Rock Hill / Ft. Mill Homebrewers

I was unable to make it to the meet at McHale's. I plan to start home brew. My father did a little and my one of my bothers used to home brew. I am located in Rock Hill. If you need any help with fabrication let me know.

Hey Caleditor, Thanks for checking in. We are going to meet again in the next week or two, possibly for a brew session. If you are interested in starting to Home Brew, that might be a way for you to check it out and see what you think.

Keep an eye here on this thread and we'll post when we set something up.

Hi All -

What would you all think about meeting for a brew day on March 30th or 31st? Turns out this weekend works better for me as well.

I'll be brewing on the electric rig...probably a porter of some type.

You can count me in for a brew day on either the 30th or 31st. Just let me know. I'll be happy to pitch in and help split labor and cost. A porter sounds good!

I'll be there! The 30th would be better for me but I could do either one. I'll let you guys split the batch and I'll provide all the muscle you need! I'll be looking forward to it!

Ok....let's make it Saturday the 30th.

Carbide, let me know what you want to make dude. I'm wide open, but would probably prefer targeting something closer to a session beer than a high-gravity beer. Just bring your fermenter and take your half home. Might also be a cool way to test/play with different yeasts/fermentation techniques.

Anyone interested in the Ft Mill/Rock Hill club is welcome to join. Probably will plan on starting with prep around 8:30-9:00 and mash in as close to 10am as possible.

If you are interested in coming, PM me and I will give you more logistics.

Hopefully my Dry-Hopped Simcoe IPA will be ready, and I heard Rusty might have a nice Amber to share Everyone else is encouraged to bring samples as well.

Sounds great to me! My Amber should be ready. I'll rack to keg this weekend so that'll give it two weeks to carb. It'll be a little young but it should be good. I'll bottle some up and bring along. Maybe I'll also bring a bottle or two of the American Stout I entered in Nationals and see what you guys think!

Just checked my Amber and it's good. Dried out just how I wanted it to. I got 78% attenuation out of WLP001! Finished at 1.014 for 7%! Very clear and has a nice taste. Gonna crash it down today and keg tomorrow so I'll have some for brew day. Looking forward to getting together.

Next batch... Belgian Tripel!

It's been awfully quiet here the past week!! Who all is planning on being at CanyonBrewers on Saturday? I'm going to have some "Rowdy Red" amber ale and some of my American stout for anyone to try.

Canyonbrewer: Do you need anything? Let me know and I can pick up whatever you need.

Also, what would be the best time to show up? I hope to see some of you guys that have expressed interest there. I'd like to talk about formally getting a "club" going. Think of some names of local color!!!

Hi All...

So far heard from 3 people. Looks like we are brewing Janet Browns Ale. Lets say 9:30am.

I am really looking forward to brewing with you guys....and to showing off my electric herms rig.

I am picking up all the ingredients this week. Shouldn't need anything else. Thanks for asking Rusty!

My plans have changed and I am not sure if I will make it.

This is my attempt to lure all you Fort Mill/Rock Hill Brewers to our group brew session this Saturday at 9:30 am.

We are brewing 10 gallons of Janet Brown's Ale on my custom built, all electric, HERMS brewery.



Then, we will see what the magical sticker fridge has to offer. Hopefully my IPA is carbed enough. Been on the gas for 1.5 weeks.



PM me if you want to join. Looking forward to it guys!

I am soooo there!!!! I can't wait to see that rig in action. I'm hoping to learn something new as well. Janet's Brown ale is supposed to be one awesome beer. It's on my list to brew but haven't got around to it yet.

I hope to see some of you guys who have expressed interest in starting a club here in Rock Hill / Ft. Mill. We have a lot of ideas and I already know we have some good brewers here so come to CanyonBrewers and enjoy some good fun, taste some good beer and talk about how we can kick this off.

I'm bringing some Amber ale and a couple of bottles of an American Stout that I submitted to the NHC so you guys can give me some pre-comp feedback.

