maltboy1
Active Member
- Joined
- Jun 9, 2022
- Messages
- 34
- Reaction score
- 23
Howdy y'all!
My name is Steve Daniel, and I started brewing in 1981, but I didn't become a serious brewer until about 1985. I eventually ended up doing all-grain mashes in an ice chest and boiling and fermenting in converted beer kegs. It was a LOT of work. After the craft beer explosion in the early 2000s, I started drinking more commercial beer, and brewing a lot less. That quickly evolved into not brewing at all. It took too much time and work to brew my own beer, and the selection and quality of craft beer was more than adequate to keep me happy.
My son started asking me about brewing a couple of years ago, but I didn't share his desire. Again, I didn't have the time or inclination to do all that hard work. About a month ago I stumbled upon a video for the Brewzilla system. The price and features sounded almost too good to be true. Then I found out about pressure fermenting, plastic conical fermenters with cooling coils, and all the rest of the new stuff. Two weeks later I was brewing a traditional ESB with my son with our new 65 liter system.
We are currently cold fermenting it in a Fermzilla equipped with a Twister. The cooling fluid is icewater pumped directly from an ice chest equipped with a copper coil and ice, of course. The pump is controlled with an Inkbird. I freeze gallon Ziplocs full of water and simply put a frozen bag in the cooler as needed. We will cold crash in the primary and pressure transfer to Corny kegs next week. We plan to brew a Northern Brown next weekend. A Munich Helles and a Pre-prohibition lager are next in line after that.
I'm blown away by how much easier it is to brew all-grain batches with the new equipment, and I look forward to drinking my own beer again. My son does too.
My name is Steve Daniel, and I started brewing in 1981, but I didn't become a serious brewer until about 1985. I eventually ended up doing all-grain mashes in an ice chest and boiling and fermenting in converted beer kegs. It was a LOT of work. After the craft beer explosion in the early 2000s, I started drinking more commercial beer, and brewing a lot less. That quickly evolved into not brewing at all. It took too much time and work to brew my own beer, and the selection and quality of craft beer was more than adequate to keep me happy.
My son started asking me about brewing a couple of years ago, but I didn't share his desire. Again, I didn't have the time or inclination to do all that hard work. About a month ago I stumbled upon a video for the Brewzilla system. The price and features sounded almost too good to be true. Then I found out about pressure fermenting, plastic conical fermenters with cooling coils, and all the rest of the new stuff. Two weeks later I was brewing a traditional ESB with my son with our new 65 liter system.
We are currently cold fermenting it in a Fermzilla equipped with a Twister. The cooling fluid is icewater pumped directly from an ice chest equipped with a copper coil and ice, of course. The pump is controlled with an Inkbird. I freeze gallon Ziplocs full of water and simply put a frozen bag in the cooler as needed. We will cold crash in the primary and pressure transfer to Corny kegs next week. We plan to brew a Northern Brown next weekend. A Munich Helles and a Pre-prohibition lager are next in line after that.
I'm blown away by how much easier it is to brew all-grain batches with the new equipment, and I look forward to drinking my own beer again. My son does too.
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