Confession Time

[BBQB]

Lowzyness?

 

[SippinSudz]

Yikes. Corrected.

 

[Firewalker11]

I will try that!

...but I confess I cannot imagine catching a dozen mice every day. Do you have a leaky grain silo at your place?

Big buildings, lots of doors, staff eat lots of snacks = lots of mice.

 

[Venari]

Big buildings, lots of doors, staff eat lots of snacks = lots of mice.

Based on this, you COULD be working at disney land, and have mickey mice all over.


My confession: I'm considering infecting a batch or two and leaving them on top of my good stuff.

That'll teach them mooches to take without permission.

 

[Ski12568]

i brew outside in flip flops because its freaking hot in AZ this time of year

 

[Firewalker11]

Based on this, you COULD be working at disney land, and have mickey mice all over.


My confession: I'm considering infecting a batch or two and leaving them on top of my good stuff.

That'll teach them mooches to take without permission.

My wife was Mickey Mouse in Anaheim for a few years, she is still afraid of mouse traps.

 

[Chiefer]

Sometimes I get up very early to brew (less time to do it with family), I still enjoy handcrafted ales while brewing. It doesn't make me a bad person.

 

[biochemedic]

My wife was Mickey Mouse in Anaheim for a few years, she is still afraid of mouse traps.

Mickey is a GIRL?!?!
who knew that Disney was so progressive when it comes to transgender individuals and same sex relationships!

Sometimes I get up very early to brew (less time to do it with family), I still enjoy handcrafted ales while brewing. It doesn't make me a bad person.

Hey, it's noon somewhere.....

 

[SanPancho]

I don't buy yeast. That's for chumps and rich people. I just spit into the fermentation vessel every time I walk buy until it develops a krausen.

Hilarious

 

[Beerthoven]

One time I had to step away for a short while the wort was chilling. I came back to find both my dogs drinking out of the brew pot. Beer turned out fine.

 

[izzie]

Went to the market to grab some carnation malted milk powder for a whopper stout. They were short so I subbed in a can of ovaltine.

 

[m1k3]

I drove to the mexican restaurant in the middle of the boil.... with the garage door wide open.... mid boil....

I told my wife the fire extinguisher is next to the door.... I'll be back in a half hour.

 

[gometz]

I have definitely left mid boil, both while using an electric stove and a has burner. Normally to go get ice or food.

 

[AkTom]

Brewed an black IPA... Don't really like it. Missed my OG. Too sweet. Not carbonated enough. Added some lemon juice and, it's drinkable after all ;-)

 

[m1k3]

I have definitely left mid boil, both while using an electric stove and a has burner. Normally to go get ice or food.

but i had a turkey burner on a wooden brew stand. meh. all-grain number 48. i can be trusted, right?

 

[Venari]

I made a batch of beer without sanitizing anything, for two reasons:
1. To see what would happen
2. If it tastes like crap, it sits on top of my other beers to punish those who take without asking.

 

[DrunkleJon]

I brewed Fuzzymittens Hi-Nelson Saison on Friday. It was a comedy of errors until mash in, then after the boil I realized that I forgot to rehydrate the yeast so I just threw it in. Then about half an hour later I found the sugar that I forgot to add. No wonder my starting gravity was low. Guess what? I sprinkled it straight into the fermenter. Fermentation should mix it in. It was going gangbusters in less than 4 hours. Take that proper brewing procedures.

 

[Venari]

I made a batch of beer without sanitizing anything, for two reasons:
1. To see what would happen
2. If it tastes like crap, it sits on top of my other beers to punish those who take without asking.

Oddly enough...it does not taste like crap.

 

[BobBailey]

Some wild yeasts may ferment very slowly and take weeks, maybe months before causing any noticeable difference, either positive or negative. I would be very careful around the bottles, especially if they're not kept refrigerated. You definitely don't want to meet a bottle bomb up close and personal.

 

[Venari]

Some wild yeasts may ferment very slowly and take weeks, maybe months before causing any noticeable difference, either positive or negative. I would be very careful around the bottles, especially if they're not kept refrigerated. You definitely don't want to meet a bottle bomb up close and personal.

