What's with those home brew shops?

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Husher

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Honestly I getting kinda sick of brewing at home. I always seem to spritz some beer or sanitizer on the floor and then the wife hates me since there nothing stickier than beer.

Anyways, I checked out a home brew shop that does the brew for you, you just need to bottle. Thing is, after a 2 week ferment, they COLD FILTER the beer as they bottle, effectively killing all the yeast. The minimum order is 50 Liters and it won't keep without refrigeration. Why on earth would you kill the yeast after 2 weeks? I'd need a second fridge just for the bottles.

So my question is: Do all home brew shops do this or just the one near me?

Cheers
 
All of the U-Brew places do this, as far as I know.

They filter it so that the beer is clear, like commercial beer. They do it after two weeks because they want to get the beer to the customers as quickly as possible and clear up room for new customers. The average joe isn't going to wait for six weeks or longer to wait for their beer to have longer conditioning and slightly cloudy beer.

I used to go to the U-Brew places, but found the beer mediocre at best. More importantly, this hobby as much about nerding out about the brewing process as it is about having delicious beer.
 
Just Mop up after your done, it's very easy to do. If your leaving a sticky floor & mess behind you it's no wonder she'd be peeved.........
 
Husher said:
My garage isn't that clean. I don't need the smell of diesel fumes in my brew.

I have a diesel and brew in the garage but I don't ever brew while running my truck? I Don't get how fumes end up in your beer? Lol
 
OK, so back on topic. I found a home brew shop that will bottle with yeast intact, however they recommend keeping the beer at 10 degrees or it'll go bad. This sound familiar? If I'm buying 100 beers, will it really go bad if it has all the yeast?

thanks
 
Anyways, I checked out a home brew shop that does the brew for you, you just need to bottle. Thing is, after a 2 week ferment, they COLD FILTER the beer as they bottle, effectively killing all the yeast. The minimum order is 50 Liters and it won't keep without refrigeration. Why on earth would you kill the yeast after 2 weeks? I'd need a second fridge just for the bottles.

I don't understand. Why would you need to store the yeast-less beer in the fridge any more than yeast-full beer?

OK, so back on topic. I found a home brew shop that will bottle with yeast intact, however they recommend keeping the beer at 10 degrees or it'll go bad. This sound familiar? If I'm buying 100 beers, will it really go bad if it has all the yeast?

And now you're being told that you need to store cold if it does have yeast?

Am I missing something here?
 
CYA time.... all it takes is for a couple schmucks who can't tell the difference between cellar temp and full-sun-in-the-back-of-the-car-for-a-week temp to ruin these shops' day.
 
I don't understand. Why would you need to store the yeast-less beer in the fridge any more than yeast-full beer?

And now you're being told that you need to store cold if it does have yeast?

Am I missing something here?

I'm assuming that the yeast is what keeps the beer fresh and aging. if the yeast is sterilized at 2 weeks, the beer will go bad more quickly (beer shop says 4 weeks) without refrigeration. The stuff in my basement now has been there for 4 months at 18 degrees and it's fine. Tell me if I'm wrong, but I'm assuming not if the shop is telling me it WILL go bad without refrigeration.
 
CYA time.... all it takes is for a couple schmucks who can't tell the difference between cellar temp and full-sun-in-the-back-of-the-car-for-a-week temp to ruin these shops' day.

So what are you telling me? They're exaggerating so I won't be disappointed if I leave it on the basement floor and it doesn't spoil?
 
I'm assuming that the yeast is what keeps the beer fresh and aging. if the yeast is sterilized at 2 weeks, the beer will go bad more quickly (beer shop says 4 weeks) without refrigeration. The stuff in my basement now has been there for 4 months at 18 degrees and it's fine. Tell me if I'm wrong, but I'm assuming not if the shop is telling me it WILL go bad without refrigeration.

Beer ages. Some beer is meant to be drunk young, and some beer is meant to age. I've never noticed any appreciable difference between how filtered and unfiltered beers age. I've paid good money for aged, filtered barleywines.

