Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

Well knowing summer is on the way and brewing season is pretty much here I got a couple of kits from Austing HB.... The first was a classic dunkelweizen and it's great for summer the second I had never heard of was aWheat Stout I love wheat beers and stouts so how could I go wrong?

Has anyone ever had a Wheat Stout?
It's described as "a perfect balance between a stout and wheat style beer. It features Black patent, crystal 60 L, black roasted barley, Carawheat®, and chocolate malt. O.G. = 1.054 Approximately 5.2% ABV."

I got the extract kits with the White Labs British Ale liquid yeast.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

Let us know how it turns out. :tu

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

:tpd: It was a long night, but both are chuggin away this morning, both using Pacman yeast. :tu Once the Barleywine is done fermenting it's getting racked into my bourbon barrel.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

Sounds like you got a nice system there Seth.

I've been wanting to start home brewing with friend. Lucky for me he's been doing it for while and got pretty good at it over the years.

All this reading makes be want to start some right now. :tu

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

Do it! I just can't buy beer of this quality for even remotely the same price if at all, nor can I taylor it the way I like as I can w/homebrews.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

I haven't brewed at all the past few years, my gear is just cllecting dust in the cellar. Have to break it out this spring. Anybody else have one of the fermentap conical fermenters? I've got the ten gallon model

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

I agree with you on the second part, but homebrewing has definitely gotten more expensive in the past few years. The "hops crisis" really pushed up the price for most of my beers. I'm averaging around $45/batch, unless I salvage & repitch yeast--then I save about $8.

Would still rather brew my own, though!

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

Okay newbee question. How many ounces is in a final product?

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

That's up to the brewer and their equipment. Most people brew 5 gallon batches or multiples thereof. Glass carboys used for the fermentin are generally 5 gallons, my conical fermenter is 10

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

Buying in bulk, prices are pretty cheap right now. Most hops are $7-$13/lb and base malt is <$25/sack. All plus shipping if you don't live close to a warehouse, of course.

If you buy the specials on the web (AHB, MB) you can get kits 4 25 shipped. That's what I do. Also you can buy DME in bulk that helps too. Just some thoughts to help the fellow BOtLS!
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Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

As in my cigar purchases, I've tried to support my local B&M for homebrew supplies, but it's getting harder to do. Is there a difference between homebrew supplies from a B&M and those off the Internet? :D:r

(don't answer that...!)

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

Hot damn! $45 a batch!? I average $8-20, no beers under 5% abv. Are you doing extract? AG + buying in bulk = win. I got 6 POUNDS of hops shipped from hopsdirect.com for about $90. If you bought them in a store at $3/oz, that's about $280. I got 3 sacks of base grains, and a bunch of flaked and specialty grains, 250lbs total, for about $230.

In the fermenter: Belgian Inspired Stout

In the keggerator: Imperial Black Ale, Extra Stout (nitro), Irish Red (nitro), Kentucky Common, Summer Wheat, and Athena's Imperial Mango Hefeweizen (my gf first brew and her recipe, it's good!).

Up next: Dark (Lord) Killer Imperial Stout :banger

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

I never made the jump to AG. I'm currently renovating the front part of my garage to a workshop/brewhouse, so I may look into it then. Most of my beers now are partial mash, though, so that helps offset some cost. I'll definitely be looking into hopsdirect for bulk purchase.

Dry-hopped my pilsner this weekend, and hope to get it in bottles on Saturday. Brewed a classic red ale recipe with my son two weekends ago--his first attempt at homebrewing!--and it's still happily bubbling away in the primary. Repitched it with a California Ale yeast, looks like it's getting some great attenuation.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

I am only doing Extract brewing and hey it's pretty easy and makes great beer. But how much of a pain in the A$$ is AG, how much more time/effort does it take, and how easy is it to screw up?? Thanks!

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

It does not require that much extra equipment, it does take longer but once you get your process down I could do it in my sleep. Smoking a cigar while brewing also makes the time involved seem even less.....time consuming, for lack of a better phrase (as I actually enjoy the brewing process a lot, but maybe not cleaning up). Once you get your system and the process down it's difficult to mess up. I use a turkey fryer, cooler with homemade copper manifold (for mashing and batch sparging), and copper immersion wort chiller (also homemade and works great). I do 5 gal batches (which is plenty at the rate I like to brew and how much I consume).
The benefits are more complete recipe control and options, and control of mash temps which allows more flexibility in how dry or sweet the final beer finishes. There are other advantages, but those are most important to me. You might save some money not having to buy extract, and you're making beer essentially the same way professional breweries make beer, I like that.:2

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Well gonna brew one of my kits tonight not sure which one so I thought I'd mention it here. Plus I wanted to bump this thread and give it a little life!

