"Saying it in your outside voice" Tips for new members/venting and/or entertainment for regular HBTers

[Big_D]

Hey i don't need competition!

i was just making the statement, it's just fermented food, and have a good time! not like we are ALL trying to win awards, that to me seem like online IQ tests....

I know brother.. and you’re one of the reasons I love this place! You keep it real!!

And that’s the exact thought I have when I read some posts. I’m not looking to win any awards other than amazing my taste buds!

 

[bracconiere]

your one of the reasons I love this place! You keep it real!!

hey man, your's might be bigger but i still got my milk pail!

and if anyone has recomendations on how to mop that floor i'm all ears....

 

[Big_D]

hey man, your's might be bigger but i still got my milk pail!


and if anyone has recomendations on how to mop that floor i'm all ears....

That is f‘kin awesome!

You prove that you can make it work with just about anything. If it weren’t for that mentality, there’s no telling where we’d be. That’s how they did it back in the day.. made it work!

As far as the floor, you shouldn’t have said anything.. at first glance I thought it was some kind of Italian marble.

 

[bracconiere]

You prove that you can make it work with just about anything. If it weren’t for that mentality, there’s no telling where we’d be.

we'd still be sucking, wait...finished reading your post...

Italian marbles.

was that al capone?

 

[Big_D]

we'd still be sucking

Exactly!!

 

[Broken Crow]

Accepted! When the day comes that I have my first failed batch (and I’m sure it’ll be soon), I give @bracconiere my word that I’ll drink enough of it and come on here and make an ass of myself! Hell, I‘m good at that!

The way I look at it, if I screw up a batch.. that means I‘m working at figuring this all out. And from my limited experience, I’ve found the process is pretty forgiving. I hate it that one of my three taps is dry right now, but the other two are still pouring sweet nectar that I’m amazed I was able to create! I can’t buy beer this good.. I’ve tried! What I brew fits what I like to drink, and I think that’s one of the beauties of this hobby.

I’ve said it before, and it still reigns true.. I wish I had started this years ago! Maybe then I’d be able to talk mash efficiencies, chemistry, water profiles, yeast cell counts, etc. with the best on here, but I’m still SOOOO glad I’ve found the hobby and this site!

Yeah, I know @BrewnWKopperKat, this is post #27 and guess what.. it’s way off topic now. Wait a minute though… judging by the title of the thread, I don’t think this can go off topic! Given that, here’s what I’m enjoying now.. my Dr.T’s red. It’s amazing!




View attachment 771439

YAY! BEER PORN!!

And here’s a gratuitous equipment shot just for the hell of it!!

I love this place!


View attachment 771441

hey man, your's might be bigger but i still got my milk pail!

View attachment 771442


and if anyone has recomendations on how to mop that floor i'm all ears....

YAY! GEAR PORN!!
The floor looks Well-Loved. If you really feel like cleaning it though, I found a quick shortcut by accident once when handling hot PBW while under the influence.

 

[bracconiere]

hot PBW while under the influence.

hmmm, so when i wet my towel to scootch acrost it with my feet...i should try adding some PBW to the water?

 

[Broken Crow]

I had to take a break after brewing, but before cleaning out my keggle....I was quite sore and siezed up so it was an extended break with beers. I like to recirculate PBW at about 130° through it but when I plugged in my CFC, I forgot to turn my 3-way valve from the 'out' to fermenter to the recirculate position. My slippers were thouroughly soaked anyway so I just swooshed it as evenly as I could around the floor since it had some deep dirt anyway and went off for another beer to let it soak. Came back with a bunch of dry towels to clean up the lake and discovered a brilliant shining floor I hadn't seen for quite some time.

 

[bracconiere]

My slippers were thouroughly soaked anyway so I just swooshed it as evenly as I could around the floor since it had some deep dirt

my god man! you're a genious! fuzzy slippers! and just rinse them in a bucket of PBW! i'm ordering some now!

 

[bracconiere]

haven't pulled the trigger but think i'm getting closer...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/2740654762...AAHO0sJeCGniOp+qo6cl1/DyXd1r|tkp:BFBMiqGlkqpg

 

[Zambezi Special]

hey man, your's might be bigger but i still got my milk pail!

View attachment 771442


and if anyone has recomendations on how to mop that floor i'm all ears....

Nice!
So I'm not the only one.
Mine's only a 10 litre one.

I'm still a beginner. Limited equipment, limited options due to location etc
Learned a lot from the fora and will be happy to help others!
Point is, that no issue is exactly the same and as an absolute beginner, it can be a bit overwhelming.
Hence so many of similar questions.
Lets just help, like others helped us

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

I know @BrewnWKopperKat, this is post #27 and guess what.. it’s way off topic now.

