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wattershed posted:You're not factoring in shipping. On NB if you add that 3lb bag and ship it at its cheapest to my zip code, it's $19.49. OK sure, if you're being pathological and are getting just 3 lbs of DME then it's $19, but NB's shipping is a flat 7.99. If you get all of your ingredients from NB (or just a bunch of DME for future brews) it works out to much less than $17 per bag.
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Jun 22, 2012 19:07
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Angry Grimace posted:I'm wanting to add some peaches to an extract wheat beer I'm making, but it seems like purees are overly pricey. Should I just buy some frozen peaches/fresh peaches, chop em up and put the beer right on it, or should I try to puree them myself and sterilze them (i.e. with campden tablets)? This is, assuming it's not even more expensive than just buying a can of the puree. I've added store bought frozen fruit and canned purees straight into secondary several times without getting burned yet. It must me the pasteurization.
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Jun 22, 2012 19:09
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Splizwarf posted:$7.99 shipping for everything at NB unless it's big like carboys and kettles. That's why I went with them over anyone else online, because not only is it a good deal but I like that I can mostly ignore shipping during the shopping. Dollar for dollar, and this was when I only used NB or Midwest for a while, NB's flat-rate shipping was offset by their slightly higher price for individual items. It was almost a wash in the end, but the larger the order was the less likely it was that NB would be cheaper. For smaller orders and one-off item orders, NB is probably the better bet. e: Home Brewing Thread III: DME - Expensive Everywhere wattershed fucked around with this message at 19:14 on Jun 22, 2012 |
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Jun 22, 2012 19:11
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Mr. Glass posted:OK sure, if you're being pathological and are getting just 3 lbs of DME then it's $19, but NB's shipping is a flat 7.99. If you get all of your ingredients from NB (or just a bunch of DME for future brews) it works out to much less than $17 per bag. Oh my bad, I read it the other way and thought he was saying the shipping alone was $20. Herp derp.
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Jun 22, 2012 19:15
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I realize this is a pipe dream, but I wish there were an inexpensive way to get full sacks of grain delivered for reasonable prices, short of clubbing up with a bunch of guys and ordering a pallet (which almost requires a loading dock). As it is, I end up driving to Morebeer's shop in Southern California once or twice a year to buy bulk malt, which isn't so bad, but I just wish it were even better. In other words, I am a big baby and wish there were a way to ship heavy, slippery, amorphous blobs to my door for cheap. Jo3sh fucked around with this message at 20:07 on Jun 22, 2012 |
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Jun 22, 2012 20:04
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Jo3sh posted:I realize this is a pipe dream, but I wish there were an inexpensive way to get full sacks of grain delivered for reasonable prices, short of clubbing up with a bunch of guys and ordering a pallet (which almost requires a loading dock). As it is, I end up driving to Morebeer's shop in Southern California once or twice a year to buy bulk malt, which isn't so bad, but I just wish it were even better. With gas the price it is, you'd have to pretty much buy an entire pallet to make it worth driving out to buy bulk grain, I'd imagine.
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Jun 22, 2012 21:12
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Jo3sh posted:I realize this is a pipe dream, but I wish there were an inexpensive way to get full sacks of grain delivered for reasonable prices, short of clubbing up with a bunch of guys and ordering a pallet (which almost requires a loading dock). As it is, I end up driving to Morebeer's shop in Southern California once or twice a year to buy bulk malt, which isn't so bad, but I just wish it were even better. For a 50# of 2-row bought in that manner, what does it come out to? I just recently bought my first 50# bag, want to say it was $35, $39, something like that...and all the while I was thinking "is...is this good? Am I being ripped off?" That was over the internet with some other things in the order, so I don't know how much more money I'd have to add in to get an accurate price for just the grain.
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Jun 22, 2012 21:17
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wattershed posted:For a 50# of 2-row bought in that manner, what does it come out to?
