Hello fellow Brewers

[EarlZ]

I have loved craft beer since my late teens. I joined the Army and lived in Germany on my own. While there, I tried some amazing beers. Hefeweizen, Dunkelweizen, and Pilsners are what I drank the most of. That got me hooked for life. Fast forward 25 years, my wife bought me a Mr. Beer kit I gave it a try and failed. So I put the kit away. I have a few co-workers and friends that brew, and that got me interested again in 2020. I also really want another hobby this is definitely a good one. Who doesn't like beer and brewing?

I brewed a few more batches with my Mr. Beer kit and they were OK. Tried the Bavarian Weissbier and American Ale. Both are base extracts. I learned better sanitation, temperature control, and conditioning with these two brews.

I decided to stick with Mr. Beer for a while because I have a cooler setup, pot, and utensils that make 2 gallon brewing pretty convenient. I also have two UKegs so I can keg some beer and bottle. I even bought the Italian bottle capper so I can use real glass bottles instead of those plastics ones. My new brewing setup: I like Hop Malt Extract (HME) brewing because I think I still have much to learn. I started using HME with partial mash recipes to learn more. My wife likes Hefeweizen, so bought a recipe with HME, Liquide Malt Extract (LME), red wheat flakes, 2-row malt, and Hallertau Pellet hops. I really enjoyed brewing this time around. Was nice to smell the aromas while seeping the grains. Pictures are from last brew day. The little brown keg (LBK) is fermenting!

Cheers brewer friends!

 

[ncbrewer]

Welcome to the obsession.

 

[Cyclman]

Welcome to the hobby, and the group, from Colorado

I have an extensive system, but still do 2.5g batches regularly. Enjoy!

 

[Sammy86]

Welcome to the community and obsession! Nothing like those smells during a mash and boil!

 

[bracconiere]

you know @Sammy86 i decided to post my first youtube video...lol

just thought i'd say wine yeast likes beer just fine! and the vague background music is fitting for the scene!



music:




and @EarlZ i already said cheers and welcome, but i think that was yesterday! so, have a drink on me

 

[dawn_kiebawls]

Welcome to the edge of the rabbit hole, from Nebraska!

It truly is a wonderful hobby but it only gets deeper and more expensive from here. Not to mention I can't walk through the grocery store and pretend I'm on one of those cooking shows where I only have $17 and have to create a batch of beer with what I can find on the shelves...I need to get out more

edit: spelled my own damn state wrong...gotta love 7% ciders

 

[madscientist451]

My new brewing setup: I like Hop Malt Extract (HME) brewing because I think I still have much to learn.

A cheap upgrade for the small batch brewer is a 16 quart pot and a grain bag. For about $30 you can go all grain by doing BIAB on your stove top. I've played around with extract brewing over the years and for me the extract taste seems to bother me, but if your beer suits your taste buds then good for you.
If you are brewing German beers, going all grain will be well worth the extra step. I would recommend getting a small scale, I've been using the one that Anvil makes ($20) and it works fine.
You can get pre-milled 10 lbs bags of grain from more beer, and reduce your brewing costs compared to using kits and extract.
Those Ukegs are nice, but for less money you can get 2.5 gallon kegs that fit in a standard 'fridge.
I like brewing small batches and having a variety of beers available to choose from.

 

[Sammy86]

you know @Sammy86 i decided to post my first youtube video...lol

just thought i'd say wine yeast likes beer just fine! and the vague background music is fitting for the scene!

That's a mighty vigorous fermentation ya got going there cowboy...must be something in that their wort that got the yeast all happy!

 

[bracconiere]

must be something in that their wort that got the yeast all happy!

this is the 4th repitch too. i think they like the vitamins, they were bred for must, now they're getting a wort! i pitched on 10-13, probably be done kegged, carbed, and ready to serve day after tomorrow..

It truly is a wonderful hobby but it only gets deeper and more expensive from here

earl don't listen to him! i only spent $30 on 500g of that yeast to save money, as you can tell it works fine! it flocc's pretty good too, little watery at 1.000, but hoping some more repitching, it'll fatten up on the wort.

when i got into brewing i didn't have anybody to talk to, so i thought the whole point was to save money. and save money i did! (didn't realize most people were trying to be price gougers )

 

[CiscoKid]

I brewed a few more batches with my Mr. Beer kit and they were OK. Tried the Bavarian Weissbier and American Ale. Both are base extracts. I learned better sanitation, temperature control, and conditioning with these two brews.

Cheers brewer friends!

I'm excited to hear that Mr Beer is working for someone. That was my first foray into brewing and it turned me off of it for a while. In hindsight, I didn't know diddly-squat about proper sanitation so I know what the real problem was....