My bottles are plastic pepsi bottles. So if they do explode, there shouldn't be any shrapnel

Glass bottles being hard to come by here.

 

[KevinP]

I removed a camlock without closing a valve and took a 2qt shot of 170 degree water straight to my crotch.



Twice.



Two different days.



PID controlled, 170 degree sparge water.



Straight to the dick. (with pants)

 

[slym2none]

Fool you once, shame on you... fool you twice...



Seriously though, ouch, man.

 

[BBQB]

I removed a camlock without closing a valve and took a 2qt shot of 170 degree water straight to my crotch.







Twice.







Two different days.







PID controlled, 170 degree sparge water.







Straight to the dick. (with pants)

Does it still work?

 

[KevinP]

Does it still work?

HAH! Yes
Thanks.

 

[Hoppity]

Does it still work?

I would think so, camlocks are tough.

 

[wtaylor3]

^ I see what you did there haha

 

[chawn]

Lucky you wear pants while brewing!

 

[KevinP]

Lucky you wear pants while brewing!

Lucky I WAS wearing pants.

Second confession?

 

[ol-hazza]

I havnt cleaned my gear since my oast brew day. I really need to do that.

Im not going to confess how long ago it was so dont even go there.

 

[Kirkwooder]

I removed a camlock without closing a valve and took a 2qt shot of 170 degree water straight to my crotch.



Twice.



Two different days.



PID controlled, 170 degree sparge water.



Straight to the dick. (with pants)

Is your wife/significant other fond of beer brats?

 

[FireantBrewing]

Does it still work?

a

 

[FireantBrewing]

I removed a camlock without closing a valve and took a 2qt shot of 170 degree water straight to my crotch.



Twice.



Two different days.



PID controlled, 170 degree sparge water.



Straight to the dick. (with pants)

I was going to make a Darwin joke here but decided against it...

 

[tennesseean_87]

You guys are like outlaws. After reading these I feel like I am taking this hobby way to seriously.
But. I never wash my equipment. I rinse and scrub with water as soon as I get done with a piece and then sanitize on my next brew day. Haven't had a problem yet.

I usually wash with hot water only, especially everything pre-boil.

I am literally trying to brew as cheaply as I possibly can. Water bottle fermenters, borrowed pots for kettles, meat thermometer, postage scale. Basically building a found brewery.

I have the money to buy everything, I just don't wanna. If I suck at brewing, I'm out the cost of ingredients, and I literally only bought a hydrometer for equipment.

I'm not that hardcore, but I have a pretty advanced ghetto brew setup. I try to spend the money on things that help the most and skimp where it doesn't matter. I have a bottling bucket mash tun with a cpvc manifold, another bottling bucket for HLT, stir plates made from fans in a computer I found on the side of the road, tons of buckets from the bakery, a water bottle secondary, etc. I have bought stir bars, a direct oxygen set-up (on sale with $5 oxygen bottles), and an STC-1000 to run a ghetto version of SOF.

If I'm low on homebrew, I often bottle after only 7-10 days, then crack one open 2-3 days later. At about the 4th-5th day, most of my beers are moderately to fully carbonated. With some yeast strains, I've found full carbonation after 3 days. I think it has to do with the yeast not having much time to settle out.

Oh and also, I have a background in Biochemistry and do not use starters for 5 gallon batches. Never once in 2+ years. Do not believe in them (currently).

I try to get some beer through really quickly. Most recently was a saison with Belle yeast that I left out in the hot weather so it'd ferment faster. I think most of the carbonation happens by the end of week 1, so it's already drinkable but gets a little more fizzy over then next week or so (given you're conditioning at a warm temp). I left said saison in boxes (no light) in the sun to carb faster.

I don't use airlocks on my buckets, I had a set before I moved that I (painfully) drilled the right hole for a stopper to fit in and used to make sure there was always a stopper in it. Once I got my new set of buckets I just snap down the lid on two sides and stick under the kitchen counter until I transfer to my kegs. No issues yet and I figure if the bugs do that many aerobics to get into the brew and survive the alcohol they bloody well deserve it and I clearly need to fix something.

