Getting back into beer brewing

[MaryB]

Yup with summer coming up an ice cold beer after mowing or tending garden is good stuff! And the new beer kits are nothing like the ones of the 70's and 80's that always had a weird flavor.

[swmass]

Before I started reloading/casting beer brewing was my "big" hobby. I've brewed so much beer I couldnt even try to recall how much... dozens upon dozens of batches. To the point where it became more of a chore than a hobby... Now a days I probably brew about 1 batch of beer a month after taking a break from all of it. I've gotten really good at it. I tend to just keep it nice and simple (most beers get 3 weeks in the bucket.. no second fermenter), keep it nice and clean, and keep the fermenter under 70 degrees and they always seem to come out great. Not to say I haven't made a few...less desirable ones.

I've done a lot of partial mash brews although I've never tasted a difference between that and the extract. Cant speak for the small batches you're doing but its a fun hobby and I could see many casters brewing beer as well.

Look into home brew talk... its basically the cast boolits forum of the home brew world, theres an endless amount of info on there

[44man]

Beer was the staff of life when water was so bad it killed you and everyone else.
A good beer will feed you too. I had a few pages listing all the nutrients, minerals and vitamins in stout but cant find it. It is a meal in a glass. Most did not have a lot of alcohol back then. They gave beer and wine to children. Water killed them. Store beer is not that way, what you make at home is better for you.
Extract beer can be super and many times better then whole grain but cost goes crazy. The best stout I ever made was with extract but I cant afford it now. Even a bag of malted barley has tripled.
I look at a better beer in Wally World and refuse to spend $10 or more for 6 bottles.
Then the white lightning sold in booze stores is 20X what it costs to make--TAXES. Taste is not good either.

[MaryB]

I grew up in a German heritage family. My grandmother was dead set against drinking except for beer at meals. Then we all came in for lunch, ate, had 2 beers and went back to work on the farm. Kids and all had some of grandpas home brew. Wish I had his recipe, it was some decent lager. Grandma came out to use his wood shop to fix a chair one day and accidentally found grandpa's hooch stash... he kept it in the old wood stove that grandma had never started in 50 years. She starts it and the bottle exploded inside the stove... one hot fire with a quart of moonshine going up! Grandpa and the neighbor had a still hidden down in the creek they used to make enough for just family use. Grandpa would hide in the shop at night and have a few sips of shine where grandma couldn't see it.

[44man]

I loved your post. Sounds like me hiding hooch! I made my still from a big beer keg and make enough for me.
My friend made a batch of rice wine, the Japanese stuff. It was not good, I ran it and it made the best hooch. He made wine all the time and saved the grapes after for me. I added sugar and let it work more to run. Peaches make great booze too.
There is a group trying to make small amounts legal to make.
I grew up with it not legal to make beer but you don't stop it. Old timers used Red Label malt syrup with sugar, nasty junk, no sugar in beer except candy sugar in Belgian.
The problem is the gov with tax money. We can make 200 gallons of beer and wine per family member a year now, why not a few gallons of shine? The law needs changed.

[xacex]

Before I started reloading/casting beer brewing was my "big" hobby. I've brewed so much beer I couldnt even try to recall how much... dozens upon dozens of batches. To the point where it became more of a chore than a hobby... Now a days I probably brew about 1 batch of beer a month after taking a break from all of it. I've gotten really good at it. I tend to just keep it nice and simple (most beers get 3 weeks in the bucket.. no second fermenter), keep it nice and clean, and keep the fermenter under 70 degrees and they always seem to come out great. Not to say I haven't made a few...less desirable ones.

I've done a lot of partial mash brews although I've never tasted a difference between that and the extract. Cant speak for the small batches you're doing but its a fun hobby and I could see many casters brewing beer as well.

