Syracuse, NY area - Group Grain Buy

Very cool ride Jhenderson!

Picked up:

Chrisp522
Clef051
DannSchuler
jhenderson27
FL Brewer
rustbucket
BrewsCambell
kzhusker
stunsm

Pending Pick up:
FarmerJoe
Billie
Bierhaus15


I think this is current - if I screwed that up let me know.

Also - big thanks again for the sampler brews FL Brewer, certainly not a requirement, but much appreciated!

FYI - if you plan on picking up today - give me a ring or text. I have to run some errands this morning afternoon, so I won't be around all day.

Thanks Cidah. Figured id show what i piss my time and money away on other than homebrewing.

Sorry Cidah, stopped over today, guess I should have read your post about not being home first. My bad! I probably won't have another day off until next sunday, is that a problem with my stuff being there until then?

Billie - very sorry about that! I got roped into some stuff with the wife. The grain at my place is fine as long as you need to leave it there. It will just hang out in my garage on some pallets

Thanks Cidah, the garage is fine with me. I'll PM you later this week as soon as I know my schedule for sure.

I realize I'm way late to all of this, but is there any future DME group buys in the works?

It'll probably be a bit longer before another round. We just did 2 orders back to back pretty much. There will surely be more in the near future though I'm sure. I see your location says Boston though, I'm sure there has to be some group buys closer to your area somewhere in here. I've seen a central Mass group buy, there's probably something closer.

All true, however your group buy appears pretty active and I'm in Syracuse many times a year since I married a Syracusian. I'll keep my eyes open for others. Thanks!

Hey cidah anychance you could show me a pic of your crushed grain for me to compare to. I think i got a perfect crush but a compairison never hurts.

If you are willing to wait until this weekend I could probably get a pic of the crush (not that mine is perfect - ha)

Yah shoot me a pic. I might crush a little tonight and text you a pic? You ok with that?

Yeah that is totally fine - I think I might be brewing Sunday, so pending on if that turns out as planned, I can get you a pic Sat/Sunday, prob will crush grain the day before. I might even be able to get a nice close up with my wife's serious SLR canon camera.

BrewDiver said:

All true, however your group buy appears pretty active and I'm in Syracuse many times a year since I married a Syracusian. I'll keep my eyes open for others. Thanks!

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I will put you on my "contact list" when the next order pops up. I do think it will be probably end of summer before it goes down again. Even I am choking on how much grain I have in reserve. Now that is saying something!

You can never have to much grain. Wish i bought mkre specialties.

jhenderson27 said:

You can never have to much grain. Wish i bought mkre specialties.

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Yeah that was a good move I thought this time around. Now I am going to the LHBS for a random few ounces of roasted barley, or some other tidbit. Nice to have C40, C60, C80, 120, choc, black patent sitting in my back pocket

Quick Pick Up Status

Picked up:

Chrisp522
Clef051
DannSchuler
jhenderson27
FL Brewer
rustbucket
BrewsCambell
kzhusker
stunsm
Bierhaus15
Billie

Pending Pick up:
FarmerJoe





Farmerjoe BD-BLCK 0.334
Farmerjoe GW-C60 0.334
Farmerjoe GW-C80 0.334
Farmerjoe GW-C120 0.334

hey cidah, im going to have to trade you on your arrogant bastard before i do another one.. i tasted mine tonight.. i don't think its very similar... but this alcohol is strong in it! but its not bad either.. i think my taste buds are shot, because it doesn't seem all that bitter... but it might be just me and diluted with the alcohol

plus that hefe is ready to go... maybe by the time may comes around we can do a quick six pack exchange when your leaving work or something

Yeah that could work, mine still hasn't come around yet, carbing it just now. We will see how it turns out! Would love to try that hefe, plan on doing a blood orange hefe actually, but think I will do ed wort's as well. Two summer hefe's

thats good, i think mine need at least another week of carb as well... right now im trying to find some good hefe/pilsner glasses... target has a couple (4 pack) same thing as these

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001D64IB2/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

but this one on amazon for the same price you get two extra glasses + i have amazon prime due to being free to students... so free two day shipping!

but that hefe, the sample from taking the gravity level was really good... it had a lot of banana flavor!

jhenderson27 said:

Yah shoot me a pic. I might crush a little tonight and text you a pic? You ok with that?

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Crap man - forgot to get a pic of the crush. We had a ton to bottle up and clean up, keg up etc. It got lost in the transition.

I do know that we are getting great efficiency though, I would guess close to the 80% range. Recipe was built for 1.055 S.G. at 75% efficiency and our wort ended up at just under 1.060 if not 1.060. Additionally, we ended up with almost an extra gallon of wort.

knocked out a 10G of moose drool this weekend. Next weekend I am shooting for doing 20-30 gallons if I can swing it. Plan is back to back batches and maybe two brew days. After that, I will be busy with spring stuff, so brewing will fall to the back burner, so to speak. I have quite a pipeline working with my buddy.

Planned:
1. Blood orange Heffe
2. Rye IPA
3. TBD (Torpedo or another red ale I want to try.)

man, you have a crap load of brew going.. im putting together a smoked rye ipa right now.. im ordering the few things i need next week (hops and smoked grain)

rustbucket said:

man, you have a crap load of brew going.. im putting together a smoked rye ipa right now.. im ordering the few things i need next week (hops and smoked grain)

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Have a lot of grain to get through! My pipeline is looking fan freakin tastic with some very decent selection. Remember - I am splitting up all my batches though

I found i can crush further. I got like 73% based on 75%. Im gonna crush a little further on next batch. All goes well and tastes great so i couldnt care about a % number yah know.