See ya'll there!

Hey guys, a friend and I have recently started home brewing and done a few extract batches. I think we might be down for some brew club!

Hey Zdub! If you're interested, as you see above, we're brewing tomorrow at CanyonBrewers. PM him for details! He'll tell you how to get to his place. It's great to see more interest. It's a great way to learn if you're just getting started. If you can't come keep posted to this site and we'll have more details in the coming weeks.

Yeah zdub....the more the merrier! Pm me if you would like to stop by.

We had a great Brew Day at CanyonBrewers yesterday!! Many, many thanks for his hospitality to allow us to invade his house!

While only 3 of us were there, we had a great time and it was amazing working on CB's system. I've got pics that I'll post later when I get a chance.

We have some great ideas and some things that we're going to plan in the weeks and months ahead so you guys that have been interested in getting together will have more oppurtunities.

We had samples of each others beer and I must say that all of them were really good. Carbidetoolguy brought a sample of a Belgian Dubbel that, while young is going to be amazing!!! Once that beer hits it's prime, I think would do well in any competition. CanyonBrewer's IPA was fantastic. While he said it was a Sweetwater IPA clone, it was waayyy better that Sweetwater IPA. I really like Sweetwater too so trust me, it was better!!
We also had a Pumpkin by CTG that had a nice spicy, fall-ish flavor that was great. I took an Amber Ale and a Stout that got good reviews from the other guys.

So, you guys that couldn't make it, we'll be doing this again and would really love to see and meet ya'll and share brews as well as techniques. I learned some stuff yesterday that will make me better.

Keep posted for more!

Cheers Rusty and Jason!....thanks again for brewing with me. You guys brewed some seriously excellent beers. All beers were pro!

Looking forward to the pics and the next meetup.

I'm gonna keep practicing my harp

I finally have a chance to sit down and put up some of the pictures of our brew session on Saturday. Let me tell you, it was some kind of experience getting to brew on CanyonBrewers system. He has a lot of time and effort into this and it shows. I know he's put a couple of pics on here but here it is getting the strike water heated up:



Getting the ~25 lbs. of grain crushed on his Barley Crusher:



Here's a shot of the controller:



Time to Dough-In!!





More...

We actually added about 2.5 oz. of Northern Brewer hops in the mash. This was the first time any of us had done that. I'm excited to try the final product. BTW, this was Tasty McDoles recipe called Janet's Brown Ale.





Starting the Sparge:



Fly Sparging with all the hops in the mash:



You know, I was so into the brew that I really didn't take enough pictures, but you get the idea. Part of the fun was:



getting to try each others beer. We had some good one's that I described a couple of posts back.

All in all it was a great time and I wish that some of you other guys could have made it. Hopefully these pictures will "entice" you to try and make the next get together. (I bet there will be some JBA there!!!!)

Cheers to All!

Rusty and Jason,

Had a great time brewing last weekend. Canyon's set-up really is excellent and has me rethinking a few things on mine. My half of the wort is fermenting well and I am looking forward to a taste test very soon. We will have to plan a follow-up.

Carbide

Hey guys!! How's the beer coming??? Should be starting to clear up about now?? What kind of FG did ya'll hit?

Ok, in the words of CanyonBrewer, I decided to "draw a line in the sand"! I have started a Facebook page that we can post information and events on. We'll still post things here as well but I thought that would be a little easier to keep in touch. I had to come up with a title so look up "77 Beer Brewers" on facebook and send a friend request. Everyone who has shown interest on this thread and anyone else is welcome to hook up to that page. I hope to see ya'll there!

I'm a homebrewer in Fort Mill. Has anyone had their water tested? If so, what were the results?

Here is some info I received last week from someone at the Rock Hill Water Treatment.

