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HomebrewCraig said:
Avocado: If you have the cojones to make your own beer, then you have the basis to use those cojones to DIY a little bit :)
Click to expand...

HB Craig: love it! This should be a mantra for all homebrewers to follow every time one of us considers taking brewing to to the next level.


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Danno: I won't tell! Sammy: please tell us more stories about the "CFO" because that was hilarious.

Here's a tip for those who share joint finances with your spouse. We've found an excellent marriage-saving technique: every month we auto-deduct X amount of money into each one of our personal mini bank accounts. It is essentially like an allowance for adults. That way each of you can spend like crazy on your own crap (and up to a fixed amount), without the other one saying anything. If finances are tight, then both do some belt-tightening and agree to drop the monthly amount. Works pretty well actually, and it forces you to think before buying the next brewing gadget because you may need to wait a couple of weeks before you can spend again!


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Avocado_Power said:
For the hefe, I used Danstar Munich yeast. It was the standard one that came with the NB kit.

That's a great tip on the foam cooler! I think I will need that because my apartment never gets as cold as 65. Will grab one of those before embarking on a kolsch. I got a White Labs (vial) yeast for the kolsch instead of Wyeast, only because my friend had a bad experience with dead smack packs. I think I might try the BYO article's specs for my next Kolsch attempt.
Click to expand...

The chances of getting a dead smackpack are about 100,000:1. You have just as much chance of getting dead yeast cells in White Labs or dry packs. Best thing to do is check the expiration dates and make sure they are refrigerated when you buy them. If you LHBS is the least bit competant, you can rule that out. Another thing is to pick up some Notty, SAF-05, and 06, keep em in your fridge as a backup for your future brew....

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sumbrewindude said:
Sammy -

When all yeast knowledge fails, refer to Mr. Malty. I believe that a single smackpack should have enough cells for a 2.5gal, but it really depends. If you've brewed a monster beer you'll need all the cells you can get, so a starter or pitching an established cake is always a great idea.

The best use I can think of for a stirplate setup for small batch brewing would be to create a rolling starter bank - eg, you make your starter, decant off half, and store that in the fridge for later, and then pitch the other half. In a few weeks if you want to pitch the same strain, just take out the sample from storage and run it up with DME again to make a large starter, and split it again. That way you're always pitching a fresh culture, and not running out.

I know when I did LIVID, I took a look to see which yeast set had an established culture, and used that to pitch (Notty in this case). Fermentation took of crazy fast, and that was just with shaking for O2!
Click to expand...

Yeast packs, either wet or dry, have more than enough cells to just dump without a starter...even big beers at that volume. I recently racked a red ale onto a Haus pale ale cake and it is phenomal results. Im thinking about grabbing a large minifridge and starting a bank...those smapckpacks start getting expensive at 8 bucks a pop.

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Scout001 said:
The chances of getting a dead smackpack are about 100,000:1. You have just as much chance of getting dead yeast cells in White Labs or dry packs. Best thing to do is check the expiration dates and make sure they are refrigerated when you buy them. If you LHBS is the least bit competant, you can rule that out. Another thing is to pick up some Notty, SAF-05, and 06, keep em in your fridge as a backup for your future brew....

Sent from my SGH-T699 using Home Brew mobile app
Click to expand...

Not sure where my friend got it from, but he had kept it refrigerated prior to use. It hadn't expired either - it just wouldn't swell up, and we were hanging out, brewing for a few hours. Unless it it supposed to swell up overnight, it looks like either we got a dud or whoever sold it to him did not properly take care of it.
 
:off:
Avocado_Power said:
Sammy: please tell us more stories about the "CFO" because that was hilarious.
Click to expand...

Ok...another one from the "You know you're a home brewer when?" thread.

SWMBO:
Wakes up and says "Why were you trying to fuggle Willamette last night?"

ME:
"Huh?"

SWMBO:
"You must have been talking in your sleep. Wait a minute, who the fuggle is Willamette!"

:smack:
 
bleme said:
I have only used Wyeast twice, but the last time I smacked it and the bottom blew out. Never again.
Click to expand...

