Messages

1

Beer Travel / Good beer store in Little Rock?

« on: June 29, 2012, 05:35:45 AM »

I'll be in Little Rock tomorrow night (Saturday) and want to find a good beer store.

I'm specifically looking for 750 ml bottles of exotic brews ... Goose Island or Boulevard Bourbon barrel beers, Belgian style beers, etc. ... not your run of the mill beers, but ones that would be good for doing a beer dinner or sharing with a couple of special friends.

Also, are there Sunday sales restrictions in Arkansas? Should I be sure to make my purchases Saturday night?

2

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Best Brew Software??

« on: February 01, 2011, 11:38:24 AM »

I've been a Promash user since the beta version.

It does everything I need, I can add ingredients, and export my recipes and brew sessions as text or html. No updates needed, and nothing broken to fix. What more does anyone need in a brewing software? who cares if it is 8 bit when it is accurate and does all I need?

I installed mine on a flash drive and carry it in my pocket. I can use it from any PC, and I don't need web access. my recipes, brew sessions, ingredients all go with me. I've used it under win95, win98, xp, vista, and now win7 with zero issues. no registry entries needed, no system files other than what is in the pm folder.

3

Homebrew Competitions / 2nd Annual FRANKLINSTEIN Homebrew Competition

« on: September 20, 2010, 10:12:04 AM »

We are looking for entries and judges for the 2nd Annual FRANKLINSTEIN Homebrew competition will be held on SUNDAY, November 14th at Depot Street Brewing, 904 Depot Street, Jonesborough TN.

This will be an AHA/BJCP Sanctioned competition accepting entries in categories 1 thru 23 and special category 29, MONSTER Beers. This category is for beers made up of pieces and parts of two or more other styles. Why not just enter category 23? Because the highest placing entry in this category under 6% ABV will be invited to Depot Street to assist head brewer Michael in the brewing of a commercial batch of this beer.

All entries will be judged by at least one qualified BJCP judge and we strive to give you the best feedback that we can.

Registration is now open for entries, judges, and stewards. ONLINE REGISTRATION ONLY to save trees. Full details are at http://www.franklinbrew.org/franklinstein.

Steve Jones
Competition organizer

4

Equipment and Software / Re: brewing kettle

« on: April 14, 2010, 10:08:58 AM »

I really like the idea of one vessel brewing, and the reverse recirculation thru the malt pipe during the mash. Maybe you could devise a method of reversing that flow at the end of the mash to clarify the wort thru a settled grain bed, even if it is after lifing the malt pipe after the mash. This would allow for clarification of the wort.

Are you planning on a US version of the 50L system?

5

Zymurgy / Re: Zymurgy Magazine?

« on: March 03, 2010, 06:03:44 PM »

I'm just going to toss out some thoughts on this.

Having the entire collection of Zymurgy available electronically would be fantastic! It would all be searchable, indexable, and could all be crossreferenced. Want a list of all the articles on Belgian Beer? Just a simple search would do that. How about wanting a list of everything on water chemistry? I wouldn't want to read a fixed index of everything to go thru and pick out articles on water, but a simple search would do that, too. Keep it all online in a members-only area, but also give the option of receiving a printed copy.

The benefit of the online area would be access to issues from past years when you were not a member, which would be offset by the lower cost of not printing and mailing a hardcopy to them. You could even separate them into years, and only give access to members who were members during that year. More setup, more maintenance, but once access for a year is set up it doesn't change. Maybe even sell access to years to folks who weren't members during that year. There's a possibility for more revenue generation.

But I am not a member of the AHA just to get a magazine, or to get discounts on NHComp entries, or discounts on NHConf registration, or pub discounts, or to receive techtalk, or any of the other tangible benefits.

I am a  member of the AHA because they are the prime advocate for the hobby that I love and an organization that I believe in. It isn't what I personally gain from membership ... it is that the organization exists to look out for my right to brew my own beer. That in itself is enough reason to be a member. But I know that most people need some tangible benefit in order to belong to an organization. They don't exist to make money for any individual or corporation ... they exist to ensure the survival of the hobby. And it takes money to do that.

6

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: What's Brewing This Weekend - 2/12

« on: February 13, 2010, 08:56:43 AM »

Timothy Taylor Best Bitter from Wheeler & Protz 'Brew your own British Real Ale', with a slight mod.

OG 1.039, IBU 32

6.5 lb Maris Otter
.5 lb British Crystal 55L
1 oz Roasted Barley
.75 lb Demerara sugar

1.75 oz Styrian Golding 3.5% 90 min
1 oz fuggle 4% 90 min
.33 oz EKG 5% 15 min

mash @154F for 60 min, 1.1 qt / lb

I'm splitting this into 5 one-gallon fermenters, using wlp005, wy1318, wy1469, wy1968, and S04 to see which yeast gives me the best 'Brit' character.

and 2 g gypsum per gallon of water to get an RA of -10

7

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: The NHC...What should I do

« on: January 27, 2010, 12:20:51 PM »

OK ... being in the Eastern timezone I didn't make it to Oakland, so didn't get to experience Sean's cooking. But any who were at Baltimore, Vegas, or Chicago has to admit that the food served at the Grand Banquet was not of the highest caliber.

