Your best "secret" techniques?

[cdew4545]

Here's my favorite tip....When the store puts cases of Pete's Wicked longnecks on sale for 9 dollars, you can collect a ton of bottles with beer for the price of empties...ha, if you are lucky like me.

Also, another option without the pantyhose is a metal mesh strainer you might you for cooking. My last batch, I put all the hops in the strainer during the boil and rigged up some tin foils hooks to hook on the edge of the strainer and hang over the brew pot. None of my hops got into the work and they were fully submerged the whole time. Makes it easy to add in finishing hops and irish moss too.

Another that I dont have cuz I'm in college...but my friends dad has an attachment for his kitchenaid mixer that grinds up grain. Much better than the hand grinder I have.

 

[The Happy Mug]

I stopped using cleaners and sanitizers. I put up a picture of Chuck Norris in the brewery, and the germs and crud won't go anywhere near.

 

[2nd Street Brewery]

Clean everything after you use it. I never leave anything sit in my carboys or bottles after they are emptied. Rinsing them out immediately saves lots of time and work later.

 

[Some Hasbeen]

I stopped using cleaners and sanitizers. I put up a picture of Chuck Norris in the brewery, and the germs and crud won't go anywhere near.

Excellent idea. I'm assuming that would also double as a home alarm system thus protecting your finished beer from any would-be invaders?

 

[waskelton4]

I stopped using cleaners and sanitizers. I put up a picture of Chuck Norris in the brewery, and the germs and crud won't go anywhere near.

Excellent idea. I'm assuming that would also double as a home alarm system thus protecting your finished beer from any would-be invaders?

Isn't there also a thread going around about a keg security lock to keep the teenagers out??

sounds solved to me..

 

[Brewpastor]

Change only one factor or ingredient at a time so you can see what it does.

Oxygenate before pitching to decrease lag time.

Don't be cheap when it comes to ingredients.

Brew with somebody else from time to time.

 

[Baron von BeeGee]

Brew with somebody else from time to time.

Except for nosy neighbors who don't know anything about brewing, aren't interested in learning, and are mostly just trying to escape their wives for a few hours.

Because that totally ruins the process.

 

[Ivan Lendl]

i dont know if its 'secret' but when i use hop plugs, i break them apart into little pieces, so when i throw them in the boil they break apart much faster and dont need to be stirred.

question about chuck norris: When he looks in the mirror what does he see?

im guessing nothing because the reflection is too scared to look him in the eye...

 

[Brewpastor]

Except for nosy neighbors who don't know anything about brewing, aren't interested in learning, and are mostly just trying to escape their wives for a few hours.

Because that totally ruins the process.

Correction - Brew with somebody who loves to brew and whose beer you enjoy.

 

[Desert_Sky]

I stopped using cleaners and sanitizers. I put up a picture of Chuck Norris in the brewery, and the germs and crud won't go anywhere near.

Leading hand sanitizers claim they can kill 99.9 percent of germs. Chuck Norris can kill 100 percent of whatever the **** he wants.

 

[Caplan]

Except for nosy neighbors who don't know anything about brewing, aren't interested in learning, and are mostly just trying to escape their wives for a few hours.

Because that totally ruins the process.

I've said it before - just tell Walker to go home!

 

[Baron von BeeGee]

I've said it before - just tell Walker to go home!

You've obviously never tried to get rid of him!!

 

[Caplan]

You've obviously never tried to get rid of him!!

NC was nice - The Mileage and the Atlantic shuck him off for a bit until he found me on this damn forum!

 

[Hercules Rockefeller]

one tip I found out about the hard way yesterday was, when making a chili beer, wear rubber gloves when removing the chilis from the carboy after bottling. I had a hob bag full of chopped jalapenos and chipotles left in my carboy after racking to the bottling jug. The chili's had absorbed some beer and the bag was wider than the carboy neck. so I held the carboy upside down and pulled the bag out as the carboy neck squeezed about a half pint of chili juiceall over my hand. I washed my hands right after that. but then about 20 minutes later an excruciating burning kicked in all over my right hand. And didn't stop until I drove to walgreens and boughts some lanacane to slather my hand in. not a pleasant experience (but the beer tasted good!)

 

[Walker]

What did I do to deserve this bad mouthing!?

Caplan, I'm going to get in my car, drive over to england, and whoop your butt. WHat to you think about THAT? I'll show YOU!

-walker

 

[The Happy Mug]

What did I do to deserve this bad mouthing!?

