Wintertime Diversions

[Fred W]

Although (knocking vigorously on wood) this has thus far been a mild winter in the Northeast, there still isn't any riding of murdercycles. What to do, what to do... What the hell is there to do? My 25 y/o son had the answer: Make us something we can use. Right here. Right now!!

BEER! Hell ya'. :yahoo:

So several weeks ago we dusted off my old homebrewing gear, and visited the local HB shop to stock up on some essentials and cranked up a nice 5 gallon all-grain batch of Brown Porter. That one went pretty well so 2 weeks after we cooked up another batch, this time an American Pale Ale (think Sierra Nevada). That one went even better and easier, and at the same time we kegged the Porter.

Kid came home again this past weekend and we tapped the keg of Porter. Wow. Quite delicious. Even better with a half oz. of Bourbon floated in. Meanwhile we had bought the ingredients for a batch that I'd always wanted to make, a Maibock. Something to put down in the chilly cellar to lager for a couple months and break out for a celebration of the re-emergence of life in the spring. That brew session went the best yet, and is happily bubbling away as I type.

So, how about it? I know there are a handful of other closet home-brewers out there. What'cha been brewing? Anything good?

As good as that quickie Porter is, I can't wait to taste the bock this spring. Might even be something brought along when NERDS rolls around this summer? :drinks:

 

[BikerGeek99]

Sounds like some good stuff!

I'm interested in trying my hand at home-brewing but haven't made it a priority. Yet. Buddy of mine brews his own, though, and has taken it to the level of growing his own hops!

Might even be something brought along when NERDS rolls around this summer? :drinks:

Please do bring some of your brew. I'll be happy to do some QC for ya. :drinks:

 

[fjrchooser]

I've got wine kit kicking around in the back of the closet, a gift from a few Christmases past. The wife and I drank the grape juice long ago and had recently discussed following through with some fresh stock.

Sounds like a good idea after reading your post Fred.

Also got the bug to make some single malt whiskey and construct a small still. A source for the barrel and six to 12 years for aging puts me off a little.

 

[Fred W]

Sounds like some good stuff!

I'm interested in trying my hand at home-brewing but haven't made it a priority. Yet.

Oh you should definitely give it a try or sit in on a brew session with your buddy. It's a lot of fun and the results are truly amazing. Even when brewing the beginner way of using the malt extract (in lieu of actually mashing) if you use good quality yeast you can make some beers that are better than anything you can buy. And at this time of year, what else do we Northerners have to do?

Buddy of mine brews his own, though, and has taken it to the level of growing his own hops!

Hop growing is a bit tough. Easy enough to plant some, get em to grow and harvest them. But then, without paying for fancy lab analysis, you never know what AA% they are, so not sure what usage rate should be. Bitterness contribution varies wildly by variety and crop conditions. If you grow enough of them you can find out through trial and error. Or just use them for aroma and flavor and continue to use the store bought hops for the bittering.

Also got the bug to make some single malt whiskey and construct a small still. A source for the barrel and six to 12 years for aging puts me off a little.

Used barrels are easier to come by than the time.

The brewery that my son volunteers at (Coastal Extreme aka Newport Storm in RI) the head brewer also does some historical rum making. In fact they aired an episode of Dirty Jobs just last night where Mike Rowe was doing all the dirty work in the Rum Manufacturing at Coastal. Really brings a new appreciation as to what goes into a bottle of good rum.

THere are a couple of video snippets on the Discovery Web site: Sneak Peeks

 

[Bigbeavk]

I start my 1st brewing class tomorrow night. I'm ready to roll and even located some nice bottles on Craigslist for cheap.

:yahoo:

 

[Crash Cash]

In fact they aired an episode of Dirty Jobs just last night where Mike Rowe was doing all the dirty work in the Rum Manufacturing at Coastal. Really brings a new appreciation as to what goes into a bottle of good rum.