I also use a bucket for a mash tun, used to just wrap a couple bath towels around it and put one between it and the floor and one on top, sometimes I put a sweater on the whole shebang. Now I used a towel on the floor and the top and reflectix around the bucket secured with trusty duct tape. Either way I don't lose more than 1F/hour.

+1 for bucket-tun. I don't use airlocks much either.

I haven't brushed the inside of a bottle yet. Rinse them after I drink them, soak in Oxy to remove the label, drip dry, Star San dunk at bottling.

I soak in bleach-water and rinse. It works better than brushes which seem to leave some areas on the bottom untouched. I'm not sure if it saves any time because I'm so anal about rinsing the bleach, though.

Today, I decided to crush grains today in advance of a brewday early next week, and I totally spilled a half pound of rye across my dining room floor. I spent the next 30 minutes picking it all up by hand. Not only a pain in the ass, but plenty embarrassing. I'm glad I was home alone.

Oh, I did. And I picked out all of the hair, lint, and crumbs I could find first. I don't know if it's going to meet the standard of Black Island Brewer now, but it'll meet mine. I did the math, and picking it all up saved me an impressive $.85, but I wasn't going to let it go to waste. Plus, I kind of thought I deserved it after being such a bonehead.

I've done this in a dingy basement. It's all getting boiled anyway.

I don't boil my IC for any length of time. It's a flameout addition. I tried a few times but always lost the boil. Even at 100% power beforehand the added thermal mass caused me to lose the boil. I have faith that Pasteurization occurs at close-enough-to-boiling in a matter of seconds. I have yet to regret this.

I may have to try this. In the past I've run hot water through my IC before adding to the boil to mitigate the effect.

My confession is that I'm a cheap b@stard. I love my IPAs and big beers and brew them regularly, but if I'm out with friends and they are all spending 6$ a pint for an IPA I aways opt for a 2$ PBR pounder

This is why I stay home and drink HB. It's also why I seldom drink commercial beer.

Scales sold for drugs are the best for hops and water additions. Gotta love that .01 gram resolution

That seems like overkill! Do you split hop pellets to get it right? My scale goes to the nearest gram.

I think most people like their beer over-carbonated and too cold.

I usually drink beer out of a wine glass.

I use beer glasses but concur on the first point. I'd love a separate beer fridge at 45*F, and I'd still sit some bottles out to warm before popping them. Since I hope to keg some day I wonder if that sort of serving temp would lead to foamy pours...

I'm overruling this confession. It's one thing to do something, but have no idea why you're doing it (first post). It's another to do something but know why you're doing it and just not test other possibilities (second post).

How many people can honestly say they know for a fact that a dolphin is a mammal? Everybody knows it's true, but I've never dissected one to check out it's internal organs (I can come up with more esoteric questions if you're not buying this example). I haven't cut up a dead dolphin, but you're not going to catch me calling one a fish. My point is that we all choose sources we trust and treat the information they give us as fact. If a marine mammologist tells me a dolphin is not a fish, I'm on board. If Jamil tells me I need a certain pitch rate, I'm on board. I'm not going to intentionally screw up my pitch rate just to test and see if it really matters. Which would be an incredibly stupid way to live life. "Doctors say smoking causes cancer, but it's never happened to me, so I'm going to start smoking two packs a day." Bah!

Confession: I'm cranky this morning.

this

I hardly sanitize as good as I should, and have a closet that must lead to Narnia because no matter what the thing always reads 65 degrees.

GO TO NARNIA!

I like to "make up recipes" by using multiple other recipes and mashing them together.

That isn't what everyone does? I always look up a few good recipes, adjust to what I have on hand (especially subbing hops), and sometimes adjust for my own taste.

Oh boy, here we go...

- I have hope in my freezer from a year ago or more that I might still use...

I have used some really old hops and BMW brew kits.

I'm pretty hard on myself when it comes to my beer, mainly because I know I can't count on my family / friends / and co-workers to be. I don't enter competitions though.

My biggest confession - I have no interest in competitions and feel no desire to seek the opinions of others. If my beer turns out to my liking, and it usually does, I'm happy. I don't have a refined palate so I'm not terribly discerning.

