Syracuse, ny - round 7 group grain buy

Ah you have pulled the trigger on some more gear

twoguns, have you tried the FK hefe or dunkel? Do you refer to those as "banana bomb"? To me it is more a subtle after taste than overpowering banana. I admit, while I don't mind the clovey hefes, I don't buy them, or plan to brew them. Not my thing.

I do liek the america wheats quite a bit too though.

 

Cidah Glad you enjoyed the scotch ale.
I am totally bummed out right now. Just tapped my second batch of your celebration and it is totally undrinkable. Need to figure out what caused my first infection. Plan on replacing the auto siphon and tubing. I ferment in glass carboys so they can be cleaned. Will also replace silicone tubing. I also washed this yeast so am reluctant to use in case the yeast was the culprit. The beer looks fine but has a nasty aroma and taste. It smelled and tasted fine when I kegged it which makes me suspect the auto siphon.

 

ugh that is terrible. Do you think it could have been something on the hops for dry hopping? or part of that process?

 

I used fresh hops newly opened 1 lb packages. Also I did rack to a 5 gallon secondary for dry hopping so definitely could have been part of that process. Took a close look at the auto siphon and see what appears to be hairline cracks running lengthwise on the larger outside tube. Will be making a run to Sunset today before work. Thinking about trying Walkers transfer method using a stainless racking cane, carboy cap and co2. Hopefully the the rye ipa I kegged last weekend will be ok.

 

ugh man that is awful.

Hope your rye comes out well. I brewed that and it is jsut about ready for dry hopping - looking forward to it.

Don't toss the celebration yet though, unless you are tasting vinegary stuff. I had an amarillo IPA that I swore had mold on the top and smelled funny. Then I racked it and left the mold behind. Dry hopped it 7 days and drank it quick with friends over the next month or two. There was nothing wrong with it flavor wise in my case. You might be right but this is just my experience on that one batch.

What is walker's method? I have read him say he keeps it in a closed system, racking and fermenting and such under pressure but never actually saw his method.

 

For dry hopping, how do you guys make sure your hops dont infect your beer? Freeze them for a long period of time? Or just hope.

 

I pull mine from the freezer, but there is some hoping involved

 

Here is a thread he started a few years ago. http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/siphoning-carboy-cap-2910/

 

Oh I thought you were talking about pressure fermenting with a spunding valve. That just seems like too much effort for me. This is straight forward and easy (I watch my fermenters in my chambers too much, no way I am taking on spunding haha)

 

Usually I just hope. Sometimes, I take the hops, put them in the bag, and then take them and put them in a (fairly shallow) cup of StarSan to soak for a minute.

 

Only 13 batches away before I get to my 100th 5 gallon brew since I started homebrewing 6 years ago. Hmm need to start thinking of a special 100th recipe. Any suggestions?

 

5 gallons = approx. 2 cases of beer = 48 beers
48 beers x 100 = 4800
4800 beers / 6 years = 800 beers/yr = about 2 homebrews a day.

Niiiiice. And early congrats.

 

Something big so you can tuck some bottles away. Nice imperial stout, a quad, a scotch strong... Can you tell I'm a malt head?

 

Actually, I vote a higher gravity saison!

 

Imperial Witbier!

Sorry, I just find that **** funny...

 

Congratulations! This past Friday I just did my 21st batch (since July). Thank goodness I didn't drink it all myself.

My biggest problem is having a recipe ready for the next batch, since I want to try new things...so I'm always looking for "known good" things to try.

 

I am with twogunz, maybe a belgian quad/dubbel/golden, imperial stout/porter. Something that will need some shelf time

 

Barleywine?

 

Hmm all good choices! Def wanna do something I can bottle up in some 22 oz bottles and age for a bit.

 

Gulp... I got the CEO and head brewer of the "4th largest US craft brewery" coming over to my place tonight for a tasting of my beer! Guess I'll really find out if my stuff is any good...

//Freaking out//

 

Fred Matt?

 

send them over to my place next!

 

Went through and fixed the sheet. Looks like copyright accidentally deleted a bunch of labels. But its all fixed now.

 

darn it copyright are you sabotaging the buy! haha

I see we keep ticking along and adding bags. At 49!

 

Just another reason why ebrewing rocks:

http://www.douglasbaldwin.com/sous-vide.html#Safety

Sous vide anyone? I plan on possibly taking a trial run on with this for this weekend.

... yes, it just just got better!

 

Sorry about that. Something weird was happening with the sheet and I saw quantities disappear...tried to fix them...didn't see that I was also deleting labels.

Hard to believe I had a career doing software development with multiple patents and teach college level programming classes (including Excel).

 

I just ordered another ebay aquarium temperature controller to try a hand at sous vide. I plan on using a slow cooker to see how that goes. Plus, it never hurts to have another temperature controller around.