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Jun 22, 2012 21:35
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wattershed posted:For a 50# of 2-row bought in that manner, what does it come out to? It's about a 200 mile round trip for me. I get about 28MPG in my car. In round numbers, call it 7.25 gallons of fuel. At say $4.299/gallon (which is what I saw yesterday), that's $31.17 in "shipping" costs. Say I buy 4 sacks of malt, which is not a bad assumption as that's what I bought last time I went. Looks like it adds about $8.00 per sack over the listed price. If I clubbed up with my friend like we keep talking about but never quite getting together on, it might be as little as half of that. So morebeer lists 50# sacks of American 2-row for $36. Including fuel, call it $44. Angry Grimace posted:With gas the price it is, you'd have to pretty much buy an entire pallet to make it worth driving out to buy bulk grain, I'd imagine. It's not quite as bad as that as I don't drive a big car. But yes, it does add to costs. It's not really worth it to go out there for less than 4 sacks. Jo3sh fucked around with this message at 22:18 on Jun 22, 2012 |
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Jun 22, 2012 22:15
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Angry Grimace posted:Where did you get that? The only places that I know of reasonably nearby are MoreBeer and it's still like 50-60 bucks counting shipping. Okay, looked back into my order, it was from AIH, and I'd ordered a lot of other things along with it. From AIH the base price for 50# of 2-row is $36, but shipping for that alone is $39. Will have to call the local shop and see if it's cheaper (sadly) to drive up to MoreBeer one day or just get it from the local guys.
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Jun 22, 2012 22:29
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I drive to North Country Malt twice a year or so, it's about a 150 mile round trip, and I typically get five or so sacks, plus some hops. Mileage is better in my car, but last time we took the truck because a friend wanted five sacks too. I try to ignore the gas cost and pretend I'm having a fun drive, but it's not bad. Their per sack price is really good, but shipping would be terrible. Also, I don't think they're taking on new homebrew customers
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Jun 22, 2012 23:13
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I'm spoiled with easy access to Midwest and two Northern Brewer shops a few miles away. Speaking of grain buying, interestingly enough, while hanging out in the grain room I saw some East African women buy several 50# sacks. Apparently they come in all the time and use it for food instead of beer.
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Jun 22, 2012 23:22
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To the people saying earlier that John Palmer has a knack for making things sound really complicated: You werent lying! My copy of brewing classic styles came in the mail. Recipes at the moment are a bit over my understanding, so I'm gonna sit on it while I ramp up. But there was this one page that said something along the lines of "You can do all of this by boiling 3 gallons of water, and diluting when you're finished. Look at the next page to see an example of how you would prepare one of the recipes like this" and then its 2 pages of very confusing mathematics. I found a recipe I'm going to use for my first foray into straight extract brewing. It was on a canadian homebrew store's website. quote:Summer Lager II O.G. 1.045 Its a simple recipe that I can get all the ingredients for at my LHBS, and wont be too far a step from what I've been doing so far. Cellar is absolutely perfect for ale right now (19 degrees) so I'm going to use safale. Anyone have a preference for US-05 or S-04? And just to add a slight gripe: Why is homebrewing not nearly as popular in Canada? The cheapest beer is $1.25/bottle. I save $40+ dollars on every batch I make. Les Oeufs fucked around with this message at 00:10 on Jun 23, 2012 |
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Jun 23, 2012 00:08
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Les Oeufs posted:And just to add a slight gripe: Why is homebrewing not nearly as popular in Canada? If you find out, please post the answer here. I have been mystified by this for years.
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Jun 23, 2012 02:44
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Jo3sh posted:It's about a 200 mile round trip for me. I get about 28MPG in my car. In round numbers, call it 7.25 gallons of fuel. At say $4.299/gallon (which is what I saw yesterday), that's $31.17 in "shipping" costs. I do the morebeer drive a few times a year too. I buy from fiftypoundsack.com from time to time. Their weyermann products cost the same as morebeer after factoring gas. Plus they are delivered straight to my door, saving me a trip to Riverside. The rest of their grains seem more expensive but for Munich or pilsner its hard to beat. My LHBS charges $8 for a tube of white labs but I find that worth the convenience from time to time between MB runs or when I don't have the forethought to grow up a frozen yeast pellet. Back to the bucket heater discussion, mine has been fully submerged on accident without problems. It does have a safety sensor to make sure you don't dry fire it so your liquid level needs to be maybe 6 in from the bottom of the pot or grain bed. The metal shield protects the grains so you can use it as a poor mans RIMS if you are careful. DIY gets you more power and no safety sensor.
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Jun 23, 2012 03:44
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Jo3sh posted:If you find out, please post the answer here. I have been mystified by this for years. Because god forbid you drink anything other than mass produced Canadian swill. I know some Canadians around Toronto/Sarnia/Tobermory and while they will all garden, farm, and construct everything themselves they won't brew and will take a cold Molson over a homebrew anyday. Canadians are just crazy but I love them.
