The only problem with brewing

is once its in the fermenter, I'm ready to go again!!!! LOL

Finished up my partial mash today and then cleaned up a bit and took a break (heat was giving me a headache) and now I'm bored.....

Guess I could go write some boring accounting code but why do that when I can brew? Only no supplies. Really gotta get up to full mashes....then we can do those big ones......

I hear ya man!

OK, let's start listing some Things to Do When Your Expecting. I'll start with a few:

1. Go AG
2. Build a stir plate
3. Get a pressure cooker and start making slants
4. Study for BJCP
5. ...

5 design more recipes
6. order more ingredients

What is BJCP?

What I need is a way to chill the wort down faster....I would love to have a glycol system, but there is NO WAY SWMBO is going to approve THAT ONE!

7. Google BJCP
8. Build a counterflow chiller from some copper tubing and a hose.

I actually have been paying the old BJCP a lot of mind lately, and actually planning some beers around those stiff guidelines. As a newer brewer I didn't care, but now I'd like to start entering comps and I can't put an 8% Irish red into a competition, however good it is.

My problem is brewing WAY more than I can drink. I've been drinking even less lately too, trying to not drink most weekdays etc to keep the calories down.

9 watch http://www.youtube.com/user/TakeSomeAdvice for a few hours
10 go into the bathroom and shoot yourself

11. RDWHAHB.. somebody had to say it!
12. Work on the pipe line. Get online and order supplies for your next brew.

13. Waiting for new brewing supplies to arrive via mail.
14. Waiting for my LHBS to open early in the morning, because I stayed home drinking home brew the day/night before and then was to lazy to go.

15. Waiting for a fermenter to open up so I can add to the pipeline. I've put a self imposed limit of 10 gallons in fermenters at a time. Luckily, those are done now And I'll be kegging tonight.

16. Finish adding the second tap to the kegerator. Must do before kegging tonight.

bottlebomber said:

I actually have been paying the old BJCP a lot of mind lately, and actually planning some beers around those stiff guidelines. As a newer brewer I didn't care, but now I'd like to start entering comps and I can't put an 8% Irish red into a competition, however good it is.

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THIS is also my biggest issue with BJCP guidelines. I understand the need for style guidelines, but I also feel that they hamper creativity quite a bit. If you brew a really good 8% red, then you should be able to compete with it. Maybe we need to lobby for new categories...

I recently made a hybrid wheat beer that is essentially a Hefe grain bill, spiced like a Wit, and fermented with a Saison yeast (3711). I am going to enter it in a local competition, but I have no idea what category to register it in. Is it a Hefe, is it a Wit, is it a Saison??? What should I enter it as? Unfortunately, there is no BJCP category called "good summer beer"

DrummerBoySeth said:

THIS is also my biggest issue with BJCP guidelines. I understand the need for style guidelines, but I also feel that they hamper creativity quite a bit. If you brew a really good 8% red, then you should be able to compete with it. Maybe we need to lobby for new categories...

I recently made a hybrid wheat beer that is essentially a Hefe grain bill, spiced like a Wit, and fermented with a Saison yeast (3711). I am going to enter it in a local competition, but I have no idea what category to register it in. Is it a Hefe, is it a Wit, is it a Saison??? What should I enter it as? Unfortunately, there is no BJCP category called "good summer beer"

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Probably a saison, but maybe a 23 - depends how strong the spices are. 23 is the catchall. There, I saved your creativity to live another day. Cheers!

17. Get a second job to pay for all this crap.....

I was leaning toward Saison as well. That category seems to have a little more leeway than Hefe or Wit.

What do you mean second ? I need a third!!!

Can't add a third... I'd have to take the shelves out of the fridge. That would bring forth rage from SWMBO!

bottlebomber said:

My problem is brewing WAY more than I can drink.

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Ha. That's my "problem" as well.

passedpawn said:

Probably a saison, but maybe a 23 - depends how strong the spices are. 23 is the catchall. There, I saved your creativity to live another day. Cheers!

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If outside of saison specs, I actually think that'd go best in 16E. Everybody always forgets 16E...

emjay said:

If outside of saison specs, I actually think that'd go best in 16E. Everybody always forgets 16E...