The second page is often a good place for the primary topic to return (could have something to do with the willingness of the reader to navigate between pages ). And there is no limit to the number of side topics

To be clear though, I’m definitely not one of those that would just ask for help without trying to help myself first! I know that can get old really quick. One thing I would ask of folks though, is to remember what it was like when they were the new guy asking for advice. I feel as though most on here already do, but there are some that come off as the "UberBeerMeister-God of All Things Beer".

Posting from small screens vs big screens appears to be a factor. I've tried a couple of times to use tablets for content creation. I'll probably try it again in about a year.

Phone users tend to user all lower case, avoid punctuation, avoid paragraphs. That's neither good nor bad, just an observation.

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Some more loosely related thoughts,

In 2022, web search remains broken. Especially when built-in site search produces better results than search engines.

Hobby specific search engines could be created using one of a couple of open source web search projects. Not sure how one gets paid for providing this service. Maybe hobby associations will offer this as a membership benefit over time.

There are also a couple of 'up and coming' note taking apps built around VSCodium (cross platform) and markdown. And git repos in the cloud make an interesting 'back end' for saving / sharing those notes. Perhaps with a module that provides recipe templates in markdown with TypeScript for the calcuations engine?

 

[hottpeper13]

Hey Kat, whats with # 37 ? Everyone knows 73 is the perfect #. So that's when we will get the best answer.

 

[Yesfan]

hey man, your's might be bigger but i still got my milk pail!

View attachment 771442


and if anyone has recomendations on how to mop that floor i'm all ears....

Off topic, but seeing that thing has clamps on it tells me you could probably do pressure transfers to your kegs. I love those old milk pails!

 

[madscientist451]

-There is absolutely no brewing involved when making mead, cider and wine.
-If your water has mineral problems, then its likely you beer will have problems as well, however in some cases your tap water/well water may be just fine.
-You don't need to spend a big pile of cash to go from extract to all grain brewing.
- A stir-plate, oxygen system, PH meter and conical fermenter are all nice things to have, but you really don't need any of them to make good beer.

 

[RM-MN]

-You don't need to spend a big pile of cash to go from extract to all grain brewing.

It cost me $28 but only because I don't have a LHBS with a mill so I had to add a Corona style mill to the paint strainer bags to make it work. I still use the Corona mill but the paint strainer bags had to be replaced, another $3 down the drain.

 

[Broken Crow]

And here’s a gratuitous equipment shot just for the hell of it!!

I love this place!


View attachment 771441

For the record: I love your beer & geear pics. If it's not an invasion of privacy, how about a picture of that part off to the right of your fermenters that looks to be a well laid out 'wall of power'? My comment about hd pics posted by people with more money than brains is directed at a very specific type of narcissist: since the proliferation of 56K modems and HTML, I spent most of my time in the pro-sound and film production forums and there was always some spoiled rich-kid filling a page with $1000's worth of studio gear they assumed would compensate for their utter lack of skill or talent and then blather on as if they are some kind of authority on sound simply for owning slick gear. The gear in my own studio was all carefully and knowledgably chosen... often purchased used or broken (because I could fix or modify anything), but more important to me was that I worked for and dedicated the time to learn it inside out. Also important to me is good cable organization and power distribution, as my studio had about 30 miles or wiring, so even though I can't do my sound work now, I still love to see a well-organized bunch of cables.

 

[bracconiere]

Off topic, but seeing that thing has clamps on it tells me you could probably do pressure transfers to your kegs. I love those old milk pails!

it takes two! here's my other one!

 

[Velnerj]

Here's a mix of tips, unpopular opinions and gripes

-When brewing on new equipment aim for a gravity target OR volume target not both. Take notes, once you become consistent with one you'll be able to hit the other a lot easier

-Sanitation is important but people sometimes take even this too far. There was a thread about sanitizing your hands. I don't see a situation where this would be necessary. Your gear needs to be clean enough so that your yeast can win the population war (There's more to it but that's the gist)

-patience is the most important ingredient. It's the cheapest ingredient (it's free) but many new breweries are fresh out. Leave that fermenter alone!

-It takes a lot of big mistakes to screw up a batch especially on pristine (clean) new gear. It'll beer, don't dump it unless you really can't stomach it after it's been packaged and carbed up.

-Maintaining a Kegging system (properly) takes just as much time as bottling (I do both).

-if you tell HBT that you are going to come back later and report your findings once you have the chance to taste your finished batch, please don't disappear!

-Afterall we are making beer, people! It's a hobby. Have fun and do it how you want to do it.

 

[bracconiere]

-Afterall we are making beer, people! It's a hobby. Have fun and do it how you want to do it.

like clausen pickles, we're drinking beer and always are cool! (unless it's the UK folk, eating room temp vlassic... )

 

[Dr_Jeff]

and if anyone has recomendations on how to mop that floor i'm all ears....

