I'm guessing that little thing of Vaseline is for when the beer wench Does show up? My old man tried doing the brewing bit a few times. You could call what he made beer....if you felt charitable.
I've considered trying homebrewing. It seems like me having that much beer around woiuld end up being a bad thing in th elong run though.
I homebrewed for some years. Once I got to all-grain brewing, found the cost of beer was exceedingly cheap, and my beers were very good. Made I think 74 batches, some 5 and 6 gallon, mostly 8 to 10 gallon batches. Boy did I drink a lot of beer.
My roommates and I played around with extract kits in college. Some were some were The downside was we hadta drink a shit-ton of Milwaukee's Best longnecks to get the re-useable bottles! Now? I have a buddy in Carlsbad with a setup similar to the OP's that got me again. He had LOTS of friends when the beer was ready! Not so much when it was brewing time. What are y'all using to dispense the beer? M
I used to use mainly Corona bottles, because they have wider necks and I like seeing my beer in there. (stored away from light) When people found out they could get a six pack of my home brew by trading in a few six packs of empty Corona bottles, I was quickly overrun with good empties. But bottling 10 gallons into 12 ounce bottles is tiresome, and I moved on to 22 ounce bottles, mainly from the Bitterroot Brewery here in town. Same deal: get me a few empties and you get a couple full ones. I have a huge stack of empty bottles at home. Was about to move into kegging, started a side business selling parts on the net, didn't have time to brew anymore and that was that. Got a whole brew set up I haven't used in years.
kegging is the way to go. Used to use the ~16oz Grolsch bottles w/fliptops... makes it easier when capping... before that, 12oz bar bottles - used some of the Corona's to allow an easy way to check the clarity of the bier - but they're lighter construction and could break during capping... or if you miscalculated the specific gravity at bottling and added a touch to much of priming sugar :huh. Kegging is much easier all around - just don't use bleach as your sanitizing agent! Jim W - where'd you get those keg/pots? Locally fabbed or part of a brew club (what would you call a brew club TECHday?) project? TT
You mean over near the east side market? I practically used to be your neighbor. Where were you when I lived there????? I do my brewing in the kitchen. I've been making 3 gallon batches-- if I make 5 gallons it takes me forever to drink it and I don't get to brew as much. Belgians sounds like fun. I hope I can get to that level of skill eventually.
your conterflow exchanger isn't clean enough. It also wasn't sanitized properly. Believe me. Use PBW (professional Brewery Wash) Run backwards through that exchanger. Then boiling water from your liquor tank to sanitize. The trouble will be solved.
I always ran several gallons of hot (over 170) water through the counterflow during the brew process as I was always very anal about sanitizing. Figured I had it clean but you never know, there may have been bugaboos in there.
This is why I no longer use mine. I cant see that its clean. PBW is great stuff but I still cant see that its clean. I went back to old school (gravity system)Very simple easy to clean plumbing and valves.I still have my pumps and conterflow I just don't use them. I do use a hydraulic lift to raise the brew-kettle\burner assy above the fermenter after the boil. Its a 3 tear converted keg system with a movable lower brew kettle. I have never seen two systems alike and hope I never do. Glad to see some fellow brewers on board. Chaos ADV Homebrew fest??
Nice setup. Can I put in a request for some 10% Barley Wine please? Id settle for a nice 7% Red Ale though.
It's a prefab setup. Mines an older version, and, not quite as deluxe as what they describe, but, very similar. Here's a link http://brew-magic.com/bmindex.html
I'm not at our retail stores too often, other than checking in in the mornings. Still, ask if I'm in, and, I'll hook you up!
ADV BREW FEST for 09 ????????????????????????????????????????? I have a ESB and Porter on tap at the house now. BEER Motorcycle's what could be better. Maybe a run from home brewery to brewery I.E. ADV BEER RUN !!!!!! Maybe a different state each year. Montana might be a place to start and I saw some else from Montana with a home-brewery posted earlier. I live in the Glacier Park greater area. Montana Beer Run ? 09 BEER RUN ?? RUN FOR BEER 09 ?? Brewlagins RUN 09 ?? Just a thought Chaos
It looks like Shady Rascal, Tony the Tiger and me are all in western Montana (the Root and Glacier it don't get no better than this anywhere). Are you guys willing to brew for this????? Shady?? Tony?? Is anyone interested?? Bikes,Beer,Montana Am I the only one that thinks this is worth doing??? If we do decide to do this who is going to tell my wife?? Chaos