What silly things frugal brewers do!

[Hoppy2bmerry]

I grow hops as well, however not enough to use exclusively. Maybe that will change in a few years. I sometimes partigyle and get two batches for one, and do a little baking with the spent grains. Unfortunately I don’t know anyone local with chickens to give the rest to... I used to get fresh eggs in return when I was sharing grains.

Geez, it feels good to not waste.

 

[mongoose33]

Unfortunately I don’t know anyone local with chickens to give the rest to... I used to get fresh eggs in return when I was sharing grains.

Geez, it feels good to not waste.

I have a friend who raises chickens and she gets all my spent grain. We have a deal: if she ever feels inclined to give me eggs or meat in return, she needs to give it to a needy family who can use it. Pay it forward, in other words.

And yes, it feels good not to waste. Damn good. I hate waste, absolutely hate it.

 

[kh54s10]

No chickens or anyone that has any but I used to compost, now I dump in a bed with those curved border pavers. It must have had a plant at one time. I brew infrequently enough that the previous dump has pretty much decomposed by the time of the next brew. I think I will dump the next one on the lawn and rake it into the grass. No waste.

 

[seatazzz]

He needs to buy you a dedicated beer fridge!

I have one, it's full of kegs!

 

[danielthemaniel]

Define "silly." Is that like picking up pennies in front of a steamroller?

I like efficiency. Sometimes that's time efficiency, sometimes ingredient efficiency, sometimes fiscal efficiency.

I hate waste, but there's a point where avoiding waste becomes time-costly--and thus the efficiency of conservation of ingredients or materials conflicts with the efficiency of doing things as time-efficiently as possible.

So what is "silly" probably has to do with what one's goals are, and which goals are more important at which point. Everyone has their own goals, and nobody is wrong for having them, whatever they are.

********

When I started brewing I was much more concerned with fiscal efficiency, i.e., saving money; as my goals changed, fiscal efficiency became less important and the quality of the beer became more important. Also, time efficiency started overriding fiscal efficiency; that's one reason I bought a Jaded Hydra chiller, which changed a 15-minute-plus chilling time to 4 minutes.

Sometimes I go backwards in efficiency, in favor of the beer. I'm doing LODO techniques, and a copper Jaded Hydra isn't what I need to keep copper out of the wort. So I now have a stainless counterflow chiller, which is not anywhere near as fast. The trade is time for no copper. <sigh>

Fifteen years ago, with kids still at home, fiscal efficiency would have trumped all; now that I'm an empty-nester, that's less a focus.

I think silly would be the habits you have formed that may benefit one of your efficiencies but to a much smaller degree that it would benefit another efficiency. Therefore, making the decision silly.

 

[Soulshine2]

I do an extra mash, after I've mashed and sparged for the beer I'm brewing. Then take the low gravity wort and put in a pot on my wood stove to cook down to 1.040 or so and use it for starter wort.


I even grow my own hops.


If you really want to be frugal, buy a 50# sack of pale 2 row malt, (roughly $50), ad some farm fresh cracked corn and home grown hops, re-pitch yeast, brew over a wood fire, and you can get 7-8 batches of light lager for under $60.

I've resparged, turned into a wonderful brew.

Id love to grow my own hops . Since we live out in the country I'd like to try it . What hops do you grow?

Sounds like a nice cream ale.

 

[Soulshine2]

at first glance i didn't see the period in front of that 50, i was thinking i'd cry if i broke a $50 dollar beer glass! lol

Thanks for the catch , I edited a "0" before the decimal.

Ive even bought an unopened "the ultimate book of beers" with a companion pilsener glass gift pack, still wrapped in factory cellophane . $3
The book and glass caught my eye enough , then I discovered on the cover there is an Austrian beer with the same name as my mothers maiden name ,which we always thought was German.

 

[lump42]

I don't reuse my starsan after a few days mostly because I'm forgetful/lazy and don't get DI water. It starts getting cloudy and I start questioning it's efficacy when the surfactants start precipitating. I offset it by using a medicine syringe and making a quart spray bottle at a time. After 5 years, I just finished my first 16 oz bottle and bought a 32 oz to replace it. At this rate, I'll be buying star san in 2029.

 

[NewJersey]

sounds like a waste of good star san. I make 2 gallons in jugs, put some in a small trigger sprayer . I've learned to not use so much on brew day, just enough to wet the surface . I first clean any heavy "crustys or gunk" with oxiclean, scrub that , apply the star san spray swish it around,dump, reapply. The trick to using less is doing a thorough clean up at the end of brew day so the next one is a basic and minimal cleaning , just a quick once over with star san and its good to go.

i hesr ya, but to me the trick is not worrying about the $1 of starsan

 

[JohnSand]

I used to spray the inside of my bottles to sanitize, but found it wasn't always effective. I also used to pour starsan back into the jug and reuse, now I dump it after use. I used to try to hit my volume and efficiency exactly, now I just make a little more to ensure a full keg. The rest gets dumped, because bottling the last bit was a hassle.
So I guess I don't really do anything silly to save money in brewing. But I'm not giving up extensive cost saving habits in the rest of my life. I need that money to brew!

