Pittsburgh/Western PA Group Buy - Round 2

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Kpr. I drew up the design. Probably not possible to make it adjustable now and I wasn't exactly sure how to in the first place.

DMace. I may take you up on the offer. Even if I don't brew for a couple weeks it should be okay.

Since I'm new I'll post a few pictures tonight of a few different handfulls of grains crushed and see what you guys think.
 
Haha Dmace I’m just joshing about the DME, but it is incredible how sticky that crap gets. You should keep your unwashed hoodie and steep it in the your next batch.
 
http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=CrushEval
http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=Malt_Conditioning

Good source for crush information. The malt condition page shows how you can get away with finer crushes when you do condition.


Kpr. I drew up the design. Probably not possible to make it adjustable now and I wasn't exactly sure how to in the first place.

DMace. I may take you up on the offer. Even if I don't brew for a couple weeks it should be okay.

Since I'm new I'll post a few pictures tonight of a few different handfulls of grains crushed and see what you guys think.
 
Dale, I just thought of some things. I’ll reserve final judgement until I see some pics of your crush, but these are my thoughts:

You have all those rice hulls, you may be just fine with your crush if you are using hulls in every batch.

Also, I don’t remember if you have a traditional MLT or are BIAB. If the latter, you don’t have to worry as much about a fine crush gunking up your flow.

Thirdly, malt conditioning works really well for keeping the husk intact especially when you crank the grind down really fine, but I found it to be a pain for what its worth and adds additional time to the brewday that I usually don’t have.
 
DMace, thanks fort a good laugh on the DME hoodie story!

Rivertowne pour house was great as usual... We had the 14 beer sampler...

Bmickey, were you one of the two guys at the taller table? Hat and black turtle neck? my wife and I were sitting at the table near the fermenter room if it was you.

I am about 6' 4" and 250 lb. hard to miss me haha.

I had the cask pale ale, and it was awesome. Grabbed three growlers to go too. Thanks for recommending the place. It was great.
 
Didn't get to crush any grain to show you tonight. I was to busy wiring up my temp controller. Here it is until I get a project box from radio shack

image-2020487767.jpg
 
dand9066 said:
Didn't get to crush any grain to show you tonight. I was to busy wiring up my temp controller. Here it is until I get a project box from radio shack

I love that temp controller. What are you using it on?
 
Fridge that is going to be my fermentation chamber. I'll be putting a heat lamp or something of the sort in there as well.
 
Thanks to Dale and Dylan for getting this done.

I do have a concern with the crystal 15 I was given. It doesn't look or smell like any light crystal I've ever used before. Plus it was a Thomas Fawcett malt and they don't even have a crystal 15. Can any of the others that shared that split chime in with what you think?
 
That makes sense. There is a half sack of C-15 down here with only one person left to pick up 25% of it. It's here. But that means that someone was severely shorted with their C-60.

I sincerely apologize. It was rather chaotic on Saturday. In the future, it might be easier to spread everyone out a little more.

I forget where you drove in from. I can't offer you gas money or anything, but its here if you want to swap it out... and hopefully I can get the C-60 to its rightful owner.
 
dale, i also have a grain mill if you need to crush some grains. or i can pick them up and crush em for ya. i get off work at 7 am. and can meet ya. just give me a call.
joe
 
I'm not convinced that what I have is crystal anything. It is pretty dark and it smells like pale chocolate. When I got there the sack of C60 was already opened and it was clearly marked correctly. This grain I have was a new sack that Dylan brought in while I was there. After the PBW assault on my sinuses and senses it didn't really dawn on me that this grain can't possibly be right.

If that bag of Thomas Fawcett malt is still there see what kind of malt it says it is because TF doesn't even have a C15.

malt.jpg
 
Thanks for doing this! Hopefully I will jump in a little earlier next time. If anyone is interested in some Chocolate malt, I have a little extra then needed. Please let me know. Info below...

Bairds Chocolate Malt (450-500°L)
Made the same was as Bairds Black Malt, except that is roasted less to preserve a lighter color.
 
kpr121 said:
Hmm ill have to check but I am pretty sure I got my 1/4 sack of c60.

I believe you took the quarter right before me kpr and I have the sack. Just went and double checked it and it is great western C60.
 
I believe you took the quarter right before me kpr and I have the sack. Just went and double checked it and it is great western C60.

Yup. That Great Western sack was plainly marked as C60. The C15 should have been a Great Western product as well. I have no idea what the hell I have. Somebody should still have that left over sack of Thomas Fawcett to actually check what it is. Their stuff is labeled goofy as far as crystal goes. I should have been more thorough. There were three other folks there at the same time and I was just trying to get out of the way.

Who else got the C15 split?
 
Yup. That Great Western sack was plainly marked as C60. The C15 should have been a Great Western product as well. I have no idea what the hell I have. Somebody should still have that left over sack of Thomas Fawcett to actually check what it is. Their stuff is labeled goofy as far as crystal goes. I should have been more thorough. There were three other folks there at the same time and I was just trying to get out of the way.

Who else got the C15 split?

I got half of the C15 split. Picked it up Monday. Dylan opened a new sack which was marked C15. There was an opened sack there that wasn't clearly marked and appeared to be something fairly dark like C120.
 
