The Official MWGL Homebrew Thread....

Second fridge with a temp controller......stable set-point fermentations, no fuss. You can get cheap fridges off Craigslist and temp controllers off eBay. I got my fridge for free and the controller from a surplus place for 12 bucks
 
I used to brew pretty regularly. Dry extracts mostly. No mash for me. I have a scottish ale kit I got that I plan on amping up with some other stuff (extra malt, grains, and hops) to make a double black IPA soon. Stopped at a homebrew store in Boise today and got pretty much what I need. Haven't brewed in quite a while and am excited to try again!

I will post the recipe I use once I brew.
 
Tiltsta said:
I used to brew a lot with my older brother when we both lived in NH. He stuck with it and has his own kegging set up and everything. He is in a bunch of clubs and trades beer with other guys and stuff. I kind of drifted away from it. I should start back up again, as it is a lot of fun, and I have access to lots of science stuff to hep out. I also have awesome aseptic technique from 25 years of BSL3 virus lab work. Beer making should be pretty easy, as I've done it before (at least as a helper).

My main concern is that I lack a reasonable temperature controlled place to do the fermentation. My garage gets to be about 110 degrees every day, so probably too hot for most yeast to be very happy. My house is an open floor plan, so I don't have a room I can do it in that will not make the house smell like beer. Darn shame, really. I guess I could do it during our winter, when temps in the garage are more in the 80s.
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Get a used freezer on Craigslist and hook it up to a temp controller, Austin brew supplies has one for $82 - problem solved.

Well my cider has gotten a little better with age, cleared up a little and just ever so slightly carbonated. It's not terrible but not great, drinkable I suppose.

I have an American Pale Ale in the primary now, it'll be ready to bottle in about two weeks and ready to drink a few weeks after that. The next beer I make is either a Fat Tire or Moose Drool clone.
 
A guy I know from my local pub has managed to get me some of those big 20 litre water cooler bottles so I can make some wine for Christmas.

You can't buy bottles like that here in the shops, most places recycle them or get charged for any that are lost so they won't give you any and I refuse to buy a glass demijohn for some cheap wine.

Hopefully pick them up this week and get a Christmas brew on. :thu:
 
jbj said:
A guy I know from my local pub has managed to get me some of those big 20 litre water cooler bottles so I can make some wine for Christmas.

You can't buy bottles like that here in the shops, most places recycle them or get charged for any that are lost so they won't give you any and I refuse to buy a glass demijohn for some cheap wine.

Hopefully pick them up this week and get a Christmas brew on. :thu:
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Those bottles are great. Are they plastic or glass?
 
jaxn slim said:
Those bottles are great. Are they plastic or glass?
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Plastic. They are literally the ones that come out of water coolers.

You could get them for about £2 with the water in KSA :grin:

Over here the big thing stopping me brewing more has been the fact you just can't get themw ith water or other wise.

I had scored some ina school I was working at but the janitor then came back and told me the empties were inventoried and the school was charged for any that were missing so he couldn't give me any :messedup:
 
jbj said:
Plastic. They are literally the ones that come out of water coolers.

You could get them for about £2 with the water in KSA :grin:

Over here the big thing stopping me brewing more has been the fact you just can't get themw ith water or other wise.

I had scored some ina school I was working at but the janitor then came back and told me the empties were inventoried and the school was charged for any that were missing so he couldn't give me any :messedup:
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A lot of folks love plastic. The big caution I would give you is to clean it with some kind of soak solution that doesn't require a brush. Brushes will make scratches that can harbor germs, etc.
 
jaxn slim said:
A lot of folks love plastic. The big caution I would give you is to clean it with some kind of soak solution that doesn't require a brush. Brushes will make scratches that can harbor germs, etc.
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I just boil a kettle, seal the top and give it a good shake with boiling water.

My Saudi rig wasn't much less ghetto than something you'd find in the jail and I don't plan on getting fancier anytime soon.
 
jbj said:
I just boil a kettle, seal the top and give it a good shake with boiling water.

My Saudi rig wasn't much less ghetto than something you'd find in the jail and I don't plan on getting fancier anytime soon.
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IIRC, you need some contact time with hot water to effectively sanitize it; a shake and dump really isn't going to cut it. Course you have to keep in mind that some plastics aren't made to be exposed to heat.

You can use bleach on the cheap, 1 teaspoon diluted in 1 gallon of water. After mixing the bleach and water, add 1 teaspoon of vinegar. NEVER ADD VINEGAR TO UNDILUTED BLEACH...NEVER. This makes a short contact time no-rinse sanitizer. The drawback with bleach is that even in small concentrations, it is detectable in finished beer/wine/hooch.

I like Starsan. It's effective, easy to use, 30 second contact time, non-toxic and you can even leave some in the fermenter and the yeast will metabolize it. I have glass and plastic fermenters that get oxyclean soaks for cleaning and starsan for sanitizing.
 