 

[EarlZ]

Wow! Thank you everyone for all the kindness. I love beer and like minded people. Speaking of beer, that beer is going to be ready to keg and bottle in one week! I am totally excited. I do need to figure out how to use my hydrometer. I will have to search for some tips.

I am looking to upgrade to a larger kit. But being in Texas presents some challenges. Temperature being the top one. I am thinking of buying a mini fridge for fermentation. There is a wealth of information here so I will do my research.

Cheers all!

 

[bracconiere]

I do need to figure out how to use my hydrometer.

hmm, i'm an ametrue myself, but as far as i know you stick it in at the beginning. and you wait till it stays in...

 

[ncbrewer]

But being in Texas presents some challenges. Temperature being the top one. I am thinking of buying a mini fridge for fermentation.

My house stays 76 degrees in the summer, and a swamp cooler works pretty well. But I'd say an ambient of over 78 would probably make it hard to control at 66 - 68F fermentation temp. There is something called Cool Brewing - an insulated bag that you put ice jugs in with the fermenter. Some have posted in threads here that it works very well.

 

[jseyfert3]

It truly is a wonderful hobby but it only gets deeper and more expensive from here.

earl don't listen to him! i only spent $30 on 500g of that yeast to save money, as you can tell it works fine! it flocc's pretty good too, little watery at 1.000, but hoping some more repitching, it'll fatten up on the wort.

HA! I got into this with cider. I had been talking about making some cider/fruit wine for a couple years with homemade fruit but we kept moving before the fruit could grow, Finally planted some fruit trees this year at our new house which we should be at for long enough to get fruit. Ran across a guy getting out of winemaking, got two carboys, bucket, airlocks, auto-syphon, hydrometer, bottler, other misc small stuff and 4 cases of wine bottles for $80. After mentioning possibly making cider my wife made fun of me cause I'd been talking for years, well, I had a batch of cider going with store juice literally one day later! And then:

• I bought a basic two-keg setup to skip the bottling process, cause everybody talks on here about how much that sucks.
• Had to get a CO2 tank for the kegs
• Found a freezer for free to make a Kreezer, so that was pretty cheap, just needed a temp controller.
• Upgraded from picnic taps to faucets so I didn't have to open the Kreezer to pour a cider.
• Tried a few extract beer kits, 5 gallon kits. Already had a big pot for canning and a propane burner, so that wasn't much extra...
• But I bought more kegs and faucets recently, cause two just isn't enough...
• My free Kreezer died, so I have a $600 freezer coming next week that I will also need to make a new collar for...
• I'm planning to get into all grain cause I liked the extracts and I'd like to try getting better beers and hopefully "save some money", and shouldn't be too expensive to start BIAB, except that:
• I want an electric brewer, cause I don't want to brew outside in Wisconsin winters.
• I want an RO system, to start with better water.
• I want a mini fridge or two, so I can do temp controlled fermentation and perhaps lagering...
• I want to upgrade the kreezer to EVA Barrier lines, cause I could certainly taste the difference the cider had sitting in vinyl lines if it went more than a day between pours and who wants to throw out half a glass if you didn't have a beer of that type for more than one day?
• I want a recirculating pump setup to clean my kreezer lines without blowing a bunch of CO2.

Now, I don't mean to scare the OP off! But like most hobbies, you can do it on a shoestring or you can blow thousands in a blink if you have the budget and a supporting wife, both of which I have. Really the majority of the money was spent on the kegging/kreezer setup, there's a lot more to a good setup there than I originally expected. But a kegerator/kreezer isn't needed to make good beer, it just makes it easier to drink and impresses the heck out of all your friends.

BTW, welcome @EarlZ, please don't let me scare you off! Lots of good info on this site, and it's a fun journey.

 

[bracconiere]

LOL

• I bought a basic two-keg setup to skip the bottling process, cause everybody talks on here about how much that sucks.
• Had to get a CO2 tank for the kegs

I bought my first keg in '96, or actually my mom bought it for me then just slowly started collecting them back when a used keg was $35! now i still use my 6 kegs, and did upgrade my co2 tank to a 20lb'r about 15 years ago for $200, but been swapping it just fine since then.


i have a very basic brewing setup.probably cost me around $600 to get into brewing, and i consider the odds and ends ($30-$60 range) to just be maintenance costs...and even brewing with store bought malt again it's about $30 a batch and i get 10 gallons of 9%-10% beer for that. at 8.8888888 twelvers a batch that's $3.40 a twelve pack for beer that is twice as strong!