A pressure washer !?!

 

[bracconiere]

A pressure washer !?!

if only they built homes with homebrewing in mind, it'd have a drain installed, and that would be perfect! just hose the kitchen down after brew day! i envy people with dedicated brew rooms!

but the best luck i've had is soaking it with a wet towel, and using my feet to clean it after 10-20 minutes of soaking, mops don't work....

 

[Stormcrow]

Stop me if you've heard this one.

 

[Zambezi Special]

it takes two! here's my other one!

View attachment 771503

What's the name for those clamps (please don't tell me they are called "milk can clamps".
I would like some for my 10 ltr milk can

 

[balrog]

This thread is going to be like the home brew version of "bad drivers" isn't it?

Bad driver discussions pop up like dandelions everywhere.

-patience is the most important ingredient. It's the cheapest ingredient (it's free) but many new breweries are fresh out. Leave that fermenter alone!

It's a hobby. Have fun and do it how you want to do it.

These.

And finally, you'll never ask a question that is stupid. Some of us are built to help others learn; some are built to feel superior via ridicule. You will also likely never ask a question that's never been asked before, and there are many fine threads you could spend hours reading about the very question you ask, but it's really ok, just do try a little.
Eg1
Eg2
Eg3
Eg4
Eg5
Eg6
Eg7
Eg8 (read this one first, take notes, pull out your college physics hyrdrodynamics textbook; there will be a quiz)

 

[kaffeenjunkie]

I was going to wait until this thread until this thread got a few pages deep before reading. but... here I am.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

... and you are just in time as we approach the reply # that may contain the best answer (see #57 above and follow the trail backwards).

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

there are many fine threads you could spend hours reading about the very question you ask

First, thanks for the "link dump" - a number of good topics.

And, on a real computer with a real web browser, control+"mouse click" opened them all quickly.

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moving back to a more general discussion.

What is also interesting is this: many longer running topics here at HomeBrewTalk are nicely summarized elsewhere. And let's introduce the idea that topics may have a "shelf life".

• Quality books from the late 2010s and early 2020s have incorporated much of the information in topics before the mid 2010s.
• Information from suppliers and producers (yeast labs, maltsers), new ingredients ("crystal 40" that's self converting), etc starts to make some of the older topics a "historical" resource.
• "Brewing Water Chemistry Primer" has an external "Cliff Notes" page.
• For those looking into brewing low ABV beers, there is a delightful site that embraces and extends the best of "Low Enzymatic/Cold Mash/Low alcohol beer" and other sources on the WWW. That site comes with recipes for all the low ABV brewing techniques that are covered.
• The numerous topics on bottling NEIPAs that had to "push back" against "that can't be done" have resulted in a number of quality blog posts over the last couple of years.
• The relentless "Extract darkens more than expected during the boil" meme from the late 2010s seems to have been replaced by "buy fresh LME". All it took to kill that meme was a number (from 2005), a number of people brewing one simple recipe with a (relatively) simple measurement.
• If one knows where to look, there are a couple of resources on shorter brew days that can be obtained for about $15 (ebook) and a $5/month subscription.

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Like any body of knowledge, we have the ability to "stand on the shoulders of giants". "Giants" come and go. Their knowledge is "embraced and extended".

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

@balrog : after seeing the title for "eg4' (different mashing techniques, different wort clarity), I thought the article mentioned in this reply (link) might be of interest. The article is a current summary of some multi-year research and measurement.

 

[seatazzz]

During my daily perusal of HBT, I usually check General first, then eventually I'll say to myself, let's see what the noobs are up to and go to Beginners. On any given day, a few of the threads are questions that could have been easily answered by a quick Google search..or a quicker search on HBT. Or just completely silly, like the obviously underage poster who wants to know how to make quick alcohol with sugar and water, when mom/dad aren't looking. Like the majority of us, I check there to see if there's anything I can help with, but also for the entertainment/head smacking value. Not nice, I know, since I was there myself a few years ago; trying to figure out why ALL of my beers tasted like bandaids. Eventually got it figured out, that I was pitching yeast when the wort was too hot. But it's still fun.

Another thing I have learned; don't answer questions when I'm not absolutely sure I have the correct answer. Too many times I've had a few of my own HBs, gotten on here, and answered questions that I had no right to even try and answer. I always chuckle when I see an answer to a beginner's question from another beginner, who may (or may not) know what they are talking about. And the beginner, who jumped in with all four feet to all-grain, buying everything shiny they could get their hands on, and still doesn't understand why their beer isn't perfect. Show me a beginner who made a perfect beer on their very first try, then I'll look for a star in the east. Six years in and I am STILL learning new things, if not every brewday, then most of them.