I got my .25 split of C60. Dylan brought it out when I showed up. I really can't tell if it is or not by looking at it. Seems legit to me
 
Bruwsomtin had a friend pick up his grain this morning. On his sheet is a full bag of Thomas Fawcett Crystal Malt II - which according to their website is 65L. Since 25% of that bag was gone (what Shuggy has), I replaced it with the 25% of C-15 (that Shuggy should have).

Does that make sense?

I didn't want to short Bruwsomtin in total quantity. Hence the C-15 that I gave him. I hope everyone understands that supplying grain is not my profession. We ordered 39 different products from 12 different brand names... a few of which I am not familiar with. I'm not making excuses. I just hope that those involved in the mix up can empathize.

Two obvious solutions:

1) Shuggy and bruwsomtin can make arrangements to swap crystal malts.
2) Both parties can embrace the situation and agree to keep what they have

Since I am responsible, or at least partially responsible, for the mix up:

3) I'll buy the grain, or a portion of it, off of you. Let me know and you can either come to the pick up location, or I can meet you somewhere half way. I can always use Crystal no matter the lovibond. C-15 is awesome for IPAs and Pale's. C-65 is extremely versatile, but is especially great in a Boston Lager clone that I love.

I hope that satisfies everyone. If not, feel free to suggest your own solutions. I hope we can still consider this a successful grain buy and this mix up doesn't deter anyone from participating next time.
 
Bruwsomtin had a friend pick up his grain this morning. On his sheet is a full bag of Thomas Fawcett Crystal Malt II - which according to their website is 65L. Since 25% of that bag was gone (what Shuggy has), I replaced it with the 25% of C-15 (that Shuggy should have).

Does that make sense?

I didn't want to short Bruwsomtin in total quantity. Hence the C-15 that I gave him. I hope everyone understands that supplying grain is not my profession. We ordered 39 different products from 12 different brand names... a few of which I am not familiar with. I'm not making excuses. I just hope that those involved in the mix up can empathize.

Two obvious solutions:

1) Shuggy and bruwsomtin can make arrangements to swap crystal malts.
2) Both parties can embrace the situation and agree to keep what they have

Since I am responsible, or at least partially responsible, for the mix up:

3) I'll buy the grain, or a portion of it, off of you. Let me know and you can either come to the pick up location, or I can meet you somewhere half way. I can always use Crystal no matter the lovibond. C-15 is awesome for IPAs and Pale's. C-65 is extremely versatile, but is especially great in a Boston Lager clone that I love.

I hope that satisfies everyone. If not, feel free to suggest your own solutions. I hope we can still consider this a successful grain buy and this mix up doesn't deter anyone from participating next time.

I think everyone is generally happy and there is no need to buy the grain off of anyone. I PM'ed shuggy about this issue and he is not upset but more so just warning people to double check there grain so they don't use what they though might be C-15 in a batch and ruin it. At least for what they expected the beer to be.

It seems that DMace has figured out what went wrong and it was only a 2 person issue. Dylan had a lot on his plate and I definitely feel like he did an excellent job at running his business and divvying out the grain as well.
 
Bruwsomtin had a friend pick up his grain this morning. On his sheet is a full bag of Thomas Fawcett Crystal Malt II - which according to their website is 65L. Since 25% of that bag was gone (what Shuggy has), I replaced it with the 25% of C-15 (that Shuggy should have).

Does that make sense?

That clears it up for me.

Unless Bruwsomtim wants to mess around swapping grains I'm content to just let it go as is. There's more important things than worrying about $9 worth of grain.
 
dand9066 said:
Here is a handful of Vienna. Let me know what you think

Hmmm yea that looks pretty flour-y. Although its a bit hard to tell from the pic, are there a few whole uncracked grains in there? You should try malt conditioning and see if that makes it any better before getting it adjusted.
 
Last Saturday evening I brewed up a simple amber ale.. with 5 gallons hopped normally and 3 gallons I experimentally boiled with ginger only to make a ginger beer. So I'm interested to see how that works. This was a bit of kitchen sink brew since I used up a bunch of odds and ends and left-over hops.. so we'll see how that goes.

What else are people making / planning to make?
 
Im doing an Arrogant Bastard clone next weekend. We should look into doing a bulk hop buy I would be in for pounds of Simcoe
 
I'm going to do yooper's DFH 60 minute clone. Can't wait. Also looking at APAs and IPAs that use citra. Never used it before but got a bunch of it so want to give it a go. Let me know if any of you guys have a good recipe.
 
I'm going to do yooper's DFH 60 minute clone. Can't wait. Also looking at APAs and IPAs that use citra. Never used it before but got a bunch of it so want to give it a go. Let me know if any of you guys have a good recipe.

Her DFH 60 is SPOT ON. Follow it to a T.

I myself am doing a DIPA and parti gyle citra pale ale. The following weekend I am brewing a kriek.
 
I am out of pale ale malt almost! Lol, when is the next group buy! Shoulda woulda coulda ordered more!
 
Here is the beast setup :eek:

232323232%7Ffp63598%3Enu%3D5664%3E252%3E25%3A%3EWSNRCG%3D34%3C6%3B648%3C334%3Bnu0mrj

232323232%7Ffp635%3C5%3Enu%3D5664%3E252%3E25%3A%3EWSNRCG%3D34%3C6%3B3956634%3Bnu0mrj


Jk of course but it does the trick. Arrogant Bastard clone is now in the primary fermenting away. Now all we need are some bulk hops! Bulk hops.... bulk hops..... bulk hops!
 
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