Perfecting My Brewing 3 Months at a Time

[KijanaKiume]

Hey yall! So life is pretty interesting. First you think you're goin one way then awww heck here we go somewhere else. The wife n me have decided to make some pretty big life changes. At the end of the summer she's goin to start travel nursing and I'm droppin out of school. Reasons are unimportant and too long to put in a simple post. Three month assignments all across the country. My question is about brewing. I've been loving brewing. I've brewed three batches since i started at christmas and I've enjoyed every aspect of it. I want to take this opportunity and get serious about brewing. Learn more about.Get better at it. Any good ideas? It's going to be hard to do because I'll be in a new place every three months. I wanted to take some brewing classes too. Any good online classes?

 

[jwalk4]

Well, it'll be annoying to set up and tear down a brewery everywhere you go, but by focusing on imparting as much flavor as possible into low OG beers you can go from grain to glass in a comparatively short time. That means you can bang out a few brews in your 3 month stints as you look to master milds, bitters, wheats, and low OG blondes and pales and take your beer with you. Use temp resistant yeast strains so you don't have to invest in a fermenting chamber you can't take with you (safale 05).

Other than that, books are pretty portable. Gordon Strong's Modern Homebrew Recipes, John Palmer's How to Brew, Zainchef (sp) Brewing classic Styles are all good reads.

Invest in some brewing software, either buy beer smith or download brew mate for free, and have fun making recipes converting all grain to extract etc.

Edit: oh yeah, have fun visiting as many craft breweries, brew pubs, beer emporium s, and otherwise cool ass drinking establishments as you bumble around the country!

 

[TX_Brewing]

Find a local club, tell them what's up and maybe they will only have you pay 3mos worth of dues. Many clubs have a club system or possibly meme era that would allow you to make the wort on their system. It will be a bit tough to get real consisistancy, but you might get to try a lot of different types of equipment so when you do settle back down you know what you want.

 

[madscientist451]

Get into kegging, you won't have to wait for the beer to carb up. You can get the small 1.75 gallon kegs that will fit in a standard 'Fridge. Grain to glass in 10-14 days, use a 5 gallon pot on kitchen stove, BIAB 3.5 gallons, fill 2 small kegs. Have 4 small kegs and when two are empty get next brew going. Might need to use a cooler with ice to keep the pipeline moving. If there's a will, there's a way.
Maybe do volunteer jobs at brewpubs along the way.

 

[tektonjp]

Every place you go, look up a local brewery and ask for work (even for free). Ask to do anything. You'd be surprised how much you'll learn.

 

[KijanaKiume]

Every place you go, look up a local brewery and ask for work (even for free). Ask to do anything. You'd be surprised how much you'll learn.

That's something I was definitely considering. Our first destination is Phoenix and there is a lot of breweries out there.

 

[KijanaKiume]

Get into kegging, you won't have to wait for the beer to carb up. You can get the small 1.75 gallon kegs that will fit in a standard 'Fridge. Grain to glass in 10-14 days, use a 5 gallon pot on kitchen stove, BIAB 3.5 gallons, fill 2 small kegs. Have 4 small kegs and when two are empty get next brew going. Might need to use a cooler with ice to keep the pipeline moving. If there's a will, there's a way.
Maybe do volunteer jobs at brewpubs along the way.

Smaller batchs and keg it. I really like that idea. Have to have a tank for the gas to right?

 

[KijanaKiume]

Well, it'll be annoying to set up and tear down a brewery everywhere you go, but by focusing on imparting as much flavor as possible into low OG beers you can go from grain to glass in a comparatively short time. That means you can bang out a few brews in your 3 month stints as you look to master milds, bitters, wheats, and low OG blondes and pales and take your beer with you. Use temp resistant yeast strains so you don't have to invest in a fermenting chamber you can't take with you (safale 05).

Other than that, books are pretty portable. Gordon Strong's Modern Homebrew Recipes, John Palmer's How to Brew, Zainchef (sp) Brewing classic Styles are all good reads.

Invest in some brewing software, either buy beer smith or download brew mate for free, and have fun making recipes converting all grain to extract etc.

Edit: oh yeah, have fun visiting as many craft breweries, brew pubs, beer emporium s, and otherwise cool ass drinking establishments as you bumble around the country!

These are all good thoughts. Thanks! Right now I'm extract brewing but I wanted to get into all grain. Might be hard on the move but I like the challenge. And yes bumbling around the country is the right word. The wife and I are excited to try all the different beers across the country. Pretty cool opportunity.