Sounds like a bad attempt at romance with the SWMBO

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But in all seriousness, i can definitely see where that can happen...i pop em outside usually...user experience varies. Both companies offer their unique varieties, I have used both and have not had a bad batch from any of them.

Sent from my SGH-T699 using Home Brew mobile app
 
bleme said:
I have only used Wyeast twice, but the last time I smacked it and the bottom blew out. Never again.
Click to expand...

Okay that made me chuckle. Not poking fun at you, Bleme, but there's a guy I work with who could break a steel bearing just by handing it to him. It's not his fault, he's not hard on stuff (and you know there's folks out there that can break ANYTHING if given the chance), I just think he's cursed by the gods. That kind of thing would happen to him.

All that smackpack is, is nutrient. Even it doesn't expand, your yeast is still fine (provided it's in the acceptable date range).


Was SUPPOSED to brew yesterday, but got called in to fix a disaster for 14hrs. So - TODAY is brew and bottle day! :mug:

Let's GET IT ON!
 
Bread is in the oven!

This is nuts. First time I've ever had to make bread to make beer. 3#'s of grain is sitting on the counter waiting for mash in, and I've got grain's baking at 350F. Come on bread, I need to get down to wallyworld to get a fishtank heater!
 
Sounds like you're brewing the Keptinis today. I would like to hear some details on your process. Warming ferm temps with the aquarium heater? Will this be a 1G experiment?
 
Yep, 1.5gal fermenting S04 at 78F with an aquarium heater/waterbath.

Just took the bread out (1hr@350F), top and sides are done, bottom still needed time so I flipped it over with another sheet of parchment paper and it's back into the oven for an other 15min upside down. I will say the bread tastes great - sweet, carmelly, and honey from the dollup I tossed in during mixing.

Sammy if you're interested I'm trying to do a running log in the Keptinis thread - recipe's over there also. Provided I can figure out how to post pics from the SWMBO's iphone-thing, I'll try and get some up.
 
Well that was one of the most interesting brew days I've had yet.

To anyone thinking of using something wild in their mash (like alfalfa for example), I HIGHLY suggest putting it in a steeping bag. I sure am glad I put it in a spare 1gal paint strainer bag before I mashed in.

S23 Keptinis is done! Now on to more brews!
 
Hey guys I just did my first NB 1 gal batch and like a dumb @ss I did not check my boil off rate and only ended up with abut 3/4 of a gallon to ferment. I started with recommended 1 and 1/4 gal pre-boil. Oh well live and learn. I hope the beer comes out
 
Doc -
Beer will come out fine, just at a slightly higher ABV than expected. :drunk: No worries, you'll be set for the next one. Congrats on making BEER! :mug:

Sammy - I've got pics, just need to figure out how to get them off the camera and onto here. I think I can upload them as attachments - if so I'll probably do it in the Keptinis thread. Please, head over and laugh at my trials and misfortunes. :ban:
 
doc8402 said:
Hey guys I just did my first NB 1 gal batch and like a dumb @ss I did not check my boil off rate and only ended up with abut 3/4 of a gallon to ferment. I started with recommended 1 and 1/4 gal pre-boil. Oh well live and learn. I hope the beer comes out
Click to expand...

Can't you just top it off to the one gallon mark with fresh, filtered water? Or if it's too late, just get ready to enjoy some concentrated, heavy beer.
 
Bah. Sammy I'm trying, but the SWMBO managed to lose the transfer cable for the camera. It's around here somewhere - I'd pop the memory card and put it into the laptop but it's a Sony camera and uses that goofy Sony memory stick that only works in Sony's crap.

I'm kind of dissappointed in the fishtank heater so far - it's holding at 74F deg, and I was hoping for 78F. Think I'll bring home some Reflectix tomorrow from work and wrap up the container.
 
After doing quite a bit of research on whether to do a DIY mash tun or buy one and studying up on several 5 and 10-gallon builds, I then thought for a second...do I even need either?

Here's what I mean: for now, I am still a small batch brewer, and I only brew anything from 1 gallon to 2.5 gallons.

