mmccurdy
Well-Known Member
I've been lurking here (and around the internets in general learning about brewing) for about a month, and I just finished my first brew day, so I thought I'd post up some pics.
I've been resisting this hobby for a while because I was afraid I would wind up sinking too much time and money into it, but a certain chain of events found me in possession of a nice CO2 + tower setup, then came the $50 craigslist chest freezer conversion, then the realization that it was cheating to fill it with commercial brews, and well.... the rest is history.
I always like checking out pics of other people's stuff, so here are a few of mine:
Test boil just after I got my kettle & burner:
FedEx lost my starter kit, blaming it on temp holiday staff, so I wasn't able to get a brew day in before the holidays. This left me with some downtime for other projects. The various side projects are a main part of the appeal of this hobby for me, and I fully realize the idiocy of doing this stuff before even brewing a single batch. Bear with me.
We live in Nor Cal, but we don't have a place in our house that's consistently warm enough to ferment ales in the winter. So obviously the only solution is a dual stage temperature-controlled fermentation chamber:
Adding some flashing so the door magnets will still work:
Construction done (not yet wired):
I also like the idea of harvesting my own yeast or doing starters from liquid, and as it happens I had more than enough spare parts to put together a quick/minimalist stir plate. I'm well aware this was not needed in the slightest for the extract recipe I wound up with, but I was able to use the little stir bar to cool the hydration water slightly quicker:
Okay here's my actual brew setup. My "sculpture" is what I call Stonehenge meets San Quentin. Stone-like. Austere. Can you see it? For some reason I decided I needed a plate chiller which I picked up from kegcowboy.com. Wow, that thing is super-effective, but it does add some complexity:
I did a More Beer! American IPA. Their store is pretty close, and they seem to have fresh ingredients. Here's my cheater "Info Station" which is actually just the top of my fermentation cabinet. I put my equipment and recipe into BeerSmith, and I got mostly matching numbers for gravity, color, etc. The one exception was IBU's, so American IPA should be, which would be fine w/ me. I will consider this a success if this thing is even remotely drinkable. Time will tell.
Went straight from boil kettle through plate chiller into carboy. 70 degrees seems good to me:
I've been resisting this hobby for a while because I was afraid I would wind up sinking too much time and money into it, but a certain chain of events found me in possession of a nice CO2 + tower setup, then came the $50 craigslist chest freezer conversion, then the realization that it was cheating to fill it with commercial brews, and well.... the rest is history.
I always like checking out pics of other people's stuff, so here are a few of mine:
Test boil just after I got my kettle & burner:
FedEx lost my starter kit, blaming it on temp holiday staff, so I wasn't able to get a brew day in before the holidays. This left me with some downtime for other projects. The various side projects are a main part of the appeal of this hobby for me, and I fully realize the idiocy of doing this stuff before even brewing a single batch. Bear with me.
We live in Nor Cal, but we don't have a place in our house that's consistently warm enough to ferment ales in the winter. So obviously the only solution is a dual stage temperature-controlled fermentation chamber:
Adding some flashing so the door magnets will still work:
Construction done (not yet wired):
I also like the idea of harvesting my own yeast or doing starters from liquid, and as it happens I had more than enough spare parts to put together a quick/minimalist stir plate. I'm well aware this was not needed in the slightest for the extract recipe I wound up with, but I was able to use the little stir bar to cool the hydration water slightly quicker:
Okay here's my actual brew setup. My "sculpture" is what I call Stonehenge meets San Quentin. Stone-like. Austere. Can you see it? For some reason I decided I needed a plate chiller which I picked up from kegcowboy.com. Wow, that thing is super-effective, but it does add some complexity:
I did a More Beer! American IPA. Their store is pretty close, and they seem to have fresh ingredients. Here's my cheater "Info Station" which is actually just the top of my fermentation cabinet. I put my equipment and recipe into BeerSmith, and I got mostly matching numbers for gravity, color, etc. The one exception was IBU's, so American IPA should be, which would be fine w/ me. I will consider this a success if this thing is even remotely drinkable. Time will tell.
Went straight from boil kettle through plate chiller into carboy. 70 degrees seems good to me:
