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vincanis

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Yesterday I brewed a 5 gallon mini-mash kit of Hefeweizen from AHS and was perusing around on HBT and I realized it's been quite a while since I've been active here. I was thinking about the issues I've had with brewing so far, and they are that I haven't brewed as much as I'd like and usually get bored of a beer with a 5 gallon batch. So what I've decided to do this year is make one brew a month starting in April at a 2.5 gallon size.

Here's my current setup:
Two 2.5 gal corny kegs
~4 gal stainless stock pot (something cheap from Amazon)
5 gal thin-walled crappy ceramic stock pot from Walmart
1 5 gal better bottle (ported w/ racking cane, etc)
1 5 gal PET carboy
1 7 gal brew bucket

I was planning on getting a couple of the 3 gallon better bottles with the racking accessories, but the cheapest I have been able to find them is around $110 shipped, which is only slightly cheaper than buying 3.5 gallon SS brew buckets, so I'm debating on getting stainless buckets or just getting bottles without the racking adapter.

I also want to use this as a way to help me learn the technique of creating recipes, and any help with that would be greatly appreciated. I think that I may also try to go to all-grain brewing by the end of the year as I'd only be doing small batches, so that may be a good way to learn all-grain. If there's anyone else out there that is in the same boat as me and wants to join in I think it would be awesome to have a small group to help and encourage each other.

My favorite styles of beer would probably be wheat beers (Hefeweizens especially), golden ales, and pale ales. Some of my favorite beers are the Paulaner Hefe, Dogfish Head Midas Touch & 60 Minute, Lancaster Brewing Company Strawberry Wheat (local PA brewery), Rogue Dead Guy, and I could list more but I think that'd do for now. I'd like to brew some similar styles to these beers, but I'm not sure where to start. I think one thing that may be good is a Strawberry Hefeweizen, so that may be a goal for one month.

:mug:

Any help, advice, suggestions or just calling me crazy is welcome!
I'll try my best to keep this main post updated with whatever I can.

Current planned beers:

April - Red Rye IPA <-recommendation from slym
May - Strawberry Hefeweizen or American Wheat
June - ???
July - ???
August - ???
September - Oktoberfest
October - ???
November - ???
December - ???
 
Key question...do you have a fermentation chamber with temp control? I don't, so my plan is to brew ales in the 59-65 range from late fall to early spring when the house is cool.

From mid-spring to early-fall, the ambient temperature is a little hot for ales, so my plan is to do saisons and higher temp belgian ales in the 66-75 range.

The months when the temp can be all over the place...those might be the months to take a break.
 
Slym - never had a red rye. That's definitely something I'll look into.

Aristotelian - I don't have a temperature controlled environment for fermentation, but I've been looking into getting a mini fridge with a temp unit. However there's a part of my house that never really goes above 65-ish
 
Heh - it is on my mind because it is lined up to be one of the next few beers I brew. I am using Red X & rye malt to make it.
 
With no temp control everything after april might have to be belgian, with saisons in the hottest months. Does that spot in your house stay warm during the winter too?

Buy a lot of fermentors. Some batches will take longer. Thats really the key to getting a pipeline going. Screw taking a break. 1 brew per month isnt hard
 
Fermenters are much cheaper than people expect them to be. I've acquired new 3G carboys for $25 each and I know Craigslist has used ones for much, much cheaper. Honestly building up a pipeline is fairly quick and simple -- just alternate between quaffers and sippers for diversity.

Temperature control may be an issue for lagers, but some pretty simple measures can be taken for brewing ales year round. Options like swamp coolers and insulated fermentation jackets are inexpensive and effective.
 
m00ps said:
With no temp control everything after april might have to be belgian, with saisons in the hottest months. Does that spot in your house stay warm during the winter too?

Buy a lot of fermentors. Some batches will take longer. Thats really the key to getting a pipeline going. Screw taking a break. 1 brew per month isnt hard
Click to expand...

The cellar room stays around 50-ish in the Winter and gets to around 65 or so in the summer. I've been looking into getting a mini-fridge and making a temperature controller myself with an Arduino. All I need to find is something to regulate power on/off, a thermocouple, an LCD screen and a few buttons.

I was planning to stick with ales, though if I make that contraption I could do some lagering.

specharka said:
Fermenters are much cheaper than people expect them to be. I've acquired new 3G carboys for $25 each and I know Craigslist has used ones for much, much cheaper. Honestly building up a pipeline is fairly quick and simple -- just alternate between quaffers and sippers for diversity.

Temperature control may be an issue for lagers, but some pretty simple measures can be taken for brewing ales year round. Options like swamp coolers and insulated fermentation jackets are inexpensive and effective.
Click to expand...

I can find the basic 3G carboys with no bells and whistles for about $20 on the web, and may just have to force myself to go with a few of them, but it is hard to convince myself to after having the convenience of using the spout on my current carboys, and not having to deal with a siphon stirring up the trub. I suppose if I could find some 3.5-4 gallon buckets those may be ideal. Cheap parts and easy to store. Although, it'd be hard to find a balance of cold storage and number of brews going if I went with a mini fridge. I'll be doing some research in preparation for April.

day_trippr said:
I think I see your problem.

What do you actually enjoy drinking?

Cheers!
Click to expand...

I listed a few things I like to drink in my first post, but I suppose I like mid-range ABV beers that aren't too heavy. Hefeweizen, Wheats, Pale Ales, Golden Ales, Amber Ales, an occasional stout. I'm still trying to figure it out, one month at a time, haha. I have some time to prepare though. I'm open to suggestions.
 
I wouldn't go for a mini fridge. Most cannot even accommodate a 5G carboys and the ones that can are ridiculously expensive. A chest freezer and temperature controller is much bigger and more effective. I've got a 7 CUFT chest freezer and STC-1000 controller that I acquired for less than $250 total. Eventually I converted it into a keezer but it was still worth the investment as a fermentation chamber.
 
specharka said:
I wouldn't go for a mini fridge. Most cannot even accommodate a 5G carboys and the ones that can are ridiculously expensive. A chest freezer and temperature controller is much bigger and more effective. I've got a 7 CUFT chest freezer and STC-1000 controller that I acquired for less than $250 total. Eventually I converted it into a keezer but it was still worth the investment as a fermentation chamber.
Click to expand...


I have been looking into it and I am thinking 4 to 5 of the 3 gal better bottles because they're only 20 a piece and are square, so that means more storage for the same freezer volume. It may even leave some room for the kegs to force carbonate. I think it'll cost about 300-350 for everything I need and I'll be on my way. Now for the hard part... Figuring out what to brew.
 

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