Can't I just use my grain bag and steep it in any random 5-gallon cooler? I can just pour the wort from the top - no need to even buy a ball valve to install...is there any reason I can't do this for now? (And would it be bad to drain out the wort from the valve that comes with the cooler, given that the bag should strain the grain and it's such a small volume of liquid?)

Total cost: price of a 5 gallon cooler

Lemme know if this sounds legit...thanks guys.

I was looking at this thread too: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/biab-cooler-364162/
 
Avocado_Power said:
After doing quite a bit of research on whether to do a DIY mash tun or buy one and studying up on several 5 and 10-gallon builds, I then thought for a second...do I even need either?

Here's what I mean: for now, I am still a small batch brewer, and I only brew anything from 1 gallon to 2.5 gallons.

Can't I just use my grain bag and steep it in any random 5-gallon cooler? I can just pour the wort from the top - no need to even buy a ball valve to install...is there any reason I can't do this for now? (And would it be bad to drain out the wort from the valve that comes with the cooler, given that the bag should strain the grain and it's such a small volume of liquid?)

Total cost: price of a 5 gallon cooler

Lemme know if this sounds legit...thanks guys.

I was looking at this thread too: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/biab-cooler-364162/
Click to expand...

Can you do it? Sure! That's what I moved to after dealing with an excessive amount of trub and debris from my inital start with BIAB. I gave BIAB 2 honest trys and both times I screwed up my volume into the kettle. Because of that, I picked up a 5gal cooler and used a 5gal paint strainer as a "sieve" for the grains, and drained out the factory spigot.

That did work - and came with some obvious issues that I'll explain:
1) Controlling the rate of the drain when taking your runnings, especially when trying to volurph (or however it's spelled, it's late and my brain's clunky) to set the grain bed was a PITA.
2) My EFF sucked, mostly becuase the heavier sugars in the work collected BELOW the level of the spigot, which also left a considerable amount of deadspace in the cooler.

Now, there were also some things that were positive:
1) I could accurate hit my boil volumes every time.
2) I could take accurate readings with my refractometer for the initial runnings and subsequent sparges to see where I was loosing sugars
3) It was easy as heck to clean with the bag in the cooler I could just lift out the grains and put them in the compost box
4) My wort was clearer without all the trub.

So, even though I went to the cooler, I still ended up springing for the valve and a simple CPVC manifold, which allowed me to address the two main issues I faced. My EFF shot up, and I could control my drain flow easily.

I still use a 5gal paint strainer bag in my cooler, because it makes dealing with the grain SO much easier, and I've yet to get a stuck sparge with it. Eventually I hope to move to a Wilser bag, but the HD cheapo's working fine.

I do hope to revisit BIAB with an induction setup, but for now the cooler works fine for me.

:mug:
 
sumbrewindude said:
Can you do it? Sure! That's what I moved to after dealing with an excessive amount of trub and debris from my inital start with BIAB. I gave BIAB 2 honest trys and both times I screwed up my volume into the kettle. Because of that, I picked up a 5gal cooler and used a 5gal paint strainer as a "sieve" for the grains, and drained out the factory spigot.

That did work - and came with some obvious issues that I'll explain:
1) Controlling the rate of the drain when taking your runnings, especially when trying to volurph (or however it's spelled, it's late and my brain's clunky) to set the grain bed was a PITA.
2) My EFF sucked, mostly becuase the heavier sugars in the work collected BELOW the level of the spigot, which also left a considerable amount of deadspace in the cooler.

Now, there were also some things that were positive:
1) I could accurate hit my boil volumes every time.
2) I could take accurate readings with my refractometer for the initial runnings and subsequent sparges to see where I was loosing sugars
3) It was easy as heck to clean with the bag in the cooler I could just lift out the grains and put them in the compost box
4) My wort was clearer without all the trub.

So, even though I went to the cooler, I still ended up springing for the valve and a simple CPVC manifold, which allowed me to address the two main issues I faced. My EFF shot up, and I could control my drain flow easily.

I still use a 5gal paint strainer bag in my cooler, because it makes dealing with the grain SO much easier, and I've yet to get a stuck sparge with it. Eventually I hope to move to a Wilser bag, but the HD cheapo's working fine.