Look into home brew talk... its basically the cast boolits forum of the home brew world, theres an endless amount of info on there

Good advice there. Talking about turning a hobby loose, I started with a computerized 2 tier system I built many years ago to get started. I still have that one. It eventually lead to me working at a home-brew store part time and teaching classes on the weekends, to managing that store. Eventually Morebeer picked me up, but I did not like working with one of the founders.They ended up using some of my advances on my brew-system with their factory units they sell. That lead to me getting a gig as an assistant brewer at BJ's. That is when it became real work, and was not fun anymore. It took me several years to turn that brew system back on. I have been so busy these last few years I have not had a chance to turn it back on. Just moved, and gave me a chance to take stock of what I accomplished with that gear. MaryB, you are right about smaller batches. After a while these monstrosities just make to much beer to consume. Last batch I did I ended up with 20 gallons in a day to add to the 10 that was already in the fridge.All kegged up in corny kegs of coarse. After a while you get tired of wheat beer. Now with the new place I am debating on what to do. I have a well house that is 10x10 that I have put that system in. Brew house I suppose.To much iron, and the softener adds to much salt. I may just run the portable RO filter unit I built on daisy chained corny kegs for water. Not that it is that bad, but water I have found over the years is as critical as alloy composition, and size of bullets in this hobby. I may do some small partial grain recipes to get a taste of what I have here, then crank up the monster for the big summer party refreshments.

[44man]

Beer depends on water. I am lucky with a spring near. The owners let me fill my jugs. The water is so good a brewery wanted to buy the property. I understand it is an underground river that runs from PA to WV and dumps into the Potomac River.
Most factory beer is from poor water, filtered. Coors says mountain water but it is still not good beer. You can't cheat on grain like Bud with rice. Best booze is from malted barley, not corn. Expensive.

[MaryB]

My water is not the best, lot of calcium so I boil it and let it rest overnight. Rack the good water off the layer of sediment in the morning.

[44man]

I live across the road from the old Bakerton limestone quarry. They hit a spring that flooded it. 80' of water now and tunnels all over full of water. A lot of lime in well water. Also some iron.
Stuff will ruin a water heater and softener so I do a lot of work. Our water tastes good but for beer, it stops conversion. But never rinse with it, enough nasties to spoil beer but no harm to drink.
Carol sucks on bottled water all day at great expense. She has pains and arthritis and hates to come down the basement. I have nothing but age related weakness. I drink beer, booze, juice, etc and very little water but our water is good to drink.
You live in the city with bleach in water and all the other junk, forget making good beer. Your water will kill yeast and you.
I grew up in Cleveland where the Cuyahoga river flowed into the lake. The black slick went for miles. The water pickup was 5 miles out but the river went that far too.
You could walk the shore and see turds floating.
Air could not be breathed, it was red and ate paint from cars and houses. We survived all that.
But beer is home to everything and they use malt to test for bugs.
You must be 100% sterile.

[BorderBrewer]

Hi MaryB
Not sure if your BIAB question was answered. BIAB is definitely faster than a traditional infusion or step mash and clean up is quicker too. The only down side I've found with it is that there is a tremendous amount of protein break when doing BIAB. For this reason, I'll use BIAB for fresh beers that will be drank quickly, but not for big beers meant to age. The nylon paint strainers sold for 5 gallon buckets work great for BIAB. Rig up a pulley to let the bag drain into your kettle.

[44man]

A stuck sparge is bad, bad. I use the bag for a hop back after the boil. I don't mash in a bag.

[BorderBrewer]

There is no sparge with BIAB. You mash the grains in the bag, then pull the bag up and let it drain and boil the wort as usual. It's fast and easy.

[MaryB]

I am an ale fan and not many need much aging. Most are good to go 2 weeks after bottling with only a few high gravity recipes needing longer. I may get creative and make a lauter tun from some stainless kettles... cut the bottom off one and slide it in until it is 1" off the bottom after making it look like swiss cheese on the drill press.

Hi MaryB
Not sure if your BIAB question was answered. BIAB is definitely faster than a traditional infusion or step mash and clean up is quicker too. The only down side I've found with it is that there is a tremendous amount of protein break when doing BIAB. For this reason, I'll use BIAB for fresh beers that will be drank quickly, but not for big beers meant to age. The nylon paint strainers sold for 5 gallon buckets work great for BIAB. Rig up a pulley to let the bag drain into your kettle.