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Good call. I've definitely been ignoring that category.

18. If you bottle, delabel and clean bottles. OR Drink more store bought brew to get more homebrew bottles!
19. Create labels for your homebrew

20. Waste a bunch if time in HBT forums !!! Someone had to say it

bobeer said:

18. If you bottle, delabel and clean bottles. OR Drink more store bought brew to get more homebrew bottles!

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Meh, I used to do that. Stopped delabeling pretty quickly. Just bought 456 amber EZ Cap bottles with swingtops from a store going out of business (on the day they had to move out) really cheaply, so I'm going to get rid of most of the bottles I have. That's enough for a dozen batches, and even if I wanted to delabel, it'd be unnecessary

bottlebomber said:

I've been drinking even less lately too, trying to not drink most weekdays etc to keep the calories down.

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Develop a running habit. Then you can drink more beer!!

willy_mugobeer said:

Develop a running habit. Then you can drink more beer!!

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I run 1.5-2.0 miles every day, regardless of if it's raining or 110 degrees. If it's a deluge I won't go... I'm in good shape and want to keep it that way for at least a few more years. Running is hard on the knees though, and I weigh 240 trim. I need to find an alternate.

bottlebomber said:

I run 1.5-2.0 miles every day, regardless of if it's raining or 110 degrees. If it's a deluge I won't go... I'm in good shape and want to keep it that way for at least a few more years. Running is hard on the knees though, and I weigh 240 trim. I need to find an alternate.

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21. Either get an exercise bike/elliptical or gym membership and work on a cardio and weight lifting routine. We all know how heavy those FV's get.

22. Use kegs filled with water/brew that you want to force carb as bench weights.

alpha224 said:

21. Either get an exercise bike/elliptical or gym membership and work on a cardio and weight lifting routine. We all know how heavy those FV's get.

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We have 2 places to go in my town, well 3 if you include Curves. One is overrun with serious jocks which I'd rather not brush shoulders with, and the other, despite being $120/month/family is an absolute public health hazard. I stopped going when there was actual feces smeared over the mats in the locker room, and they couldn't clean it because "they had no men on the faculty that evening". So now I run.

22. Use kegs filled with water/brew that you want to force carb as bench weights.

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Not a bad idea! There's got to be some way to directly integrate exercising and drinking

bottlebomber said:

Not a bad idea! There's got to be some way to directly integrate exercising and drinking

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train like the Germans from beerfest! Treadmill with keg above the head lol

bottlebomber said:

We have 2 places to go in my town, well 3 if you include Curves. One is overrun with serious jocks which I'd rather not brush shoulders with, and the other, despite being $120/month/family is an absolute public health hazard. I stopped going when there was actual feces smeared over the mats in the locker room, and they couldn't clean it because "they had no men on the faculty that evening". So now I run.

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That's disgusting. It really baffles me how this stuff happens in change rooms and bathrooms so often. It seems to me that people must be doing it intentionally, because a lot of it's simply not possible "by accident", and I'm pretty sure most of these people don't do it in their own homes.

But smearing crap all over the place? Peeing entirely on the floor, nowhere even near the toilet? And all the other stuff that goes on? How are there so many people that actually WANT to do such things, and actually do them? I could see the rare cases of certain severe mental illnesses where people even live like that at home, but it's such a common occurrence that I can only conclude that it's usually done by people who are otherwise considered somewhat "normal" by society, in a completely lucid state of mind. Why??? I wonder if there's any psychology/sociology research on the subject, as the state of public bathrooms may actually even give us the clearest, most honest look at our own society... and it's horrifying.

^^ I like this post. Classic emjay response lol. I also wonder why people feel the need to sully public facilities. I will usually only use a public restroom as a last resort, but I expect a paid facility to hold a higher standard of cleanliness.

bottlebomber said:

^^ I like this post. Classic emjay response lol. I also wonder why people feel the need to sully public facilities. I will usually only use a public restroom as a last resort, but I expect a paid facility to hold a higher standard of cleanliness.

