Messages

2596

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Shipping costs?

« on: February 02, 2010, 12:33:30 PM »

Rahr 2-row is $43 at my LHBS, but Maris Otter is up to $77 plus tax... on top of which, they just switched from TF to Munton's. With a sack of TFMO being $66 shipped, I'm seriously reconsidered my "support your LHBS" policy. I guess I'll buy a few pounds of the Munton's and give it a shot before I commit to a sack.

2597

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: besides brewing

« on: February 01, 2010, 09:12:08 PM »

There's one in DC, 4 in DE, 18 in MD, 27 in PA, and 18 in VA. One has to be close to catch the occasional weekend meeting.

http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/pages/directories/find-a-club

2598

The Pub / Re: Ween

« on: February 01, 2010, 09:01:43 PM »

Only the cool kids, apparently.

2599

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: anyone by chance

« on: February 01, 2010, 02:57:49 PM »

And it won't matter if the beer is good or not!

With some of the micros I've had, I'm not sure that matters anyway...

2600

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: anyone by chance

« on: February 01, 2010, 12:48:02 PM »

What drum? What business plan? I'm just questioning the many "professional" skeptics here. 

Well, that was my point. I *do* have a business plan (as, I believe, does Keith) and so we're probably as close as you're going to get to professionals (on this board). If you want real answers you can pop into ProBrewer, but I think they get pretty fed up with questions about starting up from people with post counts of one.

Sorry if I came down on you hard, but you were asking where the numbers come from, and I wanted to illustrate that I'm not just pulling them out of my... mash tun.

2601

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: besides brewing

« on: February 01, 2010, 12:28:19 PM »

Brewing the same recipe several times in a row with minor variations in process or ingredients is the BEST way to learn, IMHO.

Some books that I consider essential:
How To Brew
Designing Great Beers
Principles of Brewing Science
Radical Brewing
The "style series" books from Brewers Publications, for any styles you find particularly interesting.

2602

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: Honey for Priming

« on: February 01, 2010, 11:55:30 AM »

Take a known quantity of the honey, dilute it 9:1 with distilled water, and check the gravity with a hydrometer or refractometer. That will tell you how much sugar it contains per unit mass. Typical honey will be somewhere around 80% IIRC.

To prime with it, I would boil some water, let it cool down below ~160°F and then stir in the honey until it's fully dissolved. No need to boil the honey itself - it's more or less sterile.

2603

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: anyone by chance

« on: February 01, 2010, 11:42:11 AM »

What makes that the magical number and how can you be so sure of it?

You seem to be banging this drum awfully hard. No offense, but can I see your business plan? I'll show you mine.

For a small-scale on-premises brewery (i.e. the brewhouse and restaurant are separate entities) with one employee, you need to sell roughly 500 bbl a year to keep the lights on and pay yourself minimum wage. So even if you brew every day, you need a 2 bbl system to break even. 7 bbl just happens to be the most common size that's larger than the break-even point. If you want to turn a profit (or god forbid, distribute) you'd better be able to turn over those seven barrels 2-3 times a week. And that doesn't include amortizing the high five- to low six-figure startup costs (which, in this scenario, don't include a liquor license - another six-figure sunk cost in many places).

2604

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: anyone by chance

« on: February 01, 2010, 01:45:05 AM »

Short version: you need a liquor license (for a bar) or a production license (for a brewery), or both, depending on the state. You also need a separate space for brewing (i.e. it can't be in your home anywhere I'm aware of, and it may need to be zoned commercial). And of course you have to pay the appropriate taxes at the federal level, and license/label each beer with TTB.

It isn't impossible to do, but it's complicated, enough so that there are attorneys who do nothing else.

2605

The Pub / Re: Germany...

« on: January 31, 2010, 02:33:22 PM »

ROLF thats funny

So funny you threw up?!

2606

Yeast and Fermentation / Re: culturing yeast from a bottled beer

« on: January 31, 2010, 02:31:32 PM »

Literally anything unfiltered can be built up from a bottle. The younger it is, the easier it will be, but if there's sediment, you're good to go.

2607

All Grain Brewing / Re: Organics

« on: January 31, 2010, 02:30:08 PM »

Alt A has 9 lb pils, 1 lb.munich. ALT B has 9 lb Pils, 2 lbs. munich and a little black malt,  Alt A was mashed at 152 or so for 75 minutes to see if it helps.  The OG was a little higher, but not the .1050 I was hoping for.

Assuming you're at about 1.048, that's around 65% efficiency. Do you check your mash pH, and/or treat your water? For a relatively light beer it wouldn't be unusual for tap water to pull the pH out of range and contribute to poor efficiency.

Organics are not that much more expensive IMHO. Who said saving the planet would be cheap?

I'm not sure I'm willing to grant the premise of your question.

2608

Questions about the forum? / Re: Another area / forum?

« on: January 31, 2010, 11:06:57 AM »

Maybe it could even be tied into the COC cycle. Obviously, people could still send in whatever they want, but posting a common recipe so that clubs could have their own mini-comps (or just as a starting point for clubs that want to enter but don't have a solid recipe for the style) could be helpful. And it's a way to tie into the strictly AHA parts of the site, and demonstrate value for members.

2609

Equipment and Software / Re: Manifold vs. Screen/Braid

« on: January 31, 2010, 11:02:15 AM »

For batch sparging, it really doesn't matter much, if at all. You're just trying to dump the liquid out as quickly as possible. For fly-sparging, you need a design that will drain the entire grain bed as uniformly as possible. There's an entire chapter on how to build a manifold in How To Brew.

I batch sparge with a CPVC manifold and am glad I went that way, because I can take it apart and clean it. I tried a braid for a few batches but wasn't comfortable with the little bits of grain that got stuck inside.

2610

Equipment and Software / Re: Anybody use this?

« on: January 31, 2010, 10:59:03 AM »

My biggest complaint is that you can't see the potential extract or color of the grains until you add them to a recipe. So you can't make a quick estimation to get the gravity and/or color contribution you want; I generally have to revise the quantity at least once or twice. It is very well laid-out, slick and fast.