"Rock Hill"s water is very soft. Alkalinity averages between 23-35. Calcium Hardness 25-40. Magnesium levels are not tested regularly I don't have that number in my head but will get that to you on Tuesday."

I haven't heard back about the Magnesium levels .. but will try to contact them again soon ... if I don't get an answer in the next day or so. The Tuesday mentioned above .. was the Tuesday after Labor Day.

From what I understand .. Fort Mill buys their water from Rock Hill. I emailed a very specific question about Alkalinity, Calcium and Magnesium to someone at The Town of Fort Mill Utilities Department .. in the Water Treatment area. I didn't get a response .. so I researched a little more and decided I need to seek the info from Rock Hill instead anyway.

There is a Water Quality Report that is mailed out each year. It is also posted online on The Town of Fort Mill website .. look under Utilities. The report lists contaminants .. and mentions that the water is soft.

I hope this helps

I'm on a well here in Rock Hill and I haven't had my water tested. I'm suspecting a little high in carbonates but not really "hard"

I have lately started adding a little gypsum for my IPA's and it's made a huge difference in hop flavor and aroma.

I'm working on a keg of a single hop recipe using only Mosaic hops that I got at Alternative Beverages. Turned out to be a nice summer IPA!

I'd like to bump this up again. We've been getting a lot of locals checking out our "77 Beer Brewers" page on Facebook.

Come check it out! It looks like there are quite a few people in the area that are homebrewing. Let's keep this going here and maybe we really can get a Homebrew Club going this year.

There's also a local, new, commercial brewer that I talked to that had said that he was interested in having a homebrew club in this area. I'm hoping to have more information on that soon.

rustym said:

I'd like to bump this up again. We've been getting a lot of locals checking out our "77 Beer Brewers" page on Facebook.

Come check it out! It looks like there are quite a few people in the area that are homebrewing. Let's keep this going here and maybe we really can get a Homebrew Club going this year.

There's also a local, new, commercial brewer that I talked to that had said that he was interested in having a homebrew club in this area. I'm hoping to have more information on that soon.

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I'm interested. I've been brewing for about 5 years and just went all-grain this year. I'm in Indianland, near Sun City.

I know there are 3 or 4 other brewers in my neighborhood - we've talked about getting together but have never pulled the trigger.

I don't check this forum all that often - if y'all do get together, shoot me a PM or drop me an e-mail to amwill07 'at' gmail.

Thanks!

mwill07, I'll do it! Check out "77 Beer Brewers" on Facebook as well. Tell your friends, too!

Late to the party but just got my homebrew gear out of storage and brewed a few partial mash kits on black Friday to get back in. Anyone still getting together to brew?

I just signed up and am doing my first brew today. I would like to find a local group to join and learn from. Please let me know if this ever got off the ground.

Thanks,
Gary

P.s. Just read the entire thread. I'll look for you guys on FB as well.

Hello everyone,

I just wanted to say hello. I live in Indian Land near Ft. Mill but work in Charlotte and have been brewing for a while. I work close to where the Charlotte club meets so I have been involved with them for a couple of years now but I'm interested in the formation of a local group too. I'm pretty busy with family and other responsibilities, to be honest, so it is hard to make brew days, but I would be interested in getting together once a month or so for a meeting if the day of the week works, and perhaps doing some local collaboration stuff (like splitting the cost of one or more 50 gallon whiskey barrels and working together to fill it!). Please keep me posted.

Hi there. Did a Rock Hill group ever come together? I would love to meet some people close by.

Since I first posted in this thread several years ago, I've gone ahead and joined Carolina Brewmasters in Charlotte. It's a very active club that does some cool things:

monthly meetings w/ 80-100 members, all bringing samples of homebrew
BJCP certified judges ready to give instant evaluations
monthly brew sessions at a volunteers house
social events where the group goes to various beer bars or events
oktoberfest - yearly beer fest with 50-100 brewers.
competitions
10% discount at alternate beverage

It's well worth your time to make your way up there.