The Beer Nerd - what are you drinking / brewing thread

Here’s a good one
https://www.morebeer.com/products/deluxe-homebrew-starter-kit.html

I’d sign up for their emails they send out deals all the time. Coupon codes etc.

Same with northernbrewer.com
(They’re owned by InBev though, but they have screaming deals via email)

You could probably piece meal a kit yourself especially since you’ve been brewing and know what you need.

Big tip though is buy a much bigger pot then you’ll think you need. Like at least ten gallon for five gallon batches. Amazon sells bayou classics pretty cheap (if you’re not afraid of aluminum) just make sure it has a triclad bottom, less likely to scorch the wort.

Also check out homebrewtalk.com a very good forum for homebrewing.

 

New Glory out of Sacramento makes some epic beers



This was not one of them. No date and tastes old

 

So drunk AF. My girl dropped her phone in the ocean off the pier currently st the Apple store in a mall getting her a new one before we go to more breweries

 

Sounds like quite the shit show. Carry on!!! And Dilly Dilly!!!

 

Oh damn!!!!

 

Here's the start to my Saturday night. Let's see where this goes.

 

Lol. Been there....



Galaxy dry hopped IPA @ Woodcock Bros

 

Velvet Merkin!

I’ve had that on cask, so good!

 

I’ve aleays wanted to try that. That and using a swimming pool...

Although I’ve heard the snow will end up insulting the kettle so you have to keep moving it.

Howd it work got you?

 

Never on cask for me. But oh so damn good. This bottle was rich and smooth

 

I always have to move the snow around and repack it after a bit. It will melt the snow next to it and then that wall will refreeze and kinda insulate it. Today is pretty warm at 0°, when I put a pot out at -20° and colder it gets down to temp fast.

 

I recommend against buying a kit. I suggest you think through exactly what you want (feel free to ask questions as you plan), then purchase the individual components that are best for you. A lot of this will depend on the size of the batches (5 gallon sounds like), whether or not you plan to do all grain or extract brewing, where you will brew (outside vs. inside) how much money you can reasonably spend, and how much space you have, how important time is to you.

Personally, I bought one of those "starter kits" at Fifth Season in 2011, and I was hooked. But then I started upgrading all my stuff almost immediately and pretty soon my starter kit was collecting dust in my basement as I upgraded again and again.

1) Boil Kettle: I agree that the bigger the better. I have a 7.5 gallon for 5 gallon batches and I think it's too small. I would get a 10 gallon. Internal volume markings are extremely helpful.

2) Burner: I have always used the Blichmann. It is expensive but it has been worth it for me. Extremely fast, reliable, and does not consume much fuel

3) Fermenters: I made some mistakes here. First I used the plastic buckets and you can't see in them and they're hard to clean and you can't retrieve yeast. Then I got glass carboys until I dropped one and it shattered, spent hours cleaning/vacuuming glass, now I have kids. Got the Big Mouth bubblers which are nice but not conical, transferring is a PIA. If I was going to do it all over again I would have gotten FastFerment right off the bat (http://www.fastbrewing.com/products/fastferment). These conical vessels will save you TIME. All the data now suggests secondary fermentation is not necessary so no time savings there. But with this fermenter you can easily save your yeast (saves you time), and also you can rack your beer without a siphon (which costs $$$, will eventually break, and is a potential source of contamination, saves more time).

In 2016 I co-founded by own brewery with two partners (we brew on a 10 BBL system), so I haven't home-brewed in almost two years except the occasional sour or holiday beer /cider for home consumption.

 

Excellent!

 

Yummy

 

Liking this sour!

 

Hey wait....I just had a thought...


Where's the damn pics?!?

 

Well her pictures are at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. I drank too much and was busy enjoying my time out on the beautiful day that was being had! Delicious beers were had. And coffee. Great day.

 

I agree with most of this. If you've been brewing a while you probably already have most of the small things like bottling wand and capper that come with the kits. Add a bigger kettle and bigger buckets and away you go.

I've brewed many a batch on a standard turkey fryer burner with out issue. I also suggest a 10 gal kettle if you want to brew 5 gallon batches. It'll give you the option to brew up to 8 gallons or so of a low or mid gravity beer or 5 gallon high gravity with long boils.

If I keep brewing I see a fast ferment in my future BUT buckets are the way to go until then. They're cheap, easy and never go out of style. I've been using them for 8 years without problem.

The bottom line is your bottom line. You'll have to factor in your budget and weather or not you want to move up to all grain or not. All grain brewing is fairly equipment heavy and not really cheap.

 

Galaxy Bomb FTMFW!