Messages

1

Ingredients / Re: General hop guidelines

« on: June 10, 2013, 08:27:22 PM »

certainly no hard fast rules for me.

i've bittered a porter entirely with centennial and i have a double ipa that i use large amounts of warrior for late and dry hopping. both are really good beers. i also almost never brew the same beer twice. i'm not concerned about medals or re brew ability. for me it's about just playing around and seeing what happens.

that said, i love to almost always use simcoe, amarillo or centennial in large amounts for pales and ipas. i love chinook and willamette for some things. i have dry hopped with french strisselsplat just cause i had it on hand. i love english kent for my porters and always add some ahtanum late in them.

i just love trying different combinations to see what happens with the beers i brew because i know i can get great beers on tap or at the store.

i do this because i can brew whatever i want, good or bad.

call me crazy.

2

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Burner question

« on: June 05, 2013, 01:21:34 PM »

i upgraded to a blichmann about a year ago and am very happy with it. agree with above statements.

3

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: All grain jump

« on: June 05, 2013, 01:20:24 PM »

i started with 3g biab batches. i was hooked and had a blast brewing small batches several times a month. biab was a very simple way to try all grain.

i finally decided to do the denny cheap n easy. i haven't turned back. i still do 3g batches as well as 5 gallon batches with cheap n easy. i've even converted a brewing buddy who started out fly sparging, mainly because it saves him a little bit of time.

4

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Bottling prep

« on: May 12, 2013, 05:03:38 PM »

I only bottle and have had only a few bad bottles over the last 3.5 years of brewing. maybe one day I'll get a keg system, but I'm probably in the minority here because I really like the bottling process. it took a little time to refine my process but it works fine for me.

5

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Bottling prep

« on: May 12, 2013, 05:01:25 PM »

+1 yes! rinsing bottles well after use makes bottling much easier.

6

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Bottling prep

« on: May 12, 2013, 04:56:08 PM »

my newest routine:

night before bottling- I make and chill priming solution, put all bottles into dishwasher and run sani wash without any detergent.

morning of bottling(I'm up really early)- sanitize caps and a spoon and tubes, rack star san into clean bucket to sanitize racking cane and tubes, pour priming solution into 1st bucket, rack beer into 1st bucket with priming solution and mix gently and let sit for 30 minutes. bottle away.

it's worked very well for me. but if you don't use dishwasher you do need to completely cover bottles with sanitizer. I used to have a full 5 gallon bucket of sanitizer and just drop in 12 bottles at a time for recommended contact time, star san a couple of minutes idophor 5 minutes if I remember correctly. since I've been mixing star san with distilled water I only make 2.5gallons and have it on hand for about a month month and a half. have had very high success doing this.

7

The Pub / Re: Don't forget to hug mom!

« on: May 12, 2013, 01:06:58 PM »

i cleaned up my buddy's yard this morning after the beer tasting party we had last night. get to hug my mom in paris on tuesday. sent her flowers though!

8

The Pub / Re: Do you hate to be corrected?

« on: May 12, 2013, 01:02:50 PM »

ah, the lovely nirvana of not being on Facebook.

i jumped off almost 3 years ago. not for correction stuff, but for 3 separate are-you-kidding-me-i'm-a-grown -up-not-in-high-school-anymore situations. one of which because i friended someone another friend didn't like and the fallout it caused. seriously. 

9

Beer Recipes / Re: Session IPA's

« on: May 11, 2013, 11:57:19 PM »

i don't know about brett but i liked session ipas when they were called pale ales.

10

Equipment and Software / Re: Canner

« on: May 09, 2013, 09:17:27 PM »

think about the keg system, fermentation chamber and/or hops you could make happen with 6gs. not to mention the extra left over you could put into an ira or cd.

and this comes from the guy who almost pulled the trigger on a brutus build 3 weeks ago because i could make it happen and think the system is pretty.

i decided to put the money into my ira and a fund to facilitate shipping beers home from belgium when i'm there in two weeks.

11

Equipment and Software / Re: Upgrade

« on: May 08, 2013, 06:11:19 PM »

i bought a 1 gallon brew kit at whole foods a while back. i now use the 1 gallon jug to harvest yeast. you could easily buy a little grain and hops and create your own recipes very easily. though, once i went all grain(3g stove biab and 5g "cheap n' easy") 1 gallon batches had no real interest for me since doing a 3g biab took the same amount of time and rendered a bit more beer. give it a try if midwest has 1 gallon kits!

12

Equipment and Software / Re: Upgrade

« on: May 08, 2013, 05:56:12 PM »

yeah. probably a better bet. i just really like getting new hops.

13

Equipment and Software / Re: Upgrade

« on: May 08, 2013, 05:39:07 PM »

buy any hops you want! they still have to go into extract batches.

what are your favorite beers? what beers do you want to brew? find out what hops go into those beers!

14

Equipment and Software / Re: Upgrade

« on: May 08, 2013, 05:07:57 PM »

a chiller if you don't have one, the dishwasher is a wonderful bottle tree. or hops.

congrats on your first brew day by the way!

cheers.

15

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Yeast Storage

« on: May 07, 2013, 06:14:25 PM »

i just washed some yeast from yesterday's bottling. i used pint glass jars because that's what i have on hand(no where near new parent) and there is plenty of space. 2oz containers seem a bit small but i don't know for sure. it seems if the containers are washed well and sanitized they should work.