What better way to start brewing

When I went out and bought my first brew kit, I knew that my father had made wine back in the day, but wasnt sure of the differences in equipment, and (being a lazy former-pothead) didnt want to do any research. SO... I went down to my local HBS (Beers of the World in Rochester... not the greatest assortment of equipment, and kits, but OMG! it's a wall to wall warehouse of beers from all over... if youre in the area, check it out!!) and picked up my True Brew equipment kit (True Brew'd Frew Brew... thats kinda funny).

So I get it home, and head down stairs to my dad's old wine room, and start cleaning up. After clearing some shelf space, and throwing out a couple old empty boxes, I start opening up my kit and seeing what Ive got. About Halfway through, I realize... everything... is... the same.

At first, I was like WTF, why'd I waste my money, all pissed off.... then I started thinking... why get pissed, just make more beer!!

So that was 3 brews ago, and tonight, I started taking inventory.

5 gallon glass carboys x 5
6.5 gallon glass carboys x 4
15 gallon carboy x 1

I really don't plan on using the 5 gallon carboys too much... just foresee blowups happening waaaaaaaaaay too easily. But... a double batch of Frew Brew sure sounds tasty to me!

FrewBrew said:

I really don't plan on using the 5 gallon carboys too much... just foresee blowups happening waaaaaaaaaay too easily. But... a double batch of Frew Brew sure sounds tasty to me!

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Yeah, but they'd be great for secondaries!

use 'em to brew 2.5 or 3 gallon batches. they work great for that, and its really nice to brew a batch sometimes and not haveto drink 2 cases of it. you know for crazy experimental beers or when youre trying to tweak a recipe.

hmmm, not such a bad idea...

but I still can't get over ...

15 gallon carboy!!!

FrewBrew said:

hmmm, not such a bad idea...

but I still can't get over ...

15 gallon carboy!!!

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Yeah... no kidding. Pick THAT up and shake it to aerate it! That thing would weigh well over 100 lbs when it was full! Makes my lower back hurt just thinking about it.

-walker

i do my fermenting in a wine cellar thats a little to warm for wine (actually its an old grease pit built into a wine cellar--i live in a VERY glorified garage) but i have to carry my carboys and buckets down a ladder to get them in there, i cant imagine carrying a 15 gallon carboy down there, id have to set up a rappel with my climbing equipment to get that beast down there! and a fifteen gallon brewpot--wow...

drengel said:

i do my fermenting in a wine cellar... but i have to carry my carboys and buckets down a ladder to get them in there

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That sounds like an accident waiting to happen, drengel!

Sounds like a perfect excuse to build a pulley system

LupusUmbrus said:

Sounds like a perfect excuse to build a pulley system

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I had a crazy great-uncle that would always have me do bizarre chores for him. One of the two most memorable chores involved a sack of small pulleys and some nylon rope.

Did I mention that this guy was totally off his rocker? As in; convinced people from a nearby factory were breaking into his house through the back door at lunch time to eat his food. Totally crazy.

He had an old shed in his back yard that had a wooden door that opened inward with a spring attached to pull the door shut automatically. In his crazy mind, he had the idea that he needed a pulley system installed so that he could pull a rope to open the door from the inside of the shed instead of just putting a frigging handle on the door that he could pull on with his hand.

I gave him a sideways look when he asked me to do this, but figured... what the hell... he's paying me to do this.

So, I attached one pulley to the ceiling and attached the rope to the door, threading it through the pulley and letting it hang down. Now he could pull down on the rope to open the door. Crazy ass job done, right?

WRONG.

I showed him the work when I was done, and he got pissed. I didn't use all of the pulleys! There were something like a half dozen in the sack he gave me, but I only used one. This was unacceptable.

Did I mention that this guy was crazy? As is; nailed his back door shut to keep out those factory workers that were stealing his food?