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It goes way beyond mere "sullying". If these people were caught in the act, they would be deeply embarrassed, and shamed for the rest of their life. But hey, if they can get away with it, then why not, right?

I mean, the only thing preventing me from smearing crap all over the public bathroom is the chance that I might get caught. Because otherwise there's obviously no reason NOT to do it.

Bah. I just can't do a good job of articulating what I mean right now, but hopefully you understand what the first sentence of this post was getting it. "Sullying" is something like not flushing the toilet, getting a bit of pee on the seat, throwing your paper towels on the ground and letting the soap dispenser drip all over it too. I suppose it could be applied to these more extreme things as well, but I guess what I mean is that it's not the "sullying" that is so disturbing to me. It's that a fairly large portion of society even WANTS to do such things as long as they feel they won't get caught and/or have to clean it up.

emjay said:

It goes way beyond mere "sullying". If these people were caught in the act, they would be deeply embarrassed, and shamed for the rest of their life. But hey, if they can get away with it, then why not, right?

I mean, the only thing preventing me from smearing crap all over the public bathroom is the chance that I might get caught. Because otherwise there's obviously no reason NOT to do it.

Bah. I just can't do a good job of articulating what I mean right now, but hopefully you understand what the first sentence of this post was getting it. "Sullying" is something like not flushing the toilet, getting a bit of pee on the seat, throwing your paper towels on the ground and letting the soap dispenser drip all over it too. I suppose it could be applied to these more extreme things as well, but I guess what I mean is that it's not the "sullying" that is so disturbing to me. It's that a fairly large portion of society even WANTS to do such things as long as they feel they won't get caught and/or have to clean it up.

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I get your point. Sullying is more the effects of just general slovenliness, while crapping on the floor is downright desecration. There's got to be some way to find out who's doing it and making them pay.

emjay said:

It goes way beyond mere "sullying". If these people were caught in the act, they would be deeply embarrassed, and shamed for the rest of their life. But hey, if they can get away with it, then why not, right?

I mean, the only thing preventing me from smearing crap all over the public bathroom is the chance that I might get caught. Because otherwise there's obviously no reason NOT to do it.

Bah. I just can't do a good job of articulating what I mean right now, but hopefully you understand what the first sentence of this post was getting it. "Sullying" is something like not flushing the toilet, getting a bit of pee on the seat, throwing your paper towels on the ground and letting the soap dispenser drip all over it too. I suppose it could be applied to these more extreme things as well, but I guess what I mean is that it's not the "sullying" that is so disturbing to me. It's that a fairly large portion of society even WANTS to do such things as long as they feel they won't get caught and/or have to clean it up.

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The only thing stopping me from smearing crap on the walls is that's f ing disgusting lol I don't know why people would do that. But if I was the gym owner and I found out I'd have someone poop in their house for revenge

emjay said:

Meh, I used to do that. Stopped delabeling pretty quickly. Just bought 456 amber EZ Cap bottles with swingtops from a store going out of business (on the day they had to move out) really cheaply, so I'm going to get rid of most of the bottles I have. That's enough for a dozen batches, and even if I wanted to delabel, it'd be unnecessary

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Cool man. I don't mind delabeling bottles. It provides a certain kind of destressing sensation much like paper shredding. Swingtops are cool but I wouldn't want to give those away to friends because I might not get them back. They're obviously easier to deal with since you don't have to buy caps and cap all the bottles. Maybe I'll pick some up one day to use for my personal stash!

How about just buying a couple more fermenters?

bobeer said:

Cool man. I don't mind delabeling bottles. It provides a certain kind of destressing sensation much like paper shredding. Swingtops are cool but I wouldn't want to give those away to friends because I might not get them back. They're obviously easier to deal with since you don't have to buy caps and cap all the bottles. Maybe I'll pick some up one day to use for my personal stash!

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Yeah, I plan to use standard 12oz bottles for those I'm not sure I'll get back. Even then, losing a few swingtops won't be a big deal.

Get lots of carboys. I have infinite quantities due to working in the water industry and the recent changes to the 5 gallon jugs going to P.E.T.s means ....... MO CARBOYs FOR ME!