New homebrewer in Chicagoland!

[Damonic]

Hello gents! I'm a new brewer in a northwest suburb of Chicago and am THRILLED to finally be homebrewing! I made a decent batch of cherry wine years ago but have wanted to try my hand at beer for a while now. A couple buddies and I went to a demonstration at our local brew shop and then we all went in on a 5 gallon kit. One of the guys is actually the local rep for Louis Glunz (Chicago beer distributor) and over the last few years has taught me a ton about the finer points of fermented beverages. So far we've made three batches... our Scottish Ale and APA came out great and we'll see about the Belgian in about a month. We can't seem to brew often enough so we figure we may just have to brew in larger volume. Looking to start sourcing components for a 20 gallon setup and am open to any suggestions or tips. Homebrewing is something I've wanted to do for YEARS and I am extremely excited about my new hobby.

Other interests? Lessee... I live on a 5 acre hobby farm so I'm lucky to have plenty of space to brew and my other hobby is modifying/racing my Dodge Stealth twin turbo. Any other 3Si'ers on the board?

 

[BeerSmith]

Welcome,
We're happy to have you on board. Please jump in and join the discussion...

Brad

 

[RichBrewer]

Welcome to HBT Damonic!
You greeted the gents but don't forget the ladies too! There are quite a few lady brewers here.
20 gallon batches? That aught to hold you for a day or two!

 

[Damonic]

I'm ashamed to admit that I just never considered finding many women that were into homebrewing... how sexist is that?! Which really doesn't make much sense since there are many women in my car club as well. My deepest apologies!

5 gallons doesn't split too well between 3 drinkers like ourselves. 20 will indeed last us a little longer. Question, where would I find plans on a brewtus 20 or similar setup?

 

[Rhoobarb]

Welcome! This is a great place and there are a lot of Chicago area brewers here! We try and meet up quite a few times during the year. Good to have you here!

 

[Damonic]

Thanks! I got a text from one of my brew buddies last night and he scored 3 kegs for nada. I need to make sure I understand the process to keggle-ize them and borrow another friend's plasma cutter. I figure even without a sculpture we can brew in 15 gallon batches and ferment in the glass carboys. Then I'll have 5 gallons all to myself! It seems like we keep ending up with much less than we should when it comes time to bottling. We should be bottling 2.5 cases of 22oz bombers and we barely fill 2 cases. Where am I losing all that liquid?