DC Group Buy get together thread!

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

stonebrewer

Invented the IPL
HBT Supporter
Joined
Mar 8, 2012
Messages
2,118
Reaction score
379
Location
rockville
This thread it setup to discuss a gathering of the fine brewers who make up the DC grain buy. Loose plan is to meet at one of our homes and do a huge group brew! More to come...
 
Oya I'm in! Let's do it! In December we'll need to catch a good thaw weekend if we get one. I'm off the last part of December starting on the 19th. Lets keep a close watch on the weather though and try to get a warm weekend.


:mug:
 
I'll need to convert my rig back to propane, from natural gas, unless where we do it has NG available. Should be fairly quick and easy to do. Keith volunteered to host, but I think he needs to check with SWMBO :D;)

Let's start kicking around some ideas for what we will brew. I would like to get a barrel sometime and brew up a bourbon barrel stout or the like, but that is down the road some. Maybe a quad or strong ale? Or maybe do a couple of beers at the same time? Gotta think about food too...I am sure there will be some sippin' going on so have to keep the belly happy!
 
Perhaps a Westy 12 clone?


Sent from the window of an airplane...

I like this idea!! I hear that quads are difficult style to get right, but I confess I gravitate more and more to the style, just have been a little apprehensive about brewing one so far. I would like to get this style down in my portfolio of beers as I really want to do one and age it in a bourbon soaked barrel. I always have St. B ABT 12 at home, and having gallons of it may be, gulp, dangerous to my liver! :D:drunk:
 
Ya know if the weather doesn't give us a break we could just have a little get together. Just a thought since we don't really know what is coming at us.

Oh and I just got permission to take one of these home! http://www.bostonlabco.com/new-brunswick-innova-4335-refrigerated-incubator-shaker.html

Of course the one I'm getting doesn't have a scratch on it and runs like a top. I know I can get two 7.9gal fermenting buckets in there. It might even hold half kegs depending on how tall they are. Problem is it weighs 480lbs so getting it moved is going to be a job in itself. :D
 
It could be used for agitating starters and on a huge scale. I really don't need the shaking feature so I could either strip the thing down and just use it as a temp chamber or donate it to a brewery for cultivating their yeast and making huge starters. It's really well insulated and will hold temps at ±1°c for months on end. If I donate it they better give me free growlers for life! LOL
 
I ran this by My wife and she said have at it. So with that said we're gonna have to get lucky and get a reasonably warm weekend. I have a carport between the house and garage which would be fine for setting up a brew rig. Unfortunately the garage is a mess with not much room to hang out in there. I have a Weber grill to cook on and a nice kitchen area that will hold a 8-12 people. If we stagger the trips into the kitchen we could have quite a few more people hanging out on the carport. I do have a Chesapeake Bay Retriever that is a good dog once everyone is greeted but we need to keep that in mind he is a barker that will not stop until he's checked people out. (He does have a little issue with humping so just be firm with him and tell him no!) With that being said I guess we can start there and figure out the rest as we go.

  1. How many people
  2. Who wants to brew
  3. A food list
 
1. Im in.
2. I'm not going to bring my brew equipment but will help others with their brewing. Also ill try to bring some home brew.
3. how about a potluck?

I can bring a heater that might make things a bit better. I have this heater.

f228810.jpg
 
Once we get a little deeper in the month we need to set a date. My vote is after Xmas and before New Years. Happy to bring my rig and kettles with me. Happy to bring some pot luck and brewski. Looking at the inaccurate long range forecast, the week after Xmas is supposed to be in the 30's-40's based on historical averages. I think we can handle that, especially if we are brewing and J1n brings his heater. Warm you hands by the propane, right?

Another suggestion is to brew the bitburger lager that Keith and I really love!

Need to hear peoples thoughts on how we do this too. Who bring ingredients, who brews, who takes the goods home to ferment, do we brew and share later at the next get together, etc. Really don't care, but we need to have a plan and understanding up front so peeps know what to expect. Or am I overthinking this?
 
