Florida Seeking Navarre FL Home Brewers

[Vincanity]

Hello all!

My name is Vince and I'm new to the area, I'm military and coming from Ramstein AB Germany. I've had the pleasure of being part of the DRAFT brew club in the Ramstein area and was hoping to find a brew club close to where I'm at in Navarre, Fl. From what I've researched it doesn't seem like there's all that many brew clubs in the area aside from Pensacola and Ft Walton/Destin. If theres an active brew club in the Navarre/Gulf Breeze area please correct me if I'm wrong because I would love to be apart of that. If there's not I would like to get something going, being that the Navarre area is a big military community I'm sure there are home brewers around.

A little background on myself. I started homebrewung in the tail end of 2012 in Colorado Springs,CO brewing canned extract kits and moved to all grain in 2013. Moved to Germany shortly after and haven't looked back. I enjoy tinkering with electric brewing and brew batches on EBIAB and also have a 3 tier gravity system that I use. I'm currently in the middle of modding a 20g kettle similar to a braumeister clone.

If there's anyone in the Navarre area that's interested in forming a local club I'm all for it. PM me if your interested and hopefully we can get something going. I know there's a local brewery in the area "ye olde brothers brewery" maybe we can have a meet there? Please let me know!!! Thanks!

-Vince

 

[suprchunk]

Welcome to the area Vince. I came here from Geilenkirchen years ago. You are right that there is not that much activity. At least that I've seen in the four years I've been here.

Escambia Bay Home Brewers are the most active. I'm up in Crestview and used to work down there before retiring recently (at the 505th which has a bunch of homebrewers, they just don't seem to want to hang out!).

There was always a feigned interest by people to get together, but never any action to do so. I had one guy up in my area that I brewed with regularly, but he passed away in April in a freak motorcycle accident.

I also know Hop Heads has people get together at their store (with the store being the focal point), but am unsure how many people actually show up. The owners are a little offputting at times, at least to me and a few other people that have gone in. And if you are in Gulf Breeze it would be better for you to hit up Gary's in Pcola. He's much friendlier and more accommodating. And will go out of his way to get you what you want, at an actual decent price.

And calling Ye Olde Brothers a brewery is a stretch. As is calling any of the other ones in the area the same.

Welcome to Hurlburt (I'm guessing...). It's a nice area, at least we've like it enough to stay. It's just not a beer mecca. Nor a homebrewer's paradise.

 

[Vincanity]

Superchunk,

Thanks for the quick response, I'm excited to start brewing and like I previously mentioned and as you touched on, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of activity around here. I'm in Navarre and work out at Hurby so getting together often in Ft Walton/Destin or even Pensacola is a little stretch for myself, that's why I was hoping to find some brewers in the Navarre/Gulf Breeze area.

Thanks for the heads up on the home brew shops, I'll most definitely be going to Gary's as I read good reviews on him. As far as Ye Olde Brothers Brewery goes, I haven't been there yet just thought it might be worth while, guess I'll have to go check it out for myself.

If you know of any brewers in my area let me know so that I can get in touch with them and hopefully get something going around here. It would be exciting to get a good group together. I'll keep trying, Thanks again superchunk!!

Vince

 

[royal1911]

I sent you a PM. Would love to pick your brain on eBiab. I currently brew all grain on a small propane system. I have a kegerator but unfortunately it's empty!

 

[Vincanity]

Got your PM Roy, would love to educate you on what I know about electric brewing, maybe we can brew soon when the weather cools down. We gotta fill a tap on that kegerator!

 

[royal1911]

The kegerator has 4 taps
So we better get busy!

 

[Vincanity]

Absolutely!! Look forward to brewing with you, if there's anymore Navarre area Home brewers please contact me or post here!!

 

[tld6008]

Absolutely!! Look forward to brewing with you, if there's anymore Navarre area Home brewers please contact me or post here!!

I live just west of Navarre in the area called Midway near ZOO. I don't belong to any club and don't think there is in one local. I do brew regularly and know of others in the area who also do. Right now I am struggling to get a handle on water treatment and brewing an NEIPA as discussed here
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=568046

Glad to see another brewer show up

 

[Vincanity]

Hi Tld6008,

Nice to see another brewer in the area. I've met up with royal1911 towards the end of one of his brew days while he was brewing up a Red. Cool dude, and We're supposed to meet up again and brew soon, can't wait to try that red! I will be doing a festbeir soon as well. Your more than welcome to come out and brew with myself and I'm sure royal1911 wouldn't mind either. We're right by the HBTS main entrance in Navarre close to the whataburger.

As for the water profile I'm not sure because I haven't yet brewed a NEIPA. Would be cool to get together and talk home brew some time. If you know of other brewers in the area, have them post here. Would like to get a Navarre area brew crew going. Hope to hear from you soon!

 

[tld6008]

Let me know when you brew again via PM and I'll try to stop by. I just put a Blonde Ale in the fermenter Monday, basically to harvest the wpl 095 yeast for another stab at the NEIPA. That will fill my last 5 gal worth of bottles so I'm pretty much full up for a couple of weeks before I brew again.

