Philly area Homebrewers

Yeah It's from IKEA. As is most of the stuff in my house...

I'm not crazy about the bottle holder shelf add-ons but it's better than having bottles crammed on shelves in my storage room, laundry room, and a few other places. I might add some more shelves where the kegs are sitting. Im about to bottle roughly 100 bottles of wine plus 50 750ml beer bottles. I'll need way more space. I'll have another 100 bottles of wine right behind that in a few weeks. Guess I should start drinking...

BeerMeDuffMan said:

Anybody in the Philly area know of any bottle swaps? I could be interested in trading stuff from far off distant lands

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I assume you mean commercial swaps and not home brew? I have a bunch of homebrew sours if any one wants to swap

Brewed up a Chimay Grande Reserve Clone tonight. I am really enjoying brewing! Need to get a stool so I am not just standing in my kitchen for 3 hours. My Single hop is tasting better when served ice cold. I'm going to try and go to the next Keystone Homebrewing meeting to have others taste it.

gone_fishing said:

Brewed up a Chimay Grande Reserve Clone tonight. I am really enjoying brewing! Need to get a stool so I am not just standing in my kitchen for 3 hours. My Single hop is tasting better when served ice cold. I'm going to try and go to the next Keystone Homebrewing meeting to have others taste it.

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Wish I could brew, have lbs of hops, probably few hundred pounds of grain and I am stuck tiling, plumbing, etc a bathroom

So I may have a problem. The smack packs didn't swell up. I pitched anyway. I am hoping that it starts bubbling in the next 24 hours.

gone_fishing said:

So I may have a problem. The smack packs didn't swell up. I pitched anyway. I am hoping that it starts bubbling in the next 24 hours.

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They don't always swell. What was the expiration date on the pack you used and what strain was it?

Did you shake? A little CO2 dissolved from the yeast waking up (and eating from the nutrient pack?) won't swell as much until it comes out of solution.

Gitmoe, I could swear it was brand new but I took the trash out so I cannot check. Do they stamp the date it was made on it?

Nevermind...sitting here and I hear glug glug glug behind me!

gone_fishing said:

Nevermind...sitting here and I hear glug glug glug behind me!

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Success!

Yeah, Wyeast packs have the date of manufacture on them. They are best by 3 months after the date on the pack.

Anyone going to the Jenkintown Brew Fest this weekend? There's an Art Fest and Jazz Fest to go along with it, and usually a Bounce Castle for the kids.

This year they've added a homebrew competition, and there's still a couple days to get entries in. (It's not official AHA or BJCP.)

http://jenkintown.net/brew-fest/

I wonder how stiff the competition will be. I've never been interested in entering comps, and I'm still not sure I want to give up that much homebrew and $5 with little chance of winning (pipe-line's a bit dry right now).

The info is confusing to me. Beers will not be judged on 'trueness' of the category (light, amber, dark, specialty) but 'according to the guidelines for that style'. Where does an IPA go (light or amber)? Could some go light and others amber? What about an Amber Session Saison; specialty? BDSA is dark or specialty?

Keystone Hops meeting tomorrow (Thursday 9/19) at 7pm. Meeting is at the Montgomeryville Keystone store. There is free pizza and beer. The "competition" for this month is Amber Ale. Come by if you're bored. I usually stay for these meetings but I'm buried under freelance graphic design projects right now so I'm probably gonna bail on this meeting. They're usually fun meetings. Who doesn't like free pizza....

What's up nerds! Who's brewing this weekend? I'll be too busy at Keystone over the weekend, but brewing on Tuesday. It's wine season! So many grapes.... Anybody make wine too?

Gitmoe said:

What's up nerds! Who's brewing this weekend? I'll be too busy at Keystone over the weekend, but brewing on Tuesday. It's wine season! So many grapes.... Anybody make wine too?

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Not brewing, but my RIS is ready to be racked onto the whiskey/oak/vanilla this weekend. Went from 1.095 down to 1.023 and the hydro samples taste great. Not hot at all, but you can feel the warmth in your chest a little bit. Gonna be great for the winter.

I need to start making wine too.

Bottled my bourbon breakfast RIS and this morning fixed my stuck quad. It started at 1.095 and was stuck at 1.031 for about two weeks now. No amount if repitch or energizer fixed that bugger but it looks like champagne yeast has my back. Last resort would of been an enzyme treatment but that's really a hair above just dumping it.

BeerMeDuffMan said:

and this morning fixed my stuck quad.

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Is that the Westy 12 clone from CSI? I brewed that almost a year ago and it is really coming into its own now. Love that recipe.

It is...I can't figure out why its stuck...I've tried everything. The only thing that I don't know for sure is the viability of the dried pilsner malt that I had used

Try some 3711?

I'm probably be brewing up a Belgian in the next few weeks. Depending on where my mild is, I might try to bottle it Monday with my Belgian/APA. If it's not I'll bottle them both later.

I've read that a lot of people get poor attenuation if they don't follow the fermentation schedule fairly closely. Not sure what your schedule was like, but since you used dry yeast, I doubt you under-pitched

BeerMeDuffMan said:

It is...I can't figure out why its stuck...I've tried everything. The only thing that I don't know for sure is the viability of the dried pilsner malt that I had used

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DME doesn't go bad, does it? As long as you keep it dry it should be good for a year or so.

DoctorMemory said:

DME doesn't go bad, does it? As long as you keep it dry it should be good for a year or so.

