Home Brewing Thread III: Return of the Son of Home Brewing Thread

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Imasalmon: Mar 19, 2003; Meet me in the Hall of Fame

Nateron posted:

Whats the best way to do this? Use a picnic tap? A straight tube with a clip valve? I bottled before using sugar but if you can run it out of a keg I'd like to try it.

The best way is a counter pressure bottle filler that let's you flush the bottle with co2 and achieve equal pressure between the bottle and the keg before beginning the fill. A very easy and only marginally less best way is to use a picnic ap, a bottling wand, and a stopper the size of the neck of the bottle (pretty sure it is a number 2). Run the bottling wand through the stopper, cram one end int the picnic tap, cram the other end into a bottle (ensuring a tight seal with the stopper), and open the tap all the way. When it stops filling (in my experiencing, about a third of the bottle), gently squeeze the stopper to release some of the pressure in the bottle so that it continues to fill. Pretty simple process.

# ¿ Dec 19, 2012 20:27

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# ¿ May 17, 2024 01:40

Imasalmon: Mar 19, 2003; Meet me in the Hall of Fame

baquerd posted:

I just won a million dollars in the lottery and I want a kettle blinged out. Is there anything better than Blichmann's BoilerMaker?

I am a huge fan of the Sabco Brew-Magic, and it's kettles.

# ¿ Dec 29, 2012 20:28

Imasalmon: Mar 19, 2003; Meet me in the Hall of Fame

BrewSmith can calculate the strikewater amount and temperature based on the mash schedule, type, and equipment you put in.

# ¿ Jan 3, 2013 20:30

Imasalmon: Mar 19, 2003; Meet me in the Hall of Fame

Nice brewday on Sunday.

14lbs Rauch Malt
1 oz Hallertau
A bigass starter of Wyeast 2042

Happily bubbling away at 50 degrees.

# ¿ Jan 15, 2013 18:33

Imasalmon: Mar 19, 2003; Meet me in the Hall of Fame

baquerd posted:

14 pounds of smoked malt. Let us know if it's drinkable, I'm curious because I've done 15% of the grist and that lent a pronounced and noticeable smokiness.

I made this one before. It is delicious. But I really enjoy rauchbiers. To the point that I have plans to experiment with smoking my own malt.

# ¿ Jan 15, 2013 19:27

Imasalmon: Mar 19, 2003; Meet me in the Hall of Fame

Leighton posted:

I've been bartending for a few years and learned a lot about beer in the process. Now I think I'm finally ready to give home brewing a shot. I am prepared to spend a decent amount of money, but I want to start relatively reasonable, and then upgrade heavily once I'm ready to switch to all grain.

To start I think I am going to buy the following:

- Starter Kit
- Kettle
- Burner

I also need to get an immersion chiller, but I haven't picked one out yet. My intention is to start here, and then upgrade to a really nice 15 gallon once I graduate from extract, and make the economy 10 gallon in to my sparge water pot.

If there's one thing I've learned about this subject, it's that everyone seems to be in disagreement and have their own way of doing things. That being said, do you guys have any suggestions on how I could improve these purchases?

I don't see a hydrometer listed with that kit, so you should make sure it includes one. I also prefer bucket fermenters, since they are easier to clean, easier to carry, easier to add things to. Here is an alternative kit that uses a bucket type fermenter and has a hydrometer.

In my opinion, you might as well just purchase a 15 gallon kettle from the start. You don't necessarily need an extra tank for storing the sparge water, although it is a very nice thing to have. Check out Homebrew Finds for deals on kettles. If you go with a ported kettle, get a welded kettle if you can. The difference it made for me when I got my kettles welded was incredible. This kettle from MoreBeer is pretty good looking.

You can definitely get a cheaper burner. Blichmann makes good stuff, but they sure do charge a premium for it. Any burner rated to 55K btu will work, but I love the heck out of the 210k btu's my banjo burner can put out.

None of your selections are bad, though.

Imasalmon fucked around with this message at 16:26 on Jan 17, 2013

# ¿ Jan 17, 2013 16:24

Imasalmon: Mar 19, 2003; Meet me in the Hall of Fame

I don't use fermcap. Never have. Even when I was using a smaller kettle. A spoon for stirring and/or a spray bottle of cold water will fight that down pretty easily.

