Topics

1

Events / NHC Hospitality suite & Club Night -- How much beer????

« on: August 30, 2012, 05:26:00 am »

I wondering if clubs that were participating at this year's NHC and provided beer could share how much beer they went though at club night, hospitality suite, etc.

How many taps did your club have at club night?
How much beer did your club go through?

How many taps did your club have at the hospitality suite?
How many hours did your club host the hospitality suite for?
How much beer did your club go through?

Any other beer needs?  How about for tasting during a presentation?  How much?

I had heard to shoot for 250 gallons and that seemed very prohibitive for a small club.

2

Commercial Beer Reviews / Commercial meads in PA -

« on: July 22, 2012, 05:44:46 pm »

A while back I posted a question about finding any good meads available in Pennsylvania. Since then I had the chance to taste some fantastic ones at 2012 NHC so I feel I can do a little amateur comparison.

Mt Hope Winery - I have enjoyed all of traditional and melomels.   They won a gold metal at the 2012 Pennsylvania Wine Competition for their Honey Mead.

Stonekeep Meadery offerings are also good.

Anyone else try any of these?  Any BJCP judges performed a commercial calibration on these?
Aware of any others available in PA?

3

Other Fermentables / How'd mead and cider get to be part of a beer organization.

« on: July 10, 2012, 05:09:01 pm »

Just wondering - as mead is more a wine than a beer, what is the history of it being part of AHA/BJCP? 

I did the old google thing and did not come across any of the history?

Same question for cider?

4

Pimp My System / Geek: linksys stir plate

« on: June 15, 2012, 06:37:09 pm »

(note edited 7/22/2012 as the old photo site was shutdown - same content, new photo source)



I built this from parts found around my house.  Had an old fan, hard drive for the magnets, and a power supply.  Was stumped with what I could use as a base - almost went pure minimalist with just attaching fan to a piece of plexiglas - and then I saw the linksys in the electronic junk pile (yeah, I'm a full time geek and part time hoarder.)

The concept/basic instructions for this is well documented at: http://www.byo.com/stories/projects-and-equipment/article/indices/20-build-it-yourself/401-build-your-own-stir-plate

I pulled the router apart, removed any diodes/chips off the circuit board that were in the way, glued the fan on the board, and attached (just wrapped, did not even solder) the fan leads to the power adapter port inside the router. (I should of taken a picture of that, but I forgot, and I'm not pulling it apart now  ).  Trust me, it will be obvious, and you can use a volt meter to confirm the right points of contact.

I cut out out the top of the router, where the air vent is to allow clearance for the fan/magnet. 


Its not perfectly flat, but the flask does sit pretty stabile on it. 

I've used it for a few starters now and it has worked fine - and the price was right.

5

Yeast and Fermentation / First lambic - what to expect in fermentation

« on: April 06, 2012, 08:48:01 am »

Greetings,

I started my first lambic -  the Brewing Classic Style recipe.
I intially pitched S-05 and then when krausen fell, I pitched 2 bottles of ECY BugFarm. I did not make a starter of the Bugfarm.

So what should I expect to see in terms of fermentation activity?  Is this a subtle process or should I be seeing air lock activity, etc? 

I know this is a year+ brew, but curious on what visible indicators of progress I can expect short  term.

Regards,

6

Events / NHC - how much beer for clubs to bring?

« on: March 25, 2012, 04:19:40 pm »

Hi experienced NHC attendee's and hosts... how much beer does a club need to bring for something like club night or to be a hospitality suite host?

7

Homebrew Clubs / Looking for some diagrams on brewing process

« on: October 18, 2011, 02:22:31 pm »

Before I try to "reinvent the wheel", as they say, I'm looking for some brewing process graphics to use as for the upcoming "Learn to homebrew" event.

I'd like to have one set that represents the professional brewing process and another that represents home brewing version. Nothing  overly complex/detailed. Something like this (professional view):


I've googled and have a lot of raw material, but thought I would ask if there has been any that other clubs created that I could use.

In addition, as we would have brewing demo's and workshops, to use that graphic as a base to show "you are here" in the process as the brewing demo progressed throughout the day; and at specific presentations/workshops on brewing topics.

I have not found anything on the AHA site, but may be overlooking it.

