Yeah I'm not freaked yet but I had an ESB yeast I got cheap cause the smack pack was broken that didn't do anything in my starter for 2 days so I tossed it and went with the Thames. Just going to be annoyed. I have some nice IPA yeast I harvested myself I could use in a pinch but it's not really what I'm going for.
Re: Perpetual Homebrew Thread
- Thread starter rigeek
- Start date
Yeah I'm not freaked yet but I had an ESB yeast I got cheap cause the smack pack was broken that didn't do anything in my starter for 2 days so I tossed it and went with the Thames. Just going to be annoyed. I have some nice IPA yeast I harvested myself I could use in a pinch but it's not really what I'm going for.
It's been a solid 48 with no activity, I'm working in my head whether I should do an emergency addition of Saison, IPA, or US-05 to recover this tomorrow if it isn't taking off.
48 is a bit of a drag, but dry yeast tends to take off slower than the liquid anyways. As long as you're sanitary post boil you shouldn't have to worry about an infection and can just add something else if it hasn't taken off yet.
It was liquid. I have a London ESB starter going now I'm going to use in it and my Best Bitter batch so hopefully that takes off.
Just annoyed it didn't take off at all.
Just annoyed it didn't take off at all.
Well that ESB starter definitely got it going. So that's a plus. Now to save me a couple jars of it for next time.
Wooo! I was out making a 10 gallon IPA batch and my neighbour came out and asked if I had any use for an old Pepsi keg he found cleaning out his father in laws garage. So I now have 9 ball lock kegs and a keezer. Got the first tap in, need to run 4 more.
Now I just need to find the damned leak in my setup. It's either the gas coupler or the seal on one of two possible kegs, but of course my tank is empty now. Won't be able to fill it until Tuesday to further test, so annoying but not the end of the world.
If I'm going to keep doing 10 gallon batches though I need to start figuring out how to move the liquid without lifting it, cause that shit is heavy yo.
Now I just need to find the damned leak in my setup. It's either the gas coupler or the seal on one of two possible kegs, but of course my tank is empty now. Won't be able to fill it until Tuesday to further test, so annoying but not the end of the world.
If I'm going to keep doing 10 gallon batches though I need to start figuring out how to move the liquid without lifting it, cause that shit is heavy yo.
Nice. I don't know what shipping is like to Canada, but as you go through kegs you're going to eventually need new gaskets, and the best pricing we have down here is from McMaster-Carr. This thread has all the part numbers. http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=233086 I put together a go bag for all my draft stuff, I've got tons of gaskets and fittings for everything (I have a jockey box and am often asked to bring it places so this is useful). I'd certainly recommend taking a look at seeing what pricing is for you. Those prices are astonishingly better than buying gaskets and gasket kits from the homebrew shops.
I spent the weekend disassembling almost completely, cleaning, reassembling and filling Sanke kegs. And then found that there is a internal spring ring replacement for the god awful spiral rings that micromatic used. I ordered a few of those (I only have four sankes). I brewed a Peach Wheat for my friends wedding, and the venue has a full bar lineup so figured might as well just keg it in the sanke. And while I was at it, kegged my experimental Mead NEIPA mashup. Both came out pretty well as far as secondary flavors, though I added a bit of lactose to both to add to the mouthfeel/sweetness.
I spent the weekend disassembling almost completely, cleaning, reassembling and filling Sanke kegs. And then found that there is a internal spring ring replacement for the god awful spiral rings that micromatic used. I ordered a few of those (I only have four sankes). I brewed a Peach Wheat for my friends wedding, and the venue has a full bar lineup so figured might as well just keg it in the sanke. And while I was at it, kegged my experimental Mead NEIPA mashup. Both came out pretty well as far as secondary flavors, though I added a bit of lactose to both to add to the mouthfeel/sweetness.
Nice I'll ahve to check it out. I have 9 ball lock kegs right now so they keep me going.
Just to give you an idea, I purchased 200 of the gaskets that are on the ball locks (100 in two colors), 100 of the gaskets that go under the liquid and gas tubes, and 30 of the large o-rings, along with 10 of the spear gaskets for Sanke kegs for a grand total of 61 bucks shipped. Most of the homebrew stores charge 5 or 6 bucks for a single corny keg kit, I can do 30 complete keg gasket rebuilds for 1/3rd that price, and still have enough small gaskets for 70 more changes.
I admit that I have a problem with redundancy and backup planning.
