Deal or Dud?

[MMW]

And Hello.

The last thing I need, according to SWMBO, is another time consuming hobby (I'm a workaholic student pilot with an active truck restoration who rides motorcycles and roasts his own coffee while trying to find time to SCUBA dive, etc...)

So why not brew beer? It's not like I'm doing anything else, right? It doesn't hurt that beer selection around here runs from 'meh' to 'holy crap...got anything that doesn't come in a 30 pack?' (This, oddly enough, is also why I started roasting my own coffee...the good stuff just isn't available here)

...

On a lark, I plugged 'Beer' into our local CL search box and found a brew kit for sale for $100. It's one of the 'True Brew' types with a primary bucket, bottling bucket, siphon, hydrometer-- everything needed for a single stage fermentation. (There was a True Brew kit, too, but I have my doubts about it) Also included were ~100 Grolsh bottles. So, to not clutter the board with two threads, I'll just say hello and ask "Deal or Dud?"

 

[nebben]

Welcome MMV!

Not to worry about picking up a new hobby...it turns more into an obsession than a hobby pretty soon anyway. You'll convert your scuba tanks over to O2 for aerating and CO2 for force-carbing in a little while, so that hobby wont bother you anymore.

Two buckets+hydrometer+siphon+100 Grolsh bottles in good condition isn't too bad of a deal. It could get you started and 2 batches into it, with the only other purchase needed being sanitizer and a big kettle that can boil 6 gallons...and some airlocks...and a stainless steel conical...and a ranco controlled fermentation chamber...and 15 gallon Blichmann mashtun...and...a new brewhaus...and some of those yard glasses...and...

 

[Arkador]

Another Texan! Welcome to HBT!

Like there are any real places to SCUBA in TX anyways!

 

[LooyvilleLarry]

...and some airlocks...and a stainless steel conical...and a ranco controlled fermentation chamber...and 15 gallon Blichmann mashtun...and...a new brewhaus...and some of those yard glasses...and...[/I]

and an electric brew kettle...!
My SWMBO says that I have HADD. Hobby ADD. When you start rethinking how furniture is arranged so that you can modify it to disguise a fermenting carboy... well then maybe.

I started out the same way, but without those sweet Kolsch bottles. Due to a fire around bottling day, I rationalized the time savings of kegging instead of bottling

The chest freezer in the garage was "destroyed", only to be "recycled" as a ferm chamber, and replaced with a fridge/freezer. The fridge is mine-the freezer hers.

Ya see, you gotta be thinking all the time !

 

[MMW]

Another Texan! Welcome to HBT!

Like there are any real places to SCUBA in TX anyways!

Slim pickins local, that's for sure...but Cozumel, Grand Cayman, and the Keys aren't far!

This hobby might get expensive, quick ...College lets out here in a month or so...I'm already watching CL for dorm fridges to convert for fermentation/lagering/conditioning chambers :rockin:

 

[Arkador]

It has actually been relativly cheap for me. My cousin bought me a kit similar to the $100 starter that Midwest sells, and my first kit beer. Since then, I have only really spent money on materials for each batch plus...

some new bottles from time to time
autosiphon
new tubing
replacement hydrometer
replacement ale pail
new brew pot

all of which are mostly cheap. I just spent $230 on a dual regulator keg setup, but that is after about 20 batches (100 galons) of beer.

Going all grain is alot more expensive. I do either extract or minimash.

 

[DragonTail]

Welcome

 

[gplutt]

Welcome, and I think the Grolsch bottles alone would be worth close to the money. Sounds like a deal to me.

 

[Revvy]

Your wife will really come to hate us, in a few weeks...If you love your wife, you really shouldn't think of taking on this obsessio...er...hobby....It's addicting.

Welcome.

 

[Arkador]

I'd probably take the deal, and go to your LHBS and fill in the missing pieces.
and cioncider joining http://groups.homebrewtalk.com/East_Texas_Homebrewers

 

[MMW]

I'd probably take the deal, and go to your LHBS and fill in the missing pieces.
and cioncider joining HomeBrewTalk Groups - East Texas Homebrewers

Holy crap! Thanks for the link...I hadn't found a homebrew group in E TX.

(DISCLAIMER: this is probably one Salvator away from going in Drunken musings and Ramblings..so take any spelling/grammar/logic errors in that vein)


SWMBO is slowly coming around to this whole deal. (I bought the kit last night thinking the bottles alone were worth the price)-- we were chatting over a bottle of wine while I was cooking dinner and she asked what all this damn ice I was making was for. So I told her to stabilize temp out in the garage while my brew fermented after brew day tomorrow-- she said, why don't you just keep it in the bar? :rockin:

I also have permission to buy a turkey fryer for a full boil after the first batch (I'll just have to slip the DIY wort chiller by her). I married waaaaaaaaaay above my pay grade.