 

[Soulshine2]

i hesr ya, but to me the trick is not worrying about the $1 of starsan

I'm just saying, if you're making up an entire 5 gallon batch only to toss it, why not just make a 1 gallon batch ,put only what you need to use in a hand sprayer and not waste as much? Let your Oxiclean or PBW do the heavy work and just sanitize .It is a contact sanitizer. It only needs to get wet or let the foam hit it for it to work. I realize its $1 , but it adds up . after 10 batches , thats $10, the cost of a batch of grain.

 

[OG-wan Kenobi]

i hesr ya, but to me the trick is not worrying about the $1 of starsan

$1??

32 oz is $20 and I get 20% if I time it right it's only 50 cents worth of star san I dump, that's why I have no clue why people seem to obsess over saving it. I also go with fresh clean star san every time

 

[lump42]

I grow hops as well, however not enough to use exclusively. Maybe that will change in a few years. I sometimes partigyle and get two batches for one, and do a little baking with the spent grains. Unfortunately I don’t know anyone local with chickens to give the rest to... I used to get fresh eggs in return when I was sharing grains.

Geez, it feels good to not waste.

You could start a simple compost bin to but the rest of your spent grains. Free compost comes out the other end.

 

[lump42]

$1??

32 oz is $20 and I get 20% if I time it right it's only 50 cents worth of star san I dump, that's why I have no clue why people seem to obsess over saving it. I also go with fresh clean star san every time

Everybody gets hung up on silly things all the time. The only time I ever saved mine is if I remember to get DI water. Otherwise I hold mine for about a week to make sure nothing comes up right after a batch. I make up a quart at a time. 32oz was ~$25. 32oz makes 640 qts. So I'm only spending $0.04 per batch on sanitizer.

I'm still frugal with it though. When I sanitize kegs I fill them full with star san and push out with CO2, but I won't do that until most of my kegs are ready to go. I can't bring myself to 'waste' the 5 gal of star san. I know its just pocket change, but it makes me twitch to use 5 gal for just one or two kegs.

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

Sometimes I compost, and sometimes I take it a couple blocks and put it in the woods for deer and whatever woodland creatures find it. We have occasional rat sightings with a couple restaurants nearby, which makes composting without a closed composter an invitation for the vermin.

 

[bracconiere]

$1??

32 oz is $20 and I get 20% if I time it right it's only 50 cents worth of star san I dump, that's why I have no clue why people seem to obsess over saving it. I also go with fresh clean star san every time

50 cents! you know on a 5 gal batch that would be 11.25 cents more a twelve pack! lol

that'd be a deal breaker for me! i just sanitize my fermenter with 190f sparge water, and let it sit until it cools to 168f

 

[NewJersey]

I'm just saying, if you're making up an entire 5 gallon batch only to toss it, why not just make a 1 gallon batch ,put only what you need to use in a hand sprayer and not waste as much? Let your Oxiclean or PBW do the heavy work and just sanitize .It is a contact sanitizer. It only needs to get wet or let the foam hit it for it to work. I realize its $1 , but it adds up . after 10 batches , thats $10, the cost of a batch of grain.

cuz 5 gallns fills the left bay in my two bay sink nicely and covers objects i put in there

 

[dx250]

For starsan I use a 1/4 bbl keg full that I use for everything purging kegs and a picnic tap fir dispensing to a spray bottle, it lasts months. I just got a mill so bulk grain is in my future. I motorized it with the motor and gear reduction from my mom's old garage door opener that the electronics went out. The only thing I bought besides the mill is a $6 sprocket and gas for the chainsaw to mill the lumber to mount everything on.

I also use the outflow from the chiller to fill the washing machine.

Also Walmart has a sleeping bag for $15 that works well for as a fermenter blanket.

 

[jayrome2722]

I transfer hot water from place to place now with just a siphon tube after warping two auto siphons. I only got a mouthful of 180 degree water and lost all taste for a week one time, so, totally worth it.

I also pieced together a hop spider using a 2 inch length of PVC pipe, metal skewers and a paint straining bag, all of which I had on hand.

 

[Soulshine2]

$1??

32 oz is $20 and I get 20% if I time it right it's only 50 cents worth of star san I dump, that's why I have no clue why people seem to obsess over saving it. I also go with fresh clean star san every time

ok lets put it this way . a 30 pack of Nattys is what ,like about $12 on sale? drink half of one and pour the rest down the drain...
wait...nevermind.
I understand now.
(the previous statement was written totally as a joke to lighten the air with extreme sarcasm...please do not take personally. )

 

[Soulshine2]

I transfer hot water from place to place now with just a siphon tube after warping two auto siphons. I only got a mouthful of 180 degree water and lost all taste for a week one time, so, totally worth it.

I also pieced together a hop spider using a 2 inch length of PVC pipe, metal skewers and a paint straining bag, all of which I had on hand.

you should really change from PVC to CPVC . PVC is not meant to hold nor transfer anything meant for safe human consumption. Also , CPVC can withstand some hot temps without leaching.