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Jun 23, 2012 05:13
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Nateron posted:Because god forbid you drink anything other than mass produced Canadian swill. That's the thing though - there's plenty of good craft beer in Canada, too. Last I was in BC, fifteen years ago, there seemed to be a good variety of brewpubs and the like, so it's not like Canadians think Molson and Labatt are all the beer in the world.
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Jun 23, 2012 05:53
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Bruinator posted:I do the morebeer drive a few times a year too. I buy from fiftypoundsack.com from time to time. Their weyermann products cost the same as morebeer after factoring gas. Plus they are delivered straight to my door, saving me a trip to Riverside. The rest of their grains seem more expensive but for Munich or pilsner its hard to beat. I just pay locally for White Labs stuff because I know its fresh. White Labs itself is within a mile and a half of my house but I don't think they sell the vials there.
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Jun 23, 2012 07:13
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Angry Grimace posted:I just pay locally for White Labs stuff because I know its fresh. White Labs itself is within a mile and a half of my house but I don't think they sell the vials there. They don't, which is annoying, but I imagine they have a good relationship with the local shops and not selling on their own premises is part of that deal. It's certainly a bit awkward though to try their yeast variant beers in their own building but then have to drive elsewhere to buy the yeast which makes that beer taste so unique. It'd certainly be convenient to be able to go to their building and know they'll definitely have stock of whatever exotic variant you might be looking for.
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Jun 23, 2012 07:35
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Jo3sh posted:That's the thing though - there's plenty of good craft beer in Canada, too. Last I was in BC, fifteen years ago, there seemed to be a good variety of brewpubs and the like, so it's not like Canadians think Molson and Labatt are all the beer in the world. I know. I'm just generalizing with them. There's a bunch of great beer in Ontario.
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Jun 23, 2012 08:13
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I heard somewhere that it used to be weird with brewing laws in Canada. That you had to take your wine ingredients to a shop and they'd brew it for you and give you the finished product or something? Maybe the paucity of homebrewing is due to that, if it turns out to be true.
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Jun 23, 2012 10:47
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Doing my first outdoor burner mash and wow, this is a lot more nerve racking than doing it on a stove. I can't even see the flame because it's so bright out so I keep worrying the flame went out and the unit is just spewing out propane. Nice and fast boil, though.
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Jun 23, 2012 17:00
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With an outdoor burner, I think as long as it sounds like a jet engine, you can be assured that it's lit. If you just hear a faint hiss, then you may want to check on it. I use a banjo burner thing, and it's loud as hell, even with the regulator turned down pretty low.
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Jun 23, 2012 19:56
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Kaiho posted:I heard somewhere that it used to be weird with brewing laws in Canada. That you had to take your wine ingredients to a shop and they'd brew it for you and give you the finished product or something? Maybe the paucity of homebrewing is due to that, if it turns out to be true. That sort of sounds like a you-brew place. Do you have those south of the border? You go in and pick a beer from the list of beers they make (usually populated by a big list of clones of familiar brands). They prepare the wort for you, but you pitch the yeast so legally you're the one that turned sugar water into alcohol. You come back in 2 weeks and they help you bottle it. I think maybe people in Canada have just been brainwashed into thinking our beer is better than it actually is. They probably dont want to give brewing a shot because how could they ever surpass something like Molson Canadian? (bleh)
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Jun 23, 2012 20:36
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(I'm not in the Americas so was just talking from hearsay). I'm actually in Finland at the moment. My mom called me from the supermarket knowing of my brewing hobby back in London and asked if I wanted some malts they were selling for the making of sahti. Sadly they were 20kg bags, meaning I couldn't fit them with me when I go back but it's interesting that they just sell them in some parts of the country in regular supermarkets.
