Passinwind
I know nothing.
- Dec 3, 2003
- 23,080
- 46,050
- Disclosures
- Designer/Toaster Tech @ Passinwind Electronics
We used champagne bottles a lot for our first 50 batches or so, but eventually moved to 5 gallon kegs, which are really great.
Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
What beer are you drinking (or rating) II: second bottle
- Thread starter ThatGermanDude
- Start date
- Status
We used champagne bottles a lot for our first 50 batches or so, but eventually moved to 5 gallon kegs, which are really great.
After 20 years of drinking beer I found that brew your own beer is not expensive
Thanks Matticusmania !So I bought my kit and brewed my first batch ever
American Pale Ale, I checked this morning and the bubbles are there everything looks good so far.
So I bought my kit and brewed my first batch ever
Congratulations! Welcome to the club!
Please, please, resist the temptation to keep checking the bubbles, though. It's hard not to go take a look every couple of hours, especially when you're just starting out and everything's new and interesting. Once every day or two is enough. Too often, and you're risking infection.
So you guys that brew larger runs, how do you go about boiling up your mash? Do you just use a bigger stock pot? The 1 gallon boil Im about to do has me using a 6qt pot, so do you guys doing a 5 gallon run use a 5 gallon pot?
Just finished up two post-hockey Sapporo Five Stars. Semi-premium, but has the typical Japanese fear of hops. Presently on the old stand-by, Kirin Lager. Ho-hum.
My old, old, OLD band is playing a 25-year reunion show at Quenchers Saloon in Chicago next month. Talk about a Invalid Link Removed.
My old, old, OLD band is playing a 25-year reunion show at Quenchers Saloon in Chicago next month. Talk about a Invalid Link Removed.
D
Here's my humble rig:
Here's what's going on. It's a 10 gallon, all grain, gravity feed system. The pot on the wooden stand on the left has hot water in it. I heat water on the cajun cooker seen behind the stool and pour the hot water into it. In a brewery this would be called a hot liquor tank. The Pot on the stool contains the grain, and it has an EZ masher JSP EasyMasher ®, Brewing in it, it's called a Mash tun. That's basically a strainer with a spigot on the end. If you look closely, you can see the dark liquid flowing through the hose on the spigot into the keg. The Keg is my boiling pot. It has the top cut out on it. When it's full I put it on the cooker and boil. Here's my process:
1) Mill Grain
2) slowly stir grain into Mash tun, mash (let it sit) for 60-90 minutes to convert the starches in the grain to fermentable sugar.
3) start the flow of water out of the hot liquor tank into the mash tun, and open the spigot on the strainer in the mash tun, washing the fermentable sugars off the grain and into the boiling pot. This takes about an hour.
4) move boiling pot onto cooker, boil, adding hops as called for in the recipie. About 60-90 minutes, depending on recipie.
5) Flame out and cooling. I use an immersion wort chiller (a copper coil) to cool it to 70-80°f. This is where I want to improve the system with a couple of March pumps and a plate chiller. That will reduce my cooling time from an hour to about 10 minutes.
6) syphon (rack, in brewing terms) the wort into 6 gallon plastic buckets for primary fermentation for 3 days to a week. I"m going to add a spigot onto the bottom of my boiling pot (keg) so I dont' have to siphon at this step.
7) rack the beer into 5 gallon carboys for another 1-3 weeks.
8) put the beer in 5 gallon corny kegs, chill, and carbonate
9) Drink!
repeat step 9 often.
If you have questions or want to see additional pictures, let me know.
pedroims: As long as you are not opening your fermenter you can look all you want. That is, if you are just looking at the air lock bubble, have at it. Talk to your yeast. Encourage them to eat the sugar, have sex, and excrete some alcohol!
If you're doing all-grain then you usually need a pot 30-50% bigger than your batch size. So 8 gal for a 5 gal run, or thereabouts. Partial mash or extract can be less because you usually only boil part of your wort volume then dilute it down. (You *can* do that with AG as well, but it kinda spoils the point).
Very nice setup. I'm running a 10 gal pot and a couple of converted rubbermaid coolers. Don't have a photo though.
Yes. Sorry, I should have been clearer there. If you've got a bucket, don't open it up else you're risking contamination. If you're using a carboy, you can just look through the side, it's fine.
Oh what an assortment I had tonight
You all know this. Not good but not bad. But for $1.50 a pint the price was right
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
One of my favorites. Hopefully it remains a year-round offering instead of just a seasonal, or here's hoping the local specialty liquor store keeps plenty in stock until I graduate in December
One of my friends bought me this because he owed me one. Good when compared to other beers, but entry level when compared to other Belgians. After this my beer snobbery began to show and I started throwing my darts pinkie out
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
Very well balanced, sweet without being sickening, great mouth, and a very pleasant aftertaste. Wait, what was the ABV on this guy again? What'd you say ta meh?!