 

[jayrome2722]

you should really change from PVC to CPVC . PVC is not meant to hold nor transfer anything meant for safe human consumption. Also , CPVC can withstand some hot temps without leaching.

In that setup, the PVC never touches the wort, it floats above it. It just creates a structure to keep the bag open and in the middle of the pot. Hopefully that means I'm OK. I'll have to check, it could be CPVC anyway.

 

[bracconiere]

ok lets put it this way . a 30 pack of Nattys is what ,like about $12 on sale? drink half of one and pour the rest down the drain...
wait...nevermind.
I understand now.
(the previous statement was written totally as a joke to lighten the air with extreme sarcasm...please do not take personally. )

Natty's down the drain? it would be better to make up a story about it, and send it to beer comp's!

 

[Kirkwooder]

I've resparged, turned into a wonderful brew.

Id love to grow my own hops . Since we live out in the country I'd like to try it . What hops do you grow?

Sounds like a nice cream ale.

I grow Fuggles, Centennial, Willamette, and Cascade hops. Cascades being the bulk of my crop. If you plant them, do brew with them, although they suck too. You have no idea what your acid levels are so bittering is guess work at best. A beer brewed this year could be entirely different than last year, do to differing acid levels in the hops. I generally don't mind, except when a light ale or lager turns out too over/under hopped. I end up making hop tea and tasting it to estimate the bittering qualities they will have. Then hopping becomes more of a "hand full's" kind of measurement rather than ounces.

And the effort that goes into growing and harvesting hops is counter productive. If you buy in bulk, you can get hops cheap. Just picking them can take well over an hour per pound. Not to mention the time watering, weeding, feeding,spraying, drying, bagging and freezing them. They are supper cool to pick and just sniff when they are nearly ripe. Puts me into a zen like trance.

And Yes, I still brew a kick a$s Cream ale a couple times a year from these very ingredients. 6# pale 2 row, 3# cracked corn, 1/2 # flaked barley or flaked rye if you want a bit of a bite, bittered with a hand full of Fuggles and fermented on a us05 cake. Makes a kick a$$ lawn mower beer. Not my favorite but my BMC drinking buddies love it.

 

[mashpaddled]

And the effort that goes into growing and harvesting hops is counter productive. If you buy in bulk, you can get hops cheap. Just picking them can take well over an hour per pound. Not to mention the time watering, weeding, feeding,spraying, drying, bagging and freezing them. They are supper cool to pick and just sniff when they are nearly ripe. Puts me into a zen like trance.

+1

Hop prices today are low enough that growing is a far more expensive way to obtain hops. A $4 rhizome is cheap but factor in all the other supplies plus time and it's an expensive extension of the hobby. Add to that most of the desired hop varietals are not available to homebrewers to grow and it's not surprising that growing hops is a lot less popular than it used to be. Most people just don't want to spend time and money growing cascade or sterling when they make IPAs with galaxy and mosaic.

There are still some benefits to growing hops at home. If you want fresh hopped beer it's the easiest and most reliable way to get access to them as a homebrewer. It's also becoming the only way to ensure consistent access to some of the less popular European and older American varieties that homebrew shops sell less often because there is less of a market for them.

 

[speavler]

I use CO2 generated during fermentation to purge my kegs...

 

[Kirkwooder]

I use CO2 generated during fermentation to purge my kegs...

How and why? I am very interested, please explain.

 

[speavler]

How and why? I am very interested, please explain.

How: basically the "CO2 harvester kit" concept but with kegs. after a day or so of fermentation, i attached a hose from the fermenter to the sanitizer-filled keg. and you can daisy-chain the kegs if you want. this was from my first attempt. i now have the second keg (or last keg in the chain) with a tube submerged in a bucket of sanitizer to prevent oxygen intake.

View media item 69903

Why: I dunno, saves some CO2. And I already had all the parts needed, so it kinda became a 'why not'. Plus, it's theoretically pure CO2 while the refilled tanks have traces of oxygen (or so I'm told).

 

[Kirkwooder]

How: basically the "CO2 harvester kit" concept but with kegs. after a day or so of fermentation, i attached a hose from the fermenter to the sanitizer-filled keg. and you can daisy-chain the kegs if you want. this was from my first attempt. i now have the second keg (or last keg in the chain) with a tube submerged in a bucket of sanitizer to prevent oxygen intake.

View media item 69903

Why: I dunno, saves some CO2. And I already had all the parts needed, so it kinda became a 'why not'. Plus, it's theoretically pure CO2 while the refilled tanks have traces of oxygen (or so I'm told).

Way cool! Thanks!

 

[Still Brewn]

I am a cheap, just ask my kids, I have a heater core for a car and was planning on running my waste wort cooling water through it and exhausting the heat to the house so it's not going down drain. 5 gallons of boiling the wort contains approximately 4975 btu's or about the equivalent of running a 1500 watt space heater for 1 hour on high. After doing the math it only ends up being a savings of about 18 cents. Not really worth the effort. I could fill my washing machine with it and bump the savings up by maybe 1 cent.