I'm baaaaaaaack

[dandw12786]

I joined here back in 2011 after my brother and I bought a kit and tried a couple batches. I stuck with it, and he didn't, aside from the odd brew day here and there. I got really into it, went all-grain, got a kegging setup, and was making some halfway decent (some of my friends said "damn good") beer.

Toward the end of 2014 and beginning of 2015 I was getting a bit discouraged. Stuff wasn't turning out like I wanted and I was getting frustrated. Then we had a kid in 2015, and any brew day was rushed through, and nothing was really turning out well. I gave up, sold my kegging setup and a few other things, and what I kept went up on a shelf in the garage, thinking that while the setup that I sold got me a good amount of money, there wasn't enough money in selling what I had left, so maybe I'd keep it and come back one day.

It's been a couple years, and we had another kid in 2017, so free time seemed like a thing of the past, and yet, I'd had an itching to maybe give this another go, and as the kids get more independent, I think maybe free time isn't quite gone... My friends kept constantly prodding me about doing it again, but I laughed it off and gave them **** for just wanting free beer. Then my brother texted me saying we should think about giving it another go sometime.

Then my wife decided our small chest freezers were pissing her off because she hated digging for stuff. So she bought a huge upright freezer. So we had an extra chest freezer. She was thinking about giving it to her mom, and I said "hey, can we maybe not do that quite yet?" "Why?" "Well... I was thinking..." and the knowing smile crept across her face.

So I thought well, I've got a few things in place, maybe I should start thinking about giving this another shot.

So last week, a fairly big portion of my city does rummage sales. It's crazy, people come from out of state for this damn thing. So I'm wandering around looking for cheap clothes for the kids, and what do I see in a driveway?

Six cornys, a converted keggle, and a blichmann boilermaker. I asked the lady there what she wanted for all the stuff there, and she said "hold on, it's my boyfriend's, he's at work." She grabs the post-it he left her, and everything seemed reasonable, she even showed me his bottom line for everything (bad move, lady). I walked away with the converted keggle with thermometer, sightglass and ball valve, and four kegs for $200 (I wanted that blichmann so bad, but even the incredibly reasonable $250 he wanted was just more than I could stomach.

So there I sat in my garage with four kegs, a nice keggle, and my mishmash of crap that I didn't end up selling and was happy as hell, aside from the extra $400 I need to put back in to get back where I want.

Put an order in for a couple fermonsters, an immersion chiller, and a mill. That should get me brewing and fermenting by next week. Then I can focus on the keezer, which is going to be another couple hundred for the kegging setup. I'm so quickly reminded about how quickly this hobby sucked up my money, feels so familiar.

Now to try to find all of my beersmith stuff. It's somewhere on an old computer, hopefully it isn't trashed.

I guess a big question would be where are we now in this hobby software-wise? When I got out I was using beersmith, but didn't upgrade to the next iteration, and now I'm wondering if that's still good or if I should look into a different one? What are y'all using now?

Anyway, feels good to be back here, even though I haven't even cleaned my new stuff yet. Looking forward to getting sucked back into this crazy hobby!

 

[IslandLizard]

Good having you back! Interesting story!

Beersmith is still the best software out there. If you had version 2, you should be able to upgrade to the newest incarnation, v2.3.7 right now, for free. Don't forget to update the plugins, grain and hop tables, etc. It's a bit smoother and the newest thing is whirlpooling hops. It allows you to make those whirlpool additions, however with a wet finger at the IBUs it will extract. That area needs some serious work, but it's solid brew software, otherwise.

If you've lost the old version, you can probably retrieve your key from the website or through an email. Worth a try.

Enjoy your next brew!

 

[dandw12786]

Good having you back! Interesting story!

Beersmith is still the best software out there. If you had version 2, you should be able to upgrade to the newest incarnation, v2.3.7 right now, for free. Don't forget to update the plugins, grain and hop tables, etc. It's a bit smoother and the newest thing is whirlpooling hops. It allows you to make those whirlpool additions, however with a wet finger at the IBUs it will extract. That area needs some serious work, but it's solid brew software, otherwise.

If you've lost the old version, you can probably retrieve your key from the website or through an email. Worth a try.

Enjoy your next brew!

I don't think I ever got to 2.0. I vaguely recollect them wanting more money for that upgrade and me thinking the current one I had was fine, but it's been so long ago that I may be totally wrong. Maybe I'll dig through old emails to see if I can find my key and see if it works. Thanks!