I've tried some recipes that I would not do again. I scorched a couple when I was first getting into electric brewing (took a long time to finish that 10 gallons) and had to dump a couple batches that got infected. If a guest enjoys the beer I make, great. If not, more for me.

Same here. No way I'm paying someone to drink the beer I worked so hard on after I pay to ship it. I love feedback from fellow brewers and beer enthusiasts, though. I like sharing, too, but I don't make a lot to cater to what others like.

I stopped to pick up an empty bottle off the street that was half buried in slush and full if frozen I don't-know-what.

It will get washed and added to the rotation.

I can confess to doing a night-time run to the supermarket to go dumpster diving for empty beer bottles from the bottle bank rather than buying glass. I'm not proud.. nor was SWMBO who refused point blank to even leave the car even though I tried reasoning with her that her small hands would be perfect to reach through the holes to grab the bottles or despite my offer to dangle her by her feet into the bin to reach the ones at the bottom... mind the wasps!

I still haven't lived this one down.

I used to walk the streets early on recycling day to build my bottle collection. The best was the first recycling day after New Year's. I grabbed a back-pack and walked around snagging a few dozen champagne bottles and even scored a magnum!

I have a Belgian triple mashed at 143 that finished at 1.002 that would say otherwise.

I did something similar with a Tripel. I missed my mash-out and either took a long time to boil another infusion or just started sparging and it dried out way too much and wasn't very good at all. Some styles are more forgiving than others. Lots of hops or roast malt can cover a multitude of errors.

One of the covers for my fermenter had a small crack going out from the hole that the air lock goes in. Some little bugs can get into my freezer/fermenter where the temp control sensor gos thru the rubber seal.

Well once time there was some krausen that came up thru the crack and the "flies" laid eggs there. When I was ready to bottle I noticed little maggots crawling around the crack.

I scraped them away and cold crashed the batch. 5 days later I opened the bucket, no maggots inside and it smelled and tasted good so I bottled it. I'm keeping which brew it is a secret. Don't want to scare any of my friends w/this story. LOL

I had something awy worse happen. I was using a lid sans airlock (see above) and I grabbed the wrong one (different bakery buckets; see above) and flies got in and the whole krausen ring was crawling with maggots. The beer was about vinegar by then so I dumped it. I wish I'd just kept it for malt vinegar.

As I said in another thread - I have never shotgunned a beer, done a beer-bong, or even done a keg-stand.

In other words, I never went to college.

I went to college without doing any of the above.

Rarely make starters because I forget.

Usually float the keggle in my pool to cool the wort because I'm lazy.

Only drink about 2/3 of the beer I brew because I get board and want to free up a keg for something else. Having drinking age kids seems to have solved that issue though.

Between my guns, 4x4's, fishing, brewing, knives, cycling, motorcycles, boat, bbq(s).....etc. I have WAY too many hobbies and an EXTREMELY tolerate wife

You must have a good job, too!

See the link in my sig about pipe-line diversity. I feel the same way and won't brew a lot of styles because I don't want a ton of it on hand. A good hefe or witbier are nice now and again, but I get board with them so I don't brew them.

I'm addicted to craigslist.

My brew partner and I have 19 kegs between the 2 of us. I don't NEED any more, but just made a deal to pick up 3 for $100. Can't pass up a deal.

19? that's so cute, guys.

View attachment 277311

I never pay more than $25 a keg. Often times less. Except for the 3 gal kegs. Those were a little more. I had 35 of the three gallons at one time. I'm at 16 now. I have at least 40 more rubber top ball kegs in the basement and several more 1/4 slims than what's in that pix. I bought like 27 ball kegs at one time from a kombucha place for $5/ea. I got as many as I could fit in my Volvo and went back for more. I've had over 100 at one time. All acquired from CL to resell. I paid my mortgage for 6 months while unemployed just from buying/selling gear. It's also how I paid for all the parts for my insane 60a BCS 20gal boilermaker all electric brewery. I've made money with home brewing.

I wish I was down to only 19. That would mean all of these were sold and I'd have money to build a shed.