8

Other Fermentables / Sulfur smell in a pear cider

« on: October 12, 2011, 11:04:05 am »

Greetings,

Ah, my first pear cider and I'm confronted by a distinct sulfur smell, first noticed in day 10 when it appear fermentation is done and I racked to secondary, and still existing on day 25.  I'm guessing that I either I racked off yeast to soon, should have used yeast nutrients like I do for my meads, or simply need to wait until this clears up.

The pear juice is from a fresh pressing at a very good cider mill.  I used lalvin-47.  Fermented at 64f.
The OG was low ( a very wet year) 1.040, so perhaps not enough nutrients and yeast stressed?
A friend did a batch from the same source, used safale-05 and having same type of sulfur smell.

Thoughts?

9

Homebrew Clubs / A 2-3 hour "How to brew all grain" class suggestions

« on: August 08, 2011, 02:47:02 pm »

I've been trying to come up with a 2-3 hour max all grain brewing class/demo/"teach in" for our home brew club.   Meads, wines and extract brewing can be done in that time frame, but stumped on right approach for all grain.

Given it takes me 6 hours to do a full al grain brew, anyone have suggestions on approach to "boil this down" (pardon the pun)?

Want more hands on then slide ware.  Perhaps use approach the cooking shows do were you show the mash steps in one mash tun, then have one another mash tun previously started that you would do the sparging on?

10

PA / Exeter, PA - Wyoming Valley Home Brewers Mead Making Demo/Sample

« on: July 25, 2011, 04:42:29 pm »

Come enjoy an evening of mead making and sampling at our regular club meeting.
We'll help you know your sack from your pyment!

Members and non members always welcome!

Monday August 1, 7:00pm in the back room of Sabatini's Pizza, 1925 Wyoming Avenue. Exeter, PA 18643. Exeter.

http://www.wyomingvalleyhomebrewers.org/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Wyoming-Valley-Homebrewers-Club/75736229396

11

Commercial Beer Reviews / Commercial meads in PA - Anyone ever have Bunratty Mead?

« on: July 10, 2011, 11:51:19 am »

Having a hard time getting any good mead in Pennsylvania   - our stupid/archaic state owned wine stores makes obtaining anything like Redstone, Rabbits Foot, Long Island, Moon Light meadery's virtually impossible. 

The only one available to me is something called Bunratty Mead - an import from Ireland.  Anyone ever have it?

Anyone one have any local PA meads they feel are good reference meads?

12

Classifieds / Wanter: Cluster hop rhizomes

« on: May 24, 2011, 06:21:36 pm »

Probably a little late in the season, but I'm looking for 1-2 Cluster hop rhizomes.  Get in this year and harvest next.  Hav not been able to source these elsewhere. 

I can trade for a some 4 year old brewers gold partitions, or name a price.

13

Homebrew Competitions / Bison organic pro-am. Anyone else from east coast shipping issues?

« on: April 13, 2011, 04:02:24 am »

Bison Brewery and 7 Bridges pro am entries are due this weekend.  Anyone east of the Mississippi have issues shipping to the NC drop off location?  Seem the drop off moved from address listed on web site and UPS holding packages to that "old" address...  Or at least mine.
I've been in contact with contest sponsors to resolve.  Just want others to be aware and see if experiencing same issue.

14

Ingredients / Substitute for Special "B"?

« on: January 16, 2011, 09:24:55 am »

I'm working on a robust porter recipe that calls for special B about 3% of the grain bill.  I'm not familiar with this grain, and don't have it on hand.  Is there another grain I can substitute for this for flavor that it may add, say in the crystal family?  looks like it ads color too, which I can get from crystal 120.

I have done some google searches, and most discuss color, not flavor.

TIA,

Dan

15

Equipment and Software / Copper boil kettle - taste impact?

« on: December 22, 2010, 07:22:25 am »

Can anyone can cite a source, or even from personal experience if boiling wort in a copper vs stainless steel vs aluminum brew pot impacts final taste of a beer.  I'm thinking if any, maybe lagers could be impacted.

I'm interested in historical brewing, specifically 1890-1910,  and from what I understand, boil kettles were made of copper then.

Wondering if I need a copper kettle to replicate taste. I have a stainless one now.