New England Brew Session & yankee enginuity

2nd Street, grab something for me at Hennessy:

I've been waiting for my new stainless steel mash paddles to show up, but apparently the company I bought from is in the process of ripping me off. Can you grab me one of those monster plastic mash paddles he has hanging on the wall? I want to say that they were like $5 or so. Can you grab one for me and I'll make you whole?

No problem bird. you want the long one right?

Longest one he has. Think it's three feet or so.

the_bird said:

Longest one he has. Think it's three feet or so.

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That's what she sa...nevermind. I just felt compelled to weigh in on this epic thread. Have fun, guys!

I'll grab a couple of AB's as well - they usually have it at the liquor store down the road from me. If we end up with eight bottles - well, I suppose we can find something to do with it...

Vermicous,

I'll split the brew with you. I need another Pale Ale in my pipe anyway.

Kai

Baron von BeeGee said:

That's what she sa...nevermind. I just felt compelled to weigh in on this epic thread. Have fun, guys!

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See, it's not just you North Carolina folks that can manage a group brew!

We'll be sure to post plenty of pics for you folks...

Kai, does that mean you're coming? Awesome.

Oh, and I got my tank tonight, and the rest of my gear is in order. Think I'm all set to fly.

2nd Street, can you grab me up two racking canes from the LHBS ?

Vermicous said:

The article on Ray McNeill makes him sound rather intimidating, it will be an experience meeting him.

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He's just a regular guy like you and me.

glibbidy said:

2nd Street, can you grab me up two racking canes from the LHBS ?

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No problem, just the basic plastic ones right? What am I saying, I don't think he has stainless in stock.

plastic would be preferred. thanks

Have fun guys! Those of us non-Yankees are jealous.

Post some photos when you get back. and "glibbidy", post thome threads during the process to keep us posted. I'll enjoy it vicariously through you guys.

For those of you driving, be safe. (woudn't want all that brew wasted, j/k :cross: )

Woohoo AHBS came through in the nick of time. Gear is all ready to pile into the car tomorrow at 6am! Including the 1/2" racking equipment and mashtun 3.0 with an actual ball valve! See you at 9, bird.

A question: Should I bring my immersion chiller or are we all set on chillers? It has no fittings, I just hoseclamp 3/8 tubes to it.

I'm Getting excited boys!!!!

Just curious. How many are committed for tommorrow? I count 7-8 off the top of my head.

I'm 90% certain. Still up in the air if I'm brewing, that is more like 15%

I'll be there. My assistant is planning on showing up, and I have three observers stopping by to check out the AG trip.

Chill, why don't you bring it? I'm definately short a chiller, had no time to get mine reconfigued today. We'll make room for it.

Just finished pre loading the truck. Got most all in there except the burners and my grains/hops/yeast. Vermicous, My beer store didn't have any AB sorry. Did get his last 3 sixers of SNCA which will be coming with me.

I ran out of time today and didn't get to the package store, but I'll bring along the bomber I have sitting in the fridge.

This just in, we'll have my california common on tap as well for sunday.
It's got quite a bit, of chill haze, but tastes fantastic. :cross:

I'm picking up stuff to make pizza's for lunch. I'm guessing that since we are all drinking beer, nobody has any gluten issues they wish to bring to the table.

If you have any toppings handy that you want on your za, BRING EM'!

See you all in the morning. I'm still planning on mashing in at 9am so I can provide any needed assitance for those conducting their first AG experiment.

Y'all should have gotten t-shirts printed for this festival!

Probably would have gotten them quicker than the homebrewtalk.com ones...

Oops, did I say that out loud? Sorry, Tx.

I'm just hoping to make it through in one piece I'm getting too old for this ****.

Hitting the road, see you all in about an hour bird.

Where are the pics??!!!11?

Well, that sucked. The first time since we moved that I was able to free up a weekend day for getting out of the house and my hife had to get sick. Needless to say I played the nice husband and stayed home to help her with the kids. But I was pretty bummed out about the whole situation.

I hope you guys had fun and that there will be a repeat.

Kai

Looks like I'm the first one to make it back online. Was a great day, thanks Glibbidy. Going to sit down and have a beer after the drive home, then finish unloading the truck. I think there we enough pics taken just got to get em up.

I think I'm seeing sideways right now, I'll try to load Chilly Haze's pix when I'm sober.

Nice

Awesome time today, dudes. Absolute blast. Need to work out some kinks in my system (only 63% efficiency, dammit), but there's plenty of time for that. All the beer that I sampled today was excellent, everybody was very cool. We'll definately have to do this again in a few months (well, maybe February would be a bad idea...)

Thanks again for your excellent hospitality, Glib. Pizza was awesome and your kidlings are a blast.

Well that sure was a fun drive home!

hehe, great day fellas. My beer has not taken off yet, but I have it at 64 deg so perhaps that's why. Thanks SOO much to everybody that let me bum their AG equipment. It was great to overshoot my gravity by 2 points. Maybe that will help balance the *cough* accidental addition of hops. A quick plug into Beersmith shows 133 IBU for this one! Sveeet.

Hippie, are you still alive man? Last we saw ya you were having some trouble with those stairs ;-).

Dean, how are my 400 pictures treating you?

I'm glad I took today off from work. Got to finish cleaning up the equipment and straighten out the basement. My pale ale is fermenting like a bastid even though I came up a lttle short of 5 gals after my boil. Iiii'm saving my hydrometer for my next batch. I really wanted to concentrate on the how, I'll work on the whys and wherefores as I go along.

Chill, you sure you pitched yeast and not the contents of that piss jug into out batches? Didn't somebody say that it looked a little bit lower than before?

Same as you, no activity yet, but it's a little on the cool side (64 as well). Guess the talk of explosive fermentation and blow-off tubes and all that was a little premature. I'm disappointed in my efficiency, only 63% or so (maybe a little more, hard to say whether I have 5.5, 5.6, or 5.7 gallons). I'm sure I would have been higher had I sparged a bit more, but then I would have had to do a 90 minute boil.

In any case, a GREAT time.

Kai, what's the matter with you, taking care of a sick wife...

the_bird said:

Chill, you sure you pitched yeast and not the contents of that piss jug into out batches? Didn't somebody say that it looked a little bit lower than before?

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Now that you mention it, the yeast jar did seem a little warm...:cross:

the_bird said:

In any case, a GREAT time.

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You said it!

the_bird said:

Nice

Awesome time today, dudes. Absolute blast. Need to work out some kinks in my system (only 63% efficiency, dammit), but there's plenty of time for that. All the beer that I sampled today was excellent, everybody was very cool. We'll definately have to do this again in a few months (well, maybe February would be a bad idea...)

Thanks again for your excellent hospitality, Glib. Pizza was awesome and your kidlings are a blast.

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Looks like y'all had a killer time, glad to hear it. How did your new keggle perform?

The keggle was great, except I need to figure out a better system for straining hop pellets. The SS braid I was using was clogging up too easily. Not sure if using a greater length would help, or if I need to build a manifold (I have most of the parts to do so here). We ended up draining it about halfway out, then lifting it and pouring the last of it into the fermenter. Live, learn, and figure out a better solution!

Or, I suppose a big ol' hop bag might be in my future, at least for next time (which should be soon).

So, much, much thanks again!

Some pix, more to come.

I think I also have every single picture that Chilly Haze has taken.
Matt- I can't believe you got that girl to do that to the donkey, that's awesome