BBQ/Party at my place

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In progress, sorta. Got all of the water I need, almost 35 gallons of RO water. Glad I found a safeway that has 4 of the RO water dispensers in front costing only $1 for 5 gallons. Turning on the heat in a minute! Gonna be a late night!
 
Brewmeister chat

mrhustle23 said:
OK everyone, I'm back from my vacation in TX. I did end up changing out my axles if anyone was wondering. Main reason, I had them there and it's possible my passenger side axle was going bad.

Moving onto more interesting news, I just got home from the brew store. I picked up a couple of things, one being a recipe kit for an American Pale Ale, malt extract. So I'm going to try something new tonight. I have that malt extract kit (10 gallon), and I have the ingredients for a Blue Moon clone, 10 gallon all grain. So if you know anything about brewing, I'm going to start my extract kit in my boil kettle and get it rolling, meanwhile, I'm going to heat up water for the mash for the all grain recipe. If I time it right, I will have the extract kit boiled and cooled and into the fermenting vessels when I'm ready to transfer the all grain kit over to the boil kettle. So basically, I'm looking to brew 20 gallons of beer, 2 different styles with adding very little time, but more work load. Anyone wanna come over and help? Otherwise wish me luck! I haven't tried this yet! :beer::beer::beer::beer::beer:
Click to expand...

Wish I could, I just tested my first batch of English Ale, and it turned out a little less fizzy than hoped - used too little corn sugar in the second fermentation, but its much more like the english beers that way.

I'll be playing around with mead and cider as well - beer is good, but nice to have some stuff around for the ladies, not all of them like beer. This first batch (in 10 years, just getting started again) was a Coopers malt, and it ended up being right at a month from start to finish. Got 60 12oz bottles, and 3 grolsch bottles that I used as testers - 3 days, 7 days and 12 days. Good cool from the lager closet, even better when slightly chilled.

Found a good suggestion in how to cool the wort if you don't have the copper cooling tubes or want to wait till it cools to room temp - substitute one 7lb bag of ice for 1 gallon of the water in the fermenting bucket. When you pour in from the stove, that will help you cool it down much more rapidly before you throw the yeast. I'm trying to stay with 5 gallon batches - that's a easy weight to move around, though this first batch I used a 6.5 gallon glass carbouy, and it got really heavy!

Glenn in Tucson
 
tucson_sailors said:
Wish I could, I just tested my first batch of English Ale, and it turned out a little less fizzy than hoped - used too little corn sugar in the second fermentation, but its much more like the english beers that way.

I'll be playing around with mead and cider as well - beer is good, but nice to have some stuff around for the ladies, not all of them like beer. This first batch (in 10 years, just getting started again) was a Coopers malt, and it ended up being right at a month from start to finish. Got 60 12oz bottles, and 3 grolsch bottles that I used as testers - 3 days, 7 days and 12 days. Good cool from the lager closet, even better when slightly chilled.

Found a good suggestion in how to cool the wort if you don't have the copper cooling tubes or want to wait till it cools to room temp - substitute one 7lb bag of ice for 1 gallon of the water in the fermenting bucket. When you pour in from the stove, that will help you cool it down much more rapidly before you throw the yeast. I'm trying to stay with 5 gallon batches - that's a easy weight to move around, though this first batch I used a 6.5 gallon glass carbouy, and it got really heavy!

Glenn in Tucson
Click to expand...

Sweet! Another homebrewer! Get back into it more! I also want to try a Mead sometime soon.

So I ended up brewing today, not last night. Good thing too, cause I had to do a lot of cleaning on my equipment before brewing. I mean a lot. I spent 2.5 hours this morning cleaning my boil kettle and my mash tun. Have I ever said I love stainless steel? Well I do! I've got the American Pale Ale in 2 buckets in cooled water with wet t-shirts over them in my house. The evaporative cooling effect works well in the summer time. Then I have the Blue Moon clone in my stainless steel 13 gallon conical in a newly acquired upright freezer with removable shelves and the temp controlled by a Johnson Controller. I'm on break from work and I just pitched the yeast. It's hard to get the wort cooled to 70 when it's 100 outside, so I got it to 90 and let them sit in their fermenting vessels for a few hours. Gravities are: APA: 1.050, Blue Moon: 1.051. All in all a successful day, forgot a thing or two, but hey, it's beer, it'll taste good anyways! :beer::beer::beer::beer:
 
Feeling less of a man here, equipment envy

mrhustle23 said:
Sweet! Another homebrewer! Get back into it more! I also want to try a Mead sometime soon.

