It's official starting my own brewing business!

[akthor]

The landlord moved only a few short miles away and she and her kids left a lot of stuff when they moved which is all the stuff you see in the pictures. She said anything in the kitchen if I didn't want it to just toss it since she was sure she didn't need it. Well we found the liquor and were like score! She stopped by to check out the painting and bring us beer and saw the liquor and was like aww I forgot I left that here and I was like uh uh you said I could keep anything in the kitchen you left behind and she was like yup I did

One of the benefits of moving is being able to have another "fill my bar" housewarming party. I provide beer and food and people who come bring me a bottle of liquor for the bar. I got like 15 5ths and a couple 1/2 gallons of booze the last time I moved which kept me in mixed drinks for about a year

Sold a knife and have some cash in my PP and I'm trying to figure out what to buy for the brewery with it right now

LOL!!! Sweet pictures, dude! I actually laughed out loud at the second one!

I see the Canadian Club to the right of your son on the first pic - have you ever had the one with a blue label? Been years since I tried any CC, but I do remember that it was noticeably better.

Keep the pictures coming!

 

[Chuginator]

Liquor bonus! Score!

I envy your position of having to decide on what to buy. Don't overlook the good old basics like Star San and PBW!

 

[akthor]

Money's a bit tight right now but I used my knife money to buy a refractometer. I am tired of trying to read those tiny numbers on my crappy hydrometer. Also got the mash recirculation tube that bobbym sells. A precision scale for weighing out hops and specialty grains. And 30' of 1/2" silicone tubing.

My son works in a restaurant and is also dropping off 8 - 5 gallon pickle buckets with lids. That will give me about 20 of them so far. I will use some for Apfelwein an Skeeter Pee but most will be for grain storage.

Liquor bonus! Score!

I envy your position of having to decide on what to buy. Don't overlook the good old basics like Star San and PBW!

 

[Lucky_Chicken]

Money's a bit tight right now but I used my knife money to buy a refractometer. I am tired of trying to read those tiny numbers on my crappy hydrometer. Also got the mash recirculation tube that bobbym sells. A precision scale for weighing out hops and specialty grains. And 30' of 1/2" silicone tubing.

My son works in a restaurant and is also dropping off 8 - 5 gallon pickle buckets with lids. That will give me about 20 of them so far. I will use some for Apfelwein an Skeeter Pee but most will be for grain storage.

tiny numbers no the hydrometer... wait till you get the refractometer

 

[jfrizzell]

tiny numbers no the hydrometer... wait till you get the refractometer

Dual scale or single scale refractometer? I went with the one with brix / Plato only. Not too bad. The ones with the SG scale looked almost unreadable!

 

[rifraf]

Subscribing! 50% hope and 50% morbid curiosity. Good luck dude!

 

[neovox]

love the idea of horseshoe pits

 

[akthor]

Its the one bobbym sells on Brewhardware.com its in Brix I believe.

Dual scale or single scale refractometer? I went with the one with brix / Plato only. Not too bad. The ones with the SG scale looked almost unreadable!

 

[paganknight]

I would love too be where your at.
just take it one small step/project at a time is the way to get there. and if things start to get to you "Relax Don't Worry Have a Homebrew"

and just a thought on your walk in cooler i built one using steal roofing and 2" Gatorfoam board. the roffing is 36" put on both sides and if you cut the gatorfoam just a little nerrower so the ribs on the roofing will lock it togather it will hold with just a few screws and make a good seal . . . is almost like the ones they make for restaurants . . and can be moved with out too much work if need be. .

Good luck i will be rooting for ya

 

[akthor]

That's the plan one step at a time. Shooting to be open by fall but I am not going to kill myself or over extend myself to make that deadline. Could be Spring 2013.

Do you have more info/pictures about your walk in? I would like to learn more.

 

[paganknight]

sorry no pics. but i used a peace of 2" foam Board sandwitched between two pices of steel roofing so that the ribs mach up as a lock.

/\----/\----/\----/\ roofing . . .glued and screwed together panels are 36" wide and
|||||||||||||||||| foam . . . . what length you cut them. foam is cut a few inches
\/----\/----\/----\/ roofing . . .shorter

the first set of ribs lock over the last set on the next panel to form the seal
sorry about the graphics not at my Home computer right now but hope you get the idea

 

[paganknight]

Ok give this a try

a quick sketch

 

[ahaley]

I am extremely jealous!! But I have to stop reading for now and get back to work :/
Lol I'm looking forward to reading the other 11 pages!! Good luck with everything!!

 

[rawlus]

Dual scale or single scale refractometer? I went with the one with brix / Plato only. Not too bad. The ones with the SG scale looked almost unreadable!

Nice thing about refractometers is you can take a digital picture down the lens and then blow it up to read it easier if needed, can also print or save the image for record keeping.

 

[LiBrewshed]

Best of luck man. Your living everyone dream!

 

[BrewLou]

GL with this man, I am contemplating the same thing here in NC.

I work 50hrs a week +, and this would be a side venture unless it really took off.

Ive looked into holding the name I am interested in, but I need to research more on the NC business laws.