8

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: The NHC...What should I do

« on: January 26, 2010, 10:28:31 AM »

I've been to 5 of them. The last 2 that I went to (Baltimore 05, Cincy 08) I skipped the Banquet and opted to go out on the town. While the banquet was OK, the food wasn't exceptional, and I didn't really know anyone who had a shot at a medal, so we hit a great restaurant and some really good pubs instead. I may have spent a bit more than I saved on the package, but it was worth it.

So if you're not all that enthused about the banquet, get the package that includes everything else. Don't miss the seminars, Club night, or Pro Brewers night.

9

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: How many carboys do you own?

« on: December 04, 2009, 06:32:59 AM »

2 6.5 gallon
2 6 gallon
5 5 gallon
3 3 gallon
20 cornies

10

The Pub / Re: Lets get to know each other!

« on: November 24, 2009, 02:21:40 PM »

On the contrary hack ... still a beginner with ABC. 3 batches of my own, and sampling maybe 10 others is just the beginning. I saw you were getting ready to do a couple more batches ... I'm doing one next week.

11

The Pub / Re: Lets get to know each other!

« on: November 24, 2009, 02:01:22 PM »

Damn ... after reading every post in the 6 pages of this thread I thought I'd see someone older than me. No such luck.

Steve
The body is 60 and is starting to feel it, but the mind is maybe mid-30s or so
Married 33 years to my best friend
2 kids 31 and 28 (and raising the 7 and 10 yr old daughters of my oldest ... don't ask)
systems analyst in IT organization of a specialty chemical company in East Tennessee

brewing since 95, all grain since 97
2-tier sanke keg setup for 11 years, recently sold and built 5 gallon brewladder system (BLUE COOLER HLT & BLUE COOLER MASH TUN!!!), 10 g SS pot, modified stepladder for gravity brewing at campouts. 20 corny kegs, 10+ carboys, homebuilt walk-in cooler.

13 yr member, past 5 time president, webmaster, competition director of the State of Franklin Homebrewers in East Tennessee
former aha board of advisors (now governing committee) member
former aha homebrewer of the year (sheer luck, tho I have made a few good beers)
bjcp judge

Grew up in Michigan, spent some time in the Navy during Vietnam, then spent a couple of years logging about 15,000 miles on my thumb seeing the interior of this great country. Many different jobs ... tv/radio technician, bar equip service, postal worker, taxi driver, machinist, forklift operator, construction worker, cabinetmaker/furniture maker, pipe organ builder, then college at 39 to become a computer geek.

12

Equipment and Software / Re: My simple carboy washer

« on: November 24, 2009, 11:33:50 AM »

Kai, this is really nice work. very simple and easy. With a little modification, it can be made to clean Cornies too.

Assuming a 1/2 FIP pump outlet, you could use a 1/2 MIP x 1/2 barbed fitting with the pvc tube epoxied onto the barb for the carboy cleaner.

Make the hole in the bucket lid a few inches smaller than the corny ... say a 7" diameter ... so that the rubber top of the corny will sit on the bucket lid. Make up a line with a 1/2 MIP x 1/4 barb, a couple feet of vinyl tubing, and a black liquid QD. screw the mip fitting into the pump, snap the QD on the corny liquid out, invert the corny and turn it on.

13

Homebrew Clubs / Club legal status

« on: November 17, 2009, 12:40:27 PM »

We recently held our first homebrew competition, and during registration we received checks made out to our club name (State of Franklin Homebrewers). Today when we tried to deposit them into our 'club account', which is actually someones secondary personal account with me as a secondary, the credit union would not allow us to deposit those checks. Something about looking like checks made out to a business.
They recommended we open a 'Doing Business As' account, which is still a personal account, but marked as DBA <clubname> and is subject to the same reporting as all accounts. This seems to imply that an 'individual' is doing business under that name, and may lead to questions by the IRS.
So how do other clubs do this? I've looked around on the site, and have seen a couple of articles about club financials, but it would seem to me that there would be a fairly standard process that the AHA could document and recommend for clubs. Would that be incorporation, registration as a non-profit, or something else? Some of those processes seem like an awful lot to go thru just to be able to deposit checks made out to <clubname>.

Does anyone have any profound revelations that they'd like to share? How do you all handle this problem?

14

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: AHA Membership

« on: November 12, 2009, 02:56:46 PM »

I've been a member for about 12 years ... nearly as long as I've been brewing.

The only perks I've taken advantage of are discounted entries in the NHC and discounted conference tickets. But Zymurgy and the Homebrew advocacy are good enough reasons for me.

15

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: The hoppiest beer in history?!

« on: November 12, 2009, 02:47:34 PM »

Jeez, Rob ... make it a bit easier!

But I won't be able to make it to the party ... I'm running a comp this weekend.

But that sounds like a great beer ... I'd love to try it.