. The evaporative cooling effect works well in the summer time. Then I have the Blue Moon clone in my stainless steel 13 gallon conical in a newly acquired upright freezer with removable shelves and the temp controlled by a Johnson Controller. I'm on break from work and I just pitched the yeast. It's hard to get the wort cooled to 70 when it's 100 outside, so I got it to 90 and let them sit in their fermenting vessels for a few hours. Gravities are: APA: 1.050, Blue Moon: 1.051. All in all a successful day, forgot a thing or two, but hey, it's beer, it'll taste good anyways! :beer::beer::beer::beer:
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For those who don't brew, this is pretty serious hardware. My setup consists of food grade buckets, or glass carbouys for the initial fermentations. Sounds like a good setup for cold lagering of the beer, which right now is something outside of my reach - which is why I'm working on ale's and meads and cider, as they don't require that like the pilsners and other german beers do.

Sounds like a great setup - if I can make one of your BBQ's (gotta get all the things on the 60 fixed before I can make Phoenix or the area a regular trip) will love to compare notes and brews. Thinking I'll probably go the carlisle route and pickup the CO2 inejctor setup so I can skip the secondary fermentation and bottling steps, and just have 5 gallon kegs for the regular brews. Will also work for having a soda-fountain!

Glenn in Tucson
 
Thanks Glenn, it's amazing the deals you can find on craigslist! Here the rest of my equipment, pictures that is.

Conical fermenter:
DSCN3932.jpg


Grain Mill:
DSCN3019.jpg


Grain storage:
DSCN3036.jpg


Brewing rig, Brutus 10 clone:
DSCN3021.jpg
 
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Nice, very very nice.

If you managed to get all that from CL, I'm looking at the wrong CL. Our local brew your own has *most* but not all of that off the shelf, but it would be some serious bucks to be able to get it out of the door.

Impressed,

Glenn
 
I might just make this afterall. It depends, as this is my actual birthday, and we are having a fairly huge fiesta at our casa on Saturday night to get ready for.... but hey what a way to ring it in. I will keep you posted as the time draws near.
 
Thank Glenn! Most of my equipment I bought on craigslist. My best find was the brewing rig, but along with it I also got 120lbs grain, 2 pounds of hops, 7 corny kegs, 3 6.5 gallon glass carboys and all kinds of misc. things. I bought it from a guy down in Sierra Vista who was looking to move and get out of brewing a bit, I caught up with him about 8 months later, he never moved and he ended up upgrading to a 20 gallon 3 tier system! :D
 
I got my keggles from a friend. Got my first carboy from a member on here.
Got a 6-pack of 5gal cornies and a Johnson controller for $100 in Tonopah off of CL.
Got a Malt Mill and March pump from a guy in the N. Valley for $135.
Made my own mash tun from a 10g Rubbermaid cooler and a toilet supply hose for about $20.
And a turkey fryer type burner, 60k BTU, at Sportsman's Warehouse for around $50.
Got 2 9 cu ft chest freezers for $150 off CL.
Got a CO2 bottle and regulator from my roommate's friend in exchange for haircuts.
Just need another Johnson controller, some storage bins for 50# grain sacks and a Foodsaver for hops and I'm good to go.

Oh, yeah, I still need 3 more Perlick faucets and a Perlick stout faucet.

Of course, I still need to fix my Cruiser so I can continue to get to/from work. So maybe in another month or so.
 
hj60 said:
I got my keggles from a friend. Got my first carboy from a member on here.
Got a 6-pack of 5gal cornies and a Johnson controller for $100 in Tonopah off of CL.
Got a Malt Mill and March pump from a guy in the N. Valley for $135.
Made my own mash tun from a 10g Rubbermaid cooler and a toilet supply hose for about $20.
And a turkey fryer type burner, 60k BTU, at Sportsman's Warehouse for around $50.
Got 2 9 cu ft chest freezers for $150 off CL.
Got a CO2 bottle and regulator from my roommate's friend in exchange for haircuts.
Just need another Johnson controller, some storage bins for 50# grain sacks and a Foodsaver for hops and I'm good to go.

Oh, yeah, I still need 3 more Perlick faucets and a Perlick stout faucet.

Of course, I still need to fix my Cruiser so I can continue to get to/from work. So maybe in another month or so.
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Wow! Nice! Best place to find kegerator building supplies, including Perlick faucets, CO2 tanks and regulators is beveragefactory.com. They have the best prices overall, and not just by a few cents either. Lots of fun drinking stuff there. :cheers:
 
Reminder! This Friday, come by around 6ish, I'll have the BBQ going with some brats. Bring your Landcruiser if possible, I'm thinking a driveway/street full of Landcruisers would look quite awesome!
 
Kegging my beer this morning. American Pale Ale came out to about 5.5% ABV! And it's yummy!
 
mrhustle23 said:
Reminder! This Friday, come by around 6ish, I'll have the BBQ going with some brats. Bring your Landcruiser if possible, I'm thinking a driveway/street full of Landcruisers would look quite awesome!
Click to expand...

I am flying in friday night and going directly over!
 
dang, can't make it
 
Sorry but I am about a 40% chance of showing tomorrow evening. It's not a total I'm out so we will see.
 
ill be there for sure dude.
 
Awesome if you can make, cool if not, it's not gonna be the last BBQ/Party I have. :cheers:
 
I will be there...but probably a little later 7-730.
 
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