Beer Brewers Unite

[Flukinicehole]

I did a search and came up empty on this subject so figured I would start one. Anyone here besides me brew? My obsession started about 4 years ago. When I moved from NY to NC I lost my great beer connection. I had lived across the river from Blue Point Brewery on Long Island so I had very easy access to great beer. Seeing how I lived right on the water fishing took up most of my time (to the wardens dismay). We moved to NC 6 years ago and I lost my beer connection and fishing time. After having some real crappy local beer (there were 2 breweries with bad beer) I decided to give brewing a shot. Craft beer is expensive and I really like craft beer so I started reading. This went on for about a year before I bought the equipment to make my first batch. I did 2 extract batches before going to all grain and have expanded operations (again to the wardens dismay). I now brew about twice a month and do 10 gallon batches. I can do up to 20 but don't want to fill my fermenter, conditioning fridge and keezer. I have a 4 tap keezer and another 4 taps that I can run at any one time. I even get the kids and my grand daughter involved in crushing the grains and such. It has become a fun hobby and I have met some other great brewers and made some good friends through this hobby. Since then the Craft Beer scene has really taken off and within 50 miles of me there are over 25 breweries open or opening this year. They will not all make is as the market is getting flooded and most have pretty bad beer. The guys in my club can brew better then most of the local breweries and that's sad (cuz our beer sucks) lol. I do get to do some of the local beer events for Blue Point so I have not lost the connection there and they are now available here so all is good. In fact I just did the World Beer event in Durham yesterday and had a great time talking beer and meeting new people. There is a lot of great beer out there and I'm glad the craft beer scene is really taking off. So does anyone else brew?

 

[Tim Frank]

http://forums.iboats.com/forum/othe...-to-bottle-the-last-batch-of-beer-that-i-made

 

[redneck joe]

no but always interested. How much to get started?

 

[bajaunderground]

Very Cool,

I have brewed about 5 batches of extract beer, but it's been a few years. I was just thinking (after buying 2 cases of local craft beer), I should just make my own? I have the space and can get all the basic stuff fairly inexpensively? You have sparked my winter interest...Boat project is completed, smokers are completed...and my neighbor that brewed has moved too far to make drinking and walking back home impractical?!

Cheers,

~Brett

 

[eavega]

I started brewing back in 1998 and did about 7 or 8 batches before life intervened (went back to school, moved several times, kids). Fast forward to 2012, when a neighborhood friend of mine got a homebrewing set along with a basic kegging setup for his birthday. I got all re-enthused and ordered a couple of kids. Once we did the kits we went with recipes and extract. Over the last two years we have moved on from all extract kits, to partial mash recipes, to all-grain, to our current focus on lagers. We are now 4 dedicated homebrewers with the right gear to do 10 gallon batches. The most we have attempted to do in one brewing session was 15 gallons (ten gallons of Octoberfest lager and 5 gallons of a spiced Christmas ale). We've experimented with "big" beers, fruit beers, sour beers. We have a few very solid ale recipes (Ginger Saison, Irish Red, Oatmeal Stout, Fat Tire clone) which we brew often, and have really nailed the Bohemian pilsner. The cost of the equipment has been progressive, and between the four of us we are probably a couple thousand dollars if you include the tap fridge, lagering cooler, 15 gallon brewpot and lautering tuns. On the other hand, going to all grain (and purchasing base grains in bulk) and maintaining our own strains of yeast have brought down the cost of 5 gallons of beer to about $20. Its a great hobby with a lot of potential. Even though we all have been brewing for a few years now, its only now that we are really beginning to feel confident in building our own recipes.
We are lucky enough that our mentor for homebrewing has now opened his own brewery label. He is a good kid and very knowledgeable about what makes a good brew. If you all are ever in the Atlanta area, and particularly in the north Metro counties, be sure to look up the offerings of Jekyll Brewing. This is what our little group aspires to.

BTW, I have a buddy of mine that lives up in the Durham area that is also just getting into beer brewing. He was at the Durham Beer Festival yesterday too!