That was even more hilarious than the usual "Dirty Jobs" episode, which is tough to say! The guys at Coastal are apparently very cool chaps, and sharp, and didn't put up with any of Mike's crap, and even gave him some of their own. Not to mention I think the production crew drank them out of a quarter's worth of profits... Shame I won't be in RI anytime soon, because I'd snaffle me some of that.

 

[Fred W]

From what my son tells me, they are an extremely cool bunch there. Apparently, one of the brewers is leaving (moving elsewhere) and so my son is hoping to get his position. That is where all the "volunteering" is leading to. Keeping my fingers crossed for him as he has been unemployed since graduating from college last spring.

The Thomas Tew Rum (named after a Newport Pirate) will be a staple there for as long as they are in business. Even though it is quite dear, it always sells out right away after bottling. There are a few bottle shops in RI that may ship a bottle to you if you're really interested.

 

[Bigbeavk]

Not only did I get some bottles but I found a whole complete set of equipment on Craigslist for 100bux. I got

3 - glass carboys

1 - 175,00btu burner

1 - 6gal Stainless Stock pot

1 - 6 gal bottling bucket

1 - 5gal fermenting bucket

1 - Copper Chiller Set up

6 - mini kegs

2 - Co2 mini taps

60 - Brown Grolsch bottles

8 - Air Locks

bag of bottle caps

bottle caper

Sanitizer

Hygrometer

electric Carboy warmer

Etc

:yahoo:

Brewed my first British Brown Ale at class the other night and Stout is up next week.

 

[fjrchooser]

Nice find Beav ! Did some research and found the oak barrels and even some copper stills. Clicky

A little more research and I found out the 200 gallon limit per year does NOT cover whiskey, rum etc. No distilling period ! At least not without jumping through a rediculous number of Federal hoops.

Store bought liquor can be added to the keg to continue the aging process but it's just not the same.

Between speeding, shining and God looking over my shoulder it's tough to have any do-it-yourself fun anymore..

 

[LagerHead]

I've been meaning to try home brewing for a while now. But with new greats like Infinium

and Brookly Black Ops (which doesn't exist)

coming out on a regular basis, I find I spend enough time drinking it that I don't have time to make it. This spring for sure, I promise.

 

[Fred W]

Not only did I get some bottles but I found a whole complete set of equipment on Craigslist for 100bux. I got

3 - glass carboys

1 - 175,00btu burner

1 - 6gal Stainless Stock pot

1 - 6 gal bottling bucket

1 - 5gal fermenting bucket

1 - Copper Chiller Set up

6 - mini kegs

2 - Co2 mini taps

60 - Brown Grolsch bottles

8 - Air Locks

bag of bottle caps

bottle caper

Sanitizer

Hygrometer

electric Carboy warmer

Etc

:yahoo:

Brewed my first British Brown Ale at class the other night and Stout is up next week.

Hoo Boy! Nice score. :thumbsup: Those 3 carboys were worth what you paid for the lot, without any of the other goodies.

I'll give you a tip that will help you out in the long run. Gather all the mini=keg stuff together and either sell it to some unsuspecting schlub, or toss it in a dumpster if you are more ethical. Nothing but trouble with those. I tried... I still have the crap in the basement gathering dust. because there are no dumpsters nearby.

If you really decide that you want to keg, you'll have to bite the ($) bullet and invest in the corny kegs, pressure regulator, beer fridge fittings, etc. I did (eventually) and now have a two tap set-up in a fridge in the basement and four 5-gallon cornies (need to buy more soon). Now it's really hard to get motivated enough to bottle any beers as kegging the whole 5 gallons in one fell swoop is so damn convenient.

That stout will undoubtedly come out most stellar.

Stouts, Porters and IPAs are the easiest beers to brew as they have so much flavor going on up front that they will hide a lot of minor off flavors. Believe it or bot the most difficult beer to brew is an American Pilsner clone (like Buttwiper, Curse, etc.) Your technique and sanitation has to be impeccable or you'll taste the problems in the (otherwise tasteless) brew.

