Any homebrewers out there? Let us know what's currently fermenting in the pot.
Mother's in the kitchen washing out the jugs,
Sister's in the pantry bottling the suds,
Father's in the cellar mixin' up the hops,
Johnny's on the front porch watchin' for the cops.
i'm thinking that's a lot overkill.
Everything went OK, except for the vorlauf. I only got about 3/5 of the volume that I should have. Dagnabbit. I made up the difference with DME & bottled water. I think I didn't add enough water to the mash.
It's not as hard as it looks, it's just time-consuming. Mostly babysitting stuff, which isn't bad on a nice Saturday morning.
Difference I noticed -- I have total control over the product now... and my bill for making batches is reduced by about 40%. Paying someone else to extract the malt sugar is about the most expensive component in homebrew, and it's really no big deal to do it yourself.
I wonder how many batches you would need to reach the cost of additional equipment vs the per batch savings break-even point?
I know one sure way to find out! :-)
You go first, I'll wait here.
(once we all get on the kits)
I haven't been tracking the price of the kits to date. They generally are about $25, give or take $5.
Jollymon brewed last night with his new starter kit. Wonder how it went...
Well, I've been a little slow in posting. I brewed on Wednesday the 19th for the first time, but then spent most of the next three days at the Xcel for the WCHA final five hockey tournament.
So the brewing went really well. It was a completely new experience to brew on my own instead of being a sidekick with several others. I actually had to try and remember things on my own!
We got bubbles in the fermenter sometime between the first and second day. Hard to keep track of when you're away at hockey games so much.
Today the bubbles seem to be slowing down, but I haven't read far enough in my book to know how long they're supposed to last or anything.
Anyway, that's the update for now. More to come so stay tuned.
Yay!
Huzzah! Cheers! Mozaltov! Prosit!
Good on you.
Frosti, when is the bottle conditioning up on the Nut? this is going to be the hard part of homebrewing, waiting for the finished product. I'm short at home last night, looking around, spy the bottle conditioning Nut Brown and think "So what exactly is wrong with this beer? Will it kill ya'?" Discipline and iron will (yeah right) held firm. :-)
No no, it's not a poison, it's more like a drug. It could wear off in time, like it did with me eh?
I don't actually recall when that will be ready. What date did I put on the label? If you drink it early, it's kind of like eating fruit that's not quite ripe. You get the general idea of what it's going to taste like, but it will be better if you wait.
Purchased today:
Specialty Grains
 1 lbs. Dingemans Caramel Pils
Fermentables
 6 lbs. Gold Malt Syrup
Boil Additions
 1 oz. Chinook (60 min)
1 oz. Cascade (1 min)
Yeast
 Wyeast #1056 American Ale Yeast. Used commercially for several classic American ales. This strain ferments dry, finishes soft, smooth and clean, and is very well balanced. Flocculation: low–medium. Apparent attenuation: 73-77%. Optimum temperature: 60-72.
Making and Extra Pale Ale. Yeast pack has been smacked. I plan to brew this Saturday.
So, is that not a kit then?
Sounds like you're going to just follow a recipie, eh?
I can wait on the Nut brown. I will just have to go purchase more commercial beers. :-)
What about bottling for the porter?
No, it's a kit. I just listed the ingredients. The first non-kit I want to attempt is that John Courage-clone recipe that I showed you.
I will probably bottle the porter on Saturday as well, if I have time and can keep the kiddies out of the process. Nancy has a writing class all afternoon, so I'll be on my own for child care.
That warning firmly in place, anybody who wants to drop by is invited.
I've got the hip waders, the foam clue bat, a twelve pack...
Am I missing anything? :-)
I'll confer with the better half and see if we have anything planned. I could use a brewfest after this week. :-)
Maybe if we feed the kids beer they'll nap all afternoon.
I think that may be illegal in this state...
So, you figure in a tippy cup or what?
Maybe I'll medicate them with a big old dose of everybody's favorite sedative, Televison!
I'm a few days late from my original goal, but we finally got the Raspberry wheat transferred from the primary to the secondary today. We tried a sample and are encouraged by our findings. It's got a very nice aroma and taste, allbeit a little immature. I couldn't believe the amount of crap left in the primary!
It's an amazing amount of glop, isn't it?
So what's the story with the EPA? Did it really go boom?
I was almost as gullible as you. (What a maroon! A gull-a-bull!) Frosti is a close watcher of the gregorian calendar, likes to play those practical jokes as the opportunity arises.
Bahsterd. :-)
I tried the nut brown last night, it's quite good. Effervesces like mad, a little hop flavor - lighter brown than some nuts I've seen. I'm going to give the rest another week or two and see what happens...
Yes, the EPA is fine, no explosions or boil-overs. April fools folks! Sowwy. ;)
Fun with beer and Mormons!
These guys have been provoking the Mormons for years. Their current beer listis home to the one and only Polygamy Porter. They have billboards advertising PP with such slogans as "Why have just one?" and "Bring home a six-pack for the wives."