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Jun 23, 2012 20:42
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Kaiho posted:(I'm not in the Americas so was just talking from hearsay). Back in the 20s and even up through the 70s, when you went to the grocery store, you would find malt extract for cooking (malt extract can of course be used to make malt drinks or other baked goods.) Of course in the 20s, they sold hopped malt extract. You sent away for the cookbook on the back of the package and you would get a bunch of weird recipes for hopped malt extract donuts and such. Two weeks later you would receive a brown, unmarked envelope that told you how to make beer. wattershed posted:They don't, which is annoying, but I imagine they have a good relationship with the local shops and not selling on their own premises is part of that deal. It's certainly a bit awkward though to try their yeast variant beers in their own building but then have to drive elsewhere to buy the yeast which makes that beer taste so unique. It'd certainly be convenient to be able to go to their building and know they'll definitely have stock of whatever exotic variant you might be looking for. Angry Grimace fucked around with this message at 20:52 on Jun 23, 2012 |
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Jun 23, 2012 20:49
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RiggenBlaque posted:Doing my first outdoor burner mash and wow, this is a lot more nerve racking than doing it on a stove. I can't even see the flame because it's so bright out so I keep worrying the flame went out and the unit is just spewing out propane. I had the same experience about 2 weeks ago on my first outdoor attempt. Chickened out and went back to the stove. Gonna give it another try tomorrow, weather permitting. I bought myself a Cascade hop plant today after reading the Homegrown Hops book last night. Does anyone who grows hops have a suggestion on a trellis structure or alternative? I'm not sure how much my neighbors or the city would like seeing the 15-foot poles in my backyard. I do have some 8-foot bamboo poles that might work. Also, what would be a good companion for Cascade? The nursery also had Nugget, Mt. Hood, and Willamette. I tend to brew darker and higher-gravity ales at this point.
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Jun 23, 2012 23:23
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Really hoping someone can help me solve this CO2 maybe-issue... I just put my first beer in my keg, then followed the steps I was given in the keg kit instructions I got from Midwest Brewing. I have a 5 lb CO2 tank, and when I connected the regulator the "high pressure gauge" read 875-900 (don't remember exactly, but I just swapped out my empty for a full tank this morning). I was reading about force carbonating and wanted to try that out. I set the psi to 20, connected the gas line to the gas in post, dropped it in my keezer, and went swimming for a bit. When I got out about 90 minutes later, the high pressure gauge was reading 625. I should note at this point that I sprayed every connection point with Star-San to spot any bubbles, and couldn't see anything. I also disconnected the regulator to the CO2 tank, reapplied pipe tape on the male threads of the CO2 connector, and tried to tighten each part a little more than it was before, which mostly didn't help as I'm rather anal about super-firm connections in the first place. Now here's where I need some help - if that high pressure gauge is anything close to a "here's how much CO2 you have left" gauge, I'll be hosed in about 4-5 hours, yes? Or does that gauge also work off the pressure levels in the keg, and at 20 psi is it the sort of thing where I'd expect to see a fast burn of CO2 as the keg is pressurized, and then a very slow loss of CO2 after that as the keg headspace/beer gets increasingly saturated? I'd have searched more around the internet but I didn't exactly know what to search for...hopefully someone here can help me out, I definitely don't want to fly through a whole tank in a few hours, and I'm worried that if I can't find the problem I'm going to need a new regulator. Not looking to spend more money on things I bought new.
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Jun 24, 2012 02:03
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CO2 cylinders are liquid so the cylinder side gauge is basically a thermometer. I would put lots of money on the fact that you probably had a warm cylinder that you put in the fridge that is now cold. In science talk, the cylinder side gauge will either read the saturation pressure for CO2 at the temperature, or 0 because its empty.
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Jun 24, 2012 02:23
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zedprime posted:CO2 Seconding this, I freaked out on my first co2 tank too. I've been nearly at zero on my (cold) co2 tank for 4 beers now. Jo3sh posted:Grainchat If you have a nice brewery nearby talk to them about getting your group by shipped to their place. Our homebrew club in Maine does so with a super awesome small brewery (Rising Tide). I payed something like 30 cents per lb on wheat malt and Canadian 2-row; it's shocking how much it's worth it. There was a dude in the club who even ordered something like 14 bags all by himself - so it could be worth it if you are crazy enough to order by yourself. On my own brew news - I made a wit beer that rocks face pretty hard using German and Styrian hops. They were on SUPER sale via NB and thought why not give them a whirl. Fantastic aromas and super tasty overall. My take away: Don't fear hops you can't pronounce and/or are unfamilar with.
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Jun 24, 2012 03:05
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zedprime posted:CO2 cylinders are liquid so the cylinder side gauge is basically a thermometer. I would put lots of money on the fact that you probably had a warm cylinder that you put in the fridge that is now cold. Jacobey000 posted:Seconding this, I freaked out on my first co2 tank too. I've been nearly at zero on my (cold) co2 tank for 4 beers now. On one hand, I'm obviously happy that this might actually be working perfectly fine. On the other hand, gently caress the product description/kegging instructions on Midwest Supplies. Thanks guys.
