What are you brewing?

reverseapachemaster said:

That's debatable. It became the place for homebrewing discussion because many of the early members posted incredibly valuable info and the owners market the heck out of it but over the past several years it's an increasing imbalance of sketchy to outright bad advice. Plus, the volume of threads is so enormous now that you're lucky if a thread gets more than a couple decent responses before it disappears into the void.

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Is there another homebrewing site you like better than HomeBrewTalk? I've certainly looked at other forums as well but would be interested to hear if you think there's a superior alternative! I've only been homebrewing for a few years now so don't have a historical perspective on how HomeBrewTalk has developed. But I found it to be extremely helpful in terms of selecting my initial equipment and getting started brewing, especially in light of the somewhat outdated/unhelpful instructions many brew shops distribute with starter kits. Even moreso, when it came time to build a temp controller for my fermentation chamber and establish my kegging setup around a vintage Crossley fridge (fun project BTW, and I'd definitely recommend a vintage fridge to anyone considering a kegerator build), the forums were invaluable and provided information and support I likely couldn't have found elsewhere. I don't frequent HomeBrewTalk as much now that I've got my brewing routines well established, but it remains my first stop when looking for new recipe ideas and feedback.

HomeBrewTalk is a very large community, but it hasn't generally been my experience that my questions are ignored due to the volume of postings. Of course there's plenty of bad/conflicting advice to be had there along with the good, but I've found that to be true on most forums and just requires a bit of discernment in what advice to take.

FridayGt said:

You will love kegging your beer! Of all the improvements I've made to my brewing over time, kegging my beer has been just fantastic. It saves so much time and effort bottling and bottle conditioning. I can pinpoint the exact level of carbonation I want and adjust more easily. I also feel like it's easier to transport or bottle from the keg too. Seriously one of the best brewing investments I've made.

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Here here! Kegging has also totally transformed by brewing experience for the better. I love that you can easily and reliably set carbonation levels, can tweak as you go if you want more/less carbonation, and don't have to worry about over/under-carbed bottles (a problem that haunted me despite my best efforts to thoroughly mix in priming sugar). I love not having to tell guests to pour carefully to avoid yeast/sediment on the bottom of the bottle. And it sure is satisfying to rack from the fermenter to a keg in 10 mins and be done "bottling"!

Having said that, for anyone that plans to routinely brew beer, the first place to spend money has to be fermentation temp control. Relatively cheap, relatively easy, and makes a tremendous difference in brewing high quality reproducible beer. A chest freezer and thermostat run about $200-250 total (i.e. the cost of ~ 5 batches of extract beer) if you shop around and know/learn basic wiring to build the thermostat yourself. And you avoid the risk of hot/cold spells (I made my fermentation chamber after a heatwave in Denver pushed my basement temps up into the 80s, essentially shanking two batches that were fermenting at the time) and can experiment with different fermentation temps and temp ramping techniques to get the best results from your yeast.

A fermentation chamber will never look as sexy as a nicely done kegerator, but the improvement in taste (and ability to predictably make batch after batch of good-tasting beer) are truly worth it.

I miss brewing , got to find time to brew again ,enjoyed it .

Over the weekend, I started a Honey Porter from NorthernBrewer.

My brother also started a 5gal batch of hard cider made from a local orchards cider.

Mine should be done in the fermenter in 2 weeks, then 2 weeks in the bottle. Then we'll be good to go. The cider will probably take longer.

Not sure what's next, but I'm thinking a Summer Wheat or other light/sweet/refreshing beer.

I'm away from home for a couple of weeks so I did some housekeeping before I left. I bottled a Pliny the Elder clone that I had been dry hopping and I brewed a saison using the new saison blend from Yeast Bay. When I get home, I am probably going to bottle that as well as a sour stout that I've been aging on dried cherries. I'm thinking about leaving a couple of gallons of the sour stout in the carboy and converting it to a mini-solera.

I've got a Basil Saison (including fresh basil leaves plus lime zest and black pepper, none of which I've ever brewed with before) in the fermenter, should be ready to keg later this month. Also have an all-Amarillo IPA fermenting that should be ready about the same time.

Just recently finished conditioning my czechoslovakian vanilla porter. These batches never last long, whether it be me or my friends. I sometimes catch myself wishing I could simply go to the local walmart and pick up a six pack or so I don't have to wait for the next batch to finish fermenting or conditioning.