I just purchased some hop rhizomes! Got four Cascade hop rhizomes, and am going to give growing hops a shot. Actually, the mother-in-law offered to try growing them for me, so all I'm really doing is bringing them to her this weekend.
I bought Cascade, Goldings, Hallertauer, and Wilamette. I don't know how much yield you get from one rhizome, but I'm told that the first year is basically root establishment, anyway.
That's what I've heard too Andy, don't expect any flowers in the first season.
It should be interesting to see what kind of results we get. I'm growing them up here in MN, and if memory serves you're in a warmer climate.
I suspected (strongly) that he was pulling my leg when he made the comment about mopping up the spilled beer and put it back in the fermentor. I didn't know if he was telling the truth about the EPA exploding though. That would've been ugly.
Very nice hops root stuff.
All is well. Just returned from a weekend in the country and a visit to the casino. I was the big winner. I arrived with $100, and left with about 40, after buying drinks and giving the wife $20. Helps that I only played about $15.
Man, if you've ever thought about starting a brewery (and who hasn't?), thismay make you think twice.
stomp on the ashes now, why don't you? :)
yeah, starting small businesses is never easy, and rarely profitable. If you want to be overworked, underpaid, and have fun doing it though I can't think of a much better way.
At least you get to drink on the job.
May 3 is National Homebrew Day!
I went down to Northern Brewer today and bought a bottle tree. Seemed like a cool toy to have.
There's all sorts of cool toys to have. One of the fringe benefits of the hobby.
So Sparky. You never did tell me, what did Jack think of the Nut Brown Ale?
I got the Raspberry wheat bottled tonight. I used the bottle tree to drain the bottles after washing/sanitizing and it worked great. I also got a pressure bottle washer that fits on the faucet. That thing is also cool.
I racked from the secondary fermenter to the bottling bucket to see if it would give me a clearer beer than bottling directly from the secondary. We shall see.
I also used Phil's bottle filler that attaches to the spigot of the bottling bucket. It came with the cheap starter kit that I bought. It's a good concept, but the thing leaked a little bit so you had to work hard to keep a bottle underneath it as much as possible and keep a few paper towels underneath the bottling operation.
The raspberry extract was added at this time. It seemed like a VERY small amount of raspberry in relation to the beer.
The black capper that came with the starter kit SUCKS! I will be replacing it with the red one before the next batch.
I tried a small sample before the priming sugar or extract was added. I could definitely taste the wheat. It tasted green, but it also confirmed that the beer hasn't been spoiled or anything (yet).
I'm looking forward to the first taste...oh so far away.
That's all for now. Later-
Remember the Leinenkugel's tour? They had that huge brewkettle of Honey-Weiss, but they only dumped in about 5 gallons of honey? Maybe it's the same type of deal.
Lunger and I were discussing that today. Homebrewing teaches patience. And, since it takes weeks for a batch to be ready, you've got to plan ahead. I'm thinking of putting it on my resume as an orginizational tool. ;)
haven't checked this page in a few days.
Jack thought the Nut was good, said he personally would have dry-hopped it to give it a little more character, but thought it a very worthy effort. :)
I still have a couple bottles of the London Pale Ale that he gave me, thought I would bring them next time we got together.
I priced out the starter kits at Northern Brewers, think I'm going to try to persuade the wife to go with the intermediate kit.
Has anyone else tried the Porter yet? I tried one last week and left the rest conditioning. A little... sour tasting? Hoping the extra bottle time will improve it.
I have not tried the Porter yet, I'm still getting ready to break into the Nut. Two people tried the Nut this weekend, and it was well received by both, so I'm cautiously optimistic.
I need to check on the undersparged Weissbier...
I know the feeling. I've got two batches that should be transferred to secondary, and one batch of bottles that need to be labelled. Yet, here I sit, wasting time on the 'net.
We know you have the new laptop with wireless web... :)
I've offered to come help, ye ungrateful wretch!
My hop rhizomes have been safely delivered to the mother-in-law. It's all in her hands now...
I think it will work better if she plants them. Like in the ground.
<cheesy grin>
Cool. What varieties did you get?
All Cascade.
Beer update. Brewed a Mild Ale on Saturday with Sparky. We also bottled the American Lager, which was an adventure. After brewing the Mild, we realized that all my fermenters were full. So, we bottled the lager without transferring to a secondary. Now I know why I transfer. When adding the priming sugar I stirred up so much sediment it was crazy. Bottled, and it's awfully hazy. We'll see what happens.
I learned my lesson. Tonight I transferred the EPA to secondary. I also found a deal on carboys, a 5 gallon and a 7 gallon for $30. Now I gotta pick them up way down in Shakopee.
My hops are growing. Might get a few cones this year.
Lucky you Andy! I talked to the mother-in-law on Sunday. No hop sprouts yet.
I think it'll be fine, just have a bit more in the bottom of the bottles, might have to cut the pour off a bit sooner. Live and learn, eh?