ITT - Out Dirty Brewing Secrets

Pretty sure, now that he's doing AG. I think it's just temporary, though.

zoebisch01 said:

I was thinking of just making up some stamps and getting plain caps. A simple "S" for Stout, "A" for APA etc.

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I do the exact same thing with a sharpie marker....since I never usually have more than 3 brews hanging around at a time and don't really overlap styles, it's easy to remember what's what.

zoebisch01 said:

I was thinking of just making up some stamps and getting plain caps. A simple "S" for Stout, "A" for APA etc.

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I'm a strong supporter of the one-letter coding system. I just use a black sharpie

**EDIT** D'oh! What he said ^^^

zoebisch01 said:

I was thinking of just making up some stamps and getting plain caps. A simple "S" for Stout, "A" for APA etc.

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I'll chime in too. I number each recipe in my log, and put that nuber on the cap. If I give a mixed 6 pack away I give them an index card with what number is what beer.

I guess the only dirty brewing secret that I have is when I sometimes get lax with sanitation at bottling time. The bottles get a squrt of two of iodophor if anything. I havent had a problem yet.

- magno

I use this site as my recipe log.
I only have one hose, and it's my siphon/blowoff hose
I made chili in my wort boiling pot
I rarely make a starter
I often let my beer sit in fermenters for months
I used to mouth-siphon (until I bought an auto-siphon)
I take "samples" with my baster
I purposely do a half-assed job on clean-up so SWMBO will do the rest
I sometimes run out of sanitzed bottles and just rinse out unsanitized.

Oh man you guys are gonna ostracise me when I finish this list........

I have sanitized with bleach in the past and am considering going back.....
I use knee high nylons as hop bags.........
I leave beer in primary and/or secondary forever.....
When kegging, I force carb by setting at 25 for 3 days rather than "set it and forget it" (I've been scolded for that here.) ...........
I regularly drink BMC's such as Miller, Pabst, and Old Milwaukee without shame.....
If I'm brewing on a weekday I'll tune the garage TV to Lifetime for Frasier and the Nanny reruns..........
I, too, will top off with tap water.......
I fill my airlock with tap water rather than sanitizer......
I HATE Star-San! Can't get over the bubble thing.......

There's prolly more, but can't think of any at the moment

Cheesefood said:

I use this site as my recipe log.
I only have one hose, and it's my siphon/blowoff hose
I made chili in my wort boiling pot
I rarely make a starter
I often let my beer sit in fermenters for months
I used to mouth-siphon (until I bought an auto-siphon)
I take "samples" with my baster
I purposely do a half-assed job on clean-up so SWMBO will do the rest
I sometimes run out of sanitzed bottles and just rinse out unsanitized.

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I fill my airlock with tap water.
I get my eyebrows waxed.
I drink Miller Lite when I have homebrew on hand
Sometimes I drink green homebrew just for the farts (to PO SWMBO)

Cheesefood said:

I drink Miller Lite when I have homebrew on hand

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guilty of that as well

I'm not sure this is bad, but I suck cleaner through my tubes with my mouth.
I also drink Miller Light (usually at the end of the night)
During my first outdoor effort, I spilled a bunch of DME on my patio. I swept it into a dust pan and added it to the boil.
I would top off with tap, but I haven't had to add since going to full boils.

Other than that, I'm pretty good about doing things right

My dirty secrets...

I don't always wash my equipment with cleaner or mild soap after I'm done with it, I just rinse it off well with lots of hot water and put it away.

I also sneak bottles before they're done carbonating

Nothing really bad I guess, but I never remember to put the priming sugar water in the bottling bucket before I siphon the beer in. The result is that I always end up with half my bottles flat and the other half have too much foam when I pour them.

I sometimes sanitize my bottles in the dishwasher.

I always keep the same number of bottles of homebrew in the fridge so SWMBO doesn't know how much I am drinking.

I once siphoned with a vaccuum cleaner due to a high gravity wort!

I nearly blew out the motor on the vaccuum!

I force carbonate at 30PSI for 2 days.

I've made a bottle bomb just to watch it blow up in my friends face.

I used my brewpot to soak a brine turkey this Thanksgiving!