In other news, I found a website that seems to have stupid cheap strut channel, so I ordered 100 feet and am awaiting it's arrival. If it is what I think it is, I'll be building a new brew stand ala this thread. http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=363128
And then after that I went down the rabbit hole of automation design.....
I admit that I have a problem with redundancy and backup planning.
In other news, I found a website that seems to have stupid cheap strut channel, so I ordered 100 feet and am awaiting it's arrival. If it is what I think it is, I'll be building a new brew stand ala this thread. http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=363128
And then after that I went down the rabbit hole of automation design.....
Nice. I have a long way to go, haven't even built myself a proper brew bench yet. Still using a plastic folding table.
Well the screaming good deal was to good to be true. Even though the listing on the website clearly said "10 Feet" in multiple places, the price was actually by foot, and the shipping was as expected insane. I went to the local electrical supply shop and ordered it through them. Slightly more per foot, but no shipping charges. My plan is to build it ala the brutus build, but add a wing off the side of the HLT for my grain mill so I can motorize that. I'm not brewing a lot right now, so perfect time to try and get the system better situated to make brew days easier.
My existing stand is functional, but doesn't really allow me to deal with burners in a way that I'm comfortable with (wood burns), and I can't move it while loaded, as the wheels just break off. A metal stand is impervious to fire (at least the temperatures of a brew day), is structurally strong (max weight before deflection is 500# over a 72" unsupported span), and the modularity will allow me to tinker around and figure out best way to put the burners and pumps on it. Eventually I want to be able to push a button on my phone from wherever and start brewing, this gets me closer to that.
My existing stand is functional, but doesn't really allow me to deal with burners in a way that I'm comfortable with (wood burns), and I can't move it while loaded, as the wheels just break off. A metal stand is impervious to fire (at least the temperatures of a brew day), is structurally strong (max weight before deflection is 500# over a 72" unsupported span), and the modularity will allow me to tinker around and figure out best way to put the burners and pumps on it. Eventually I want to be able to push a button on my phone from wherever and start brewing, this gets me closer to that.
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Nice, I need to do something like that.
My current setup is pretty janky but it worked for a 10 gallon batch, big pain in the ass is lifting the mash tun.
My current setup is pretty janky but it worked for a 10 gallon batch, big pain in the ass is lifting the mash tun.
Oh god man, yeah, you don't want to be lifting mash tun around. I'd do something quick and dirty like this https://chriskafer.files.wordpress.com/ ... /stand.jpg just so I wasn't having to lift things up and around when full. I have a bunch of food safe 5 gallon buckets I use to transfer hot water and wort if I can't pump. My only real rule is Mash tun above liquid level of boil kettle on cajun burner (I have that same one).
Oh I never thought about using a 5 gallon pail to move the strike water. That's a good idea.
Yeah get these https://www.homedepot.ca/en/home/p.19l5 ... 84675.html They are made of HDPE and are rated up to 120C for short periods of time, so no problem with even the output of the boil. I brew outside, but I chill inside, so when my boil is done I drain off about 3 gallons each into individual buckets, carry inside and then dump back into the kettle. It makes lugging the 10 gallons of water back into the house a heck of a lot of easier, and I get some extra level of oxygenation.
Interesting and good to know. I have started doing my brewing in the garage. I chill outside, I'm looking at using PET carboys to do my fermentation.
I've entered my first ever competition with a nice Saison I just bottled. Now to start actually bottling stuff with the intention of submitting it rather than just panicking and bottling a couple the day before they ship out. Luckily they'll have time to carbonate.
Now to start actually bottling stuff with the intention of submitting it rather than just panicking and bottling a couple the day before they ship out. Luckily they'll have time to carbonate.Got my gas and liquid lines more or less installed. Need to fine tune it over time but right now I'm laughing.
I made one line the low pressure serving gas and 1 line the higher pressure force cabonation line.
I made one line the low pressure serving gas and 1 line the higher pressure force cabonation line.
Pocky Is God
Ars Legatus Legionis
Honestly I might have bailed on the hobby if I was still trying to bottle everything. I've started doing a sixer for competition but otherwise everything is getting kegged.
That freezer will fit 7 kegs in so I can have 3 crashing/clearing/carbonating while the other 4 are being drank.
I'd love to move to kegs but they're just so damn expensive. It doesn't help that I don't make it a habit to look on second-hand sites like Gumtree, et al for gear being sold.
Filling and capping 60 bottles at a time is a right pain in the tits.
Filling and capping 60 bottles at a time is a right pain in the tits.