Keep us posted! Ill be keeping tabs no pun intended .

 

[akthor]

What do you do for the floor? What is cost wise compared to wood framing and insulating and sheathing in a more traditional manner?

I'm a bit annoyed USPS wonders why they are going belly up? According to the tracking # they were supposed to deliver my 3rd keggle with my HERMS coil inside it to me on the 10th. Of course no delivery yesterday.

Ok give this a try
View attachment 51896
a quick sketch

 

[clamflats]

Skeeter Pee with blueberries???

 

[LiBrewshed]

I made a cranberry belgian for thanksgiving and it turned out great, I called it cranberry sauce. Blueberrys sound like a great substitute. When I get back home to n.y. I'd be happy to upload the recipe if anyones interested

 

[geniz]

I made a cranberry belgian for thanksgiving and it turned out great, I called it cranberry sauce. Blueberrys sound like a great substitute. When I get back home to n.y. I'd be happy to upload the recipe if anyones interested

Id love to get a copy

 

[Boar Beer]

Dito love to see the recipe

 

[codfishboys]

Awesome. I wish you the best of luck, and since you are not that far away( I am in Houlton), I will have to stop by and check you out, once your up and running.
Drink one for me....

 

[ahaley]

I made a cranberry belgian for thanksgiving and it turned out great, I called it cranberry sauce. Blueberrys sound like a great substitute. When I get back home to n.y. I'd be happy to upload the recipe if anyones interested

That sounds really good I'd love a recipe

 

[akthor]

Ditto!

That sounds really good I'd love a recipe

 

[akthor]

I didn't realize there were so many Mainers here on HBT

 

[adworld]

Portland here

 

[akthor]

So today my 3rd Keggle arrived from retrvino here on the vendor list and stuffed inside it was my 50' SS 1/2" HERMS coil that HBT'er Texan coiled for me.

I had heard about how hard it was to coil 1/2" SS tubing and when I read on a thread about a guy (Texan) who spent quite a bit of his own $ on tooling to coil his own the suggestion was made he should charge a fee and coil for others to make back some of his cash. I quickly volunteered to be 1st. Bought a 50' section of 1/2" SS and had it shipped direct to Texan.

Here's the lucky/weird part, see rtrivino was selling keggles at a pretty reasonable price and I needed a 3rd one, but being so big and heavy shipping was steep. Then as it turned out Texan and rtrevino were both in San Antonio. If I could have my coil shipped back inside the keggle well then shipping was a lot more resonable. Kill two birds with one stone kinda thing. I got their contact info to each other they hooked up and my keggle with the coil inside of it arrived today.

I hope to find the time to get this keg polished up this weekend and get the bulkheads and other goodies installed and the HERMS and then my HLT will be complete and I just gotta finish the PBR and then I can work on the mash tun.

Depends on how the painting goes this weekend. I hope to finish up the trim and touch up the walls and finish painting the bathroom. Then paint the kitchen cabinets so by the end of the weekend the apartment is ready for me to start hauling the smaller stuff down in preparation for the big move on the 31st.

So the brew rig may end up waiting but we will see.

 

[akthor]

Not much new to update, did another round of painting, was only able to make it down one day over the weekend. Pretty much just have the kitchen cabinets left to paint next weekend then we can start hauling stuff down.

Was hoping the get my HLT polished and the HERMS installed and the other bits but painting had given me a wicked case of tennis elbow so I didn't get to it.

Should have some good pictures of the Apt. cleaned and painted and ready for the move next week.

 

[BillyRaygun]

Subscribed

 

[LiBrewshed]

back home and i found my recipe for my cranberry "belgian". This was a beer I made in the fall for thanksgiving. In actuallity it did'nt taste right until christmas, it was so good all 10 gallons were gone before new years eve. A true holiday ale. cheers!!

Cranberry Sauce

yeast: Wlp 550 belgain ale
o.g. 10.70
22# pale ale malt
1# aromatic malt
1# cara-pils malt
1# honey malt
1# 40l crystal
1# 10l crystal
1# red wheat
2# unrefined brown sugar (in boil)

mash 150 for 60 min.

hops:
1 oz. chinook
1 oz. williamette

other ingredients:
2 cinnamon sticks
10 whole allspice
5# cranberries

boil: 60 min.

1 oz. chinook 60 min
1 oz. williamette 30 min
2 cinnamon sticks 15 min
10 whole allspice 15 min
5# previously frozen crushed cranberries 15 min
2# unrefined brown sugar 10 min
2 tbsp. irish moss 10 min

primary 7-10 days @ 70


add to secondary ((the sauce))

8 oz water
5# previously frozen crushed cranberrys
2# unrefined brown sugar
8 oz vol. honey
1/2 orange zest and juice
1-1/2 cinnamon sticks
10 whole allspice

combine water and cranberrys, once its hot add the honey and brown sugar heat to a simmer add the cinnamon sticks and allspice then the orange juice and zest turn it off cover and cool quickly add this to the secondary asap. transfer the sauce into the beer


my primary was 10 days and the temp was around 70-72
this is one of my first originals so go easy eh.