On my way down the home brewing rabbit hole

Abstrakt said:

+1 for StarSan, it's pretty cheap and an awesome no rinse sani.

Click to expand...

Its also VERY economical. One bottle will last forever. I do the math and only mix up 1 gallon at a time. Fill up my spray bottle, then put the rest in a gallon jug. Unlike other sanitizers that need several minutes contact time, Starsan only needs 30 seconds to be effective. As long as its "wet", its sanitized. Therefore, you don't need to mix up 5 gallons to sanitize your brew bucket. Just throw in a bout 1 cup of the mixed/diluted liquid, put on the top and shake. Also, put a bit in a small bowl to sanitize the small things like air locks etc.

To sanitize bottles, I use a Vinator Bottle Rinser. Fill the bottom with a bit of diluted Starsan, then invert each bottle and pump a few times. YOu can sanitize an entire batch worth of bottles with maybe 2 cups of diluted Starsan.

Haven't used the bottle rinser yet, I had the jet rinser that attaches to you faucet which works well for that thick crap on the bottom. I'm lucky enough to live in Milwaukee where there is a Norther Brewer!

Yea the vinator is more for sanitizing the bottles using a very small quantity of sanitizer

Started home brewing about 20 years ago and have brewed lots of beer with my son. Problem for me is that the beer is very fattening and causes one to develop beer gut.

So, I don't brew as much now and have a few cases of vintage craft beer to sip on now and again.

Frank

Ok a bit of an update from this weekend, I finally finished reading the first section of Palmer's on extract brewing. I have a buddy at work that home brews and he invited me over this weekend for a brew day.

As he brew's pretty much every two weeks he had two beers currently going so to start the day off, we kegged the one that was in secondary and bottle conditioned two 22's, he showed me how he force carbs his kegs. Then we transfered another from primary into secondary. Then we started in on the brew at hand.

It was a huge beer, recipe will be below. After just the specialty grains steeping it smelled fantastic. Then just got better after the DME, LME, and hop additions. Had a couple of his Oktoberfest's along the way along with Dogfish Sahtea, which is INCREADABLE!

All in all it was a great day and had a blast, even more now than before, I can't wait to brew my own batch!

Imperial Stout:

Specialty Grains
- 1.5 lbs Chocolate Malt
- 1 lb Belgian Cara 45
- 0.5 lb Caramel 120

Fermentables
- 12 lbs Gold Malt Syrup
- 1 lb Gold DME

HOPS & FLAVORINGS
- 1.25 oz Chinook (60 min)
- 1.25 oz Chinook (30 min)
- 0.5 oz Chinook (15 min)
- 1 oz Kent Goldings (15 min)
- 1 oz Kent Goldings (Flame out)

DRY HOPS
- 1 oz Kent Goldings (Dry hop)

I am brewing my second beer tomorrow. We chose an IPA as our first brew and it turned out surprisingly well. There are a few others coming over to the house and we are going to have a "brew party" so lot's of beer being made at my house tomorrow! Should be a good time.

Well a bit of an update!

My buddy from the above mentioned post sold me his burnner, also pictured above. I'm pretty sure Ol' St. Nick will be bringing me a Deluxe Starter Kit from Northern Brewer. So it's on my plan to be brewing shortly after the holiday's! Not sure if a kettle or a wort chiller is in the works for Christmas, but I can easily borrow my buddy's!

Stupid excited!

Well, this was under my tree! Next stop fermentation chamber build!

First step of my fermentation chamber build came in yesterday! Will be getting a project box and hardware today! Might also go check out the local scratch and dent after work to see if I can find a chest freezer at a decent price.

Wow Brian. You really have a nice start on the home brewery. I tried my hand at brewing years ago with mixed results. A mild brown ale was delicious. An attempt at an IPA resulted in drain cleaner.

Nothing is the same now. Starsan was non-existent then, no liquid yeasts to speak of, grain brewing was something a bit mystical though common amongst very advanced brewers. Times have certainly changed for the better.

I have an older edition of Papazian's book and truth told, if not for his easy reading style I would likely not have tried brewing at all.

Phog, thank you! I'm super stoked, I will also be making a DIY wort chiller at some point maybe before maybe not before my first brew day. The above mentioned buddy has one if I need it. The only thing I really need is a freezer to convert to the fermentation chamber (the STC-1000 is a temp controller that will cycle both the freezer and heat lamp to maintain an optimal yeast temp.), a kettle (can borrow), and a hydrometer (will be buying soon). Will be using a local yeast supplier, so I know my yeast will be good.

The kit came with:
6.5 gal glass primary
5 gal glass secondary
bottling bucket
blow off tube
two airlocks and bungs
racking cain
bottle filler
capper
caps
carboy brush
bottle brush
funnel
carboy drying stand
and a extract kit for a brown ale

Made this guy today, now just to find a freezer for it!

Picking up the freezer that is to be my fermentation chamber tonight!

Fermentation chamber! That's awesome. What's up first?

So here are a few pics of the freezer.



The Second picture shows my 6gal glass primary that won't fit in the deep portion, it's about half an inch too wide. The third pic is my 5gal glass secondary that just fits in the deep portion. So now I'm looking at my options of either building a collar to allow the lid to close with with 6gal on the hump or looking to see if plastic carboys are any narrower. Would actually prefer to switch to plastic after seeing some of the horror stories about glass.

The Nid Hog- My first brew will be a Brown Ale that came with the kit, super easy first brew. I have some ideas for the second one but we will see what strikes me once I'm almost out of the first one.

Got my list of building materials to finish the fermentation chamber and to build a 50' wort chiller. Will be picking all that up and the rest of the supplies including a Kettle in the next week or so. Still shooting to brew by the end of Jan.!

Made a lot of progress last night! Shopped for most of the parts to complete my fermentation chamber. I pulled fans out of two old desk tops and wired them up to an old power cord I had laying around. Also found a perfect light fixture in the attic for the 100 watt ceramic heat bulb I got. Now I just need to get the deer out of the cheat freezer and build my collar! Very excited, going to be ordering a brew kettle and building a 50' double coil immersion wort chiller. I also had a bit of money sitting around earmarked for another toy and am considering using that to get a keg and a party tap. Undecided about that yet.

Sorry no pictures yet, hopefully I'll remember after the local home brewers club meeting tonight!

Still on track to brew by the last weekend of Jan!

I still need to finish the fans wiring. Here are the pics:


Last night I got 50' of 3/8" OD copper, will be using that to build my chiller. Also got a drill powered paint mixer for aeration. Lastly the 2x12 to build my collar.

I also got the go ahead from the better half to keg, so I'm researching that now as well haha.

Made a bit of progress last night. Got my collar built! Next I will be attaching it to the top of my freezer with silicone and using the previous attachment points for the lid. Then I will wire up the internal outlet, mount the fans, build the platform for the deep portion and reattach the lid. Then it should be ready to go!

Forgot to mention I picked up a new 630ss with shank and tailpiece for cheap off CL, will be installing that prior to my keg being filled!