 

Started on my 2nd bag of 2-row from the last buy today, so it's being used pretty quickly. (I actually bought a few 50# sacks from the LHBS within the last week as they were offering them for $40/sack.) Also used some of the MO...

 

Hopefully got some buddies in for some hops and dme. I'm pushing hard.

 

Ok so the place i ordered my foodsaver from emailed saying its out of stock. Does anyone on here have any recommendations on a particular model, vendor that sells them, etc.
Thanks in advance.

 

Where is this LHBS out in Albany? I go out that way twice a month for work and would love to check this place out!

 

https://www.beerbrew.com/

They are on Route 4, about 1/4-1/2 mile north of where Rt 4 and Rt 43 intersect.

470 North Greenbush Road Rensselaer, NY 12144
(518) 283-7094

They seem to do the sacks of grain deal a couple times per year (last one before this was in Sept/Oct). You have to order in advance and pick up in the store within a week or so after it comes in.

 

Hi all -
A couple/few group buys ago, we did a split of a cara-pils substitute. It might have been BZ-CRPLS, but I'm not positive. Anyway, I just realized when preparing for yesterdays brew, that I am almost out of it!

Looking at the Champlain doc, I see:
BZ-CRPLS Caramel Malt Pils: $0.77/#, "Best Caramel Malt Pils will aid in foam development and head retention as well as add extra body to your beer. This malt is best used in lager beers of all types including Pilsner, Light Lager and Bock beers."

BZ-CHIT NEW! Chit Malt NEW!: $0.73/#, "Best Chit Malt is used to reinforce and to increase foam stability. Similar to dextrin malt."

I'm assuming (can someone confirm) that we ordered BZ-CRPLS? Anyone have a reason not to try the BZ-CHIT?

I really don't want/need a full sack of it (then again I have been using it), but there are a couple of other brewers from the Albany area who might be interested in splitting it with me.

 

Hey copyright - it was BZ-CRPLS. Also, coiled up my stainless herms coil this weekend with the jig, worked great! Went with 17'' OD for my pots.

Also tried the roggenbier - it is awesome. Will be adding a full sack in addition to my split for rye. I really like the stuff and think I found my house hefe.

 

re: BZ-CRPLS. thanks for confirming.
re: Stainless Herms coil jig - so, should I order a SS coil and have it sent to your house for processing? (I haven't picked up my pots yet so I'm not absolutely sure on the dimensions.)
re: Roggenbier - gotta recipe to share?

Also, did you ever try that Celebration clone? I did a re-brew with Columbus instead of Chinook. It's OK, but not as nice.

(Did a batch last week and 2 batches this week: "Golden Nugget", an attempt to make a session-like version of Nugget Nectar, Sculpan Ballast Point IPA, Kabe's Secret APA)

 

I spend the weekend working in the hop garden. Doubled the growing are and extended the height of my hop poles to 14'. Split up my cascade and Libery plants each to 4 plants. Should be a good year. In addition to those two I'm also growing fuggles, brewers gold, magnum, williemete, perle, nugget, and chinook.

What do you guys grow?

 

I have some liberty that I grew in 2 pots last year. I split it up this weekend and am going to plant it up north at my parents lake house. I got a really nice bag of rhizomes from the 2 pots I had.

I planted EKG, Perle, and one other I can't recall right at their house now 2 years back and the leaves got stripped clean. I hasn't dusted them or anything but I might need to.

Cidah, post your rye recipe or email it (please of course). I might finally dip into my rye next weekend- I want to keg and brew since I didn't get to it this weekend.

 

will get back to you on all of this tom. but yes to a whole bunch of those movie time with the wife

 

Twogunz - Will try to get the recipe posted or will send via PM - don' have it on hand right now though unfortunately! The rye gives the brew a really nice body.

As for the celebration clone taste off that is scheduled for this weekend! I will be letting you know the results soon because we will have a few good palates to use as my friend is rolling into town.

We can definitely work out some bending arrangement - would love a little offset to the jig. I am thinking now that a stainless chiller might be the way to go as well. The cost of the 304 stainless is really reasonable. It was a pain to do in the sense that I needed a hand to get the coil to behave and actually do it quickly, but once the jig was set up the overall process wasn't too bad. The coil looks great, uniform, etc. Next is ordering about $300+ in hardware for the rest of the herms build and once last pump. Then Paaint for the stand and finally a venting system (this fall). So wahoo!

 

Conical Group buy -

There is a neighboring group buy that I ahve had contact with regarding a conical group buy. I will be getting some details and photos of the conicals, and if anybody has interest in participating then please let me know by pming me your email address. The details are all pending, but I would be happy to pass all the info along.