Have used California Ale and 1054 the most. I was using single vials and creating starters for the 15-20G. This batch I'm actually trying out a dry yeast w/ no starter for the first time, Safale-02.

I'm just running tap water through a charcoal RV filter and using some Ph balance.

Water and yeast are the nost important parts. Find a way to keep them consistent and you'll be good.

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Water and yeast are the nost important parts. Find a way to keep them consistent and you'll be good.

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Yep, so true. As brewers like to say, we make wort, the yeast makes the beer.

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I'm just running tap water through a charcoal RV filter and using some Ph balance.

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Is it the Five-Star 5.2? If so, just be careful as it doesn't buffer PH as much as it claims to...especially if you have very alkaline water which is likely the case. It also reportedly adds sodium to the water, but if you don't notice a taste issue then no worries.

Do you use any of the water spreadsheets out there? I've switched to Bru'n Water recently and it's absolutely awesome. Much better than what most of the pros are using in my opinion.

Yep, 5.2. I just have Houston tap. The water report actually isnt too bad. Weve made good beer, and any bad beer weve made i wouldnt blame on water. I do want to understand more about proper water quality though. Will visit you guys once youre up and brewing.

Brew Day!

What'd ya brew?

15G final, 16.5 into fermentation (though I came up 3 gallons short somehow). Sparged too fast and missed my OG.

Tasted good going into fermentation so I hope my first attempt with dry Safale 05 goes well.

Will dry hop with Cascade in keg in 3-4 weeks.

More interested in your fermenter now...think 15G is probably what I should brew anyways. I was stuffed into my 20G mash tun with 40lbs of grain and 14G of water. Can't really figure out how I did 20G batches previously.

Got a special deal on one for me

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15G final, 16.5 into fermentation (though I came up 3 gallons short somehow). Sparged too fast and missed my OG.

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If it makes you feel any better, sparge time was a major discussion point w/ the consultant at Rahr.

It also took us 5-6 batches on the pilot to get our lauter dialed in (and we're still making small adjustments).

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Will dry hop with Cascade in keg in 3-4 weeks.

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That's the other thing I LOVE about the conicals. We literally just open the top tri-clamp, drop in a few ounces of hops, and we're good to go. After the aroma profile is to our liking, we can just dump the trub from the bottom so there's less risk of any vegetal flavors developing.

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More interested in your fermenter now...think 15G is probably what I should brew anyways. I was stuffed into my 20G mash tun with 40lbs of grain and 14G of water. Can't really figure out how I did 20G batches previously

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We're kind of in the same boat. Our system can do 20g, but everything just goes so much more smoothly w/ 15. We were also stuck mashing very thick on some of our bigger beers, so now we have a little more flexibility there as well.

I actually just realized I can't even sell the ones I have until the new ones come in, which is apparently 30 working days! Oops. I'll definitely let you know though and maybe we could work out a special deal or something.

How do you dump the trub w/o losing beer? Same question with when you are bottling/kegging. I assumed you pulled from the main triclover/NPT connection, and when done you dropped the trub out the bottom.

I've been doing primary/secondary in same fermenter, then dry hopping in keg. In your experience should I dry hop in secondary and then keg?

And I'd like to see how you clean these things.

Can I come check these things out some weekend?

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How do you dump the trub w/o losing beer?

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Well you're always going to lose a little, but after several days the heavier trub definitely drops and makes a nice compact cake in the bottom. I just open the dump valve slowly until you get liquid and quickly shut it off. We probably only lose about 1/2 a pint this way.

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Same question with when you are bottling/kegging. I assumed you pulled from the main triclover/NPT connection, and when done you dropped the trub out the bottom.

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I dump once towards the end of fermentation while it's still blowing off a little to prevent pulling vacuum from the lost liquid. This takes care of almost all of the trub. After that, I generally dump once more after several days of cold-crashing to get the rest of the yeast that flocc'ed out. The beer isn't perfectly clear at this point, but it's good enough for most styles.

After that we keg out the racking port. I semi-checked last time and I think we left about a pint or two in the bottom of the cone. It was super, super yeasty though, so you won't feel bad about dumping it. I would say from kettle to keg, we lose about 1 gallon after factoring in yeast dumps, gravity samples, random urges to taste the progress, etc.

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I've been doing primary/secondary in same fermenter, then dry hopping in keg. In your experience should I dry hop in secondary and then keg?

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If you use pellets, you could just dry hop straight into primary, wait for that to drop then siphon off above the trub. Dry-hopping is fine in the keg as well and I did the same for a while. I was really just pointing out how easy it is in a conical.

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Can I come check these things out some weekend?

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Sure. I'll shoot you an e-mail next time we're brewing.

Cool, or even just next time you rack.

Wanted to get yall's opinion on something:

What would yall think of bombers only at the very beginning? I'm finding out that converting our line back and forth between 12/22 oz bottles isn't all that practical.

i don't really like bobmbers that much. 12oz is a nice serving size, imo. others might feel differently.

[This message has been edited by schmendeler (edited 5/9/2013 2:39p).]

Mostly agree. I buy them from time to time when I can't get the beer in a 6-pack and/or it's a seasonal/specialty.

I just can't imagine not doing bombers with our name!