 

[Vincanity]

Will do, let me know how the blonde turns out. You figure out your water profile for the neipa?

 

[tld6008]

I'm bottling the Blonde tomorrow along with the yeast harvest. The water profile will be as Braufessor recommends starting with RO water and following his latest treatment as outlined in the following
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=568046
I myself have not acquired an adequate understanding of water treatment yet although I have the majority of the chemicals to use. When I brewed the Blonde I purchased Primo RO water then saw that they add minerals for better taste and I was so confounded I mashed on Sunday and boiled on Monday!

 

[Vincanity]

Are you familiar with the ez water calculator? I use this to dial in my mash ph, great tool when you start getting into water chemistry. YouTube it, I think there's a few guys that explain how it works. I believe primo water is really close to RO water with low levels of everything else. Checkout this link https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=205242 it's old but you can see how low the levels of everything are, you would probably be fine if you entered those numbers into ez water and adjusted from there. The link from their website with the most current water report is unavailable, I wonder if you can call and get a report. When I was in Germany, my water was great and I had a friend test it with a kit he had I was able to use ez water call and make minor adjustment from there. I think I might actually try this when I brew up the festbier since my tap water here is horrible.Let me know if you need any more help!

 

[royal1911]

Vince, I cold crashed the red today. Way over shot the gravity so it's at 6.5% abv. I'm going to keg it up on Saturday. I may brew again Saturday.

 

[tld6008]

Are you familiar with the ez water calculator? I use this to dial in my mash ph, great tool when you start getting into water chemistry. YouTube it, I think there's a few guys that explain how it works. I believe primo water is really close to RO water with low levels of everything else. Checkout this link https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=205242 it's old but you can see how low the levels of everything are, you would probably be fine if you entered those numbers into ez water and adjusted from there. The link from their website with the most current water report is unavailable, I wonder if you can call and get a report. When I was in Germany, my water was great and I had a friend test it with a kit he had I was able to use ez water call and make minor adjustment from there. I think I might actually try this when I brew up the festbier since my tap water here is horrible.Let me know if you need any more help!

I actually did end up using the EZ water program I just inputted all zeros for the Primo water and the desired Calcium, Chloride and Sulfate levels and I ended up adding 4g gypsum, 3g Cal chloride and 2g epsom salts per 5 gal, I bought 10 gal of Primo. Still don't know if I used it right though. I first tried to use some of the other calculators and when I would enter the zero's for Primo then the desired water chemical ppm levels I had to guess at what chemicals to add as they were not provided and I could never get the desired number combination to display. I really don't know what my PH was as I don't have a meter had some test strips but they didn't register what I was expecting.
You say your water is horrible? The Navarre brewers I know only filter the water through a carbon filter and don't mess with water adjustments That's all I had previously done until I got wrapped up in this NEIPA brew, definitely was a lot easier. I looked up Festbier as I had never heard of it....sounds good!

 

[Vincanity]

Roy- Can't wait to have a pint of that! :rockin:

Different styles of beer will require different water adjustments. Darker grains tend to lower ph levels more than others due to them being more acidic. Lighter grains don't buffer as well which is why you have to add different brewing salt additions. In Germany my water was on the hard side and when I brewed porters and stouts they came out great with no salt additions, this wasn't the case with pale ales. Do a search here on HBT to find the different ranges for the style of beer your brewing. Also get yourself a Ph meter and ditch the strips, those aren't very accurate. My water here isn't very good, I'll probably install some sort of water filter eventually, until then I'll start with RO and build from there.

 

[aquaman02]

Also new to the area. I live in Pace, FL. New to brewing and trying to outfit my system right now. Not sure if there are any other people in the Santa Rosa area.

 

[tld6008]

Also new to the area. I live in Pace, FL. New to brewing and trying to outfit my system right now. Not sure if there are any other people in the Santa Rosa area.

I am in Midway, basically across the Garcon Pt bridge from Pace. What are you trying to set up to do?

 

[aquaman02]

Just setting up a system to do some homebrew. Got a 15gal spikes kettle and a 10gall igloo mash tun for now and a blichmann hellfire burner. Sort of jumping in full tilt but it is getting a little expensive. Got a chest freezer that I am going to turn into a keezer and just ordered 4 kegs. 3 with beer, one for soda water. My first batch on this new system is going to be a cream ale. I will mostly be doing 5 gallon batches. I eventually want to move into electric brewing. My brew kettle has a TC fitting for the 5500w element. I imagine that I need some help setting up an electric control panel. That may have to come a little later though.

 

[tld6008]

Just setting up a system to do some homebrew. Got a 15gal spikes kettle and a 10gall igloo mash tun for now and a blichmann hellfire burner. Sort of jumping in full tilt but it is getting a little expensive. Got a chest freezer that I am going to turn into a keezer and just ordered 4 kegs. 3 with beer, one for soda water. My first batch on this new system is going to be a cream ale. I will mostly be doing 5 gallon batches. I eventually want to move into electric brewing. My brew kettle has a TC fitting for the 5500w element. I imagine that I need some help setting up an electric control panel. That may have to come a little later though.