Anyway, 2 hours later I presented him with a god-awful Rube-Goldberg machine that he could use to open the stupid shed door. He was pleased and gave me a $2 bill as payment.

Did I mention this guy was a whack-job? As is; had me dig a 4 foot by 4 foot by 3 foot hole in his yard. After which, he placed 4 jars of homemade grape jelly into this monster hole and asked me to fill the dirt back in? I got another $2 bill for that one, too.

-walker

oh yea! you'll be glad you have all that brew gear. you'll find a "way" to fill 'em up!

Two things:

1) Walker just told the greatest story every. I will have to repeat that part about the jelly to just about everyone I know.

2) I know a guy that uses only two 15 gallon fermenters. But, I think the steroids he uses makes moving them less of an issue for him than it would be for the rest of us.

drengel said:

i do my fermenting in a wine cellar thats a little to warm for wine (actually its an old grease pit built into a wine cellar--i live in a VERY glorified garage) but i have to carry my carboys and buckets down a ladder to get them in there, i cant imagine carrying a 15 gallon carboy down there, id have to set up a rappel with my climbing equipment to get that beast down there! and a fifteen gallon brewpot--wow...

Click to expand...

Hmm, no hydrolic lift??

What I was thinking....

2 primary's ( plastic fermenters from by true brew kit )
put the 15 gallon carboy on my brew shelf (I'll post pics tomorrow)
siphen from primary to 2ndary (15 gallon carboy)
when Im all done, I'll have gravity working for me for the final siphen...
siphen to my bottling bucket 5 gallons at a time... and bottle from there.

Walker said:

I had a crazy great-uncle that would always have me do bizarre chores for him. One of the two most memorable chores involved a sack of small pulleys and some nylon rope.

Did I mention that this guy was totally off his rocker? As in; convinced people from a nearby factory were breaking into his house through the back door at lunch time to eat his food. Totally crazy.

He had an old shed in his back yard that had a wooden door that opened inward with a spring attached to pull the door shut automatically. In his crazy mind, he had the idea that he needed a pulley system installed so that he could pull a rope to open the door from the inside of the shed instead of just putting a frigging handle on the door that he could pull on with his hand.

I gave him a sideways look when he asked me to do this, but figured... what the hell... he's paying me to do this.

So, I attached one pulley to the ceiling and attached the rope to the door, threading it through the pulley and letting it hang down. Now he could pull down on the rope to open the door. Crazy ass job done, right?

WRONG.

I showed him the work when I was done, and he got pissed. I didn't use all of the pulleys! There were something like a half dozen in the sack he gave me, but I only used one. This was unacceptable.

Did I mention that this guy was crazy? As is; nailed his back door shut to keep out those factory workers that were stealing his food?

Anyway, 2 hours later I presented him with a god-awful Rube-Goldberg machine that he could use to open the stupid shed door. He was pleased and gave me a $2 bill as payment.

Did I mention this guy was a whack-job? As is; had me dig a 4 foot by 4 foot by 3 foot hole in his yard. After which, he placed 4 jars of homemade grape jelly into this monster hole and asked me to fill the dirt back in? I got another $2 bill for that one, too.

-walker

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Now I understand why you choose that avatar....
That's funny and sad both.

Sudster said:

Now I understand why you choose that avatar....
That's funny and sad both.

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LOL....I'm kicking myself that I missed this thread until now.

Walker, dude, you are a piece of work. We need to get some beers together some time.

We had this neighbor when I was a kid whose name was "Mrs. England". She would go out on sweep her gravel driveway to clean it. Phoned the cops because the neighbor had a close line, and decided the son that she hadn't seen in years (Because, he said later, "she's always been nuts") and who was now a high school teacher must be a child molester which launched a big investigation which completely cleared him, but not after having his name slandered in the paper. I think she decided that "in a dream". Actually I know there are a slew of doozies that this woman did, but I can't remember them right now. I'd have to ask my parents. But it sounds like she would have been a good match for Walker's great Uncle.

so walker, what was the purpose of burying the grape jelly in a 4x4x3 hole? to keep it from the "food snatchers"?