[MaryB]

Boiling drives off the chlorine in city water. Plus I am running the water through my Brita filter to get rid of most of it before it hits the pot. Just dealing with a lot of lime in the water and boiling will precipitate some of that out(that fuzz in the bottom after it settles all night). So far the Caribou Slobber is fermenting nicely so the water must be okay for that... taste I will find out in a another 3-4 weeks(recommended age is 4 weeks minimum, 6 preferred). Soon as it is out of the fermenter I am starting another batch of extract with a tiny amount of grain kits. I picked up 4 different ones to see if I like any of them or if it will be a drink it quick to get rid of it beer! I need to order 2 more of the little 1 gallon fermenters and some more bottles so I can have 3-4 batches going at once.

I live across the road from the old Bakerton limestone quarry. They hit a spring that flooded it. 80' of water now and tunnels all over full of water. A lot of lime in well water. Also some iron.
Stuff will ruin a water heater and softener so I do a lot of work. Our water tastes good but for beer, it stops conversion. But never rinse with it, enough nasties to spoil beer but no harm to drink.
Carol sucks on bottled water all day at great expense. She has pains and arthritis and hates to come down the basement. I have nothing but age related weakness. I drink beer, booze, juice, etc and very little water but our water is good to drink.
You live in the city with bleach in water and all the other junk, forget making good beer. Your water will kill yeast and you.
I grew up in Cleveland where the Cuyahoga river flowed into the lake. The black slick went for miles. The water pickup was 5 miles out but the river went that far too.
You could walk the shore and see turds floating.
Air could not be breathed, it was red and ate paint from cars and houses. We survived all that.
But beer is home to everything and they use malt to test for bugs.
You must be 100% sterile.

[44man]

I have way too much grain to use a bag to mash. The bag will stick fast too so it takes forever to drain. My Coleman cooler never sticks and flow is constant. This is how. Attachment 160628

[MaryB]

I couldn't move that if full! 2 35 pound buckets of corn for the pellet stove today just about did my back in!

[44man]

It is not full or that heavy until I start to run sparge water through it. I have it on top of the dryer so the hose goes in my boiler and the rest in a bucket. I don't carry more then a few gallons at a time.
The cooler has great handles. I make mash water 15° over mash temp and it settles to the right temp so it never needs touched or heated again. It gives me good conversion shown by an iodine test.
The tubes in the bottom have saw cuts about every 1/2". It plugs into the drain valve with a stopper. It has never stuck even with wheat. I have to slow the flow with the valve. Best thing I ever made. The tubes and caps just plug together so it can be taken apart to wash. No soldered joints.
I dump the spent grain out back and the tubes fall out with it, darn things are HOT! Our horse ate it when we had him but I never seen deer eat it.

[LaPoint]

Another good source for brewing supplies is Midwest supplies. http://www.midwestsupplies.com/ They are just west of Hwy 100 off of Excelsior Ave in Minneapolis. My 83 yr old father & I have brewed several batches/yr for the last several years. We like to use the combination malt extract & grain kits. We use the Cornelius kegs (5 gal soda kegs) that I bought off of Craigslist. Although we don't have any, there are 2.5 or 3 gal Corney kegs. I am in the process of converting an chest freezer in to a keg cooler or "keezer" as they are commonly called. We also like the brown ales, porters & stouts. Good brewing!!

[44man]

The very best Imperial stout I ever made was with syrup. It was like sipping whiskey. But the cost was way too much. I have never equaled it with all grain.
The extracts make wonderful beer but when I look at the prices I back off. Grain is way too much as it is.
Same as wine kits.

[MaryB]

Well if I want a good ale I have to make a 60 mile round trip... all the local bars carry is mass produced swill beer... so cost is relative when I am not burning $5 worth of gas...