GRABASS 1/9 Brewgasm (Cary, NC)

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Mad props to Walker and Mrs. Walker for putting up with us hooligans. Great job on the provisions to both of them! Nice to see everyone that I have already met again, and even better to meet some new folks as well! Hopefully the GRABASS brewing conglomerate can continue to grow and we can do this again very soon! Congrats again the Idahodal on his first AG brew as well! Cheers to all!
 
Couldn't agree more with the previous comments.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Walker were great hosts and even better cooks!
 
Awesome brewday today (lousy football day for my Bengals).

I'm glad so many folks could make it. Great seeing the old crew and great to meet Anson, Doug, Eric, Dallas, and Dallas' buddy whose name I forgot.

Lots of beer to sample... Reminded me of the World Beer Fest. My personal favorite was skee's porter (EdWort's recipe), but I am kind of partial to porters in the first place.

40+ gallons of brew produced today. Not too shabby. Not too shabby at all.
I'm interested in trying the community brew that Dallas carted off (some of this, some of that, some dry S-04...)

The rainbarrel water idea, while a good one, went to hell in a hand basket when we discovered that the barrels were 55 gallon blocks of solid ice. Of course, we found out AFTER my little pump imploded.

HUGE thanks to Chad for saving the day with his fountain pump and SHAME on most of you for not bringing the bags of ice I strongly urged you to bring. ;)

Thanks to Barc, Eric, and Evan for making ice runs and getting it all chilled.

It was a blast. I hope you all agree!
 
Walker said:
I'm interested in trying the community brew that Dallas carted off (some of this, some of that, some dry S-04...)
Click to expand...

One correction, S-05.

Lemme see, ~2 gallons of Boston Semen Porter, ~1 gallon of Walker Treacle Porter, and ~1/2 gallon of IdahoDal Sullen Seraph Kolsch.

Thanks again, Walker! Tell Mrs. Walker we all really appreciate you letting us invade.
 
Walker said:
Thanks to Barc, Eric, and Evan for making ice runs and getting it all chilled.

It was a blast. I hope you all agree!
Click to expand...

No problemo! Glad I could help.

I could not agree more! Let's do this again tomorrow... OK, maybe next weekend. :)
 
Barc said:
I could not agree more! Let's do this again tomorrow... OK, maybe next weekend. :)
Click to expand...

I am definitely down for doing this again. SWMBO doesn't seem annoyed by anything, so I imaging I could host another one at some point. But, I think my next brew session will be a nice, quite solo event.

I actually realized just a few moments ago that I am short on carboys, so I need to get things moved further down the pipeline a bit before I cook up another batch. The 10 gallons of lager in the fridge are kind of bottlenecking my whole system right now.
 
Wow. that was a fun day of brewing! Good to see everyone again. Thanks Walkwe & Julie for putting on a great show!
 
For anyone who was involved in my "wtf is up with my gravity?" problem yesterday, I just ran through the recipe and included the appx 1lb of DME that I (unnecessarily) put in.

Comparing some notes from the previous batch of pils that the Baron and I made, it turns out that I get about 74% efficiency on my 5gal batches, but closer to 82% on 10gal batches.
 
also lost:
1 "universal" rubber stopper

and found:
1 blue plastic WRAL coffee cup
1 stainless steel and black plastic coffee cup (Chad's, I believe?)
 
Walker said:
For anyone who was involved in my "wtf is up with my gravity?" problem yesterday, I just ran through the recipe and included the appx 1lb of DME that I (unnecessarily) put in.

Comparing some notes from the previous batch of pils that the Baron and I made, it turns out that I get about 74% efficiency on my 5gal batches, but closer to 82% on 10gal batches.
Click to expand...

I think we got 80%+ based on our pre-boil numbers and I think everyone got some really good efficiency with their batches. Boston's mill did a good job. No idea what the true numbers were since we used some of Frink's wort! Thanks again Frink!
 
Walker said:
also lost:
1 "universal" rubber stopper
Click to expand...

I think you threw that bottom of the 3-piece airlock that was attached to a small stopper into my box after I gave you the 3-piece I brought for skee... I set it aside to bring back up to you next round. Is that the one you need? I can get it back to you sooner, if needed.
 
Barc said:
I think you threw that bottom of the 3-piece airlock that was attached to a small stopper into my box after I gave you the 3-piece I brought for skee... I set it aside to bring back up to you next round. Is that the one you need? I can get it back to you sooner, if needed.
Click to expand...

Ok, that sounds plausible. I had attached the bottom of the airlock to the stopper and was looking for the rest of the airlock when you offered me a new airlock. I can totally see myself tossing the partial assembly to the side.

I don't urgently need it... was just wondering where the hell it had gone because one second it was in my hand and the next second I couldn't find it amongst my other gear after repeated searching.
 
Walker said:
Ok, that sounds plausible. I had attached the bottom of the airlock to the stopper and was looking for the rest of the airlock when you offered me a new airlock. I can totally see myself tossing the partial assembly to the side.

I don't urgently need it... was just wondering where the hell it had gone because one second it was in my hand and the next second I couldn't find it amongst my other gear after repeated searching.
Click to expand...

I'll bring it back up that way next brew, then. :mug:
 
I had a great time meeting everyone yesterday. Let me know next time you want to get together, I would love to come and actually brew this time.

Thanks to Walker for his hospitality.
 
Walker said:
I am definitely down for doing this again. SWMBO doesn't seem annoyed by anything, so I imaging I could host another one at some point. But, I think my next brew session will be a nice, quite solo event.

I actually realized just a few moments ago that I am short on carboys, so I need to get things moved further down the pipeline a bit before I cook up another batch. The 10 gallons of lager in the fridge are kind of bottlenecking my whole system right now.
Click to expand...