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Well I screwed up my first batch of beer but I learned a lot in the process. I tried a few and they have a kinda gritty, grainy astringent aftertaste. Looked it up and apparently that off-flavor is a result of steeping the grains either too long or too hot. In hindsight it was probably too hot, I let the temp get to about 170 instead of the recommended 154 - 164 range. I steeped for an hour like the instructions said, but then recently read that steeping only needs to be done for 30 minutes, so who knows. Next time I'll be very cautious with this step, the pale ale is somewhat drinkable but not very palatable to my tastes. Next batch will either be a Fat Tire clone or a Moose Drool brown ale clone...
 
This is the post where I discuss and seek advice on my Fresh/Wet/Dry Hopped IPA I am planning on brewing on Sunday. I am going to brew using a bunch of fresh hops off the vine that I have. I really have no idea what variety this is, but they have a nice hoppy smell to them. To hedge my bet, I am going to use an ounce of Cascade pellets for bittering, and another ounce for flavor, and hop over the top with a bunch of fresh stuff off the vine, then dry hop later in the car boy with some of these hops I already picked and dried.

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I plan to use the fresh hops as say 1lb @bittering hop, 1 lb bittering, 1lb @5, 1lb @dry hop in the car boy.

My extract recipe is:
9lbs Light DME
1lb. Crystal 20L

1 oz. Cascade pellet bittering
1lb. fresh hops at same time
1 oz. Cascade flavoring.
1lb. fresh flavoring.
1lb. fresh aroma
1lb. dry hop, using these that I have dried as shown above. They smell AWESOME in the bag. I was thinking of adding some of these dried ones to the pellets for bittering/flavor, but I may hedge my bet a bit, and wait to use these for the dry hop process.
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Wyeast 1056 American Ale yeast, I do plan to make a starter.
1 pack champagne yeast to make sure fermentation finishes off (a habit I got into way back in the 90s from my first homebrew shop).
Irish moss.

Thoughts? Hints please!
 
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Just say no to champagne yeast.

Use a suitable yeast for the beer style, pitch the proper amount of cells and create a favorable environment for the yeast to do their job. Problem solved and a superior end resulting product.
 
Lerxst said:
Just say no to champagne yeast.

Use a suitable yeast for the beer style, pitch the proper amount of cells and create a favorable environment for the yeast to do their job. Problem solved and a superior end resulting product.
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tcanova said:
Great looking hops! Too bad you don't know the variety.
There is a good looking recipe for wet hops as the recipe of the month over at the AHA
http://www.homebrewersassociation.o...of-the-week-russian-river-hoptime-harvest-ale

I would have to agree with the no champagne yeast.
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ok, I will skip the champagne yeast. I do intend to make a starter though, unless you guys think otherwise. the Wyeast 1056 American Ale yeast should do a good job i think, but I would like to start it up first to make sure there are enough cells.

Any other thoughts on my plans guys?
 
sunvalleylaw said:
ok, I will skip the champagne yeast. I do intend to make a starter though, unless you guys think otherwise. the Wyeast 1056 American Ale yeast should do a good job i think, but I would like to start it up first to make sure there are enough cells.

Any other thoughts on my plans guys?
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Yes, always pitch the right number of cells for the gravity you're fermenting. mrmalty.com has a pitch rate calc if you're looking for guidance on starter site. Get your wort good and oxygenated and pitch at the optimum temp for your yeast and you should hit or get mighty close to that strain's target attenuation. I pitch and ferment 1056 in the mid to upper 60s. Cold crash to floc as much yeast before dry hopping.

Personally, I'd probably skip the fresh hops @60 and whatever your flavor addition is and just late hop the crap of out it w/ the fresh hops. If you're committed to a bittering addition, I'd run w/ just your pellet hops so you get a fairly accurate idea of the IBUs you're dumping up front.

If you want anyone to ID your hops, leaf clusters and close ups of the cone structure are key.
 
I think I will skip the bittering addition, and use the pellets for that, and hop the crap out of it in the end. A guy over on the homebrew forum suggested even freshhopping while cooling it down with the wort chiller. I am a little leery of that though, as I would like for whatever is in or on my hops from the fence to be in the boil. I don't mind using my dried home grown hops to dry hop after there is alcohol in the mix.
 
Holy thread revival. I made a few batches since I started this thread but haven't made one in a while. I really want to go all grain and kegging so I need some more equipment and more importantly space. Once we're settled into a home and everything calms down I'll be buying some equipment and taking a shot at making some real beer.
 
sunvalleylaw said:
I think I will skip the bittering addition, and use the pellets for that, and hop the crap out of it in the end. A guy over on the homebrew forum suggested even freshhopping while cooling it down with the wort chiller. I am a little leery of that though, as I would like for whatever is in or on my hops from the fence to be in the boil. I don't mind using my dried home grown hops to dry hop after there is alcohol in the mix.
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Hops are naturally anti-bacterial. I'd dump hops through-out from about 10 minutes until it hits the carboy...that's where you get that giant hop aromas and flavors in the beer (along with dry hopping and keg hopping) :)
 
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