Today, I was tinkering around in the "Fearless Freddies' Basement Brewery" and made a few tweaks and minor improvements. I made myself a new rolling cart for the RIMS to make it convenient to brew and then clean, and also rigged up some 1/2" reinforced vinyl hoses long enough to run from the deep sink to the keggle so I won't have to shlep the hot water over in buckets any more.

Tomorrow I'm going to work on converting an old dresser into a malt mill chest, so that it will help contain some of the grain dust when milling the grains. There's a lot of bad juju (bacteria) that reside in malted grains just waiting to infect your fermenting wort. So it's best to try and keep the dust isolated from the fermenters as much as possible. The milling chest will be located on the far opposite side of the basement from "The FFBB"

Next weekend, Freddie III may be driving home for the weekend, and if so we'll be conjuring up a really big Dopplebock that I brewed once before ~ 10 years ago. It's called: "Der Terminator (I'll be Bock)". Oh yeah!! That way I can recycle and re-use the yeast that is under my Maibock right now. You'll find that buying liquid yeast cultures ius the most expensive ingredient. Brewing a few batches back to back that can utilize the same strain makes good economic sense.

@Lagerhead - I know exactly where you are coming from. So many great beers, and so little time to sample them all. I also have a weakness for spirits of a more powerful type, which makes finding time to sample all those beers in the world just that much harder. But brewing is a little bit different than just drinking. Because they are your babies, they are always more attractive. It is a really a great outlet for one's creative juices...

It's like: You could go to a really fine restaurant and buy a fabulous dinner. It is incredibly enjoyable, but the next morning you'll be dropping it in the toilet, and that is the end of it.

Or... you can (try to) learn to cook that same fabulous dish and share the results with your friends and loved ones. That dinner will live on in your mind for a very long time to come. Home brewing is like that.

 

[Bigbeavk]

Wooohooo bottled the British Brown Ale, brewed up a 10gal batch of Foreign Stout and bottling it next week, Brewed a 5gal batch of Chocolate Porter last night. And ya know it's the only classes I've ever had where beer drinking in class is not only allowed but required!(Of course we only sip little tasters) We only get a case from each batch and split the rest with another student and the teacher of course gets a case now and then.

So far i get

British Brown Ale

Foreign Stout

Dbl Chocolate Porter

Belgian Wit

Clusterzilla whatever that is

Irish Brown Ale brewing next week

And 2 more brews after that. That ought to keep me stocked for the Spring Season.

 

[Niehart]

My neighbor brewed a batch of stout, ale and porter.

Rather than call them stout, etc., he call them winter, spring and summer.

When I ask why, he said the summer beer [porter] was so bad that it had to be damn hot outside to be able to drink.

The winter beer [stout] was so good that you could drink it in any weather.

 

[Bustanut joker]

Oh my fecking gawd! This has to be the best topic ever here..

BEER!

Yepp! Boner confirmed!

 

[Bigbeavk]

Hoo Boy! Nice score. :thumbsup: Those 3 carboys were worth what you paid for the lot, without any of the other goodies.

I'll give you a tip that will help you out in the long run. Gather all the mini=keg stuff together and either sell it to some unsuspecting schlub, or toss it in a dumpster if you are more ethical.

Hey Bust I'm glad ya stopped by. I have some Mini Kegs and Taps I'll sell ya.

LOL just kiddin of course. :drinks:

But please keep ur boner out of the beer posts. :butcher:

 

[bigtallguy]

Got a kit for Christmas and will be opening the first bottle this Sunday. If it's carbonated, the instructions with the kit said the flavor gets better over 3 months. I guess I'll start drinking it in earnest, if it turns out good, next month.

Where are you guys ordering your supplies from? The more I read about it, the less I trust the kits you get online to supply good yeast and all. This batch was very active for the first few days in the primary fermenter, then when I transferred it to the secondary the specific gravity didn't change much over the next 10 days (started at 1.044-ended 1.021, was 1.022 when I transferred it to the secondary). I'm probably worrying too much, but I'm wondering if the yeast wasn't up to par...