Sounds like you pretty much know what you want. I brew in 15 gal beer kegs. Home made burner, wort chiller etc. I just set up a 7 cu.ft chest freezer for my 2 kegs. I had not planned to keg beer at all but I got hooked on the NEIPA thread and found out that kegging that beer is the easiest way to enjoy its quality. I bottled one batch and it changed in less than a week. Next one I kegged and its been consistent for a month so far. I use a kegerator for my fermentation chamber so can only brew one carboy at a time. Have a batch of stout that I will bottle later today or tomorrow. I have approx 15 gallons of swing top bottles and now plan to use those only for styles that benefit from bottle conditioning. I am now convinced that I need to keg certain styles to prevent oxidation. This has taken over 40 years for me to figure out.

 

[aquaman02]

Any homebrew groups in Pensacola or Pace/Milton that get together for brew days?

 

[tld6008]

Any homebrew groups in Pensacola or Pace/Milton that get together for brew days?

Had to comment on your Avatar. My neighbor and I were commercial divers for 30+ years and he has quite an extensive helmet collection amongst other diving related items. He is also trying to get going on home brewing.

 

[suprchunk]

Any homebrew groups in Pensacola or Pace/Milton that get together for brew days?

I'm sure the Escambia Bay guys/gals do. If it was closer I'd go and hang out.

 

[aquaman02]

Had to comment on your Avatar. My neighbor and I were commercial divers for 30+ years and he has quite an extensive helmet collection amongst other diving related items. He is also trying to get going on home brewing.

I'm still an active duty navy diver stationed at NAS Pensacola. Still getting my 15gallon system together. Wouldn't mind seeing your helmet collection.

 

[tld6008]

If you are ever down in Navarre give me a shout 713-725-3630. I'd like to see your 15 gal setup also. I am going to keg 5 gal of NEIPA tonight or tomorrow. Have you been to Pensacola Bay Brewery?

 

[deks77]

Who put a heater in their fermentation chamber? I stuffed a hair dryer in there lol. Im closer to Orlando, but still far enough away I dont have any homebrewers close by.

 

[royal1911]

I put a halogen light in my fermentation fridge. Works like a charm!

 

[deks77]

The son has those for the lizard, but i was worried about uv lol ... not really a florida problem heating fermentation chambers huh?

 

[royal1911]

Not usually but it's 27 degrees here tonight!

 

[royal1911]

I'm using a large halogen work light. They get hot very quickly.

 

[deks77]

nice I didnt even think about using that pos.. I dont even use it cause i burn myself on it.. yeah im supposed to be in the low 30's tonight.. why cant i lager lol

 

[tld6008]

I use a 150w bulb, seems to do the job. I keep a dark T shirt on the carboy for a shade

 

[royal1911]

Anyone still around? I took a break from brewing and now I’m back.

 

[tld6008]

I am

 

[royal1911]

Cool man. I’m putting my new brew station together this weekend. Hopefully I’ll be brewing again by next weekend.

 

[suprchunk]

I'm here. Sporadically. Working in PC during the week though. Have a system in each house too.

 

[hoppheadIPA]

Is anyone still on this thread? I'm in gulf breeze and just getting back into brewing

 

[T Murph]

I'm here. Sporadically. Working in PC during the week though. Have a system in each house too.

I'm excited to see home brewers are reaching out to each other in the Panhandle. I live in PCB and Birmingham. I have basically given up on finding like minded home brewers here in PCB. I've searched for clubs to no avail and talked to the only homebrew supply store, which is an Ace Hardware on the beach, but nothing. In Birmingham AlaBrew, the number one LHBS host regular meetings for the Birmingham Brew masters home brew club. I've been brewing 30 years and due to the apparent lack of interest in PCB I keep my brewery in Birmingham. I do all my brewing there and bring a keg down as needed. Since I work in S. Walton and spend most of my time at the beach, it's very inconvenient for my brewery to be so far away. I am interested in meeting other brewers in the area. I do a lot of traveling so a trip a few miles west would not be a problem. Maybe a get together could scheduled somewhere that we could meet up and maybe form a club. If interested, please respond.

 

[tld6008]

There is a brewing club in Pcola, called Emerald Coast brewers or something like that. Look up Garys Home Brew supply
He is on the west side and would know any particulars I live between Gulf Breeze and Navarre, been brewing for years but not much of a club person. I keep 3 kegs in my cooler and probably only brew 4-5 time a year now all IPA types. Usually will bottle 1 stout a year.

 

[T Murph]

There is a brewing club in Pcola, called Emerald Coast brewers or something like that. Look up Garys Home Brew supply
He is on the west side and would know any particulars I live between Gulf Breeze and Navarre, been brewing for years but not much of a club person. I keep 3 kegs in my cooler and probably only brew 4-5 time a year now all IPA types. Usually will bottle 1 stout a year.

Yeah I gotta get over to Pcola again soon. Judged a competition there back in 97 but I don't get much info about them as I'm less involved as of late. My plan is to get out more and meet more brewers. I would especially like to meet up with like minded folks closer by.