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osagedr

Recovering from Sobriety
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Having an absolute blast brewing these days. Got my CO2 system put together; a 20 lb container, bevy & gas lines with fittings (thanks Northern Brewer!); a double-regulator with wyes on each (thanks Keg Connection!) and four used cornies with replacement O-rings (thanks local guy selling them to me!). Right now I have a brown ale and an Oktoberfest carbed up and things are working as they should.

Found a great 12cf chest freezer on Kijiji for cheap and picked that up tonight. I've got a lager (my first one!) fermenting (used my first starter!) in our "spare" fridge that I'll move over to the freezer after diacetyl rest.

Got half a dozen or so batches planned for this fall and a ton of wine to make as well. Now I need to man up and move to extract brewing...maybe even try my hand at a small all-grain boil. What a great hobsession!
 
Congrats!! Sounds like you are on your way, one question though. If you are not using extracts or doing partial or all grain, are you buying kegs of beer?
 
Sounds good to me!

If you aren't doing extracts yet, do you mean you are still doing pre-hopped coppers-type kits? If so, at LEAST move up to unhopped extracts and steeping grains. It's an identical process, easy as pie, and makes a huge improvement in taste...

By the way, your avatar is one of my favorites here...
 
Congrats!! Sounds like you are on your way, one question though. If you are not using extracts or doing partial or all grain, are you buying kegs of beer?

Mostly I have done kits so far (Brew House and Festa Brew) though I have done three partial-mashes (i.e. comes with cracked grains that are steeped and discarded then LME is added and the liquid boiled).

I really really really gotta move up to real brewing.
 
Mostly I have done kits so far (Brew House and Festa Brew) though I have done three partial-mashes (i.e. comes with cracked grains that are steeped and discarded then LME is added and the liquid boiled).

I really really really gotta move up to real brewing.

The cracked grains that come in those kits are steeping grains, so you are doing full extract brewing, not partial-mashes. Partial mashes involve getting a percentage of your fermentables from mashing base malts in a mash lauter tun, then sparging, etc. The cracked grains you are steeping add flavor, aroma, and color, no fermentables. Congratulations, you are an extract brewer :mug:
 
Thanks guys. I need to get my vocabulary straight!

I would like to give a small AG batch a try. For now maybe I should try some different extract recipes and vary the steeping grains a bit. Also maybe try DME; so far I've only used it for a starter.
 

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