I do hope to revisit BIAB with an induction setup, but for now the cooler works fine for me.

:mug:
Click to expand...

This is what I do, too. For small batches I use a bag in a pot in the stove. For 2.5 or larger I use a bag on the cooler. I'm trying to decide on a screen or making a manifold. A screen seems easiest but a manifold seems like it would work better.

In either case, there is dead space and I'm not sure how you avoid losing some of the sugars.

Even with just a cooler and no spout, you can lift the bag out to drain and then pour the liquid out. I don't know why more people don't do this.
 
Eric - if you've got a handsaw and a tape measure you can make a CPVC manifold pretty dang quick (and cheap!).

I tried the tilt thing a few times, just didn't work for my setup and burned my thumb up a few times with 170F wort. The manifold/valve thing just flat works, and lets me get on to other things.
 
I recently brewed (5) individual batches of an identical pale ale using different hops.

I wanted to force carb these, but thought 5-gallon kegs would be overkill for 1-gallon batches.

I dug through the DIY area and found a how-to on making your own carbonator caps. The idea calls for tire valve stems. To make things even better, my next-door neighbor owns a tire shop...

Here's what I put together:

Carbonator-1.jpg


Carbonator-2.jpg


Carbonator-3.jpg


Carbonator-4.jpg
 
IvanBrew said:
I recently brewed (5) individual batches of an identical pale ale using different hops.

I wanted to force carb these, but thought 5-gallon kegs would be overkill for 1-gallon batches.

I dug through the DIY area and found a how-to on making your own carbonator caps. The idea calls for tire valve stems. To make things even better, my next-door neighbor owns a tire shop...

Here's what I put together:
Click to expand...

That is really cool set up now do you shoot c02 in there ? I could defiantly make the caps

Sent from my ADR6410LVW using Home Brew mobile app
 
Total newbie question so I did my first brews yesterday and at 24hours out the red is bubbling away but the brown ale seems to be stalled I don't see any movement in the jug should I be worried? I have read that small batches can ferment in 24 hours, I was going hard last night before I went to bed and there was some movement this morning but nothing doing now.
I also may have over pitched on the brown...

Thoughts?
 
doc8402 said:
Total newbie question so I did my first brews yesterday and at 24hours out the red is bubbling away but the brown ale seems to be stalled I don't see any movement in the jug should I be worried? I have read that small batches can ferment in 24 hours, I was going hard last night before I went to bed and there was some movement this morning but nothing doing now.
I also may have over pitched on the brown...

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

What yeast did the brown use? Better to overpitch than underpitch, unless you like rhino-farts.

If it was S04, then yes, you could be done in 24hrs or so (or have the bulk of the inital fermentation done). S04 ferments crazy fast for me, slightly faster than Notty.

Of course I say that and the S04 I pitched into my Keptinis is still smacking the airlock around in it's heated water bath. Thought that would have been done by now, but it's not showing any signs of slowing down...

Swirl the carboy a little and see if it takes back off again, or if you're really curious pull a small sample and check it against the OG. This is where a pipette and a refractometer come in handy.

:mug:
 
beerlover87 said:
That is really cool set up now do you shoot c02 in there ? I could defiantly make the caps

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Click to expand...

Absolutely. That 1st pic is a standard air chuck hanging off of a 5lb CO2 bottle. I've got the beer at 44 F and I'm running 15 psi. When I filled the 2 liters, I squeezed the bottles to purge the air, then tightened down the caps. Then I pressurized and shook the hell out of them.

You can feel the bottles go soft as the beer absorbs CO2. I re-pressurized and shook until that softening stopped (3-4 times). Since then I've just been keeping them topped up to 14-15 psi every time I'm out there. I checked one bottle last night via taste test, and carb is in-line with where I think it would be if I'd kegged. I'm definitely happy for the couple dollar investment in valve stems :)
 
I am doing my first BIAB tomorrow and the straining bag I received is a course mash. Just wondering if that is too big of holes and I will get too much grain in my wort? thanks


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jeffro30 said:
I am doing my first BIAB tomorrow and the straining bag I received is a course mash. Just wondering if that is too big of holes and I will get too much grain in my wort? thanks


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Click to expand...