That's a classic, Walker. I'd guess it was to protect the jelly from food abducting folks as well. Why such a big hole though?

LupusUmbrus said:

That's a classic, Walker. I'd guess it was to protect the jelly from food abducting folks as well. Why such a big hole though?

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Why such a big hole?!

Why did he bury jelly?!

Didn't I tell yiou that Uncle Kenny was absolutely insane? Maybe I forgot to mention that detail....

Here's why I even dug the damn thing for him (I'm now ashamed of my thinking at the time, but I was 12 or 13 years old and self-centered):

Everybody knew Uncle Kenny had money. He didn't have a great job or anything (heck, I don't even remember what he did for a living), but he pinched every penny and re-used everything he could (clothes, paper cups, etc) until it wore through. I think this was partly due to having lived through the Great Depression.

Anyway.. in addition to knowing he had money, everybody also knew that Uncle Kenny distrusted banks. (no surprise there, eh?) So, he kept his money in his safe or his attic or his basement or... SOMEPLACE, but it wasn't in the bank for sure.

When he asked me to dig that hole, I thought, "He's going to have me bury a bunch of loot! Holy cow... maybe I'll dig it back up later and take it. He'll probably forget about burying it anyway, so why not just filtch it? Better that I have it than the worms and beetles!"

I was happy to dig the hole for him under this false assumption. However, when he carried out the jelly and put it in the hole, I though, "Damnit! You crazy old f*cker! I have just wasted an entire SATURDAY on your mental ass!"

And then I got the insulting pay of that freeking $2 bill. I don't know how many of you have dug a hole that big, but it's a lot of work. Certainly more than $2 worth! Kenny assured me that $2 bills were special and would (someday) be worth a lot more that $2, but that was hardly what I wanted to hear.

I found out a few years later when he died that his sister (my grandmother) had actually gone to his house and taken all of his money away form him out of fear that he was going to do something crazy with it (like bury it) and she was keeping it in her safe at her house.

Crazy old Uncle Kenny Kline. I'm not sure if I miss him or not, but I always think of him at Thanksgiving time because he always made us wait through a 30 minute prayer before we could eat dinner.

-walker

Just trying to deduct the method to his madness

I have a theory that Walker's uncle wasn't crazy-- the rest of the family just enlisted him to keep Walker busy so he'd stay out of trouble.


: )

kornkob said:

I have a theory that Walker's uncle wasn't crazy-- the rest of the family just enlisted him to keep Walker busy so he'd stay out of trouble.


: )

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Or maybe I'm crazy and Uncle Kenny never even existed.

-walker

Maybe YOU are Uncle Kenny.



hmmmm.....

kornkob said:

Maybe YOU are Uncle Kenny.



hmmmm.....

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woah... that's deep, man.

ORRELSE said:

Walker, dude, you are a piece of work. We need to get some beers together some time.

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I don't think I'm allowed back in TX. I was basically told to get out of the state by the highway patrol in 1998 and I haven't even thought of going back there since.

No.. I didn't do anything wrong. My ordeal happened because I:

(a) looked like a dirty hippy
(b) drove a dirty hippy-looking car with Ohio plates

They sure were pissed after searching my car for about 2 hours and coming up with nothing.

-walker

Oh, wait... you aren't *IN* texas. My bad.

But, I've got personal issues with VA, too. Every time I go there, my car breaks down in a very expensive way.

The first time, my axle broke. Got stranded there for 3 days and missed a final at school.

The second time, my tranny went out in my blazer. I had to drive all the way back to Ohio in 3rd gear (any idea how long THAT takes?). Almost missed a final that time, too.

-walker

walker, you need to write a book man! you have a best seller and a movie deal in your hands! maybe get Mike Judge to do the screen play :~)