaskets/ seals.  Also, Austin Homebrew has used cornies for $49 and new ones for $75.

[Damor 1236]

I skipped bottling altogether because I'm lazy and I got a great deal on a used kegerator before I ever started brewing. I guess that makes me a cheater to some degree, but no ragrets. I do really like the $75 kegs from Austin Homebrew.

My Mexican Jalapeno beer was ready today, and while I have liked everything I've brewed so far, this felt like my first real victory. I'm damn pleased, and I got to break in my new tap handle as well.

[deft 6834]

How did you put the jap in? I did a cream ale with some suspended in the keg. Turned out ok.

[Damor 1236]

I read about a lot of different ways to do it, but since I wanted the fresh pepper flavor, I seeded them and put them in a nylon bag for a week when I racked to secondary.

I had to make a guess, but 4 japs in 5 gallons turned out to lend a good amount of flavor and aroma without being over the top. I'd have preferred some more heat, so I may leave the seeds in one or two next time.

Edited April 1, 2019 by Damor

[dcbc 14465]

Well, for the first time in probably 18 years, I'm not a home brewer.  I ordered a Picobrew Z2 over a year ago and sold my Brutus 10 type rig in anticipation.  My goal was to be pretty well hands off on the hot side.  In short, I was over that part of the process.  As I waited, I found I didn't miss it all that much.  And, in reading some of the reports of what the Z2 would be versus what was promised (and being a bit worried about how much support it would receive long term, etc.), I decided to cancel my order.  I'm keeping a lot of my equipment in case I get the bug again, which, in that case, will be satisfied by a Coleman Xtreme cooler and some fittings, but as I sit here enjoying a Pilsner Urquel, and don't have to worry about kegging, brewing, cleaning tap lines, cleaning equipment, etc., I'm kind of relieved.

Brew on.  I'll drink it. 

Edited April 5, 2019 by dcbc

[dingleberryswitzer 2724]

Any more opinions on the mash and boil?  I'm thinking of getting one of those at some point.  Hoping the price drops a little at some point.

[Damor 1236]

I haven't heard anyone else around here chime in about the Mash & Boil or other similar things like the Robobrew or Grainfather.  If you have any questions I'll be happy to try to answer, but admittedly you'll be getting the opinion of a homebrewing noob who hasn't done all-grain any other way.

I'll say that I've been very satisfied so far.  I did my fifth brew on it today (AHS Irish summer ale), and I'm still feeling a few things out.  There have been a lot of discussions online about tweaking water volume, sparging techniques, circulation techniques/mods, and using bags to improve efficiency.  I tried some of the volume changes and circulation recommendations (haven't modded anything) with mixed results.  The beer has been good, but efficiency has been variable, and I've been off gravity measurements by as much as 10 pts.

Today I went with an updated recommendation of using 0.3gal strike water/lb of grain from the official M&B blog designed to improve efficiency, and I hit the OG spot on, so I'll stick with that for a while (though the mash seems super thick) and see how the next few batches turn out.

For reference, here are some links to discussion boards that I've found helpful, and may be useful to you:
https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/brewers-edge-mash-and-boil.489551/
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/brewers-edge-mash-boil.595987/
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/would-anyone-buy-the-robobrew-over-the-brewers-edge-mash-boil.648880/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Homebrewing/comments/79a524/brewers_edge_mash_and_boil_first_use_thoughts/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Homebrewing/comments/99nxh1/tips_for_brewers_edge_mash_boil_setup/

 

[NCMountaineer 100]

On 4/1/2019 at 1:12 PM, Damor said:

I read about a lot of different ways to do it, but since I wanted the fresh pepper flavor, I seeded them and put them in a nylon bag for a week when I racked to secondary.

I had to make a guess, but 4 japs in 5 gallons turned out to lend a good amount of flavor and aroma without being over the top. I'd have preferred some more heat, so I may leave the seeds in one or two next time.

Should be interesting to see how that turns out leaving in the seeds. We tend to get a ton of flavor out of Jalapenos, but when it comes to heat profile they don't add too much. But like you we de-seed first. The last one we made we ended up augmenting with an extremely small amount of red pepper extract and that seemed to do the trick to get things where we wanted with a Jalapeno Peach Cream Ale.