Caplan, I'm going to get in my car, drive over to england, and whoop your butt. WHat to you think about THAT? I'll show YOU!

-walker

Walker needs the Darth Vadar theme song in the background when he shows up at the door. That would be so cool!

I find a 3' length of garden hose is really handy in the brewery. It screws onto the same adaptor for the bottle washer. You can fill carboys and tubs easier, wash bigger items with ease, and it doubles as a siphon to empty big tubs.

 

[Glibbidy]

I find a 3' length of garden hose is really handy in the brewery. It screws onto the same adaptor for the bottle washer. You can fill carboys and tubs easier, wash bigger items with ease, and it doubles as a siphon to empty big tubs.

And it also works well for flogging those who neighbors who won't leave

 

[budbo]

I find drinking as much of what I brew as possible ensures you don't run out of storage space for more homebrew.

 

[Megiddo]

Don't they leach dye into your wort?? That's what happened when I gave them a test run in plain water.

Maybe whe he said... OLD pantyhose, he meant one's that had been washed first.

Couldn't resist. <snicker, snicker>

 

[Caplan]

What did I do to deserve this bad mouthing!?

Caplan, I'm going to get in my car, drive over to england, and whoop your butt. WHat to you think about THAT? I'll show YOU!

-walker

I'll be buying a white fluffy cat and swivel chair and saying "Ahh...Mister Imperial Walker - I've been expecting you... Lets go to a few Pubs and introduce you to 'England' "

 

[Kaiser]

For all you lager brewers wondering if your ferment is slow or done:

Keep a little bit of your starter or yeast sediment in the starter bottle and add about 1qt of wort. Aerate well with shaking and keep on a warm place. Soon the fermentation will start and will be over within less than a week. Now you can measure the FG of your batch.

No more guessing if fermentation is just slow or almost done

It only takes a bit you your wort. Theoretically you need only enough to fill the test tube for your hydromenter.

It doesn't work so well with ales though. Since the primary fermentation is already pretty fast.

Kai

 

[fa1321tx]

If you have someone new to brewing with you and you ask him to go see if the wort in the ice bath is still hot make sure you tell him to touch the pot not stick thier finger in the wort.

 

[Brewiz]

I found the plans for this while surfing the net one day, not sure if any of you have seen it but it makes washing and rinsing carboys a breeze. It is made of 1/2 pvc with small holes drilled in the cap.

 

[l3lackEyedAngels]

Ask your housemate to keep her cat in her room for a little while during brewing, racking, and bottling. Otherwise, the cat will have to explore every piece of equipment you have and start tasting the wort and you might find yourself sealing the damn thing a fermentation bucket and, you know, rolling it down stairs and whatnot...

 

[gruntingfrog]

About keg systems: is there an easy way to keep the tap(s) under lock and key, for households with teenagers?

I trust my kids and all, and we're pretty "European" in our attitudes about moderate alcohol consumption, but I'm not stupid: I really don't want my teenagers and their friends hanging out in close proximity to an open bar.

This is the kind we use at our office pub.

We got them from Kegworks.com

The only problem is that it uses one universal key, so if the kids are smart enough, they'll buy a spare key for $3 from the same site.

 

[Walker]

The only problem is that it uses one universal key, so if the kids are smart enough, they'll buy a spare key for $3 from the same site.

If the kid's that smart, he/she is probably already brewing their own.

-walker

 

[Axegod]

For brewers with spouses.....

Insist on buying stuff for the house and or the in-laws and "sneak" in a few homebrew items. This works especially well if you have a joint savings account and/or on-line banking.

 

[Brewpastor]

Hell, they can just take a screw driver and undo the beer line and their off to the races. Not rocket science. I guess I would rather them take some beer and think they are being sly then have them try to be real sly and screw up my draft lines!

 

[sirsloop]

if they figure out that they can do that, and not make a mess of it, by all means let them drink some

I keep my freshly bottled beer in cardboard boxes in a room without carpeting. If you happen to have an exploding bottle, its not gonna kill your carpet. One of my coffee stouts would devastate a carpet!!! It already ruined one pair of shorts!! HAHAHAH!

Hell, put the cases of fresh bottled beer in a big black garbage bag. Zero light contamination, and easy clean up for that unfortunate mess.

 

[the_bird]

if they figure out that they can do that, and not make a mess of it, by all means let them drink some

Be nice if that were the case, but you do have a boatload of potential liability issues to work with. Your kid and their friends get into the homebrew and get into an accident - who do YOU think's going to be sued?