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Jun 24, 2012 03:25
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Cpt.Wacky posted:I had the same experience about 2 weeks ago on my first outdoor attempt. Chickened out and went back to the stove. Gonna give it another try tomorrow, weather permitting. If it makes you feel safer, I found that if you just keep turning up the regulator until the burner sounds like a jet plane (as someone mentioned earlier), that seems to be the way to go. Once it gets to that point it's pretty easy to see the flame, regardless of how bright it is outside.
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Jun 24, 2012 04:15
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Note: Don't try to filter your wort through a paint strainer bag. All it will do is make a mess.
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Jun 24, 2012 04:39
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crazyfish posted:Note: Don't try to filter your wort through a paint strainer bag. All it will do is make a mess. I do it all the time and it works just fine. I just did that like two hours ago. You can't keep the strainer bags unless you're really nutty about cleaning them. They cost like 50 cents a pop, so I just buy more when I brew again. If the beer in question is going into a glass carboy it's going to need to be moved to the bottling bucket first and then to the carboy through a funnel. If it's going into a fermenting bucket directly, I'll just clip the bag to the side and drain the wort out. The only thing I've found that is a bad idea is trying to stick the bag down into the carboy neck and then run the hose through it when its a hoppy beer; the hop material will gather in the bag, but it will be difficult to pull the bag back out of the neck and will leak hops gunk out of the bag into the wort when you try. // In other news, I tried to cool down the water around my fermenting bucket by dropping in an old bag of frozen stir fry veggies I didn't want anymore. Except the bag apparently had a leak so now the water around the bag smells like bell peppers and mushrooms. Angry Grimace fucked around with this message at 05:34 on Jun 24, 2012 |
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Jun 24, 2012 05:18
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Jacobey000 posted:If you have a nice brewery nearby talk to them about getting your group by shipped to their place. I'm definitely going to have to do this. There are a couple of good places near me that are candidates, both of which have known homebrewing sympathies. If I stretch the definition of "nearby," there's a third in the town where I grew up, about 30 miles from where I live now.
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Jun 24, 2012 15:39
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Interest check: if I want to sell around a half dozen (6 or 8 once I find them all) ball lock 5 Gal kegs, is anybody interested in that? Either along with that or separately, anybody interested in buying something like this keggerator? http://stores.kegconnection.com/Detail.bok?no=572 NJ area for pick up, but if you wanted to cover shipping that'd be fine with me. If you don't want to reply, I have PMs and my email is in my profile. Just an interest check for now.
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Jun 24, 2012 20:52
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After posting regularly in the Beer drinking thread for a while, I'm happy to announce I have been gifted a brew kit! It's a basic 5 gal, two buckets thing. My goal is to brew a half decent 7-10% abv stout later this summer as a homecoming gift for my girlfriend's brother, who is coming back to shore from the Merchant Marine. Is that something I could reasonably work up to with by my third or fourth batch? Any advice on how to get a cool cooling setup going for cheap with those plastic tubes? I will not tolerate haziness.
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Jun 24, 2012 23:48
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CalvinDooglas posted:After posting regularly in the Beer drinking thread for a while, I'm happy to announce I have been gifted a brew kit! It's a basic 5 gal, two buckets thing. There isn't anything intrinsically more difficult about an imperial stout than any other beer unless you're making one beyond 11% or so. It might require a more complex extract/grain bill, but that just means it costs more, not that it's harder to make. Obviously, there's tips and tricks to every beer style, but if you get, say, a Northern Brewer kit (or Midwest or Austin Homebrew, same stuff), it's going to come out pretty good and not be difficult at all.
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Jun 25, 2012 00:14
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Angry Grimace posted:There isn't anything intrinsically more difficult about an imperial stout than any other beer unless you're making one beyond 11% or so. It might require a more complex extract/grain bill, but that just means it costs more, not that it's harder to make. Not true re: difficulty, it's actually a lot easier than a traditional decoction-mashed lager. Other than that, you're right - in most cases, making one type of beer is not necessarily more difficult than another.
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Jun 25, 2012 01:06
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You'd probably want to make a yeast starter for beer of that size, but yeah, it's not really that hard at all. Just one little extra step.
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Jun 25, 2012 02:18
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