Edit: Found the key, and nope, it says I have to purchase another one for version 2, so I just have to buy the software again. On one hand, I get it, it's a superior version, on the other, I've already bought this thing, annoyed to have to sink another thirty bucks into it.

 

[Kent88]

South Dakota, huh, anywhere near Brookings / Sioux Falls or maybe Sturgis?

 

[dandw12786]

South Dakota, huh, anywhere near Brookings / Sioux Falls or maybe Sturgis?

Yep, Sioux Falls

 

[IslandLizard]

I don't think I ever got to 2.0. I vaguely recollect them wanting more money for that upgrade and me thinking the current one I had was fine, but it's been so long ago that I may be totally wrong. Maybe I'll dig through old emails to see if I can find my key and see if it works. Thanks!

Edit: Found the key, and nope, it says I have to purchase another one for version 2, so I just have to buy the software again. On one hand, I get it, it's a superior version, on the other, I've already bought this thing, annoyed to have to sink another thirty bucks into it.

Yeah, agree, buying twice is annoying. Sorry Brad, that's not the way you treat early adopters (beta testers)!
It's being sold for around $20 (digital download, AFAIK) by resellers such as Birdman.com. I've seen similarly priced offers around from others. So keep an eye out.

You can still use the old version as long as you want. I mostly use BS for recipe formulation. There's a lot of fluff I never use. I keep track of inventory in Excel and use MashMadeEasy or EZWater to calculate water additions, Homebrewdad for yeast calcs, etc.

Many people use Brewer's Friend, which is free unless you want to store stuff.

 

[jcav]

Welcome back, it's in your blood now. Your hooked!

John

 

[Pappers_]

Welcome back!

I use Beersmith, works for me.

 

[kh54s10]

I never used Beersmith version 1 but I would say Beersmith 2 is well worth the money. As IslandLizard said you can do an internet download for less. I got mine at the site he listed. In fact I got it twice when a computer died on me.

And... Welcome back.

Keep active on HBT. If you are still not pleased with your results people here may be able to help diagnose your problems.

 

[MaxStout]

Welcome back, from Minnesota!

Another satisfied Beersmith user here. Well worth the $20.

Used to live in Sioux Falls many years ago. I still have family there.

 

[dandw12786]

I never used Beersmith version 1 but I would say Beersmith 2 is well worth the money. As IslandLizard said you can do an internet download for less. I got mine at the site he listed. In fact I got it twice when a computer died on me.

And... Welcome back.

Keep active on HBT. If you are still not pleased with your results people here may be able to help diagnose your problems.

Thanks, I probably should have really tried harder to figure out what was going wrong, but at the time it was the frustration of that plus being a stay at home dad to an insanely crabby baby, I just didn't see me being able to do it much anymore so I just kind of threw in the towel as I just didn't have the time. I couldn't justify letting a kegerator sit in a garage for a few years where I wouldn't be sure if it worked if I ever came back to it, so had to sell everything off. I'm going to do my best to prepare for my brew days this time, though, so hopefully that'll help a lot, as I think that was a big issue when I was in the last few months.

I went ahead and dropped the $20 on Beersmith 2. The first version was worth the price, and since I can't find it on any old hard drives and I can't download it anywhere I guess this is my option! I'm bummed that I can't seem to locate all of my old recipes, but maybe starting from scratch there is a better idea anyway.

 

[kh54s10]

I don't know about the previous Beersmith but you will have to learn to use BS2 properly. First thing is to work on you equipment profile.

Go to the videos and watch them all. Maybe several times.

I got lucky, I print out each recipe for brew day so I have a copy of every one I have made. I lost all my saved recipes when a computer died. I went to a repair place and was told that the way it stored stuff that they couldn't even recover anything from the memory. Flash drive or something.

I guess I should use the cloud storage.

Good luck and have fun.

 

[dandw12786]

Thanks. I've watched a few, I'll watch more of them when I have time.

His app looks awesome, too. That should make things slick.

 

[Blazinlow86]

Thanks, I probably should have really tried harder to figure out what was going wrong, but at the time it was the frustration of that plus being a stay at home dad to an insanely crabby baby, I just didn't see me being able to do it much anymore so I just kind of threw in the towel as I just didn't have the time. I couldn't justify letting a kegerator sit in a garage for a few years where I wouldn't be sure if it worked if I ever came back to it, so had to sell everything off. I'm going to do my best to prepare for my brew days this time, though, so hopefully that'll help a lot, as I think that was a big issue when I was in the last few months.