Ahh, now it's all off my chest.

pain++ said:

I used my brewpot to soak a brine turkey this Thanksgiving!

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Guilty of that one too

pain++ said:

I used my brewpot to soak a brine turkey this Thanksgiving!

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Yeah, me too.

debtman7 said:

Guilty of that one too

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Cheesefood said:

Yeah, me too.

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Nice to know I'm in good company

Buford said:

I don't always wash my equipment with cleaner or mild soap after I'm done with it, I just rinse it off well with lots of hot water and put it away.

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Cleaner or mild soap? I didnt know we were supposed to do that! I rinse them out with hot water and let them air dry.

I don't know that you have to, I just figured that if I can't see or feel any residue on it it's good to go. It'll be soaked in StarSan before it gets used again anyway.

I used my mash tun to brine my turkey this thanksgiving.
I never have used a starter, and probably never will.
But worst of all, I forgot to put my SS braid on my tun on the last batch so I had to throw a bunch of ice in to cool it off enough to reach my arm down and get it on. 156° is hot.

Yesterday the fermenter was getting a little cool so I gave the keg a big hug while I warmed a blanket in the dryer to keep it warm while I was at work.

always use me mouth to get the syphon going.
sometimes dont boil the corn sugar/dme at bottling, just toss it in.
rarely follow the hop schedule i set up ahead of time, and rarely record the changes.
sometimes i bottle right outta the primary without priming, and hope there's enough residual sugar to carbonate.
most of my primaries sit for two to three weeks before i rack.
leave beer in the secondary for ages, upwards of four months before i get around to bottling it.
make my five year old daugther sanitize the bottles and caps (she loves it though)

Once I used a glass of water with a blow off tube. After I did the transfer I forgot about the water and started drinking it, perplexed on why it tasted so funny.

I don't santize most things after the primary fement; hoses, airlocks, bottles... usually just the secondary, every thing else gets a hot water rinse. I top off with tap water, we don't live in mexico. and I shave my balls

Buford said:

My dirty secrets...

I don't always wash my equipment with cleaner or mild soap after I'm done with it, I just rinse it off well with lots of hot water and put it away.

I also sneak bottles before they're done carbonating

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Hehe! I do that too. Have to check on the progress of the homebrew right? I'd hate to give out homebrew thats green. Unfortunately there's not much to give out when I'm done with my testing

I'm also very lazy at cleanup, so after brewing I usually just rinse things off quick and scrape off the hops that are stuck to the pot and don't actually clean it until the next time I brew and I use soap to clean all of my equipment. No head problems at my place :cross:

I've just had a wee glass of my 10% cider after only six days of fermenting.
Nice and cloudy with lots of lovely yeast.

use a cheap 20 qt brew pot I bought for $10 at Family Dollar store.
drink flat beer during bottling; and like it!!
Don't own a bottle brush. Just rinse and 10 min StarSan soak.
always brew in just my boxers unless they are all dirty.
use Canadian Mist in my air locks.
I'm pretty sure I dropped cigarette ash in my last boil.

Pimp Juice said:

I top off with tap water, we don't live in mexico. and I shave my balls

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would that be while you're topping off? You could call your beer Nutjob Ale.

First brew story...tasted wort right after pitching yeast. Turns out I got a thief full of freshly rehydrated yeast.

I purged bigtime at about 2 in the morning.

Now I sample wort before I pitch yeast, and after primary fermentation.

Wheat King said:

start my siphon with my mouth.

replace bottles immediately in the fridge so my ladyfriend doesnt know how much ive drank

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Can't tell you how many times I've been in trouble waking up all red-eyed and alka-seltzer breath. I should of thought of this technique a long time ago.. now she can't hold a number of beers over my head.


"No wonder you are grumpy this morning! You drank 12 beers last night."

I don't remember drinking 12, but I'll write it down in my score book since SWHMBO is using it against me... it must be true.

I see nothing wrong with these "quirks".

I don't keep notes. I write everything down a couple days after the boil.
I don't want to share my beer with anyone.
That's about it for me, but I'm relatively new at this and im sure I'll develop some bad habits soon enough


Dan