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Hey all, somewhat new here.. been lurking for a while. Figured I will start in an alcohol thread because I know a bit more about that than cigars.

Currently got an Irish Stout finishing up, and more than ready to have an Amber Ale go through the brewing process.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

Sadly nothing in the fermenter...But still have some oatmeal stout from the last brew session. Planning on a red and an IPA next.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

Pretty cool homebrew related video:http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boing...ring-mach.html

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

Well, I bought a homebrew start-up kit last evening, plus an extra bucket for primary fermenting. A buddy has an extra carboy he's giving me, so I can have two beers in secondary fermentation at the same time.

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/brewing-starter-kit.html

I also got two extract kits, their Liberty Cream Ale, and Ferocious IPA, a clone of Surly Furious. The guy who helped me said it's a dead knock-off of Furious, and was made with Surly's cooperation.

For any of you who live in the Mpls area, I found the people at Midwest Supply to be very helpful. It's basically a small warehouse. The place was busy, I wandered around a little bit until I found someone to help me. But once I found someone, he was super helpful.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

Congrats on the Homebrew kit. Once I got my kit and learned how to use it my purchase of beer essentially stopped. I now plan ahead for the beer I am going to need and brew accordingly. FWIW I have heard good things about MW supply. Not that I am an awesome brewer even though they all turn out great but one piece of advice.....

"Cleanliness is next to Godliness"

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

Well, got me some Caxtons Bitter and some of their Real Ale bubbling away. When they've vacated my fermenting vessel I'll be doing some Woodfords Wherry...that stuff's amazing it just takes AGES to settle fully for some reason, so I thought I'd get a few gallons (or ten) of some other stuff ready first so I can leave the Woodfords Wherry longer to before I get tempted into drinking it too soon.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

Well, I had to make a trip to Midwest Supply to buy a larger kettle. The stock pot we have in the cupboard isn't as large as I remembered it being, so I bought a heavy 5 gallon kettle. But otherwise everything seemed to go well with my batch of Liberty Cream Ale. It took quite a while for the wort to boil, but it did eventually boil. I think 4 gallons of water is the max my electric stove can handle. I boiled one gallon of water seperately and then chilled it to cool the wort faster. And I sucked up some hops when siphoning over to the primary bucket, but I doubt that's a big deal. I pitched with Safale US 05 yeast. Overall it took longer than I thought, but I think it went OK. I used a lot of sanitizer.

I also made a starter for the Ferocious. I'll do that one a night this week. I'm going to use a blow-off tube on that one, since I'm sure it will bubble over out of the primary bucket.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

Brewed a Saison on Sunday, yeast was wyeast 3724 Saison and the dreggs from Fantome Hiver made into a combined starter.
Brewing a Quad this weekend with a friend coming to visit from Miami.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

Just finished brewing a batch of "Ferocious," a clone of Surly Furious. The house smells like grapefruit times 10, and I've only used half the hops. The other half get dry-hopped in a week.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

started a Toasted Coconut Porter last night. It will spend a few weeks in primary before I add a pound an a half of toasted coconut to secondary!

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

When I made my Ferocious last night, everything went right according to the receipe until the very end, and then I made several errors. I don't think any of them are show stoppers, but I got careless.

1) When I was hopping at the end, I was supposed to take the 2 oz of hops, split it into 5 batches, and add them at 20, 15, 10 5 and 0. But I mistakenly only made 4 groups, but still followed the 5 hopping time schedule. So I didn't have any left to toss in at 0 minutes. :(

2) When I was rinsing off my stir paddle after I stirred the wort I had chilling in ice, I accidently sprayed water into the wort. :bh

3) When I finally had everything done and the bucket sealed up, when I was putting the airlock on I pushed the rubber gasket through the lid and into the bucket. So I had to open the lid, pour the wort back into the kettle, get the gasket, and do it all over again. :c

Hopefully neither of the last two compromised the sanitation of the wort. I had a strong yeast starter, so hopefully the yeast will get cranked up quickly and knock out any nasties that may have gotten into the wort.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

Warren: #3 would be the only thing that might cause me some concern, but not really all that much. Quick fermentation should ease your anxiety!

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

Sounds delicious! :dr

I make a bourbon-oak-vanilla porter every year, I may have to try a little coconut as well.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

The fermentation was underway nicely when I got home from work this evening. I set the bucket up with a blow-off tube into a gallon water jug, and I counted 32 bubbles in 30 seconds. It's really chugging along. The lid is even "domed" a bit from the pressure in the bucket. Hopefully the strong fermentation has aleviated any sanitation problems.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

I just racked my first batch over to secondary. It's the Midwest Liberty Cream Ale extract kit, with the addition of 1 lb of flaked corn. I used Safale US 05 yeast. It was in primary for 2 weeks at about 67 degrees, and had a strong fermentation for the first few days. There is about an inch of gray creamy yeast left in the primary bucket. The beer tastes OK; like flat, thin beer, maybe a little hefe weizen-ish. If I'm reading it right, the gravity is 1.10.