I went ahead and dropped the $20 on Beersmith 2. The first version was worth the price, and since I can't find it on any old hard drives and I can't download it anywhere I guess this is my option! I'm bummed that I can't seem to locate all of my old recipes, but maybe starting from scratch there is a better idea anyway.

Remember if you want beer as good as your favorite store bought IPA pitch the right amount of yeast into well aerated wort and if your brewing all grain you HAVE to adjust the pH and in my case my sparge water ph also. I wasted 1+ year figuring that one out. Cheers

 

[kh54s10]

Remember if you want beer as good as your favorite store bought IPA pitch the right amount of yeast into well aerated wort and if your brewing all grain you HAVE to adjust the pH and in my case my sparge water ph also. I wasted 1+ year figuring that one out. Cheers

Not necessarily. I have been brewing for almost 7 years. I have yet to take a pH reading. I have only made water adjustments in a couple of beers. People that I have shared my beers with say they are as good as commercial beers. I think mine are quite often better than average commercial beers, but I guess I am somewhat biased.

 

[Blazinlow86]

Let me rephrase that. If you don't think your beers are as good as your favorite store bought IPA and your not adjusting your ph start there. All my friends and coworkers said my beer was awesome too but it wasnt. When I finally figured out that I was getting astrigincy due to incorrect pH levels I had my good friend over. He originally thought I was just being over critical of my brews. I gave him a ipa he drank last time he was over. Then the same ipa from a new batch with the correct ph. Needless to say he immediately noticed the difference. In some cases you might get lucky with your grain bill and be close enough to the correct ph range but I doubt if you were to compare the same brew with one in the correct range vs non correct range you'd choose to continue not adjusting the ph. I had about 5 kegs of non ph adjusted beer in the pipeline. They ended up down the drain once I figured it out. Cheers

 

[kh54s10]

Let me rephrase that. If you don't think your beers are as good as your favorite store bought IPA and your not adjusting your ph start there. All my friends and coworkers said my beer was awesome too but it wasnt. When I finally figured out that I was getting astrigincy due to incorrect pH levels I had my good friend over. He originally thought I was just being over critical of my brews. I gave him a ipa he drank last time he was over. Then the same ipa from a new batch with the correct ph. Needless to say he immediately noticed the difference. In some cases you might get lucky with your grain bill and be close enough to the correct ph range but I doubt if you were to compare the same brew with one in the correct range vs non correct range you'd choose to continue not adjusting the ph. I had about 5 kegs of non ph adjusted beer in the pipeline. They ended up down the drain once I figured it out. Cheers

Well I am not saying that correcting pH wouldn't make my good beers better but I have only dumped 3 batches. One was an extreme high gravity that didn't work - way too sweet. A small batch using a lot of Pilgrim hops. I don't know what happened with that. It never cleared, looked like pea soup. I never even tasted it. The last was a neglected beer that got dumped after sitting for over 6 months, I was moving and didn't want to take up the room transporting it.

Someday I might get around to getting a meter and checking but only 3 dumps out of 100 batches and only a few that I drank but didn't care for. It is not high on the list.

 

[Blazinlow86]

Well I am not saying that correcting pH wouldn't make my good beers better but I have only dumped 3 batches. One was an extreme high gravity that didn't work - way too sweet. A small batch using a lot of Pilgrim hops. I don't know what happened with that. It never cleared, looked like pea soup. I never even tasted it. The last was a neglected beer that got dumped after sitting for over 6 months, I was moving and didn't want to take up the room transporting it.

Someday I might get around to getting a meter and checking but only 3 dumps out of 100 batches and only a few that I drank but didn't care for. It is not high on the list.

You can try without a meter if you like. I've yet to have bru n waters predicted ph to be incorrect. Just punch your grain bill into it and it will tell you how much acid you need. Cheers

 

[dandw12786]

Remember if you want beer as good as your favorite store bought IPA pitch the right amount of yeast into well aerated wort and if your brewing all grain you HAVE to adjust the pH and in my case my sparge water ph also. I wasted 1+ year figuring that one out. Cheers

Thank you for the input, honestly. I'm restarting my brewing at a more advanced point (compared to just dumping some DME into water and adding hops and crossing my fingers) where mash ph is something I do need to consider looking at within the next year. Right now, I'm using RO or distilled water and building a profile off of it so I feel like the ph estimates in the brun water spreadsheet are "good enough" for the moment as I don't have a city water profile to deal with (yep, I know it's not quite that simple, but sometimes "good enough" needs to just be good enough, and over the next few months until I can invest in some more stuff, that's where I am). I know it's not perfect, but it's going to have to do until I want to advance to that point.

