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Homebrew Board - Recipes

377,356 Views | 3347 Replies | Last: 12 hrs ago by hurricanejake02
Coy94
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Yup. I see where I read that wrong. Also, I'm sure the Facebook (which I rarely look at) site is probably updated more accurately than their website.

Did you enter anything?

Coy94
AlaskanAg99
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quote:
Yup. I see where I read that wrong. Also, I'm sure the Facebook (which I rarely look at) site is probably updated more accurately than their website.

Did you enter anything?

Coy94


I just started brewing again but that's the club I'm in. I didn't have anything ready in time. Consider the awards event, $25 for beer, food, pro-brewer Q&A.
khkman22
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Thinking of upgrading my pot from 8 gallons to 15 gallons. I'm looking at a MegaPot. Is it best to get it without the thermometer installed and only get the ball valve? I do BIAB and it seems like I saw where people said the thermometer drilled up higher gets in the way and can get hung on the bag. Also, I know the dials are usually not as accurate as some of the digital thermometers.
AlaskanAg99
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1) get a 15 gal pot. It makes such a huge difference. I've aways had megapots so I'm biased to them, they really well made but I have all older versions.
2) get a false bottom for it, it'll kep your bag suspended and also helps to hold hops back from the pickup tube.
3) the thermometer will stick out. So will a thermowells for a digital probe. I find the dial thermometer reads faster than a Ranco probe and I have them both on my MT.

In either case I would spend the $ up front to have them all welded on, try to stay away from weldless. It's just 1 less thing to break/leak and when you go to dump the kettle I'm always grabbing the fitting at the base of the ball valve.

In the future you may expand to a pump, so I'd make sure the ball valve is a full port 1/2. Some only open to 3/8ths.

Overall it's a big investment in equipment so I would advise to buy the best you can and get all the bells and whistles. You can buy thermometers with shorter probes, but they may always snag your bag.
Coy94
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I found out I placed 1st with my Dark Mild (English Brown category) at the Limbo challenge. Awesome end to the day! I'm so excited.


Coy94
IronRed13
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We use BeerSmith and MrMalty for a lot of calculations. We tried brewing the Abyss Clone this weekend but using a different recipe than the one I originally listed that ended up with nearly 25lbs of malt to a 7.5 gallon mash/pre boil. 19 of it was domestic 2 row so we were very surpised how much rich dark color can come from only 4-5lbs of black/roasted barley. After a 90 minute boil we pitched 2 packs that had spent 18hrs in 2L starter. Finished at 1.109 with ~5.5 gallons, pretty close to target. It started ferment almost immediately and is quite vigorous right now! We're going to ferment for 14 days, rack to secondary with Cherry Bark and 3 vanilla beans for another 14days before kegging with 1 oak spiral that is currently soaking in a pint of Woodford with a single vanilla bean. Age for about 4 weeks with the oak before removing and continuing keg condition for another 2-3 months
AlaskanAg99
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Roughly 20% of dark and roast malts will darken a beer really fast! Over the past weekend I brewed 13 gallons of my RIS, 1.090 og. 62lbs of grain and roughly 80% fermentables. Lots of black patent, chocolate and roasted barley. In fact my same beer from last summer is on tap and it a step like it was brewed yesterday. 10 gallons of what's fermenting is going into a club 55 gal bourbon barrel. With a little luck I'll have 10 gallons of awesome bourbon stout which should last a few years. I hope to hit an FG of 1.030. Repitch ed some 1056 and I'll have champagne yeast handy in case it needs a kick at the end to finish out.
WorkBoots09
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Way to go Coy94!

We brewed a smaller batch of our American Stout last weekend. I'll probably split it 3 ways and start messing with some potential treatments. I want to use this company when we get brewing commercially, but I'll probably just use oak cubes for the small batches. Our wood cask has had some much higher alcohol stout in it for a few months, so it's taken at the moment. I want to do a fruited, wooded, and spirited version this time around so I'm thinking pineapple in one gallon, toasted oak in another, and bourbon-soaked oak cubes in the third.

I'll be brewing a full batch of the stout this weekend to have plenty ready for our upcoming events. I have a new blog post out with our recent progress if y'all are interested. I'm not going to post the link because I got our other thread taken down by making it seem like we were advertising. Most of y'all already know where to look, though, so google is your friend. Cheers!
AlaskanAg99
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I kegged my ipa last night. Way heavy on resin/dank notes. One of the best I've ever done. Going to hit it with gelatine tonight and itll be ready to be pushed to a serving keg tomorrow. I'm using a 10 gal corny as a Brite tank with a sure screen on the pickup diptube to keep hop chunks out.

Unfortunately I only ended up with about 7 gallons. I totally screwed up recipe design as I set it for 10 gallons and failed to account for losses due to all the hops and dry hopping. I was able to scale it to 11 gallons by sacrificing ABV. Talk about being rusty. Anyway, a few tweaks to this one for the next brew session.
Coy94
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AlaskanAg99,


Just bought my ticket to OpFerm for tomorrow. Are you going to be there?


Coy94
AlaskanAg99
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Yessir. I'll be there. I'm 6'3" and bald with a beard, can't miss me. We are also doing a bottle share, so if you have something to bring, please do. Esp homebrew. We will have 6 commercial kegs and 2 homebrew.
AlaskanAg99
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Heads up, Coy94 took Silver for his Mild at Operation Fermentation 3.