And can you link me to the info about the banjo only being in the 60k btu range? I can't find that anywhere.

Imasalmon fucked around with this message at 21:10 on Jan 17, 2013

# ¿ Jan 17, 2013 21:02

Imasalmon: Mar 19, 2003; Meet me in the Hall of Fame

Any regulator that you want. Run the output from the regulator into something like this, and then run a line off of each of the outputs from it. You can have a keg carbing and a keg serving at the same time. This is if you want them to be at the same pressure. If you are wanting higher pressure on one keg than the other, you would need something like this.

edit - Man, you guys are fast.

Imasalmon fucked around with this message at 20:31 on Feb 7, 2013

# ¿ Feb 7, 2013 20:28

Imasalmon: Mar 19, 2003; Meet me in the Hall of Fame

Daedalus Esquire posted:

10 gallons of brown. 30 minutes left on boil...might not make it...so very cold...tell my family I died making beer.

Seriously. gently caress this weather, right now I've got my garage door half closed and a piece of plywood covering most of the gap so I still have a little ventilation for the burner and I'm still dying here. 19 degrees is not fun brewing weather.

On the plus side, I'll end with 5 gallons brown, and 5 gallons for an oud brune on jolly pumpkin dregs, but brewing today was a bad choice.

I'm laying in a hammock, enjoying this lovely 70 degree weather. You should move.

# ¿ Feb 18, 2013 00:38

Imasalmon: Mar 19, 2003; Meet me in the Hall of Fame

LeeMajors posted:

I'm about to purchase a dudadiesel plate chiller, and I've been sort of working through pickup points in my keggle to decide a few things.

First of all, I'm concerned about cleaning the plate chiller, which I assume is done by flushing with clean water through the hot ports, then sanitizing on brewday with whatever sanitizer I choose.

My concerns with sanitation have made me rethink my pickup point inside my kettle. As it is now, I have a dip tube to the bottom of the dish. I usually pickup lots of coagulated proteins, hop sludge, etc. because of this placement, and filter through into my fermenters. When I begin cooling outside of the kettle, however, I'd like to move that pickup point higher on the dish so I can whirlpool out of a lot of those solids. I've thought of filtering the end of my dip tube, but worry about impeding flow through there should precipitated solids collect on the screen.

Does anyone here have experience with plate chillers? Are any of these even valid concerns?

You will need to filter in some way, since it is relatively easy to clog a plate chiller. Things like a hop taco or a hop stopper work well with a dip tube.

Cleaning them, well, I have seen a few ways. I generally backflush mine until it runs clear, then run it forwards to make sure it stays clear. Optionally, you can toss it in the oven on self clean which should destroy anything left in it. There is a lot of argument over whether this is safe on the chiller, though. Flush it out really good, sanitize it before use, and you should be fine.

# ¿ Feb 18, 2013 23:04

Imasalmon: Mar 19, 2003; Meet me in the Hall of Fame

Garanimals4Seniors posted:

Oh gently caress me, the stopper is stuck in my Better Bottle and I want to check my gravity. I pushed it down too far because it kept popping out, but now I have nothing to grab. I know I'm not the first bonehead to do this, so how do I get it out? Sanitized Allen wrench?

E: Allen wrench does not work, I think I'm going to try to cut it in half and push it inside without scratching the neck of the carboy.

The resultant crumbs from the stopper will be a nightmare. take a screw, screw it into the stopper, and use pliers to grab onto the screw. Do not screw all the way through the stopper. Or use a corkscrew.

# ¿ Feb 21, 2013 03:14

Imasalmon: Mar 19, 2003; Meet me in the Hall of Fame

Maybe the lid on one of the fermenters was a bit loose.

# ¿ Mar 17, 2013 15:06

Imasalmon: Mar 19, 2003; Meet me in the Hall of Fame

Saint Darwin posted:

edit: Swinging things back to something I said pages ago, looking at the mini-fridge we aren't using right now, I don't think the standard fermentation bucket will fit, and my girlfriend is too nervous about the fullsize fridge from the 60s we have in the basement to let me plug it in and use that, which means that I really have no idea how I am going to brew after this batch unless I keep doing it at my friend's house, which is a bit difficult as he has 3 kids and is insane most days.