If you're sloppy with your handling, you can start to see some oxidation after four weeks I suppose. But, I don't see much reason to believe that the presence or absence of yeast will impact this significantly. Bottle conditioning beer (in contrast to force carbing it) can scrub some oxygen out, perhaps.

There are a lot of good threads on this board about how aging works. It seems like you're getting some strange information, so it might be worth a read. :mug:
 
Go buy a case of PBR and call it good. They have brewed it, filtered it, bottled it and shipped it to to you neighborhood store. You don't have to do a thing and it's probably cheaper than messing with it.

All kidding aside, I prefer to brew it, ferment it, keg it and drink it myself. Where's the fun if you can't call it your own?
 
All kidding aside, I prefer to brew it, ferment it, keg it and drink it myself. Where's the fun if you can't call it your own?

QFT. i can always go to the store and buy beer, but it is so much more fun doing the whole process myself and tweaking recipes until they're just the way i want
 
I'll also speak to that sentiment - if you're going to homebrew, then homebrew (and clean up after yourself, for crying out loud!). If you're just going to go to a shop and pay way too much for them to brew for you, save yourself a bunch of time and money and just buy a bunch of different good craft brews and call it a day.
 
Agreed with trub and krazy. I actually live in an area with at least 10 craft breweries in close distance and/or brew pubs I am very lucky! Suffice to say I don't home brew for a lack of good beer in my area, rather because I enjoy the process and chance to be a little creative. Nothing like finally cracking a brew open after waiting two months to see smell and taste the fruits of your labor and patience.
 
Wait you let someone else brew you beer? For the love of god! Dont you live there too? Hell everyone makes a mess in kitchen its protocal. Thats why clorox wipes are there. Just clean up after yourself. Compromise or something.....
 
This concept is very strange to me. Bottling is my absolute least favorite part of brewing, just below clean-up. Just buy some BMC if you're not gonna brew your own.
 
Brew outside,,,,I've gone outside and can't stand brewing inside anymore, I hate stressing about every little drop of wort spilled, and the potential for a big mess is too risky, and yes I am married....with kids, so, the safety of the kids is first and foremost....
 
I have to agree with others here. This is in no disrespect, but having another place do basically all the work for you isn't home brewing. You might as well go to the store and buy beer if you are done with the hobby. Otherwise, if the wife is getting on your case about being messy, then either work harder at being less of a mess when brewing, or figure out a way to brew outdoors. Brewing does require some work, and its not a clean hobby. I ultimately spill a little bit here and there when brewing in my shed, but its on concrete and all it takes is a little water and a brush and the sticky mess is gone. I guess I don't know what to tell you. Having a home brew shop do the work isn't your brew, you are paying someone to make the beer for you and to bottle it--no difference than any commercial beer you can buy now except that you probably get to select the recipe--but that is no different than selecting Molsen this time and Labatt the next. I am not trying to be rude, but if you want craft beer then either seek out a local brewery or talk with the wife about wanting to continue the hobby and be a little better about cleaning up your mess when you are done.
 
This concept is very strange to me. Bottling is my absolute least favorite part of brewing, just below clean-up. Just buy some BMC if you're not gonna brew your own.

Hear, hear. If you're going to have someone else brew and/or ferment your beer, then just save yourself some time and money and buy stuff off of the shelf and turn in your homebrewer card.
 
bighorn_brew said:
Brew outside,,,,I've gone outside and can't stand brewing inside anymore, I hate stressing about every little drop of wort spilled, and the potential for a big mess is too risky, and yes I am married....with kids, so, the safety of the kids is first and foremost....

+1 I was kicked outside because the wife doesn't like the smell. She's insane, it smells like heaven. I love brewing in the garage. Easier to clean up the mess, and I can turn up the tunes while the kids are asleep, since brewing at night makes the wife happy that I'm available on the weekend days. It can go late, but I get to brew uninterrupted.
 
I work at a lhbs with a brew on premises. You make an appointment to reserve a 30 gallon steam jacket kettle. You come in with your own recipe or one of ours. (Ours are guaranteed) you then make your 15 gallons of beer under the supervision of an experienced brewer on staff. The fermentation side is handled by staff. Then 2 to 3 weeks later you come to bottle your beer you can have it filtered and carbed or can choose to bottle condition. You make the beer we take care of the mess. Can see the places mentioned earlier being pretty lame they make your beer for you and you just come and bottle?
 
