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8677
Joined
3/12/2011
Location
Fort Worth, TX
US
Edited Date/Time
7/27/2017 11:55am
In an effort not to hijack the other thread I figured I'd start a new thread.
Elektro in response to your keeping it simple post, I don't dislike our current setup, but we're running into an issue with our current setup.
Problem 1 - Our manifold is currently PVC with a bunch of slits cut in it. The pieces are just pressed together and not glued. Can't glue them because we can't clean it if it's glued. The heat has distorted the PVC so it doesn't hold together the greatest. Maybe a few kettle screens would fix my problem? But that only solves part of our problem.
Problem 2 - The mash tun isn't big enough for some of the stouts we are brewing. We fill the entire mash tun with grain (30 lbs for a 5-6 gallon batch) which leaves a very small amount of head room for sparge water.
Another problem we're running against is with the fast fermenters. On Saturday, one of the bolts that hold the fermenter broke. As in, the whole insert broke which left a hole in the fermenter rendering it useless. We had to put it in a bucket to ferment this time so we'll see how we like it. The fermenters take up a lot of room in the fridge. We can only fit the two fermenters which is 14 gallons of beer at the most in there. We are debating converting to buckets so that we can stack them in the fridge and get about 20 gallons fermenting at a time. 20 gallons of beer requires more grain which requires a larger setup. So these are all of the problems with our current setup.
Elektro in response to your keeping it simple post, I don't dislike our current setup, but we're running into an issue with our current setup.
Problem 1 - Our manifold is currently PVC with a bunch of slits cut in it. The pieces are just pressed together and not glued. Can't glue them because we can't clean it if it's glued. The heat has distorted the PVC so it doesn't hold together the greatest. Maybe a few kettle screens would fix my problem? But that only solves part of our problem.
Problem 2 - The mash tun isn't big enough for some of the stouts we are brewing. We fill the entire mash tun with grain (30 lbs for a 5-6 gallon batch) which leaves a very small amount of head room for sparge water.
Another problem we're running against is with the fast fermenters. On Saturday, one of the bolts that hold the fermenter broke. As in, the whole insert broke which left a hole in the fermenter rendering it useless. We had to put it in a bucket to ferment this time so we'll see how we like it. The fermenters take up a lot of room in the fridge. We can only fit the two fermenters which is 14 gallons of beer at the most in there. We are debating converting to buckets so that we can stack them in the fridge and get about 20 gallons fermenting at a time. 20 gallons of beer requires more grain which requires a larger setup. So these are all of the problems with our current setup.
There is a TON of information and math you have to account for with brewing. Not complicated math, but it's more than you'd think. And you need to understand basic chemistry but it's not so important at first.
As far as recipes, I've come up with about 4 or 5 original recipes that we like. The Blonde, Amber and IPA are all better IMO than what I can find in stores. I may be biased, but it's a long way removed from the first batch. We're still looking for a stout that we are happy with.
There is a brew store within 5 minutes of my work that sells everything you need to brew from equipment to ingredients. I just order the grain, hops and yeast and go home and brew. Takes about 5 or 6 hours on brew day and beer is ready to drink in 3-4 weeks.
It's a fun/relaxing process and relatively inexpensive once you get past the equipment. And as you saw in my other thread, it's about half the price of store bought craft beer or less.
The Shop
Before this last year, I always balked at the craft brew world. Thought it was a bunch of yuppies making a lot to do about nothing, but I slowly moved away from the bud light and dos XX world and into some craft beers and just moved further and further off the deep end with the craft beers. When I try to drink a Coors light or bud light or one of the mass produced beers, it just doesn't taste good. And the ABV is too light. The older I'm getting, the more I want to have fewer drinks to do the job. So I like the 7% to 15% beers if I'm drinking with food. If I'm sitting on the lake or by a pool, I like the 5% blond we have.
Lagering is something we haven't quite tried yet. We have the capability to lager, but just haven't gotten around to doing a lager. Did you ever try to ale a beer and lager the same recipe? Did you notice any difference?
If you've ever had a good Bourbon barrel aged stout, you will be in heaven.
These are some of the store bought stouts that I like to drink when it isn't 100 degrees + outside.
I've turned away from porters/stouts and moved on to IPA's and Sours.
Does brewing your own beer make the room smell horrible? So if you do in your basement, does your entire house smell like shit?
I wasn't too big on IPA's until recently. Drank a few I didn't like and a guy at work is big into them so I decided to take our Amber and make a 1 gallon side batch just to try it. It turned out REALLY freaking good. So good that we did a 7 gallon batch on Saturday. Hopefully it turns out just as good. Won't know for another 2.5 weeks. The guy at work brought me in a "Dawn of the Dank" IPA and it was really good. I have also had the Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA and that was the one that made us decide it was worth trying to brew. It's an 18% ABV IPA. It's REALLY difficult to find though and about $10 for a 12 oz bottle.
We brew everything in my garage. It will make your house smell kinda like when you cook if you do the brewing in your house. But it's not a smell like beer. It smells like you cooked something sweet. The beer smell comes during the fermentation. I have the fermentation going on in the house and I noticed a beery smell in there one day but it was gone after that.
Extract brewing and using grain in a boil bag makes some very good beer without the hassle of a mash tun and sparging. Quicker too.
Quality yeast is the key to quality beer. Top fermenting yeast for ales, bottom fermenting yeast for cold fermenting (lagering) and if you are brewing often, you can keep a good strain of yeast going for a long time.
I bought all my supplies through mail order because the nearest supply store was too far away. This is where most of my product was purchased : https://www.williamsbrewing.com/
I am planning to start up again this winter. Still have all my recipes stashed away somewhere. Love the science and chemistry of brewing but the best part is drinking fresh, quality beer.
As for our yeast, we've only used the US-05 Ale yeast and we used a higher alcohol yeast in one of the stouts.
I'll be kegging for sure within 2 weeks.
Check into some other yeasts based on the style you are brewing. Cheers!
Cut off both fittings, remove the inner hose, crimp one side then hose clamp the proper fitting in the other.
Problem 2. Get a bigger mash tun
BTW, are you fly or batch sparging ?
Pit Row
Recirculating should be much faster and easier than the manifold
I have the same problem with mashtun size. I am going to brew up an Oskar Blues Ten Fiddy clone soon that might be pushing it. Can you get a bigger cooler?
I had problems with the next of the collection ball breaking on my fast fermenters. I think they were the very first product runs.
I don't brew too many lagers and my basement is always perfect ales so I don't really have issues with temp control.
He is a porter and stout aficionado and a scotch whore. He has his limits though. I dumped some of my beer of the month rejects off on him once and I think the porter brewed with tobacco may have made him rethink his choices in life. LOL.
About an hour and half from Budds Creek.
Part of our interest in the HERMS system is to control the temperatures throughout the brew. Not sure if you've looked into the alpha and beta amylase protein extraction. But you extract the beta amylase first at a temp of 145ish and then the alpha is extracted at around 158. To be honest, I have no clue what the end result on flavor is, if any. But my buddy is a pharmacist and he's interested in this down to the molecular level. And it's got my curiosity peaked to see how good we can make our beer. This is all one big science experiment in our minds so we're just having fun with it.
Here is the section of the how to brew book that talks about converting alpha and beta amylase.
http://howtobrew.com/book/section-3/how-the-mash-works/the-starch-conve…
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