I use a mini fridge as a fermentation chamber and it works fine. I had to remove the plastic inside the door, and chisel out some of the foam where the top of the bucket was impacting it, though.

# ¿ Mar 19, 2013 15:58

Imasalmon: Mar 19, 2003; Meet me in the Hall of Fame

Jo3sh posted:

In my case, adding cheese only increases the laxative effect. Lactose intolerance. But goddamn, I love smoked cheddar.

ripened cheeses, like cheddar, contain so little lactose, you might be alright with them. if not, go for a solid, aged cheese. processed cheeses are crazy with the lactose, though. American cheese is often high on lactose content.

# ¿ Apr 1, 2013 23:49

Imasalmon: Mar 19, 2003; Meet me in the Hall of Fame

Jo3sh posted:

This is actually parallel with my experience in that young or soft cheeses cause me far more trouble than old or firm cheeses. But why let the truth get in the way of a good ~~line~~ poop joke?

you might not have known, and had been depriving yourself of delicious cheese. I never joke about cheese.

As an aside, my 100% smoked malt lager is done and delicious. If anyone wants to try it, I am feeling generous and will send out a bottle. PM me.

Imasalmon fucked around with this message at 00:04 on Apr 2, 2013

# ¿ Apr 2, 2013 00:01

Imasalmon: Mar 19, 2003; Meet me in the Hall of Fame

Jacobey000 posted:

Gratzer I split with a dude in my club is kegged at his place and I cannot wait to pull a growler of it. Which smoked malt did you use?

100% Weyerman Rauchmalt

# ¿ Apr 2, 2013 03:27

Imasalmon: Mar 19, 2003; Meet me in the Hall of Fame

Beyond that, active yeast are incredibly good at cleaning up oxidation flavors. If you manage to somehow over aerate at a high temperature, your fermentation should take care of the of flavors. Even beyond that, you need to aerate your wort before fermentation begins to ensure a healthy environment for the yeast, so hsa makes no conceptual sense.

Not to mention that thinking that you can over oxygenate your wort through agitation when it is warm is completely stupid considering the need for a healthy, rolling boil.

# ¿ Apr 5, 2013 05:30

Imasalmon: Mar 19, 2003; Meet me in the Hall of Fame

ChickenArise posted:

Through either laziness or inattention (or ridiculous levels of dry hopping), I occasionally end up with some dry hop material in my keg leading to a clogged poppet. Any goons have experience with using a Surescreen or something similar on the dip tube?

Wrap a nylon or muslin bag on your siphon. Our some cheese cloth.

# ¿ May 5, 2013 20:21

Imasalmon: Mar 19, 2003; Meet me in the Hall of Fame

I brewed up a sessionable cucumber blonde ale for my summer beer this year, and discovered, to my dismay, that the pressure relief valve on the corny keg I used is leaky. Sucks to lose a nearly full bottle of co2. Oh well, a quick trip to get it refilled, and I can report that this cucumber blonde is delicious. A perfect beer for the upcoming 110 degree days of summer.

# ¿ Jun 3, 2013 07:52

Imasalmon: Mar 19, 2003; Meet me in the Hall of Fame

Thufir posted:

Fridge update: I did manage to bend the freezer out of the way successfully but even with that out of the way and the door stuff cut off the door still won't close on my bucket(I guess I could have measured that before I started cutting stuff but ). I'm thinking about making a collar to bump the door out a few inches.

I took the door shelving off, then cut away a bit of the insulation where the top of the bucket was contacting it in my mini fridge

# ¿ Jun 13, 2013 17:36

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# ¿ May 17, 2024 01:40

Imasalmon: Mar 19, 2003; Meet me in the Hall of Fame

The real best way to create a bacon beer is to use hickory smoked malt. Leave the actual bacon out of it.

# ¿ Jun 21, 2013 15:15

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Goons with Spoons > Home Brewing Thread III: Return of the Son of Home Brewing Thread

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