Haters gonna hate. But brew on premises places are a great way to get started in homebrewing. Sure its more expensive, but you have none of the up front equipment costs, aggravation from the spouse, or storage issues. I wonder if the OP isn't a bit confused about how his chosen BOP works and perhaps more questions are in order. If I were the OP and things were too 'hot' at home to brew, I'd give BOP a shot and see how it goes.
 
Haters gonna hate. But brew on premises places are a great way to get started in homebrewing. Sure its more expensive, but you have none of the up front equipment costs, aggravation from the spouse, or storage issues. I wonder if the OP isn't a bit confused about how his chosen BOP works and perhaps more questions are in order. If I were the OP and things were too 'hot' at home to brew, I'd give BOP a shot and see how it goes.

I don't think anyone's "hating" BOP. People are hating TBOPFYASITYAHETII (they brew on premises for you and sell it to you as homebrew even though it isn't).
 
Does that model even exist? I think there are some major misunderstandings. That isn't a BOP, thats a production nano-brewery who sells to select customers.
 
Does that model even exist? I think there are some major misunderstandings. That isn't a BOP, thats a production nano-brewery who sells to select customers.

Whether it exists or not, it's what the OP is describing and what people are responding to. I don't see anyone saying anything bad about conventional brew on premises operations.
 
Does that model even exist? I think there are some major misunderstandings. That isn't a BOP, thats a production nano-brewery who sells to select customers.

And that business model gets free labor for bottling, which is arguably the worst part! Brilliant!
 
My god man, just brew your beer at home! If you can't get the kitchen clean enough to appease SWMBO, move to the garage. Don't worry about the fumes or whatever getting into your beer, it won't. Or hell, patio, deck, driveway, front/back yard, they all make great places to brew. Brew strong, my brother, brew strong.
 
I did BOP before I got into homebrewing and while it was nice to not have the mess to clean up or the cost of the equipment, there is a LOT that you miss in BOP compared to brewing at home.

I thought BOP was fun, but that was until I finally got my homebrew on! I have a couple of friends who still do BOP at the place we always would go to and I keep telling them, homebrewing is much more fun and you will make better beer than anything you make at BOP. But, I haven't convinced them yet...

Oh and to the OP, like everyone has said, learn to clean up after yourself and your wife won't get so pissed at you. Either that or move your brewing outside. I moved outside by choice and I love it. My burner brings my kettle to a boil in less than half the time my gas stove could do it and if I do make a mess, I just hose off my deck and I'm done!
 
Never went to a BOP so I have no clue about them. The OP spoke of buying brew made and bottle by them which seems like buying craft beer. When I started brewing I started in the kitchen and no one in my family was happy,, not the mess as I cleaned the kitchen when I was done, but the smell. The smell of mashing grain they said was terrible I say heavenly, and the smell of boiling hops was described by my grand daughter as "Grandpa is playing with carcasses again!" I Love the smell of Centennial Hops boiling in wort, smells like a wonderful IPA. So I was banished by popular vote of the 4 women that live in my house. Banished to the basement where I built a brew room where all equipment is stored, beer is brewed and bottled. Now life is wonderful... oh and yes I still have to clean it after each brew or bottling session. A labor of love, like washing bottles... since I bottle everything I wash all bottles by hand and de-label the ones people give me. Not work, but effort to come to a fulfilling conclusion: To sit in my own little space and consume a wonderful fermented concoction that keeps my life quite sane! Thank you very much!!!
 
I think its funny how many people don't like the smell of wort in the kettle or fresh hops. I'm lucky I guess as my wife and my 3 daughters (all under age 9) like the smells as much as I do! I could brew indoors if I chose and once the temps start to fall again, I will probably choose to. My wife's thing is, the clutter and luckily I have a nice little fruit cellar off of our main basement that stores all of my equipment, bottled beer, empty bottles, fermentors, etc. perfectly!
 
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