Edited April 16, 2019 by NCMountaineer

[mdleast 8289]

I posted about this at one point on the 2019 beer thread but thought I would post this here too.  I'm a hop head so when I home brewed it was usually an IPA or hoppy pale ale.  However,  I haven't home brewed in a while for a few reasons including due to the fact that there are seemingly so many new release, new to the area, seasonal, etc. hoppy beers coming out  every week or so and I realized that it was too much to then have 5Gs of some hoppy beer that also needed to get drank fresh.  Plus, if I'm only  really drinking on the weekends, that is gonna lead to some (maybe a lot of) wasted beer.

However, I recently learned of this from Lagunitas and am very interested in trying to make it (as I have not found it for sale around here):

 

https://lagunitas.com/story/hoppy-refresher

 

Any thoughts as to what would be a recipe to try to make this? I'm a little out of practice now and am trying to figure out if there is even any boil with hop additions or if this is just "dry hopping" (but with no boil at all?) and what type/how much of a yeast are they using to give it more of a beer taste.  I've looked around online but have not come across any clone recipe.

Figured this might be a nice week night if I want a sip of "hoppy" but no calories drink or on the weekends/watching games when I want "another" beer but, again, without the calories.  The Untapped reviews for this are surprisingly high (especially for zero alcohol)...higher than many session IPAs I have seen.

Edited April 16, 2019 by mdleast

[deft 6834]

Dude, I was thinking about the exact same thing. I think I’d still boil for a bit get some bittering IBUs in.

I’m trying to do low carb right now and haven’t had a beer since the weekend (some bourbon though). One of the last things i kegged was 5 gallons of water and some burton salts. Carbed that bad boy up super high and it’s been a lifesaver. Then reddit shows me lagunitas hoppy water and I’m thinking.....

[Dark Horse 2279]

 

Finally got a brew day in after a year off. This is a farmhouse/saison co-pitched with Sacc Trois. I brewed something similar a few years ago and it was a big hit (back when it was still Brett Trois). 

[Dark Horse 2279]

I pitched the Omega Voss Kaveik in a session hoppy wheat beer last night and holy shit.

 

 

[Dark Horse 2279]

32 minutes ago, Dark Horse said:

imgur

 

 

[deft 6834]

Pic still isn’t loading. The kveik doesn’t fuck around. Straight business.

[Dark Horse 2279]

Well shit, it seemed to work the second time on mobile.

The CO2 is completely pushing out the sanitizer in my air lock, had to switch over to a blowoff tube.

[LosIllini 91]

Kveik Oslo lager ready to keg.  Used 3tsp of starter slurry in 5G of wort.  Fermented out in 24-36 hours.

Eager to see how the flavor comes out--- ale or lager-like.

[Dark Horse 2279]

The Kveik beer I made was basically done by day three and tasted fenominole.

[deft 6834]

Dammit I f'd up.  I placed an order a few days ago with ahs.  It shipped yesterday with a purepitch yeast that I forgot to click on adding a cold pack to.  I just threw it in the fridge but it's been surfing around with ups for 24 hours getting warmer.  I'll fire up a starter tonight to try to save it.  What are my chances?

[Dark Horse 2279]

I’d make a big starter and see what happens.

I try to keep US04 and US05 on hand just in case.

[deft 6834]

Starter is made and cooling off in freezer.

I’ve never had yeast nutrient before but just bought a bottle. I looked for instructions online and it said a 1/4 tsp right after the flask starts to boil. In the split second before the first grain left the spoon and into the flask opening, I thought to myself: “deft, this is probably going to cause a violent boil over”.

Dammit. It was a 1.25 L starter and now it’s just a 1L.

[deft 6834]

Looks like all is good. A little bit of pre krausen bubbles swirling on top.

[Dark Horse 2279]

What did you brew?

Has anyone had to get their CO2 tank re-pressure tested? I’m wondering if it’s worth the hassle or if I should just get a new 20# tank. I still have the 5# tank I got when I first started kegging and it sucks refilling so often.