Amazing new 'speed' brewing technique

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JacktheKnife

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 29, 2005
Messages
344
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2
Location
Texas
Howdy ya'll,


I have trebled my brewing speed,
with one idea I am fixin to tell ya'll about.
It is like the entire homebrewing universe has changed ,
and is continually changing before my eyes,
evolving as it were,
even as I write this.
An exciting brewing technique which is so simple,
I can't believe I have been brewing for 15 years and this one thing has never occured to me.
{I am from Texas}
But water...
Where does your water come from?

Water ...
For 15 years I have endeavored to 'brew my own'
in as cheaply of a manner as possible
just on principle.
I think of the Papazian book as the bible of homebrewing and it is.
I even heard an interview with the author of :
'The complete joy of homebrewing'
just the other day,
and it was frankly 'beyond me'.
He is a homebrewing genius and although
'Joy of brewing'
is twenty years old,
more than any other,
the book makes me think.
I don't believe Papazian boiled his water,
just his wort.
And I have used unboiled tap water to brew,
but for as long as I can remember...
I have always boiled my water.
{the clorine as well as the sterilization}
It tastes better.

It takes me 8 hours to brew a batch and it always has.
For 15 years,
I make good knives
and I brew good beer
has always been a credo of mine.
And I always have.
But as Josey Wales said:
something about,
"Its more like old habits"

I was in the Dallas 'Homebrew headquarters'
shopping and mentioned in answer to a question,
8 hours, it takes me 8 hours to brew a batch.
I can rerack 2 batches in a day,
bottle 2 batches a day too,
but brewing,
what with boiling all that 6-7 gallons of water,
and getting drunk and listening to music,
and a mans gotta eat...
and take care of his critters,
8 hours,
it takes me 8 hours to brew a batch of:
'8Lb Hammerbeir'.

Old Kelly, the owner said from the back of the store:
"Knife, how can it take you 8 hours to brew a batch?"
"You have been brewing for 15 years!"
I told old Kelly:
I boil all my water to get rid of the clorine,
and to sterilize the water thye better thye homebrew to be.
Kelly said:
"You idiot, use .50 a gallon bottled water,
you are spend more than that on propane."
8 hours,
it shouldn't take more than 5 max !!!

So boys,
I wanted to pass this valuable information along.
Bottled water is good xxxx !
Better than tap water,
and faster than boiling 100 gallons on your stove every year.
Use it !
Old Papazian recommened bleach,
but then Idophor didn't even exist then did it?
Ya live and learn.

I brewed 10 gallons,
two batches yesterday !
In 6 hours,
easily.
I could have brewed three !
I am a brewing 'Knife'
and I owe it to an idea
and ideas are free.

Thank you

J. Winters Knife
and Sandymay
 
I've only been brewing a few months and I have been using 3 gallons of bottled water and 2 gallons for the wort. I have a well with a holding tank so I wouldnt even try using that without boiling. I once opened the lid of the tank and a frog was doing the back stroke in it so there is no telling what kind of critters live in the water just waiting to grow in a good batch of beer.
 
so boil just enough water to make the wort then add the bottled water after the boil?
 
I used unboiled tap water and the beer tastes great! I don't notice any chlorine in the flavor. If the tap water tastes good on it's own the beer will too. It takes me 3 hours max to brew a 5 gallon batch.
 
I use bottled spring water, 79cents/gal at the grocery store. If I need to, I'll mix in some tap water that's been through my inline filter on my fridge dispenser. I've never heard of pre-boiling water before.
 
The pre-boiling has been mentioned in some articles that I was reading before coming here and starting my own brews. I'm currently drinking my very first brew and you want to guess what all it has in it? It was getting late, about 0300, I was tired and I said screw this, as I didn't have enough time to run to Walmart for the water, so I grabbed everything and anything.....it has about 1 gallon of my daughters distilled Nursery Water, 10 drinking water bottles, and the rest, tap water. Brew is drinkable, but could be better IMO.
 
Ol' Grog said:
The pre-boiling has been mentioned in some articles that I was reading before coming here and starting my own brews. I'm currently drinking my very first brew and you want to guess what all it has in it? It was getting late, about 0300, I was tired and I said screw this, as I didn't have enough time to run to Walmart for the water, so I grabbed everything and anything.....it has about 1 gallon of my daughters distilled Nursery Water, 10 drinking water bottles, and the rest, tap water. Brew is drinkable, but could be better IMO.

Odds are that the water's not the problem, though. It's just now barely carbonated, right?
 
For my first brew I bought 6 one gallon purfied water jugs for 1.15 a peice. After that i saved the gallon jugs I orignally used and now use the water purifying machine that most grocery stores have convieniently located by the front entrance. A gallon of purfied water from these machines costs 25 cents thats just as good as any name brand. just my 2 .01's.

-mora man:rockin: :rockin: :ban: :rockin:
 
It's less than $4 for costco's 6 gallon case of water. Works great. If you do your boil with 3gals tap water and add three gals bottled water to the fermentor, you'll get about 5 gals total volume and will only spend an extra $2 for water.
 
My advice:

Have your tap water tested, and use a water filter to remove anything you don't want in it. Heck with buying jugs of spring water and such! Sounds like a logistical nightmare:drunk:

Get a filter and live happier:eek:

I don't filter my city water, it tastes great anyway and any nasty stuff is killed in the boil anyway
 
Actually, it is carbonated quite well. I didn't know what to expect with my hodge-podge water use. Not bad. But not exactly what I wanted either. I'll find one. I will keep having to force myself to "try" other homemade brews....no problem with that.
 
wildcatgrad7 said:
For my first brew I bought 6 one gallon purfied water jugs for 1.15 a peice. After that i saved the gallon jugs I orignally used and now use the water purifying machine that most grocery stores have convieniently located by the front entrance. A gallon of purfied water from these machines costs 25 cents thats just as good as any name brand. just my 2 .01's.


I thought about doing that myself but I was wondering about sanitization.
I figured I'd be putting water into unsanitized bottles..........if that matters:confused:

I've been using bottled spring water at 75-85 cents per gallon.

Tommy
 
Brewno,
I was thinking the same thing,
about the plastic water jugs sitting around.

I let the last dozen dry, and replaced the tops.
I was wondering if Idophor-ing them out and rinsing with 'bottled water',
right before I go fill them at the 'water store' out in the parking lot of the Kroger, would be helpful.
Hmmmm

Or just drying and replacing the top???

Or, Idophoring three 5 gallon carbouys,
rinsing and using the 'big-uns' for the water haul?
That sounds good if they weren't so dern heavy.
I could load and unload them with the wheel barrow!~


J. Knife
 
homebrewer_99 said:
I've used tap water filtered through a PUR filter for years...(yes, I change out the filter...):D

You know that you can use the filter a few times....When its done, pop out, and put back in. It will reset itself. I reused one 4 times once, and the water still had zero Chlorine smell.

Cheers.
 
JacktheKnife said:
Or, Idophoring three 5 gallon carbouys,
rinsing and using the 'big-uns' for the water haul?
That sounds good if they weren't so dern heavy.
I could load and unload them with the wheel barrow!~


J. Knife

J.Knife, that got me to thinking. I posted these links before in a thread where someone was asking about transferring wort in the back of their pickup truck after brewing at a friend's house. Either of these could be sanitized with Iodophore and would be much easier to handle than a carboy. Still heavy, but not as fragile as a carboy, and would hold up to wheel barrowing.

five gallon plastic collapsible water bottles
six gallon Jerry can

The first option, the collapsible container, is not even expensive when you consider how long it would last. A couple of these would do fine, I think.
 
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