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It shouldn't but I didn't take into account the attenuation of DME. I don't think there is that much in unfermentables in DME. It looks like the champagne yeast is doing a good job right now...will have to wait a few more days to take a reading.

GLUB Club meeting tonight if anyone is interested...

We attended, and submitted our American Pale Ale to the competition. The judges sheet returned to us had no comments or suggestions, just a numeric score of 37.5 (out of 50 of course). meh

The beer selections were good for the Fest part. The weather was spectacular, the crowd size and composition was perfect. We have been to several Tastings and Fests from the Navy Yard to Jenkintown... this one was just right.

abarnett said:

Anyone going to the Jenkintown Brew Fest this weekend? There's an Art Fest and Jazz Fest to go along with it, and usually a Bounce Castle for the kids.

This year they've added a homebrew competition, and there's still a couple days to get entries in. (It's not official AHA or BJCP.)

http://jenkintown.net/brew-fest/

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Where do you go for the best prices?

Brewfist said:

We attended, and submitted our American Pale Ale to the competition. The judges sheet returned to us had no comments or suggestions, just a numeric score of 37.5 (out of 50 of course). meh The beer selections were good for the Fest part. The weather was spectacular, the crowd size and composition was perfect. We have been to several Tastings and Fests from the Navy Yard to Jenkintown... this one was just right.

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I was decidedly unimpressed with how the homebrew event was organized. There was zero communication from the organizers: I never got word of when or where the judging was. I didn't even know they had score sheets.

I'm glad I passed on that. You guys would have beaten me anyway.

A few of us in Jenkintown are trying to get together on the 5th to sample some beverages (BYOB) at My Family Cafe. Anyone close by is welcome.

Just received 2 BIAB kits from SWMBO for my birthday from HSHB. I'm in Philly but the Mrs had to have them delivered. Opened the box to find a few copies of Beer Scene, Mid Atlantic Brewing and a yeast poster. Love the little extras that they give you. Granted, they're free but it's the little things that go a long way with customers.

Bring on the brew weekend!

MLBA tonight anyone?

FreddyMar3 said:

MLBA tonight anyone?

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Unfortunately I couldn't make MLBA Thursday. Did you make it? I think we met at John's homebrew tasting a few weeks ago.

Also, I was in the whole foods in Plymouth Meeting on Friday and they had about 30 cases of Founders Breakfast Stout. And $12 growler fills of flower power.

2 things:

1) I wanted to highlight a good local vendor. Madonna's Distributor at Easton and Jenkintown roads in Glenside has good prices on CO2 refills. I got a 5# and a 20# refilled for $30 total (and it's usually $10 to refill just a 5# tank). Be prepared to drop your tanks off and come back 30 minutes later - they stick them in the dry ice cooler to make sure they're cold for the fill. They also sell the 5# tanks for a decent price (I think it's a little less than you'd pay with shipping for a steel tank).

2) I'm looking for recommendations for a good local appliance repair place. I would typically use Jenkintown Electric, and I have no problems with them, but I thought I'd ask here. My $30 Craigslist chest freezer fermentation chamber has stopped getting cold. The compressor runs, and the hot lines get hot, but the cold lines only get slightly cool.

Guys, need some feedback:

Brewed Smashing pumpkin with a minimash of 3# rahr 6 row, 8# pumpkin and 1/2#Briess Caramel 40. Couldn't get OG because I broke the hyrdrometer as I went to test. Brew date was 9/15. Tested 9/25 with a SG of 1.050. 9/27 1.046. Added American Ale #1056 on 27th. Tested 9/29 1.040. 10/5 at 1.030. I am not sure if it's stalled or not. Will test tomorrow but Northern Brewer said I should shoot for 1.020. Do I let it sit another week and test again? I am not even sure if the OG Goal of 1.054 is usable since I used a mini mash. Still 1.030 today (10/6)

Make sure you are correcting for temperature with those readings, and I'd give it more time. If it won't drop, I'd try 3711/Belle Saison, which should be super-attenuators (I know 3711 is, and I might have enough for a starter for you in the fridge).

Finally got settled in from my move and about to break out the brew kettle in the next few weeks. Anyone brewing anything cool?

Im doing 10g of Pumpkin (for somebody else) and 10g of Brown Ale tomorrow.... long double AG brew day.

Bottling imperial rum pumpkin this weekend. The gravity tastings so far are epic.

BeerMeDuffMan said:

Bottling imperial rum pumpkin this weekend. The gravity tastings so far are epic.

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This sounds dreamy!

I'll save you a bottle lol. Dunno what's going to go first...the rum treated pumpkin or my bourbon barrel breakfast stout.

I'm always down for trades! What style would you like in return? I have somewhat of a variety on hand. Oktoberfests ( one is bourbon barrel aged) , roasted jalapeño cream ale, peanut butter imperial stout, röggenbier, and a cascade harvest ale about to be bottled

hungry4hops said:

I'm always down for trades! What style would you like in return? I have somewhat of a variety on hand. Oktoberfests ( one is bourbon barrel aged) , roasted jalapeño cream ale, peanut butter imperial stout, röggenbier, and a cascade harvest ale about to be bottled

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Ditto that man. My bourbon barrel imperial breakfast stout was made with Kona coffee, south american cocoa nubs, tart cherries, 3 ounces of oak cubes soaked in a pint of woodford reserve bourbon and aged for four months. Its just about done carbing up. My pumpkin will be ready in a few more weeks to bottle condition and I would totally be up for a trade.