Messages

1

Ingredients / Re: where do I buy bulk grain

« on: November 02, 2010, 11:35:27 am »

When I get in on a bulk buy through the club, I can get it for about $28.

wow. that is really cheap. My LHBS has them for 45......

How do you go about asking a brewpup/brewery to get in on a purchase. My LHBS is connected to a brewpub, so I dont think they will be of any help b/c they will just tell me to go next door and buy from there. But, I live in Denver so there are brewpubs/breweries aplenty

2

Ingredients / Re: where do I buy bulk grain

« on: November 02, 2010, 11:31:35 am »

What is a good price for a 55lb sack of Rahr 2 row? I need to start buying in bulk, but I dont know what reasonable prices are.

3

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: First Time Brewing, Concerns with fermentation

« on: November 01, 2010, 02:18:45 pm »

The 'tub' people are speaking of is called a swamp cooler. Do a google search (add beer or homebrewing in the search so you dont get the swampcooler AC type things) and you will see tons of hits and some pics to help you better visualize it. They do work well once you figure out your system. But if you can save up, search craigslist and find a fridge and then buy a temp controller and you'll be able to have so much more control over everything. I know it was your first batch, but you will see, you always need more toys. Good luck

4

All Grain Brewing / Re: Your FIRST all grain?

« on: November 01, 2010, 01:09:12 pm »

My first was a brown ale. Didnt turn out that good unfortunately b/c I had a hard time lautering. But every batch, I think, has gotten better and I learn something new from every brew. Good luck

5

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Forced to buy beer

« on: July 21, 2010, 12:10:39 pm »

No one has mentioned one of the best things about buying commercial beer: free bottles!...unless you keg, then you dont care, but for us bottlers that is always a plus

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All Grain Brewing / Re: Questions after first all grain

« on: May 14, 2010, 10:16:37 am »

Ah, didnt see the 5.5post boil volume. That makes sense

7

All Grain Brewing / Re: Questions after first all grain

« on: May 12, 2010, 09:24:00 am »

By the way, even using 37 ppg I calculate 67% mash efficiency, not 62.  69% using 36 ppg.
I believe you're underselling your efficiency at 62% because you are calculating it based on the volume you got into the fermenter, which is partially a measure of how good you are at siphoning.  A more useful number in calculating recipes is the mash efficiency, which helps predict OG based on the amount of grain and water used, ignoring transfer efficiencies.

How are you getting those numbers? Isnt it 10lbs x 36ppp= 360 / 5gal= 72, and he got 45, so 45/72= 62%. Am I doing the calcualtions wrong??

8

The Pub / Re: Help Save Colorado Beer Culture

« on: February 19, 2010, 05:20:44 pm »

  They don't have that shelf space now. 

I live in CO as well, and this is the only thing that confuses me. If they arent in the grocery stores now, what changes when they arent there in a year. The people buying craft beer will still go to the liquor stores to buy good beer, they arent all of a sudden switch to bud b/c its at the grocery store.

9

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: anyone by chance

« on: February 03, 2010, 04:55:04 pm »

One thing that does worry me is how many people I hear opening breweries - I met 4 guys this weekend at a party who were drawing up plans (2 of them have no brewing experience  ).  Just makes me curious if oversaturation could become an issue given the popularity.

This is what scares me the most about opening a brewery. I live in Denver and there are great micropubs everywhere, so it would be really really hard to get a piece of that market. People who dont really know that much about opening a brewery always say "you could be the next sierra nevada," but they dont understand that SN has been around for over 20 years now and when they first started there was hardly any craft beers available. Now, that could be a detrement b/c there wasnt that big of an audience for the product, but now in places like Denver where there is such a large audience, there are just too many different breweries offering great beer. So it is location, location, location. It sounds like Major has a good one, and there are always people who want to try new beer, and the numbers of those kind of people are increasing everyday, so I bet major is going to do just fine.

It still is fun to day dream about it though

10

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: succession?

« on: February 02, 2010, 09:50:16 pm »

You really should go the other way around, up in IBU's, alcohol, SRM, and so on. Think about it this way, would you drink a 95 IBU 10% IIPA before you drank a pale ale? Or would you drink a RIS before you drank a brown? If you start higher, you will ruin your taste buds to the delicate flavors of the more mild beers. But if that is what works for you, then more power to you

11

All Grain Brewing / Re: Nut Brown Water Profile

« on: January 19, 2010, 02:18:23 pm »

This is what I use for my English Browns, more specifically So. english Brown

Calcium (Ca)= 105.0
Magnesium (Mg)= 17.0
Sodium (Na)= 23.0
Sulfate (SO4)= 66.0
Chloride (C1)= 30.0
Bicarbonate (HC03)= 153.0

for a brown ale wouldnt you want the cl:s04 to be the other way around?

12

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Yeast Farms

« on: January 15, 2010, 02:08:16 pm »

Right now I have 8 strains on hand - there are few more I want, so I think I'll end up keeping 11 total. I just keep them in 100 mL glass jars in the fridge, so they take up very little space. Every time I make a starter, I pour 100 mL of it into a jar, and it goes back in the fridge. So the yeast only see ~1.035 starter wort, which should keep mutation to a minimum. Not quite as good as banking the original culture in glycerol and only using each tube once, but a lot easier.

does that work for any size starter? would you get about the same amount from 100mls from a 2L starter and a 4L starter?

13

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: What's your Favorite Style of Beer?

« on: January 15, 2010, 01:53:29 pm »

It is hard for me to nail one style down, but if I could get a couple it would be Wee Heavy or Dubbel. But I love IPAs, porters, and barley wines too. Its a mood thing for me, but I have no problem drinking a RIS in the middle of summer, or a Wit in the dead of winter

14

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Kettle Caramelization for a Wee Heavy

« on: January 13, 2010, 03:20:29 pm »

are you boiling both simultaneously? or do you start carmelizing and when you are getting close to being finished, do you fire up the burners for the rest of the wort?

15

All Grain Brewing / Re: Brewing salts

« on: January 13, 2010, 03:04:37 pm »

For NaCl use kosher salt. The yeast doesn't like the iodine in the regular table salt.

Kai

thanks a lot, if I never got an answer I was likely to guess wrong and use the iodine salt. Thanks!