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Brew day!

Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2014 11:59 am
by DeflictedPipes
Lovely day here n Maryland so I'm whipping up 10 gallons of Munich Hellas.

Imagei

Brew day!

Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2014 12:00 pm
by DeflictedPipes
Sorry, Mobile made my image screwy.

Re: Brew day!

Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2014 12:22 pm
by scotties22
You have a great looking setup. It's been a while since I have brewed a batch. Last one I did was a KC Pale Ale. You've got me wanting to go to the beer store today

Re: Brew day!

Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2014 9:11 pm
by DeflictedPipes
Thanks! Everyone deserves a good beer on a nice day!

My brew partner hit the beer store and brought too many strong beers with him. Today's brew session was a comedy of craft beer inflicted errors. But hey, we made beer! And no one caught on fire.

Re: Brew day!

Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2014 11:16 am
by dreadroberts
Just curious.... Who all else brews their own beer/wine?

Ive been brewing for a few years now. 10 gals of Irish Red and 7 gals of hard apple cider currently on tap.

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Re: Brew day!

Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2014 12:32 pm
by DeflictedPipes
dreadroberts wrote:Just curious.... Who all else brews their own beer/wine?

Ive been brewing for a few years now. 10 gals of Irish Red and 7 gals of hard apple cider currently on tap.
I've been brewing for about 10 years now. This system can brew up to 20 gallon batches depending on the mash bill. It has a HERMS setup that I don't bother with that often. I also make cider, mead, and wine. On tap right now are American Brown, ESB, Black Saison, Heirloom Hard Cider, and soda water, and all kinds of stuff in kegs.

Are you serving out of 10 gallon corny kegs?

Re: Brew day!

Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2014 1:00 pm
by scotties22
I've been brewing for about 6 years. I used to brew a batch a month until we had kids. Now I am down to about 2 a year. I stay with 5 gallon batches, though...really all I have room for.

I currently have a 5 gallon batch of wine that I am making balsamic vinegar with. I feed a new mother into it very month off my malt vinegar barrel. 15 years from now I'm gonna have some killer vinegar :)

Re: Brew day!

Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2014 2:38 pm
by caskwith
Used to brew every weekend with my dad when I was younger, got to be too much work for him though so we sold off the kit. I'd probably do it again if it weren't for the fact that good beer is fairly cheap and very easy to come by here.

Re: Brew day!

Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2014 4:03 pm
by KurtHuhn
I've been brewing and making wine for about 10 years now, and have also spent some time learning how to make spirits.

I've actually converted a small chest freezer to a 4-tap draft tower. It holds 4 5-gallon corny kegs with only minor cursing and jostling. This is a pic of it right after I assembled it.
Image

Compared to the setup in the OP, mine is pretty lowbrow. I use a turkey fryer (that has never seen a turkey) as my boiler, and a drinks cooler as my mash/lauter tun.
http://www.loneadmin.com/brewing/equipm ... er_tun.php

On tap right now is a Marzen and a "milk chocolate stout".

Re: Brew day!

Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2014 5:17 pm
by The Smoking Yeti
My dad brews, and I have helped him a few times. I'd love to get more into it if I only had the time...

Re: Brew day!

Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2014 7:10 pm
by scotties22
We just finished the basement and my husband is going to by a kegerator....brewing is back on my schedule at least once a month again! :)

Re: Brew day!

Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2014 8:11 pm
by dreadroberts
Image

this is an older picture of our rig. We've since added a 20 gal pot and a home built CFC. I use 5 gal corney kegs and the freezer in the back is our keezer. It will hold 6 kegs and the CO2 tank. There is also a 100lb tank we use instead of the 20lb tanks.

We have 220 ran to the shop, which will lead us to an Electric setup in the future.

It has been a fun hobby.

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Re: Brew day!

Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2014 8:18 pm
by dreadroberts
Image

Found a pic of the new pot and CFC. That CFC cut our cool down to next to nothing. We can transfer boiling wort from the pot to the carboy at 75 degrees F or better.

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Brew day!

Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2014 8:33 pm
by DeflictedPipes
dreadroberts wrote: Found a pic of the new pot and CFC. That CFC cut our cool down to next to nothing. We can transfer boiling wort from the pot to the carboy at 75 degrees F or better.
My faucet water was so cold yesterday that I pumped full blast from my kettle and it left my plate chiller at 60 degrees.

Re: Brew day!

Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2014 8:35 pm
by dreadroberts
DeflictedPipes wrote:
dreadroberts wrote: Found a pic of the new pot and CFC. That CFC cut our cool down to next to nothing. We can transfer boiling wort from the pot to the carboy at 75 degrees F
My faucet water was so cold yesterday that I pumped full blast from my kettle and it left my plate chiller at 60 degrees.
That is a great benefit of brewing in the winter. Even in GA. :D :)

Re: Brew day!

Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2014 10:01 pm
by mcgregorpipes
dreadroberts wrote:Image

Found a pic of the new pot and CFC. That CFC cut our cool down to next to nothing. We can transfer boiling wort from the pot to the carboy at 75 degrees F or better.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

awesome to see other home brewers on this board. ;) I started making wine 10 years ago from local fruit like crab apples and choke cherries, strawberries rhubarb, favorite one was saskatoon berry wine. now all I brew is beer. been trying to nail down something in between a belgian duvel and leffe. need to make one of these wort coolers, did you know it takes 3 hours to cool down if you just stick it in the snow?

Re: Brew day!

Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2014 11:51 pm
by scotties22
It takes 4 hours and over 20 lbs of ice if you stick your brew kettle in the sink to cool it down. Some times I just like to work hard.

Re: Brew day!

Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2014 10:50 am
by Massis
Ah thank god I'm belgian. I've got about 3000 types of amazing beer to chose from without having to brew them :-D

Re: Brew day!

Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2014 11:17 am
by scotties22
Massis wrote:Ah thank god I'm belgian. I've got about 3000 types of amazing beer to chose from without having to brew them :-D
Yes, but when the end of the world comes then what are you going to do? :lol:

I can sew, bake bread, make beer, grow everything that will actually grow here, shoot kill process and cook any animal I run across...and make a pipe to enjoy at the end of a long ass post apocalypse day. This hillbilly princess is prepared :lol:

Re: Brew day!

Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2014 11:48 am
by dreadroberts
scotties22 wrote:
Massis wrote:Ah thank god I'm belgian. I've got about 3000 types of amazing beer to chose from without having to brew them :-D
Yes, but when the end of the world comes then what are you going to do? :lol:

I can sew, bake bread, make beer, grow everything that will actually grow here, shoot kill process and cook any animal I run across...and make a pipe to enjoy at the end of a long ass post apocalypse day. This hillbilly princess is prepared :lol:
:lol:

Many post apocalyptic debates have been had over homebrew and pipe in my garage.