Kjeffers91 said:

Just recently finished conditioning my czechoslovakian vanilla porter. These batches never last long, whether it be me or my friends. I sometimes catch myself wishing I could simply go to the local walmart and pick up a six pack or so I don't have to wait for the next batch to finish fermenting or conditioning.

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I'm not even going to pretend I know what that is. Is it like a golden/white stout? Tell us more!

Ha. No not quite, but that does sound good. Maybe an interest for one of my future batches.

I know the name is somewhat long, but it's a simple recipe. I use medium roast malt grains from czech land for an all malt wort, dry hopped with choice "in season" hops. then add vanilla extract before beginning fermentation in my carboy at 71° for give or take 3 weeks. Then I move to bottling were instead of using cane sugar to carbonate I use honey from local bee farms. Then proceed to condition bottles for an additional 2 weeks.

It's really a simple recipe that makes for a great south alabama summer beer. But it is odd when someone asks me "hey what's your favorite beer?" and my reply is "my beer.", usually followed by this same spiel on my brewing process.

Bottled my Honey Porter today. 2 weeks to drinking.

Just bottled a Petite Syrah and have California Cab in secondary.

What the heck ... may as well join this one too

Been homebrewing for probably six years now (also a HomeBrew Talk refugee LOL). Generally do extract or extract with grains, have done a few AGs but I don't brew as much as some people do so I tend to stick to the ease of extract for now.

Currently have a Bourbon Vanilla Porter I brewed last fall, but it's more of a winter warmer type thing and really needs some extra time in the bottle to knock back some of the "boozyness."

Planning to brew an IPA kit I got from Northern Brewer for Christmas, and then thinking about making a blonde ale that's fairly famous around HomeBrew Talk for my GF, who is still learning the craft beer ropes. If I can get my act together it might be a two brew Saturday this weekend

Just wanted to say hello!

Bruxelles Blonde, good stuff, and nothing beats home-brewing

I just picked up a nice big bag of fresh Cascade hops from a local grower yesterday. Came right home and brewed an IPA using the grain bill from Bell's Two-Hearted. Can't wait to see how this one turns out.

I just started in January and I'm having a blast! So far I've done an irish stout extract, a petite saison extract, and right now I have a Sam Adams Alpine Spring clone fermenting that I did my first BIAB with. And I just ordered 3 more kits! I never would have thought I'd have this much fun boiling fancy water!

Right now, I'm dry hopping a Cascadian Dark Ale--I'll probably bottle it this weekend. I also have everything ready to brew a DIPA this weekend. It's more or less based on the Pliny the Elder recipe that has been circulating, with some hop shots substituted in.

Next up after that is a saison. I had bought a couple vials of Yeast Bay's Saison Blend--one for me, and another for one of my buddies. I brewed an amazing saison with mine, a split batch with half getting bottled with some brett. And my buddy quit brewing! So his vial has been sitting in my fridge for a year. Next time I have a break, I'm going to see if I can step it up with a couple of starters and do something with it. Probably use the same grain bill as last year.

I also have a couple of hop rhizomes on order from my LHBS. They're from a local hop farm where they've been growing for a while, so they should be a good fit for the climate here. I'm hoping to get centennial, but I might get cascade too.

I have an Extra Special English Bitter that is ready to bottle whenever I get a free day in the next couple weeks.

I just got an Monster Mill MM3 for my birthday, so I can't wait to put it to its first test. I think I will do my Dry-Hopped Blond Ale next to be ready for early Summer. Surprisingly, I haven't even found a better blond from a craft brewer.

Just put my Citra Bomb IPA under carb in the kegerator. In the process of kicking a keg of an IPA I called "3 girls" after my daughters. Straight Chinook brew with a Centennial dry hop. Awesome...

Popped the cork on some 2 year pyment at the start of the Duke game. Yum.

Go Devils!

Just finished the mash on what will be a hoppy pale ale for a home brew festival at work. A simple 2-row and 40L Crystal grain bill with Simcoe and Amarillo hops. Now that the boil is underway, might as well sit back, relax for a bit and have a homebrew.

Just brewed an IPA today for a charity event through work. Basic 2 row, with some munich and Vienna malts. I purposely bought some new hops (Belma) to try out. I used mostly Belma with some Citra mixed in. Just started primary fermentation today, when I switch to the secondary I will dry hop with some Belma as well.