Tough to say, if you're really concerned about it stop down to Home Depot and grab some 5gal paint strainer bags for 4 bucks. They aren't as fine as some of the swiss voile, but they work great.

Unless the holes are really big, chances are it'll hold the grain fine - but you'll have a ton of debris in the pot from all the small particles.
 
sumbrewindude said:
Tough to say, if you're really concerned about it stop down to Home Depot and grab some 5gal paint strainer bags for 4 bucks. They aren't as fine as some of the swiss voile, but they work great.



Unless the holes are really big, chances are it'll hold the grain fine - but you'll have a ton of debris in the pot from all the small particles.
Click to expand...


Ok, I'll try that thanks!


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Ok, that carb setup I'd pretty sweet. You should totally roll into the local brewpub with a couple of 2-liters and a handheld CO2 bike pump instead of a growler. It's nice that you can just squeeze the bottle because then you don't need a purging method like that newfangled growler setup ive been seeing around the interwebs.

This is also nice because I've been wondering about a good way to carb a hard cider... Do you think you could bottle from that without losing all the carbing?


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Danno77 said:
Ok, that carb setup I'd pretty sweet. You should totally roll into the local brewpub with a couple of 2-liters and a handheld CO2 bike pump instead of a growler. It's nice that you can just squeeze the bottle because then you don't need a purging method like that newfangled growler setup ive been seeing around the interwebs.

This is also nice because I've been wondering about a good way to carb a hard cider... Do you think you could bottle from that without losing all the carbing?


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Click to expand...

There was a recent article here on using 2 liter bottles as portable kegs. If you did that, you could fill glass bottles in any of the ways typically used for filling from kegs (i.e., counter pressure fill, Blichmann's Beer Gun, etc.) The article is here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/Plastic-bottles-used-as-mini-kegs.html

I would think you would also have at least some success just getting everything ICE cold (including the glass bottles) and very carefully pouring out of the 2 liter to fill. You'd lose some carbonation, but if you overcarb to compensate, I'd bet you could make it work.

It's something I think I'll play around with, though I'm kinda the engineer dork who prefers (usually) the more complex solution, lol.
 
Brewing the famous Ginger Ale recipe from this forum and I tried the "BIAB and stick the pot in the oven" technique. Brought everything to temperature and warmed the oven up to 170 degrees (the lowest setting it has), then put the pot in the oven and switched over to warm. Ended up loosing 1 degree over the 60 minutes and had 77% efficiency. :mug:
 
Has anyone thought of using this pretzel barrel as a fermenter? I searched this thread but sometimes I just use the wrong keyword.
I threw away an empty one last week, but did a volume check out of curiosity. It's a perfect 2 gallons. When my currently full barrel is empty, I believe I'll try a 1.5 gallon batch of apfelwein. It's PET plastic by the way.
813.jpg
 
bstacy1974 said:
Has anyone thought of using this pretzel barrel as a fermenter? I searched this thread but sometimes I just use the wrong keyword.
I threw away an empty one last week, but did a volume check out of curiosity. It's a perfect 2 gallons. When my currently full barrel is empty, I believe I'll try a 1.5 gallon batch of apfelwein. It's PET plastic by the way.
813.jpg
Click to expand...

I would like to make a bottling bucket out of one. Drill a hole towards the bottom and boom !!
 
Wooo! Took my beers to a beer club meeting tonight, got to try a few and had more than a few try mine. Got a LOT of great feedback, most of it completely valid and right along with what I expected, but also alot of really constructive points and verification that I'm actually making "great" beer.

Feels good.

Also, drank probably way too many Brewfarm Funk #2's. Love, love, LOVE that wild american ale.

:rockin::rockin::rockin:
 
Checked my brews today when I got home and the kraeusen was gone from both of them they have been fermenting for 5 days. Is it ok to leave them in the primary for another week or two?

Thanks to all of you have provided advice through my first brew. I can't wait to taste them.
 

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