Just let me know if you need a carboy, I got a SWEET deal on a tall 7gal yesterday!

Just wanted to update that our Belgian IPA is going like a bat outta hell currently. SWMBO brewed her batch today like a pro! I now have 25 gallons in various stages of fermentation in my apt! I think my pipeline is pretty good at the moment.
 
skeeordye11 said:
Just wanted to update that our Belgian IPA is going like a bat outta hell currently.
Click to expand...

Indeed. Pitched at 6 last night and this morning it was bubbling very well. Chimay yeast agrees well with the wort...
 
Also wanted to say I had a blast yesterday. Thanks to Walker and the missus for the hospitality, and Brownie and Boomer for the love, Boston for the MLT, and everyone else for all your help and the brews! I hit 79% efficiency yesterday. Must be beginners luck.

The biscuit-Kolsh is bubbling away quite merrily as is the what-cha-got-stew though slower probably on account of the massive head space in the bucket. Spent some more time on my keggle today making it more pimp-tastic. It is *shiny* now :D

Lets set something up for next month. I'll happily host if folks want to make the hike out my way.
 
One more item from me in the "lost" catagory:

1 Orange racking cane tip.

That might seem like a little bit of nothing, but they don't make them in orange anymore... just black.

That orange one is the only one I can see when I rack porters/stouts/etc, and I think it's one of the few pieces of plastic equipment I have had for over 10 years.

I want it.

I need it.

I love it.

Last time I saw it, it was in that huge ass 2 gallon tupperware container that ended up being used by somebody for something.

Cash reward available.
 
Boston and I had split a starter of Wyeast 1028 into thirds for the 15 gallons of porter made this weekend. We had some long lag times on fermentation.

Boston got paranoid and re-pitched dry 1056 Sunday morning because there was no activity yet, but I crossed my fingers and waited a little while longer.

24 hours after pitching, I started to get kraeusen. My carboys are rolling heavy now.

brewgasm_porters.jpg
 
skeeordye11 said:
Just let me know if you need a carboy, I got a SWEET deal on a tall 7gal yesterday!
Click to expand...

I'm set on large carboys. It's the 5 gallon size that I need more of.

I don't plan to brew again until these porters have moved into secondary, but the problem is that I only have one empty secondary right now (those lagers in the fridge need to sit quite a bit longer.)

But, 5 gallons of this porter is for nosnhojr (payment for the water pump), and he's got empty carboys. He's going to give me one and I'll just give it back full of the best beer made Saturday. ;)
 
Hey guys,

Just wanted to say I had a great time on Saturday. Thanks for having me over. All the home brew beers were great!

I guess I can stop lurking and start posting now...

Thanks again for hosting Walker!

-Scott (aka idahoDal's buddy)
 
foltster said:
Hey guys,

Just wanted to say I had a great time on Saturday. Thanks for having me over. All the home brew beers were great!

I guess I can stop lurking and start posting now...

Thanks again for hosting Walker!

-Scott (aka idahoDal's buddy)
Click to expand...

Glad we talked you into getting an account!
 
idahoDal said:
Lets set something up for next month. I'll happily host if folks want to make the hike out my way.
Click to expand...

I'd definitely make the trek. Don't know that I'll be brewing, though. In addition to that 5 gallons of Belgian IPA that we brewed up Sat, I've got another 4 gallons of a Belgian Not-Quite-Pale Ale that's been fermenting since Dec 28th. I'd like to do a Duvelish beer sometime soon, though.

If you're seriously considering hosting one, start up a thread here and see how much action you get. And make sure you post up links to that tiny pit you've got!
 
I've been lurking/eavesdropping on your thread. Sounds like your brewdays are a good time for all. idahoDal, that username caught my eye...Go VANDALS!
 
Walker said:
Also found: Chad's long bread knife and scabbard.
Click to expand...
Yup, the bread knife/guard and the stainless coffee cup are mine. The funny thing is that I put them together on the shelf so I wouldn't forget them. Let me know when would be a good time to swing by and pick them up. I'm not in any hurry. As you might have guessed, I have other bread knives :D Feel free to use it in the meantime. The offset design is pretty cool.
 
Thought you guys would get a kick out of this...

I brewed a batch of pale ale tonight and was all se to use my rainwater for chilling. They had thawed considerably and were full of super cold water.

I replaced the impeller on my pump and got everything set up, and I did a test run to make sure things were working properly.

Then... It started to sprinkle. The pump was sitting outsidebolted to a board, so I had to abort the rain barrel again and brought everything inside.

I *did* get to use the pump with my MLT full of ice water like we did last weekend, so I at least was able to chill my wort fown to 68*F in about 15 minutes, but...

I WILL USE THAT RAIN WATER. I SWEAR TO GOD, I WILL.

Mother Nature: 2
Walker: 0
 
Walker said:
Thought you guys would get a kick out of this...

I brewed a batch of pale ale tonight and was all se to use my rainwater for chilling. They had thawed considerably and were full of super cold water.

I replaced the impeller on my pump and got everything set up, and I did a test run to make sure things were working properly.

Then... It started to sprinkle. The pump was sitting outsidebolted to a board, so I had to abort the rain barrel again and brought everything inside.

I *did* get to use the pump with my MLT full of ice water like we did last weekend, so I at least was able to chill my wort fown to 68*F in about 15 minutes, but...

I WILL USE THAT RAIN WATER. I SWEAR TO GOD, I WILL.

Mother Nature: 2
Walker: 0
Click to expand...

It seems as though the rain water is against you!
 
Guys I really enjoyed reading this thread, i sat here and read from page 1 til the end. I was living in Durham about a year ago before I got stationed down at Ft. Bragg. If you guys ever have another brew session I would love to come up and hang out with fellow brewers. I have yet to find anyone down in this area that homebrews.
 
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