Isn't everything in Australia so damned expensive? KegKing.com.au has them for the equivalent of 58 USD used, which is on the high side but isn't horrible. Kegging is expensive up front, but the time savings alone more than makes up for it down the road. I've probably got a few thousand invested in my draft system at this point (between the standalone and portable draft box), but I think it's money well spent for the time savings.
KegKing.com.au has them for the equivalent of 58 USD used, which is on the high side but isn't horrible. Kegging is expensive up front, but the time savings alone more than makes up for it down the road. I've probably got a few thousand invested in my draft system at this point (between the standalone and portable draft box), but I think it's money well spent for the time savings.That's about the same price I can get them in Canada. Honestly you don't need to go down the Perlick rabbit hole I did with the keezer.
You'll never regret the Perlick rabbit hole. They're fantastic faucets.
I feel fortunate that I got my kegs so cheap several years ago. Most were ~$20 each + $5 for rebuild kits.
I'm a huge fan of the Interap forward sealing faucets, from Australia ironically. They are cheaper than the Perlick version, and have a better seal design. 33 bucks for stainless steel, since replacing all my lines I've not had a single issue with either leaking, stuck faucets, or what was inevitably the case for me a funky keg if it was on draft too long. https://www.williamsbrewing.com/INTERTA ... P4034.aspx I also replaced my shanks with stainless at the same time. Chrome plated brass is fine I guess, but I've found that the chrome plating wears off eventually and I swear the brass holds bugs deep inside that can never be sanitized away (unless you boil things). This is anecdotal, so YMMV, but I'm never going back to chrome plated brass on my stuff.
I should also mention, a friend of mine has owned a bar for 44 years. He uses the regular Perlick faucets for all the non-nitro, but threw out the Perlick forward sealing faucets for the constant drip/leak situation. I tried to convince him to give Intertap a shot, but he's sworn off forward sealing faucets.
I should also mention, a friend of mine has owned a bar for 44 years. He uses the regular Perlick faucets for all the non-nitro, but threw out the Perlick forward sealing faucets for the constant drip/leak situation. I tried to convince him to give Intertap a shot, but he's sworn off forward sealing faucets.
Huh, I hear nothing but good things about the forward sealing taps. Oh well, I'm to late now but if they give me trouble I will keep this in mind. I got a great deal on a bottle filler gun so I'm going to try that out when I receive it too.
Brewed for the first time in about a year yesterday, and I am really excited to see how this one turns out. Going for a very floral/tropical IPA. Started with a decent Odell IPA clone recipe, and changed up the hops a bit, bringing in some Galaxy hops to go along with the Simcoe, Amarillo, and Centennial.
Transferring to the primary was a PITA due to all the sediment clogging up the siphon.
Transferring to the primary was a PITA due to all the sediment clogging up the siphon.
I'm trying my SNPA clone again and I should have used a blow off tube from the start, my airlock was full of goo this morning.
Started a holiday ale this weekend, in my new setup in our garage, rather than the wife-displeasing kitchen. Was concerned that there wasn't much activity yesterday, but now I'm watching to make sure that the airlock doesn't blow off today. Felt all next level, sitting in my garage with the new propane burner, watching a football game on my iPad. Next step will be getting a proper sized pot for a full boil. Moving off of extract is still way WAY down the line.
Cool, honestly going all grain was pretty easy if you're inclined. I need to install a TV or something in my garage and move my SNES classic out there for my brew days. Sitting around waiting for the mash is honestly boring.
My rig is pretty ghetto but it works.
I started my home brew hobby using an 8.5 gallon kettle for extract brewing, so I've never needed to do the "extract in a smaller kettle and then top off with water" method (which honestly doesn't sound that limiting), but I'm very happy with the flow of my process. It's been 2 or 3 years and I still haven't moved to all-grain - I probably mention it every 5 pages or so in this thread, but I'm still planning on kegging before moving to AG... I hate bottling with a passion and have yet to feel too crippled being restricted to extract-friendly recipes.
In other news, my local homebrew store is shutting down
The building they lease space in has recently changed hands, and while they claim that the new ownership is not to blame for having to close up shop it sure seems like it sped the process up (lots of blog posts re: increases in fees that hint at ineptitude by the new landlord). Hopefully I can stop by this weekend and get (a) ingredients for my first winter brew, and (b) recommendations on where to go for the beer after that.I brew full 5 gal extract batches, but no matter what, it seems that I find myself topping off with a couple quarts of water after the fact to bring it up to 5 gal (and many times to starting gravity). I usually start my boil with about 5.5 gal anticipating some evaporation loss, but can end up way low, especially if I use a lot of full flower hops that soak up liquid.