I could bring my 2 Blichmann floor burners I've already taken off my Top Tier rig. That Top Tier cannot be easily moved assembled and it takes an hour+ to re-assemble so I'm not going to bring it. But it's fun 'cause it can be all gravity fed and you can fly a flag off it if you want. :tank:

With 3 rigs, we can do at least 3 beers, maybe more if we want to do some back to back (mashing while boiling) or get more participants. Chilling will be fast and easy at that time of year, so that's a plus.

I think having some sort of theme would be a nice touch. BCS sounds good. Or Current Clones. Or all Lagers. Let's hear your ideas.

How's your water there, Keith? Or should we plan to bring our own in buckets?

--
NP: Procol Harum - A Salty Dog (2014-11-24 London, UK) [FLAC]
 
As far as water goes I'm on well water and haven't really checked into getting it tested for a while. I think from what I remember along time ago when I had an aquarium the pH is below 7. I think the county will test it for free once a year so maybe this spring I'll get it tested just to see what I have. Since I'll be busy hosting if it's at my place someone can use my grain mill, 2 burners, 2 x 10 gal pots, 10gal cooler mash tun, copper coil chiller and a 10gal cooler HLT.
 
Once we get a little deeper in the month we need to set a date. My vote is after Xmas and before New Years. Happy to bring my rig and kettles with me. Happy to bring some pot luck and brewski. Looking at the inaccurate long range forecast, the week after Xmas is supposed to be in the 30's-40's based on historical averages. I think we can handle that, especially if we are brewing and J1n brings his heater. Warm you hands by the propane, right?

Another suggestion is to brew the bitburger lager that Keith and I really love!

Need to hear peoples thoughts on how we do this too. Who bring ingredients, who brews, who takes the goods home to ferment, do we brew and share later at the next get together, etc. Really don't care, but we need to have a plan and understanding up front so peeps know what to expect. Or am I overthinking this?

Tony's management skills kicking in i see. lol

Not over thinking it, i think its good to get this all sorted out. i know we all have a ton of grains so that shouldn't be an issue. I have a lot of hops i just stocked up on so i can contribute if i have the hops we need.

Bitburger is a good one to do. im not picky so im down for any style. if we do 3 batches how many gallons is that? i know some of us are running 10 gal rigs while some are on 5 gal.

I'll be in FL from the 20th - 28th so week after xmas should work for me.

As for the who takes what home. i say whoever has space in their ferment chambers should take it home and then bottle and we can split it at the next meet. i don't mind doing that extra work. we all do it all the time anyways.
 
The weekend after Christmas works for me. If someone wants to do a big batch of Bitburger I'll go in on it. Since it I now have 2 temp chambers and one on the way I'll have room for 4 6.5 gallon batches. :D

For the Bitburger I've never had more than a 1/2 thick layer of Krausen so I bet we could put 7 gallons in the 7.9 gallon buckets and not have a blow off issue.
 
Ok guys the weekend will be on us soon. Do you all think we're gonna do this? Like I said before we can just make this a fun food and sample day or if someone wants to brew we can do that too. Let's figure it out.
 
Idk Kieth... The thread has been quiet for a while.... everyone is prob been busy. I kinda want the weekend to do nothing and recharge. Just got back from FL where i was with the inlaws for a week.
 
Yes, i am still down for it. Its warm enough and no holidays to deal with so should be much easier to make this happen.

Keith you still in MD? Hope you didnt migrate to FL yet.
 
would sunday may 17 work for folks? it's the day after our group buy pick-up, so we'll have plenty of fresh malt. works for me because my in-laws will be in town that weekend so i have coverage for child-care.

if you're going to shoot down this date, please provide an alternative :tank:
 
Well since there's been little interest I guess we can try again in a month or so. My place is out for the next month or two at least since my carport is full of stuff.
 
Back
Top