[This message has been edited by jock itch (edited 5/9/2013 2:58p).]

ah, yeah, that's a definite marketing hook!

I buy lots of bombers and for the name alone, I really think you should start with bombers and transition to 12oz as you see what folks like the best.

Disagree. You wont sell enough as bombers. Sell 6ers.

without knowing how impractical the switch is why don't you do the specialties in the bombers in a "B52 Bomber" series. everything else in 12oz. if I'm buying the same beer and option is bomber vs 12 oz sixer I'm going with the sixer every time.

Thanks for the feedback guys. I mostly go for 6-packs too unless it's just bomber only.

The retrofit on the filler we're looking at is supposed to be fairly intensive, but you're right it might be possible to change over a couple times a year for seasonal runs so we'll look into that. The other option (and the one I like better) is to just spend more of the investor's money on a 2nd line.

[This message has been edited by jock itch (edited 5/11/2013 8:59a).]

Forgot to post pictures of the foundation being poured, but the steel is going up!

That's exciting, congrats!

My Acheiver Ale has been fermenting away at 65 for 9 days now.

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Forgot to post pictures of the foundation being poured, but the steel is going up!

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Just got back from Costa Rica for my brother's wedding, and man it feels good to have real beer again. A man can only drink so many Imperials!

liking the progress. when do we get our first sample?

out of curiosity what is the cost difference in bottling vs canning? just general capital costs and operating costs of each.

jock itch,

on some thread somewhere, you gave me a suggestion for a Chimay clone recipe. I brewed it (well, actually a compromise between your recipe and my homebrew supply's recipe and using the BP510 yeast I already had on hand) a while back. I let it condition in secondary for 6 weeks + before finally kegging it last week. Tried it this weekend and it's very good - very Chimay-like! Don't know the final alc % because my hydrometer was lost when I brewed it, so no OG measurement.

I just wanted to say "thanks" for the help.

My nearly 15G of Achiever Ale is carbing up.

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when do we get our first sample?

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Equipment is supposed to leave China next week, add 4-6 weeks for shipping, and we're thinking late August/early September. Seriously though...the waiting is killing us!

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out of curiosity what is the cost difference in bottling vs canning? just general capital costs and operating costs of each.

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Capital wise it's actually closer than I originally thought. The actual material itself is where you really start to save money with cans. After factoring in all the 6-pack carriers, labels, and the extra cost of glass, off the top of my head I remember bottles being roughly 30% more. I'm probably a bit off since it's been a while, but that should be close.

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I just wanted to say "thanks" for the help.

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Any time! Part of what I've always loved about the brewing community is how helpful everyone (usually) is.

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My nearly 15G of Achiever Ale is carbing up.

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I've always hated having to wait for a new beer to carb up. I'll usually cheat w/ at least one of the kegs and do the shake method, but the carb levels usually end up all over the place. Can't wait to have a carb stone!

What's your carb technique like?

I usually cheat and try to carb one in the first day

this time I have plenty of beer in my fridge, so I'm putting them one at a time on a constant C02. I used to have a 4 way C02 tap, but I used this for my kegerator set-up so I could more easily switch between Cornys and regular kegs. So I am letting each set at pressure for 3 days each.

BTW - I had about 14.5 gallons, not 13.

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if you can incorporate the hand doctor's name into your beer, I'll buy double the amount and put you on my wall of shame!

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Just a reminder that I would like a Doctor Brown Ale.

On a side note, a friend of mine just started as the new brewer at Southern Star. I doubt he is planning on releasing a ton of new stuff anytime soon, but he did the Amarillo Hefe that I believe is the current Icon series. Hes not a bad guy to have a beer with if you want to get to know the crosstown rivals.

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On a side note, a friend of mine just started as the new brewer at Southern Star. I doubt he is planning on releasing a ton of new stuff anytime soon, but he did the Amarillo Hefe that I believe is the current Icon series. Hes not a bad guy to have a beer with if you want to get to know the crosstown rivals.

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Very cool! I've met most of the guys there, but I've been out of town so much lately and haven't had a chance to make it to Guild meetings so haven't met any of the new brewers. I know Southern Star is on the verge of some explosive growth once they get moved into their new facility, so your friend looks to be in a great spot as a brewer!

Acheiver is on tap...will pull a draw here soon and let ya know.

Here's my (little urban) Acheiver Ale. First pull from the tap.

Has that distinctive homebrew taste unfortunately. Not my worst beer, it's drinkable, but nothing special.

Looks good! Love the Tervis as well.

Can you describe the "homebrew" taste? I had a few of my early brews taste kinda off, but I didn't know enough at the time to put a finger on what it was exactly and why it was there.

Jock- I sent you an email about a possible brewing connection you might be interested in. Did you see it?

Jock,
I think the "homebrew" flavor is a preponderunce of yeast. Even though I cold crashed, it gets stirred up as I move the carboy out of the keezer to elevate for kegging. Also, since I don't do a secondary there is more to pick up. That's my theory at least.

I have the same flavor in my homebrews and I assume it's the yeast as well. I'd like to know how to filter to get rid of it, but since I bottle, I still need a little yeast to eat the priming sugar. Some bottles are more pronounced than others, but they all have it. Actually, my blonde and strawberry blonde are probably the least noticeable, but I haven't had a lot of them, so I could be remembering wrong.