 

[dawn_kiebawls]

My keezer is by far the most expensive part of my 'brewery'. I got my 10g cooler mash tun and propane burner on Craigslist for $60 and overpaid for my kettle (I think I paid $80 for a cheap POS) and that's been working just fine for me for now. I'd love to make some upgrades but I don't have the budget right now and I make good beers on a shoestring budget. But, since I finally was able to rebuild my keezer I now need to buy another chestfreezer so I can have a fermentation chamber again. Brewing on a budget is VERY doable. Spending 10k in a day to build a brewery, is also doable.

 

[bracconiere]

Brewing on a budget is VERY doable. Spending 10k in a day to build a brewery, is also doable.

wonderful human being! had to go getting me thinking about my spare bedroom, and how i'd love to convert it to a brew room!

edit: i swear it wouldn't cost much, i'd just need someone to install a NG line in it, it's already got laminate flooring. and buy a big NG burner. maybe a water line and a sink. drain. hmmmmmm, it'd save me money though! i wouldn't have to run the A/C as much as when i brew in the kitchen!

 

[jseyfert3]

But, since I finally was able to rebuild my keezer I now need to buy another chestfreezer so I can have a fermentation chamber again.

FYI I was thinking chest freezer until I saw someone here mention a mini-fridge for fermentation chamber. A quick browse of Facebook marketplace showed a number of $50 fridges that look big enough for a bucket/carboy. Downside I suppose is that even a small chest freezer is big enough for more than one bucket/carboy if you have two that need the same temp, but the freezers are more expensive. There were a few $100 chest freezers in my area that "need freon." Yeah I'm not gonna spend $100 on a freezer that's not working properly when new small chest freezers start out a bit over $200, but thanks.

Spending 10k in a day to build a brewery, is also doable.

 

[dawn_kiebawls]

NG burners indoors?..If I can burn NG indoors I may be building an indoor brewery this winter.

My basement already has NG, sink, drain with windows that would be PERFECT for building a DIY exhaust hood. My wife WANTS me to brew down there so she doesn't have to see me anymore and my neighbor is a plumber that likes beer so it wouldn't be hard to get him to make all my NG connections...Damn you @bracconiere just when I thought I was going to make it through the winter without going broke you get me thinking about something as totally stupid as this and now I have to have it!

 

[bracconiere]

Damn you @bracconiere just when I thought I was going to make it through the winter without going broke

you started it! (and i like NG because it's practicly free! i pay for the cost of service, and using it to brew barley changes my bill)


edit: as far as using it indoors? i know lots of people use it in the stoves? not sure? but? people do it?

 

[bracconiere]

damn now you got me thinking! @dawn_kiebawls i allready have a NG water heater on my back deck. i could put this bad boy out there and plumb it up so i could keep my stove clean again!

Toolots, Inc. - Reliable Equipment Fast.

Toolots.com is a one-of-a-kind international B2B online marketplace for factory direct industrial equipment, parts and supplies.

www.toolots.com

 

[wsmith1625]

@dawn_kiebawls

EDIT - Just trying to figure out how @bracconiere adds user names to his post and accidentally submitted it.

 

[jseyfert3]

and i like NG because it's practicly free! i pay for the cost of service, and using it to brew barley changes my bill

I was like "well brewing barley would change your bill" and then I realized you meant barely.

edit: as far as using it indoors? i know lots of people use it in the stoves? not sure? but? people do it?

A lot of stoves are NG, but not usually the power output your talking about to do a massive boil. I suspect it's doable, but you'd want to make sure you had good ventilation, plus make sure you got a CO monitor around.

@dawn_kiebawls what about an electric brewing system? If your electric is also in the basement, it should be cheap to install a 240 volt outlet, but now you only have to deal with steam not ventilation to make sure you don't die of CO poisoning or lack of oxygen. My goal is to do an electric system in my basement, as I also have a sink and water down there, plus that's where I ferment anyway so less moving everything around.

damn now you got me thinking! @dawn_kiebawls i allready have a NG water heater on my back deck. i could put this bad boy out there and plumb it up so i could keep my stove clean again!

Toolots, Inc. - Reliable Equipment Fast.

Toolots.com is a one-of-a-kind international B2B online marketplace for factory direct industrial equipment, parts and supplies.

www.toolots.com

At first I was like "water heater on your back deck!?" then I checked your location. I always forget that people in warm areas do 'weird' things like put water heater, water softeners, and water utility meters outside! Around here you will never see that, cause they'd freeze in the winter. So they are either stuffed into a utility closet or heated garage if the house has no basement, otherwise they are usually installed in the basement.

 

[bracconiere]

I was like "well brewing barley would change your bill" and then I realized you meant barely.

when i worked in the grocery store they had big oven and burners on NG on all the time. the water meter is out by the street.

anyway i've made up my mind, next year i'm dropping $300 on that burner to put out back. have to figure out how much it'll cost to get someone to run the gas line to it.