 

[dcarver]

Although (knocking vigorously on wood) this has thus far been a mild winter in the Northeast, there still isn't any riding of murdercycles. What to do, what to do... What the hell is there to do? My 25 y/o son had the answer: Make us something we can use. Right here. Right now!!

BEER! Hell ya'. :yahoo:

So several weeks ago we dusted off my old homebrewing gear, and visited the local HB shop to stock up on some essentials and cranked up a nice 5 gallon all-grain batch of Brown Porter. That one went pretty well so 2 weeks after we cooked up another batch, this time an American Pale Ale (think Sierra Nevada). That one went even better and easier, and at the same time we kegged the Porter.

Kid came home again this past weekend and we tapped the keg of Porter. Wow. Quite delicious. Even better with a half oz. of Bourbon floated in. Meanwhile we had bought the ingredients for a batch that I'd always wanted to make, a Maibock. Something to put down in the chilly cellar to lager for a couple months and break out for a celebration of the re-emergence of life in the spring. That brew session went the best yet, and is happily bubbling away as I type.

So, how about it? I know there are a handful of other closet home-brewers out there. What'cha been brewing? Anything good?

As good as that quickie Porter is, I can't wait to taste the bock this spring. Might even be something brought along when NERDS rolls around this summer? :drinks:

That's the final straw. Heading out to NERDS. Better be some beer there. And Whiskey too.

 

[Bigbeavk]

Where are you guys ordering your supplies from?

There are plenty of online supply stores. I would recommend joining a forum and checking references first. I joined Homebrewtalk and it seems to be a good place packed with info and a vendors section. The best thing to do to make sure fermenting and aging do their job is to have a place where the temperature is stable and somewhat controllable. From what I've read so far just because the bubbling has slowed down doesn't mean it's finished. I think we are going to need patients. I haven't found a good supplier for that yet. lol

In the classes I've had so far we only ferment for 2 weeks then bottle it. I haven't seen a reason yet for a secondary but I'm sure there are quite a few different ways to do things depending on the type of beer.

Make sure you use SearchTempest for keeping an eye on your local area craigslist for extra bottles and equipment. It works really well.

 

[Fred W]

Bigbeavk - That's awesome!! I can see that you are well on your way to being hooked in the hobby. As for the drinking while brewing, it's a definite tradition. They even allow it in many (smaller) commercial breweries.

For ingredients, I have always bought from my LHBS for several reasons. One, it isn't too far a drive, just 1/2 hour away in Nashua. Two, shipping of 50+ lb sacks of grain can be considerable. Three, I buy and use only liquid yeast cultures. They are significantly better performing and tasting than the dried yeast, but need to be in temp controlled packaging during shipping, which can't be guaranteed this time of year (or in mid-summer), and Fourth, I want to keep the LHBS in business, so even if I spend a tad more, it's in my own selfish best interest as well as theirs.

So an update on my own winter brewing: The Dopplebock brewing went off without a hitch last weekend, and that is bubbling away in primary ferment now. The Maibock is fermented out and is now in a carboy and beginning its lagering period. Both of these beers will take some significant lagering (read patience) to clear up and mellow out. They are both going to be rather substantial beers. The Maibock came in at 7.2% alcohol and the Dopple should come in right around 8.5%. I've decided to bottle them, rather than kegging, so I can spread the consumption out as well as to make them easier to share.

During the brewing, we polished off the Peter (Porter) we had on draft, so now I have three empty kegs begging to be filled. So it's off to the LHBS later today for a few odds and ends, and tomorrow will be another brew day, some quicker fermenting ales to get those kegs back on line. I'm thinking tomorrow will be a repeat of the Porter. It was that good, and maybe next weekend an Oatmeal stout, another of my favorite styles.

As was noted, we northerners gotta get all that brewing done during these nasty winter months, as once the weather breaks, it is a lot tougher to spend all day in the basement when the bike is calling your name from the garage.