Where do you guys live?! I need your help when I switch to kegging.

Is home-brewing illegal for minors in the US? That is sensible.

Not only can minors home brew beer here, they could (theoretically) legally distill spirits.

Ahh good ol NZ.

That's glorious. Is tobacco illegal or taxed to death there?

I'm getting ready to move in the next few months and have realized that I can't/won't be taking 500+ empty bottles with me. I've started sorting them by weight (assuming heavier=sturdier) and by whether they have ridges on the bottom (I prefer unridged, despite my name). I can get a little obsessed sometimes.

I did about the same thing when I moved. I brought most of my bombers, pints, quarts, and 750mls, though.

5 gallon batches. He bought the extra buckets and bought all the grain. he "helped" yes, if you mean helped drink while we were brewing then yes he helped. He did do nearly all the capping when it was time to bottle.

We brewed 2 batches every Saturday, and most Sunday's. We started about 5 months out leaving the IPA batches for last. It really was fun, learned a lot too. Learned I do NOT want to graduate from hobby brewer to pro/semi pro.

Wedding was a huge smash! Overshot the beers quantity by a good bit, had around 200 beers left over.

And yes, very good friend. I'd walk through hell wearing gasoline soaked britches for this guy, as he would for me.

I did 40 gallons for a friend's wedding. A good bit was cider, though. I did one two-batch brew day (pils and tripel) and then two 3-batch brew days. My friend helped a lot, including clean-up and bottling. He also bought me a Colona capper/corker, which made bottling easier.

I did not read this entire thread, but I am going to post in it anyway.

I often add chilled distilled water to my "almost-full boils" to get fermentation volume to 5.5 gallons, and to help chill to under 70.

That's just smart. I almost always do that to get the last 10 degrees or so when my IC slows down.

I rarely drink my home brews. I get bored drinking the same thing over and over. I can rarely drink a 6-pack without getting bored with it. Because of this I give away a majority of beer.

I don't have time or money to brew that much, but the diversity link in my sig may help you out a bit.

Original confessions:

-I bought a direct oxygen set-up to use only on high-gravity beers (cheapskate), but now I use it on everything because I'm too lazy to listen to Taylor Swift's advice.

-I wash yeast, but I keep it around forever before re-using. Up until recently my starters were pretty much always 1/4 or 1/3 cup DME per quart regardless of gravity or age of yeast sample

-I quit buying commercial beer when I started homebrewing (cheapskate). I don't get much valuable feedback on my brewing, so I don't know if my skills have improved or my tastes have declined.

-I read this thread over the last few days and multi-quoted every post I missed by not reading this thread earlier.

 

[1977Brewer]

Epic multi quote.

 

[msa8967]

I am wanting to know if the standard plastic faucet on the bottling buckets is safe enough to handle wort at 155 F. If it is then I think using a bottling bucket with a voile cloth liner can make a good introductory ghetto mashtun.

 

[biochemedic]

Epic multi quote.

Seriously!

 

[slym2none]

As I said in another thread - I have never shotgunned a beer, done a beer-bong, or even done a keg-stand.

In other words, I never went to college.

I went to college without doing any of the above.

It... it was just a joke...

 

[tennesseean_87]

I am wanting to know if the standard plastic faucet on the bottling buckets is safe enough to handle wort at 155 F. If it is then I think using a bottling bucket with a voile cloth liner can make a good introductory ghetto mashtun.

Uh...did you not read my dissertation-length multi-quote? I do it. I have a manifold in mine now, but started out with a paint strainer bag when I switched from BIAB. Also, I have gone up to 180 with mash-out/sparge.

 

[msa8967]

Uh...did you not read my dissertation-length multi-quote? I do it. I have a manifold in mine now, but started out with a paint strainer bag when I switched from BIAB. Also, I have gone up to 180 with mash-out/sparge.

I have seen a variety of style of plastic faucets on bottling buckets and didn't know if there was a special type of one that could be used for this project.

 

[tennesseean_87]

Mine is the red one like this: http://www.midwestsupplies.com/bottling-bucket-with-spigot.html

I use it on the MLT and HLT.