Rgds

Eric

 

[Flukinicehole]

Tim...sorry I missed that one.I searched for beer brewing and homebrewing and only came up with a what type of beer do you like thread. Glad to see there are others that brew and some who might want to. It can be as cheap or expensive as you want it to be. I have a low budget 3 tier system with a cooler for my mash-tun right now. My job throws out some very good stuff though and I came across a stainless tub that is 34 gallons that I will make into my new direct fired mash-tun. I currently use a turkey fryer burner to heat the water and on the lower tier I have a banjo for the boils. In my whole system I might have $400...honestly don't think it is even that much even with the 25 gallon pot. I have always kegged my beer as luck would have it I found a guy with soda kegs one day on my way to work. They are the pin-lock style but for $10 I have 20 of them. He gets $15 for them now but I have not seen any there in a while. I had a kegerator so I had the CO2 and regulator I just converted that ti pin lock.I enjoy all styles depending on my mood but like most Love a good IPA. Maybe we could try to keep the thread alive and get more involved in Homebrewing. The final straw to get me to do it was a Homebrewing 101 thread on a fishing site....the rest is history. I by no means know everything about brewing and that's why I'm so interested in it. Amazing that the slightest thing will make a different product. Cheers

 

[avenger79]

I have been doing extract kits for almost a year now.

my last brew was a bourbon porter. Friends that have tried it were very impressed. I am hoping to switch up to all grain this winter and then move to kegging versus bottling.

of course with the kegerator will also come the ability to brew lagers. The wife is hoping for a good Corona. She did love the Hefe Wiesen I did though.

 

[angus63]

I live about 10 miles from Blue Point and have grown to appreciate many of their brews. The latest one I am hooked on is "Hoptical Illusion". I have had some pretty poor pours in friends garages which may be why I never had the nerve to try my own. Maybe one day...

 

[Flukinicehole]

angus, at the world beer fest they had the RastafaRye on cask that was dry hopped. I'm not gonna lie it was awesome! Tomorrow at the Saucer in Raleigh they are going to have a Cask of the Hoptical Illusion dry hopped....I cant wait. I know what your saying about the bad pours...I hope you were honest with them lol.

 

[Flukinicehole]

Figured I would post a pic of the three tier stand. As I said it can be as cheap or expensive as you would like. There is going to be no difference in the final product once you get the system dialed in.

 

[generator12]

I work with the Siebel Institute in Chicago, and am delighted to see this thread. Please carry on..!

 

[Flukinicehole]

Tomorrow morning I will be firing up the burners early. I'm used to getting up at 3:30 so water will be on by 5. I'm brewing a 10 gallon batch of my Bos Killer IPA. It is a Rye IPA with 34lbs. of grain and finishes out at 7.5% and 80IBU's. I used to call it Red Eye Rye but an engineer at work had a party at his house. I brought 3 kegs for the get together, 5 gallons of my house Blonde In The Closet, ESB and Rye IPA. My boss ended up showing up and wanted to try my beer. He really liked the Rye and I told him the ABV after he was 2 pints in. I said you might want to take it a little slower with those but he knew better lol. I had to go and left all my equipment there for the party and came back the next day to get the kegs and cooler. I knew it was not good when I saw the boss's car still there the next day. I figured he just stayed the night but nooooo I missed it all and should have hung around. Apparently he was threatening to fire people and acting like a tool lol. Sorry I missed it but makes for a great story at work. Anyone else brewing this weekend? While brewing I will be making temp-lets for the stringers in my boat. We are supposed to have a great weekend weather wise. Cheers!

 

[Flukinicehole]

Well the brew day went well. I got a little better efficiency then normal so it will be a little higher ABV if all goes well. I do have a concern as I split the batch and put both on yeast cakes. One is going gangbusters and the other is doing nothing. Usually on a yeast cake they take off right away. These cakes were sitting for about 2 weeks in the fermentation chamber and I usually never have a problem. Time will tell. Even made great headway on the boat and I need to order all my Resin today. Hope to have the boat done for the spring Flounder season here in NC. Cheers!

 

[kenmyfam]

Do my own at a local brew club. Nothing as complex as you guys however the recipes used are all unique and tailored to me.

 

[Flukinicehole]

That's whats great about beer, not everyone has the same palate. There are some beers my friends really like and I'm like yeah it is ok. Then there are some I love and there like yeah it's ok.

 

[Flukinicehole]

Decided to take a half day today and come home and brew. It is cold for this time of year and it got me thinking about an American Amber I make every fall. It is along the lines of the Oskar Blues G'Knight. Great malt backbone and high IBU's. Mine usually comes in around 7.5% abv and 80IBU's. My other beer is coming along nice. It is currently dry hopping and I will start the cold crash tomorrow when I pull the dry hops out. Cheers