Is this what basically everybody does, or am I missing some magic somewhere?
I already had an existing 5 gallon pot from when I've done canning in the past. It's aluminum, and pretty cheap, so the desire to upgrade that has been there for a while. It certainly isn't all that big of an issue dumping a couple of gallons of water in the fermenter before the wort. And actually, it's nice knowing that I also don't need to chill it all the way down. I dumped 120 degree wort into chilled water, and mixed, it was right at 75 degrees.
The one closest to me at work shut down recently. It was actually a bit annoying, as I would pass by the place for years, prior to taking this up, and think that it would be nice and handy if I ever did start doing it. Then when I started about a year ago, I looked up the place, only to discover that the original owner retired, and had handed it off to his kid. They had moved it a few miles away, into a converted warehouse space. So I went there to check it out. It was a giant space, with maybe 1/3 of it dedicated to product, and the rest just open. I don't know if they were planning on brewing beer there too, but all I could think of was that it was a giant waste of space. On top of that, they had almost nothing in stock. I was looking for several basic items, and they were out of all of them, with a "we'll probably get those in next month" responses. I ended up finding a place near my house that is maybe 1/10 the size, but has tons of everything. Drove by the other place a month or so ago, and saw that it was empty. The place had been operating since 1990, but his son managed to kill it in about a year. :facepalm:
Boil off rate is a huge range, 10-20% lost to boil per hour as a reallly rough guesstimate, but expect variation based on the shape and size of your vessel and the amount of headspace after filling. Wide and short = greater surface area = more boil rate. Boiling 5 gallons in a 10 gallon container will have less because of the height the liquid has to pass to get beyond the kettle (evaporation/condense cycle). The only real way to know is to literally just boil a given liquid at a given energy rate and measure the difference, repeatedly. And even then you'll have variance due to the dewpoint at the time your brewing. I basically just don't care when I brew. The volume I end up with is the amount of beer I made that day.
With my kettle, I've found that starting with 6.5 gal of water if my hop additions call for an hour of boiling (and maybe 6.375 for the 45 min boil recipes?) get me in the 5 gal ballpark (30ish bombers) and OG numbers that match what BeerSmith predicts, so that's what I start with. It took some trial and error to get there, but not too much... I think I maybe did 5.5 gal (and ended up with 22 bombers significantly stronger than expected; that was a kit, so I didn't even need BeerSmith to compute anything), then 6.25 gal (closer!) then 6.5 gal? I don't know it off the top of my head, but the diameter of my kettle is pretty big; on a regular kitchen stove, it sits over two burners (front and back).
I never thought of the effect of the hops, but now that you say it that makes a lot of sense. I tend towards less hoppy beers and probably stick with ~1oz of pellets total regardless of recipe, though I did try one recipe using whole leaf hops and now I want to look at my notes to see what the final output of that recipe was.
edit: my one kettle regret is that I don't have volume levels etched in, though I think I have a good rough idea of where I want the final volume relative to the brand logo near the top. Of course neither my eyeball method nor actual volume markings account for trub (is that the right term even before it gets racked? there's usually a thin layer of sediment that I assume is a combination of bits o' hop, specialty grain dust that didn't stay trapped in the grain bag, and maybe a little undissolved extract)
Good to know there isnt some secret I was missing out on then. I prefer to ensure that I dont have too much volume, so I typically only start with about 5.5 gallons, and rarely have to add more than a quart or so. This IPA used 3 oz of flower hops (as well as several oz of pellets) and soaked up quite a bit, so I had to add about 3 quarts back to it. I havnt performed many of my recipes more than once, and have been jumping around as far as style each brew, but I could see how you could dial it in pretty close using similar amounts of ingredients each time.
I did this https://byo.com/stories/issue/item/3113 ... e-projects to my 15 gallon HLT. I had an old AC to 13VDC transformer for a CB radio that I used, it worked really well. I carefully added 5 gallons, marked it, added another, marked it etc all the way up. Took about an hour all told.
My wife bought me a 16 gallon kettle for my birthday with markings etched in. It's quite handy once I get the math in my head down.
I use a metal yardstick and pi * r^2 with my metal to measure volume.
I’ve tested it by pouring water in and it’s as close as I would hope given that the smallest mark is 1/8”
I’ve tested it by pouring water in and it’s as close as I would hope given that the smallest mark is 1/8”