Does everything look OK? I was expecting it to be much clearer than this by now.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

Sounds like you did everything right. Just give it time and be patient!

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

Started a fat tire clone last night. First attempt at all-grain. Need to get a better setup if I am going to continue to do that. Bubbling away this morning though.... it'll be beer.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

Even a mediocre home brew is usually better than a store bought beer. :D

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

Got my "keggle" cut weekend before last, so the last two batches have been 7.5 gallons instead of 5 gallons as I now have the capacity. Going to try a full 10 gallon batch sometime soon.
Weekend before last was a Belgian Quad, this past weekend was 'English Red' (not really a style, but the beer is a mix of a porter and a red brewed with an English Ale yeast).

BTW, anybody interested in doing a Cigar Asylum beer? We could all brew the same recipe and compare notes. Maybe a clone of something from Cigar City Brewing? Something that would pair well with a cigar?

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You know I don't brew, but I am available for taste tests. :D

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

Absolutely!

I haven't started brewing yet, but plan to very soon and I will have plenty to share for Shack if all goes according to the grand scheme.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

I'm down, although there is a beer that can go with anything. I still need to cut my keg for 10gal batches. I've only had Cigar City Jai Alai but it was damn good. All of their beers rate great. I guess it depends what kind of cigar we want to pair it with. I'm still a somewhat new cigar smoker, but good maduros and big stouts are amazing together.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

Im going to keg my Toasted Coconut Porter tonight and dry hop my Pale Ale with Simcoe, Amarillo & Centenial hops

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

It's a definate possibility. :)

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Hmm. I'm not trying to be a dick, but I've never had a beer look like that in the secondary. On the other hand, I've never used flaked corn, so that might have something to do with it. :confused: In any event, I wouldn't worry about it.

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I started a Belgian wheat tonight with coriander and orange peel

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

After doing some reading, I believe that when I added the corn, there were not enough enzymes from the malt to convert the corn starches into fermentable sugars. Last week I added some amylase enzyme and a new yeast starter. The amylase enzyme converts starches to sugar. The wort looks a lot better now. Still hazy, but not as cloudy as that picture. I may rack it over to a clean carboy and add some Biofine to help clear it further before I bottle it.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

'Dark' Saison is bubbling away, just a standard saison grain bill with .5 lbs Special B, and 1 lbs D2 - Dark Belgian Candi Syrup added to darken it up and add some raisin/toffee flavors. Bottled an IPA/PA and Saison as well.


And just keeping track in case anyone else is interested:
The following people may be interested in brewing a 'Cigar Asylum' beer:
kenstogie
ODLS1
St. Lou Stu

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

Brewed my Dunkelwiezen yesterday, I hope the Fermentation takes. I fear I may have pitched the yeast at to high a temp. Directions said drop the temp to 80 from boiling in 20 mins. Don't know how that's going to happen without a wortchiller. It was below 90 but above 80 so I hope I didn't kill it. Directions on the Yeast (whitelabs hefe WLP300) say 75.

If I did kill it I will just go buy another tube.

Roger that on the Asylum beer.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

You didn't kill the yeast. We keep the temps down to avoid unwanted byproducts, but most yeast is very happy at temps up to 100F. You shouldn't start killing it until you're above 110F or so, and even then very slowly. The problem you may run into is the yeast going dormant. A large temp drop will tend to make the yeast flocculate, even if you're just dropping it to the recommended range. Just get it back into suspension and you should be fine.

I'd be in for a Cigar Asylum beer, depending on the style.

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:tpd:

And just keeping track in case anyone else is interested:
The following people may be interested in brewing a 'Cigar Asylum' beer:
landhoney
kenstogie
ODLS1
St. Lou Stu
Scimmia

We can all provide input on the style and recipe, hopefully there's at least one style we can all agree on and enjoy. :tu I'm going to wait a little longer and see if anyone else is interested and then maybe start a new thread. And the recipe will be for AG, PM, and extract brewers, so everyone can brew it.

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

Cool Thanks! I know your supposed to refrig your yeast (which I do) but how long of a life does it have at room temp? I typically take it out an hour or two early but some direction say the night before. What if you couldn't get to brewing for a couple days?

Re: Homebrewers - Whats in the fermeter?
 

I've never seen any numbers for liquid cultures, so I don't know. I usually let mine sit for ~3 hours before pitching it into my starter. I cold crash my starters, so that usually sits out for ~5 hrs while I make the beer.