IOWA Brewers! Echo, Echo, Echo...

[EZCyclone]

Where's my Iowa brewers? It's awful empty in here. lol

 

[Brewer_Ben]

I agree very quiet around Iowa on here, I just started back in November though.

 

[EZCyclone]

I've been thinking about hosting a local brewers brew day, just a thought at this point, but a fun one.

 

[smAllGrain]

Think I have noticed 1 person from North Liberty on here. Other than that I would def agree. Thought about reaching out to any of the beer clubs? I know there is one in Cedar Rapids

 

[EZCyclone]

Oh sure, there's lots of local clubs, but just thought a HBT get together would be real fun.

 

[Billy-Klubb]

we're almost close enough to be IA... but we're not. but if any of y'all are coming up this way, let me know ahead of time and we'll exchange home brews!

 

[Braufessor]

Missed this post earlier..... better check in and represent though

 

[MaxStout]

I was born in Iowa, does that count?

I think Braufessor has been active around here lately.

Edit: Check that...Braufessor is in the house.

 

[Braufessor]

I was born in Iowa, does that count?

Well, that depends on where you were born...

 

[MaxStout]

Well, that depends on where you were born...

Des Moines. Lived in West Des Moines until our family moved us out when I was 12.

 

[Braufessor]

Des Moines. Lived in West Des Moines until our family moved us out when I was 12.

Well, it isn't god's country like NE Iowa..... but I suppose we can let it slide

 

[sloanfamilydsm]

Des Moines East Side checking in!

 

[MaxStout]

Well, it isn't god's country like NE Iowa..... but I suppose we can let it slide

I used to have relatives in Cedar Rapids, and my parents met at Coe College, so NE IA is kind of near to my heart.

 

[EZCyclone]

Ha ha, and all of a sudden this blows up! How are all you folks tonight? Brau, Sloan tell us about your selves!

 

[Braufessor]

Long time brewer (18 years)...... probably spend to much of my time dedicated to beer, but what is a guy to do. Love drinking APA's, IPA's and Hoppy Ambers. But, also really enjoy brewing and drinking light lagers (Helles, Bo-Pils, Dortmunder), British bitters and milds, Scottish 70, alts, and often have a porter on hand as well.

 

[andrewmaixner]

I've randomly come across some great deals on used gear locally here, but Cedar Rapids has a local group with a moderately active forum for local stuff that I also read.

 

[EZCyclone]

Yeah, I think the CR area tends to have more stuff on CL. I always am finding what I'm looking for all the way over there. I watched three kegs go for $10 each in the CR CL here about two months ago. Damn!

 

[LoneTreeFarms]

checking in from Ft. Dodge. glad to see that there's still a little bit of life on this site.

 

[EZCyclone]

Welcome loan tree! It's fun to get it going, but it's us that had to keep it going. I for one would love to buil up the "local" section of HBT. Just think how fun it could be.

 

[signguy35]

Im from Bellevue but live in the boonies now with my beagle and chickens.

 

[EZCyclone]

Welcome Sign guy! What are you brewing?

 

[EZCyclone]

So what is everyone's brew rig like?

 

[LoneTreeFarms]

no rig really, turkey fryer, 8 gallon pot, and an idiot in a lawn chair surrounded by snow. I've got an IPA (Chinook) and a coffee stout ready to be bottled. and a winter warmer on deck that the wife bought me for x-mas. cheers

 

[Braufessor]

I started like most doing extract on the stove, graduated to partial mash, eventually all grain with pots and iglo coolers all over the kitchen. I was lucky that my wife was really into my brewing and also really wanted me out of the kitchen ...... so, 15 years ago I bought a Morebeer 3 tier gravity system (10gallon pots). Still using it now. When we built a new house a number of years ago, my wife also wanted me out of the garage Only logical thing to do was put a brew room in the basement. So, now I get to keep warm (or cool in the summer) when brewing. Still the same system, but hooked up to natural gas now.

You? I saw the Galactic Geonauts Brewing page - pretty cool.

 

[30Bones]

So what is everyone's brew rig like?

Used to have this and sold it and now just use a simple cooler MT and BK.

 

[signguy35]

i got 5 gallons of a milk chocolate stout in the carboy and thinking this weekend i will brew a Belgian blonde

 

[EZCyclone]

...... so, 15 years ago I bought a Morebeer 3 tier gravity system (10gallon pots). Still using it now.

You? I saw the Galactic Geonauts Brewing page - pretty cool.

Thanks, The Galactic Geonauts thing is lots of fun. When I started brewing I was part of a Mars mission, and doing heavy planetary science research. So with that and my geology background it just was fitting and geeky enough for me. I do full marketing materials for every brew, (well most of them) six pack holders, cases, bottle labels, posters etc. I have glasses, signs, coolers, all kinds of merchandising crap. It's just part of the fun for me.

As far as brewing right now I'm doing the cooler Mt and 13 gallon BK. But I can't hit my mash temp to save my life. I don't know why, it's very frustrating. So I've been dreaming on a new mash system, and one not to do things like others have been thinking of some sort of NiChrome wrapped metal stock pot then wrapped in kapton tape and heavily insulated. So it would be like those cigarette lighter plug in coffee mugs. I donno what I will do with it.

I'm definitely thinking of building an all electric software driven brew rig, I've got a pretty solid background in systems engineering and the software to do this very thing. I built a arduino controlled hot tub here a year ago and that's basically a giant brewing system.

Right now I run my BK on a built in professional wok burner I set up in my outdoor kitchen. It's plumbed into NG which is wildly convenient and cheap. It also is great for woking up some food for entertaining. Not to mention watching the fat guy (me) trying to man handle a 24" wok!

I built a grain mill from scratch utilizing my machine shop equipment and have a thread going about that now. I wound a double coil .5" in-kettle worth chiller out of 80' of soft copper. I ferment small batches in 7 gallon ferm buckets from the LHBS and for big batches I have 3, 15 gallon and 1, 30 gallon fermenter. I can ferment just more than 145 gallons at once. Although sadly I have not been running full bore for some time. In fact I think I only have about 20 gallons running now.

I started out brewing with all my school buddies that were in the same geology program as me, but most have moved away now.

That said I'm brewing a chocolate milk shake stout on Friday.

 

[EZCyclone]

So I'm planning to brew a stout this weekend, well Friday. I'm going for a seriously sweet dessert beer. It will be a Chocolate Milk Shake Stout, that I hope comes out more milkshake than beer.

The plan is to do something like this:

3.0lb 2row
0.5lb Chocolate Malt
0.5lb Chocolate Wheat Malt
0.5lb Honey Malt
0.25lb Crystal 40
0.1lb Lactose @5min
0.5lb cocoa powder @5min
0.5tsp vanilla @5min
20oz malted milk powder

Mash at 154F for 60min
10min mashout at 168F

Hops:
0.5oz Hallertauer @60min

Yeast: US-05

I'm going to soak 0.25lb of cocoa nibs and 2 vanilla beans (scrapped) in water and ethanol to make a extract. Basically to give it all a head start.
Then pitch it and the beer over into a secondary and adjust anything else needed then, like sweetness etc. I'll secondary for a week and then get this in the keg under high pressure on beer gas. Then run it through a creamer faucet.

Should be mind blowing. lol

Who what's to try out the finished product?

 

[30Bones]

If I was closer I would love to sample it. I don't step out of the box that much

 

[EZCyclone]

90% of what I brew is straight forward, quick and dirty sessions, but every once and a while. I get squirrely.