Official Home-brew Thread

[agent]

Paging TS87325IS.

Also, sub'd.

[KillaCam]

for all youtube whores who are into homebrewing here is a good channel that i am addicted to.

http://www.youtube.com/user/BrewingTV?feature=watch

[ian e30 318is]

Great idea for a thread! I just started homebrewing a couple months ago. I used a Dead Guy Ale kit from a homebrew store in San Diego and it turned out ok. Now its time to try a recipe instead of a kit. :D

[deutschman]

I REALLY want to start home brewing, but I really don't have the time to put into it. We have a brew shop here in Bend that has a ton of supplies and literally a 6x20 walk in refrigerator full of fresh hops of different varieties. I think they keep 10-15 different hops in stock.

Ok. Go on Craiglist and buy some ones old turkey fryer set up for $30. Then all you need is two food grade plastic buckets, and a few other small things. Then you can brew partial mash beers which take all of maybe an hour and a half depending on the beer. Very easy, very fast!

Here is our current set up.
The mash is doughed in in the bottom cooler and depending on the beer sits at one or more different temperatures for certain amounts of time so that one or more enzymes work on the starches and convert them to sugars. Then some rice husks are mixed into the mash as a filter bed. Some of the beer is run threw a manifold at the bottom of the cooler till it comes out clear. After that hot water is run threw the top cooler through a sparge arm (shower head kind of thing) over the mash and the valve at the bottom of the lower cooler is opened and the wart (basically sweet grain tee) is run off into a large pot. The wart is then brought to a boil at which time you add your hops additions. Then the wart is cooled and added into your fermentor along with what ever yest you are using and the magic starts to happen.

The original set up.


Starting to upgrade the set up.


Sparge arm








He is the fridge. It is part kegorator part science lab in which salamis, other curd meats, and cheeses are made. The temperature and humidity is controlled electronically.








Beer fermenting

[deutschman]

At some point everything will be stainless steel kegs with built in instruments and heating elements, and a whole lot less geto looking! lol

[NigelStu]

^There is nothing about that setup that isn't sweet as hell. well done, sir, well done!

Good choice of late-July brew beers as well, hefe-types are some of my favorites. Care to share your recipe?

[KillaCam]

DAMN!!! that is a sick set up. i do all grain in a food strainer. the beers come out alight. i filter the wart before the boil though.

i am trying to get a turkey fryer and i am going to take some welding classes (i know how to weld, it just the equipment and gas are free ) and make a sick set up

the chalkboard keg-o-rater is suck a cool idea.

im going to steal the idea ;)

[deutschman]

^There is nothing about that setup that isn't sweet as hell. well done, sir, well done!

Good choice of late-July brew beers as well, hefe-types are some of my favorites. Care to share your recipe?

Thanks guys.
Ill try and remember to grap the recipes next time I am over at my friends hows. He is the real brains behind the operation. I am just his insistent and try and learn as much as I can. He is currently going to school so that he can transfer over to the Davis (CA) brewing program to become a brew master. I build all his equipment and weld for him, and he teaches me about brewing. :)

[5spoke]

Not sure if any of you guys will be interested but I have a friend who is helping develop the "BeerBug". Its going to be for sale in the next few months and provides some assistance in monitoring your beer throughout the fermentation and brewing process. Here is a video from last fall where the dude in charge explains the ideas behind it. I know they have added and modified the design since this video based on input from home brewers, but I thought it may be worth a look to some of you guys. I think he said its supposed to be like $150-200ish when its for sale.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skkETyF0v7k

[Smrtpunk]

Very cool setup indeed!

I've been homebrewing for some time lately and I've just recently moved to the All grain avenue. My setup is a large Aluminum pot w/a propane burner that fits about 7 gallons and a giant strainer. I put a meshcloth inside the strainer once the water is up to temp and drop all the grist inside.

When its mash out time I sparge via a pully system that pulls the strainer out over the pot and run sparge water through. I then use the top of a pot to push the grains down and push the remaining sugars out of the grain.

After I start the burner up and throw in the hops. I can use about 15 lbs of grain with this setup and hit my efficiency without issue.

Relax, Dont Worry, Have a Homebrew!

[Jorgen]

I've been brewing for a year and a half or more now.

I runh a 3 tap (5 gal corny) system in my basement, about to move it from my fridge into a keezer using a thermo controller from ebay. I am really bag about logging things so I have a hard time reproducing anything even if I love it. I think that is myh biggest down fall, I want to get better at that.

Things I have made over the past few years:
Wheats:
a ton of plain ones
Honey Wheat
Cucumber Wheat

Bunch of Ambers

Coffee/Vanilla Stout that is currently under pressure and about ready to taste.

I use a basical clean paciffico style rice/corn beer and rack it over 3 lb limes and 2 lb lemons zested pealed and crushed. Makes a nice clean summer beer.

I have a tea wheat fermenting right now, deciding if I want any berries or lemon in there when it is ready to secondary this weekend or early next week.

There have been a few other random ones here and there as well. Once the tea wheat is out of the fermentor I am going to probably go after a nioce smooth IPA, something Bell's Two Hearted ish.

[Mlarsen]

Once the brewery is done I'll post some pictures.
Been brewing for 4 years doing 5 gallon batches.
Stepping our game up drastically doing 10 gallon batches on this setup: www.theelectricbrewery.com

[KillaCam]

didnt have my camera on me but i have photobooth.

here is my oatmeal stout

ill post the ingredients sometime in the future.

its pretty dark. so dark that you cant see through it at all

[deutschman]

Once the brewery is done I'll post some pictures.
Been brewing for 4 years doing 5 gallon batches.
Stepping our game up drastically doing 10 gallon batches on this setup: www.theelectricbrewery.com

Nice! Good luck with the brewery!

[doucy2]

i would love the recipe for that oatmeal stout