Yeah my corona knock off is basically torqued up as tight as it can move (within reason) for the grind. Never had a stuck sparge and efficiency is above 75. I am really only looking to be above 70%, the rest is just gravy.

Efficiency is just a number. You plan to your number so you don't end up at 1.090 when you are shooting for 1.060. As soon as you dial in efficiency, your then dial in all your grain bills. Doesn't matter if you are at 60% or 88% as long as you get repeatable results (you just less grain use the more efficient you are).

Speaking of consistency - check this out. My electric build is coming any day now!!

See page 28 for the almost completed control box pics:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f170/electric-burners-any-builders-out-there-228720/index28.html

my crusher that i built... im not consistently seeing 80% or better

last night i geeked out and started to do the percentages and making a scatter plot in excel to see what my trend line will be over the next few batches... but i need to have more data points... so my next two or three will be in there as well...

my excel spread sheet just keeps growing with data.. and things of that sort

then i compared them on a basis of LHBS (sunset) im seeing 10-12% increase in eff.

I am seeing the same. Was getting 60% with sunset then well over 70% first time on my own crush

yeah, so couple more times that i see 80 percent or better.. ill be backing down how much grain i use... this results in 1 lb less grain used, which means enough by summers end for one more batch out of all the grain i bought! ha!

Now you're going to make me want to go buy a hydrometer to replace the one I snapped in half months ago and be a nerd too haha. I should though, just to see what my crush's efficiency has been.

haha, im a nerd when it comes to excel... (could be because i use it for everything, especially in school.. stupid engineering) but i was taking pre-boil gravity to see what my eff out of my mash-tun were, plus brew house efficiency.. exct.. i take every piece of data i can.. ..

when i get a good digital thermometer.. im going to take temp measurements of my mash tun and make a graph of temperature loss over the hour mash time.. (data point every 2-5 minutes... haha

Bed bath beyond. I got a awesome thermo. There that i can rin into my tun and constantly monitor without opening lid. Started at 155 for last mash and dropped only to 151-152 by end

I think the thermal mass of the 10G batches helps to reduce the losses. On my batches I only lose about 1-2 degrees and we pop the lid to stir a couple times during the mash. This is mashing outside in the god awful cold too. I do throw towels on the top of the mashtun to help insulate.

That is the beauty of the electric herms I am working on. Automatically maintained mash temps, strike water temps, boils. Basically, you can sit back and bang a spoon on stuff to make it sound like you are working on on the brew - but you won't be, you will be sipping a brew

Ha, trust me ive got the sipping portion down. I donn wanna go all fancy setup, i like the variables here and ther. Besides 2* isnt gonna change much to the average palate.

No problem with that!

I love brewing as is, but lately it seems like when I brew I also have to bottle, keg, clean carboys etc. All my work stuff is in the basement, while my brewing goes on in my driveway (nice to be able to safely leave the set up rocking while I do that). Plus, I will pay for my system in propane savings in the first year.

My set up isn't all fancy at all, very basic workhorse set up. I just got real peeved when my 185k btu @ss ripper of a burner was blown out due to wicked winds, which are common up here. That and, since all the brewing goes down at my house, and with some 90 minute boils, I have been killing my propane tanks regularly.

Not to mention it is just a really fin project to take on...

i think that once i get a house of my own.. ill make and electric system for winter and crappy weather (cold) and keep my propane system for use during summer time.... while i sit in the garage and enjoy the nice warm breeze and sun.. ha (this is all saying that i don't build a garage with heat)

right now mine drops a good amount if i only fill the MLT half way.. i think once i get these brews that i have planned done for the year, i might move to 10g batches.. (im trying to get my system down right now and exploring new styles and recipes)

rustbucket said:

i think that once i get a house of my own.. ill make and electric system for winter and crappy weather (cold) and keep my propane system for use during summer time....

right now mine drops a good amount if i only fill the MLT half way.. i think once i get these brews that i have planned done for the year, i might move to 10g batches.. (im trying to get my system down right now and exploring new styles and recipes)

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Yeah with 10G in my current set up the mash really isn't a concern. If I want to do a 5G batch though, the dead head space creates a heat loss issue. My pots are 15g or 60 quart. So the Herms set up will be ideal for that. Honestly, I really only care about the boil and strike water usage for the 10 g batches. Using a 5500w element reduces your strike water heat up time and the time from your wort collection to boil.

My personal opinion is that when you step up to 10 gallon batches electric becomes more attractive. In the same vein, if you have larger pots but do smaller mashes, the electric herms is nice as well.

Necessary..., nope. Cool project with some big advantages? I think so. But then again I love to tinker so building it isn't work, its a lot of fun (plus you can sip on a brew while you build).

Farmerjoe - just curious, when were you planning on grabbing your grain? No rush, just was making plans for my weekend and wanted to you if you were planning on swinging over.

I won't be able to make it up until next weekend. Wanted to go this weekend, but I volunteered to pick up some extra hours at my part-time job this weekend. I didn't even think about the grain until half an hour I said yes to the hours , then I was pissed at myself lol.
So yea, I plan on going next weekend, I'm leaning towards Sunday, but I'll let you know for sure in a couple more days to see if it's good with you.

ok sounds good.