Link Removed
Ey... HEY! YOU! Listen. I. I love you man. Like, seriously, no shut the **** up, listen, you're, like my best ****ing friend, all right? So I'm going to give you this beer. NO, you shut up. Listen, bro. Bro. Dude, bro. Bro. Shut the **** up and listen. This is, like ****ing awesome. It's smooth, sweet, and, dude, vanilla-y. It's ****ing awesome when it's cold out. What do you mean it's 90 ****ing degrees outside, just shut the hell up and drink it, it's ****ing delicious and it's free.
....where am I?
You all know this. Not good but not bad. But for $1.50 a pint the price was right
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
One of my favorites. Hopefully it remains a year-round offering instead of just a seasonal, or here's hoping the local specialty liquor store keeps plenty in stock until I graduate in December
One of my friends bought me this because he owed me one. Good when compared to other beers, but entry level when compared to other Belgians. After this my beer snobbery began to show and I started throwing my darts pinkie out
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
Very well balanced, sweet without being sickening, great mouth, and a very pleasant aftertaste. Wait, what was the ABV on this guy again? What'd you say ta meh?!
Link Removed
Ey... HEY! YOU! Listen. I. I love you man. Like, seriously, no shut the **** up, listen, you're, like my best ****ing friend, all right? So I'm going to give you this beer. NO, you shut up. Listen, bro. Bro. Dude, bro. Bro. Shut the **** up and listen. This is, like ****ing awesome. It's smooth, sweet, and, dude, vanilla-y. It's ****ing awesome when it's cold out. What do you mean it's 90 ****ing degrees outside, just shut the hell up and drink it, it's ****ing delicious and it's free.
....where am I?
I have a 5 gallon all grain setup as well. The usual - converted coolers, gravity fed, I even fly sparge. I have a 9ish gal bayou classic kettle I got off Amazon for a great price. Sometimes I need that much volume.
Avoid glass carboys if possible. They can be deadly! Better bottles have been good to me so far.
Last night I tried a firestone walker ipa (union jack) and it was really good! Not the usual ultra citrus-y style but a little more subdued hop profile. I want to say something more noble/earthy instead of a ton of high alpha stuff. I could be just making that up though.
I have a 9ish gal bayou classic kettle I got off Amazon for a great price. Sometimes I need that much volume.Avoid glass carboys if possible. They can be deadly! Better bottles have been good to me so far.
Last night I tried a firestone walker ipa (union jack) and it was really good! Not the usual ultra citrus-y style but a little more subdued hop profile. I want to say something more noble/earthy instead of a ton of high alpha stuff. I could be just making that up though.
Avoid glass carboys if possible. They can be deadly! Better bottles have been good to me so far.
Ive got to ask... why?
If you drop a full one it's basically a huge glass grenade. Couple that with the fact that most of us homebrewers drink while brewing.
I read a precautionary tale in zymurgy once about a guy who nearly lost his hand. When cleaning or dumping carboys you basically hug it with one arm and hold the neck with your other hand. This guy said he had the carboy upside down like that full of fluid and somehow bumped it into something. The glass cracked through a weak spot and broke the carboy in half near the neck. The heavy glass body came straight down on his wrist and cut it halfway through.
Better Bottles are also lighter, cheaper to ship, and they bounce with a highly amusing doinggggg! noise.
I couldnt righfully keep my beer in plastic, though. Beer & Glass have always gone hand in hand, and rightfully so, IMO.
Wouldn't worry about it. It's a fancy barrier plastic, not the regular waterbottle stuff. Honestly, you can't taste the difference.
Oh what an assortment I had tonight
You all know this. Not good but not bad. But for $1.50 a pint the price was right
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
One of my favorites. Hopefully it remains a year-round offering instead of just a seasonal, or here's hoping the local specialty liquor store keeps plenty in stock until I graduate in December
One of my friends bought me this because he owed me one. Good when compared to other beers, but entry level when compared to other Belgians. After this my beer snobbery began to show and I started throwing my darts pinkie out
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
Very well balanced, sweet without being sickening, great mouth, and a very pleasant aftertaste. Wait, what was the ABV on this guy again? What'd you say ta meh?!
Link Removed
Ey... HEY! YOU! Listen. I. I love you man. Like, seriously, no shut the **** up, listen, you're, like my best ****ing friend, all right? So I'm going to give you this beer. NO, you shut up. Listen, bro. Bro. Dude, bro. Bro. Shut the **** up and listen. This is, like ****ing awesome. It's smooth, sweet, and, dude, vanilla-y. It's ****ing awesome when it's cold out. What do you mean it's 90 ****ing degrees outside, just shut the hell up and drink it, it's ****ing delicious and it's free.
this sounds like my Friday nights at college. For me it's Mikkeller Monk's Brew tonight. Pretty intense if you ask me.
- Status