That being said, I kegged my first brew after my hiatus around a week ago (biermuncher's centennial blonde, which was always a major hit with my friends, and the one beer I generally had consistent luck with), and had a pint tonight. While the carb level isn't quite where I want it, I can say it might be one of the best batches I've ever brewed. Before, it was always kind of a "cool, I made this, it's fun to have one of these sometimes". After drinking that one, I feel like I could actually enjoy drinking my own beer and not be so critical of it all the time. I had about 10 people take small samples over the weekend and got some pretty good reviews, even being undercarbed. I've got another batch of that and Yooper's Dogfish 60 clone fermenting, both should be ready for kegs in the next week or two. So yay.

Anyway, any good budget-friendly options for a pH meter? I grow peppers and make my own hot sauce so one would probably benefit me anyway, so I should really look into one, as it's a good purchase that would benefit two hobbies.

 

[Michael_Calgary]

I joined here back in 2011 after my brother and I bought a kit and tried a couple batches. I stuck with it, and he didn't, aside from the odd brew day here and there. I got really into it, went all-grain, got a kegging setup, and was making some halfway decent (some of my friends said "damn good") beer.

Toward the end of 2014 and beginning of 2015 I was getting a bit discouraged. Stuff wasn't turning out like I wanted and I was getting frustrated. Then we had a kid in 2015, and any brew day was rushed through, and nothing was really turning out well. I gave up, sold my kegging setup and a few other things, and what I kept went up on a shelf in the garage, thinking that while the setup that I sold got me a good amount of money, there wasn't enough money in selling what I had left, so maybe I'd keep it and come back one day.

It's been a couple years, and we had another kid in 2017, so free time seemed like a thing of the past, and yet, I'd had an itching to maybe give this another go, and as the kids get more independent, I think maybe free time isn't quite gone... My friends kept constantly prodding me about doing it again, but I laughed it off and gave them poopy for just wanting free beer. Then my brother texted me saying we should think about giving it another go sometime.

Then my wife decided our small chest freezers were pissing her off because she hated digging for stuff. So she bought a huge upright freezer. So we had an extra chest freezer. She was thinking about giving it to her mom, and I said "hey, can we maybe not do that quite yet?" "Why?" "Well... I was thinking..." and the knowing smile crept across her face.

So I thought well, I've got a few things in place, maybe I should start thinking about giving this another shot.

So last week, a fairly big portion of my city does rummage sales. It's crazy, people come from out of state for this damn thing. So I'm wandering around looking for cheap clothes for the kids, and what do I see in a driveway?

Six cornys, a converted keggle, and a blichmann boilermaker. I asked the lady there what she wanted for all the stuff there, and she said "hold on, it's my boyfriend's, he's at work." She grabs the post-it he left her, and everything seemed reasonable, she even showed me his bottom line for everything (bad move, lady). I walked away with the converted keggle with thermometer, sightglass and ball valve, and four kegs for $200 (I wanted that blichmann so bad, but even the incredibly reasonable $250 he wanted was just more than I could stomach.

So there I sat in my garage with four kegs, a nice keggle, and my mishmash of crap that I didn't end up selling and was happy as hell, aside from the extra $400 I need to put back in to get back where I want.

Put an order in for a couple fermonsters, an immersion chiller, and a mill. That should get me brewing and fermenting by next week. Then I can focus on the keezer, which is going to be another couple hundred for the kegging setup. I'm so quickly reminded about how quickly this hobby sucked up my money, feels so familiar.

Now to try to find all of my beersmith stuff. It's somewhere on an old computer, hopefully it isn't trashed.

I guess a big question would be where are we now in this hobby software-wise? When I got out I was using beersmith, but didn't upgrade to the next iteration, and now I'm wondering if that's still good or if I should look into a different one? What are y'all using now?

Anyway, feels good to be back here, even though I haven't even cleaned my new stuff yet. Looking forward to getting sucked back into this crazy hobby!

Welcome back! While I am using BeerSmith now as well, I started out with software called Brewtarget. (just google brewtarget) It's free, IMO easier to use than BS and tells you all the same information as BS. The only reason I went with BS is that it has a neat cloud function where I can see my recipe/steps on my mobile where I brew.