mmonacel
Well-Known Member
What tips / tricks would you wish you knew the second time around?
Pay attention to fermentation temp.
Buy the BM, get the kegging set-up, and have temp controlled fermentation from the start.
Jesus, were not all millionaires.
Cheaper to buy it all up front than to "buy up to" it. I'd have saved a snmall fortune had I just cut through all the builds and steps.
Blah, blah, blah. I'm just jealous.
Well, I did get the kegs at a massive discount. $3.00 each. If it weren't for that I'd likely still be bottling.
I can't hear you, my ears are plugged.
Cheaper to buy it all up front than to "buy up to" it. I'd have saved a snmall fortune had I just cut through all the builds and steps.
I know, it's infuriating isn't it. Want to hear the real kicker?
I have all this **** for brewing, 400 pounds of grain in stock, 28 kegs in my collection, and I brew maybe 1 or twice every 3 months. I have had full kegs for over a year before I tap them.
In addition to being an accomplished slow drinker, i have precious little time for brewing.
Me wanna brew on a BM.
Plus, you'd have to remove my wifes foot to get yours in.
She said there was plenty of room for both. Zing.
On a somewhat related note:
I have only brewed about a half dozen extract batches and am making the jump to all grain. I have two 10 gallon rubbermaid coolers in my garage ready to be converted to a hlt and mlt and I already have a turkey fryer set up for my kettle.
So, with that said, would all you experienced brewers go ahead and build this basic system now, or, would you put a little more time/money into it up front and buy bigger pots/kegs for more capacity later? (I still have the receipt for the coolers).
I was hoping to end up with a single tier set up with at least an electric HLT, if not all electric. I hope to brew 5 gallon batches now, but I am not afraid of 10 gallons batches later down the road.
Everyone is different, but I would start with 5 G batches now and see how it goes. I coudl never see myself brewing 10 gallons at a time. I'm the only one drinking my beer, so it lasts a long time. I actually recently built a 2 gallon MLT so I could brew smaller batches. (A 5 G MLT would be best though.)
If you go Single Tier, then you will need a pump.
If I had to do it all over again, I would go buy a turkey fryer right away, and start doing full boils. As it is, I wish I had a larger kettle now.
Also, I would pay closer attention to fermentation temps. They REALLY matter!
Otherwise, I have had fun building all of my stuff and probably would not change a thing.
Pay attention to fermentation temp. Don't secondary. Make starters.
All cheap stuff that would have made my beer a lot better and saved me time.
Eric
To all of you that said you would have started with all grain:
Were you that convinced that you love this hobby before you even brewed a batch? Were you ready to fork over all the money for all grain before even figuring out if you could make good beer?
Sure, I wish I would have bought my 15 gallon pot first, but that pot cost more than my kit and first three batches combined! I could not have justified spending that much money when I didn't even know if it would be worth it.
Hindsight it 20/20, but I doubt that most of you would have put forth all of the money and effort to go AG on your first batch.
Also, I would never recommend that someone use AG for their first batch. Get your process down and really understand what is going on first. Once you have a process down, it is easy to add the AG steps. Of course, if you are brewing with someone much more experienced and they can show you the ropes, that changes everything.
Not trying to stir the pot, I just think that going AG from the start is unrealistic.
Eric
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