Congratuations!
fav13andac1)c
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Didn't place with my IPA in Labor of Love, but got a 30.5, which I'm pretty happy about. Looking forward to getting the score sheet to read the comments.
Kyle98
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Took silver at Labor of Love with my saison and scored an average of 41.5 with my IPA, which didn't medal, surprisingly. Must have been some high- scoring IPAs!
fav13andac1)c
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Has anyone built the "Son of Fermentation Chiller?" This will be my project for October.

Also, anybody in the DFW area know where I can track down 2 inch thick polystyrene? None of the home improvement stores carry it.
AlaskanAg99
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You can always laminate thinner pieces together with a spray contact cement. I'd use a table saw to cut it to desired shape. I utility knife in 2" thick pieces won't give you a clean edge.
AggieOO
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had to make room in my keezer for the beers for my oktoberfest party. had about 2 gallons of chocolate mint cream stout in a keg leftover from the christmas in july party, so i drained those into my 3 gallon whiskey barrel and I'm letting that age. Then i'll bottle it. Hopefully there's enough yeast floating around in there that it'll carb up when i bottle.

going to start my bar build soon-ish for the garage. I was going to try and build it around the keezer, but decided that if i was going to do it, i might as well build it like i want. I acquired a mini fridge from a friend and I'm going to use that to build out a cooler (similar to fermentation chamber) under the bar and run my taps up through the bar into a custom draft tower.
sanitariex
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quote:
had to make room in my keezer for the beers for my oktoberfest party. had about 2 gallons of chocolate mint cream stout in a keg leftover from the christmas in july party, so i drained those into my 3 gallon whiskey barrel and I'm letting that age. Then i'll bottle it. Hopefully there's enough yeast floating around in there that it'll carb up when i bottle.

going to start my bar build soon-ish for the garage. I was going to try and build it around the keezer, but decided that if i was going to do it, i might as well build it like i want. I acquired a mini fridge from a friend and I'm going to use that to build out a cooler (similar to fermentation chamber) under the bar and run my taps up through the bar into a custom draft tower.

Would love to see pics of the finished product.
AggieOO
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quote:
quote:
had to make room in my keezer for the beers for my oktoberfest party. had about 2 gallons of chocolate mint cream stout in a keg leftover from the christmas in july party, so i drained those into my 3 gallon whiskey barrel and I'm letting that age. Then i'll bottle it. Hopefully there's enough yeast floating around in there that it'll carb up when i bottle.

going to start my bar build soon-ish for the garage. I was going to try and build it around the keezer, but decided that if i was going to do it, i might as well build it like i want. I acquired a mini fridge from a friend and I'm going to use that to build out a cooler (similar to fermentation chamber) under the bar and run my taps up through the bar into a custom draft tower.

Would love to see pics of the finished product.


Definitely. Probably will take awhile to get it finished, but I'll try to post updates as I go. Have to get our coffee table and end tables finished before I can start on the bar.
dave99ag
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Priorities!
AlaskanAg99
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I'd be wary that a mini fridge cooling a larger space to chI'll kegs down to 38F may not work well. Even with fans blowing.

It works for fermentation to chill 2 or 3 carboys because you're usually staying in the 60's. A cool bit and a small AC unit may be more reliable for chilling kegs in a custom setup if a keezer isn't an option.
fav13andac1)c
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Luckily I was able to track down some 2" thick insulation at Southwest Vault Builders in Lewisville.

That way I don't have to rely too much on my non existent craftsmanship.
AlaskanAg99
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Just use lots of glue and tape to make it perfectly sealed. Any gaps will result in your cold air just running out.
fav13andac1)c
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Thanks for the advice. Have you built one of these? Did you end up going with the home thermostat method? I have a little wiring experience but not much, so I sprang for the Inkbird ITC 308 instead of the home thermostat. That way I only have to wire the pc fan to the adapter and then plug the adapter in to the temp controller. This controller will also work when I eventually upgrade to a mini fridge setup.
AggieOO
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I'd be wary that a mini fridge cooling a larger space to chI'll kegs down to 38F may not work well. Even with fans blowing.

It works for fermentation to chill 2 or 3 carboys because you're usually staying in the 60's. A cool bit and a small AC unit may be more reliable for chilling kegs in a custom setup if a keezer isn't an option.
i was looking at using two fridges, but have a couple ideas using the keezer. The problem with the keezer is its top loading, which presents a problem with it being under a bar.
Scriffer
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So here's a thought...in our wet bar, we have an ice maker that has never been used. Would there be a big problem with punching a hole through the side and top, running a copper coil through it, and converting it to a built-in jockey box? I don't have room for a kegerator under there, but this might be a decent solution.
AlaskanAg99
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fav13andac1)c said:

Thanks for the advice. Have you built one of these? Did you end up going with the home thermostat method? I have a little wiring experience but not much, so I sprang for the Inkbird ITC 308 instead of the home thermostat. That way I only have to wire the pc fan to the adapter and then plug the adapter in to the temp controller. This controller will also work when I eventually upgrade to a mini fridge setup.


I've built something similar and I've done a lot of reading and talking with small breweries who have built walk in coolers and walk in fermentation chambers. Anytime you have a pin hole leak or small crack it will wreck your ability to chill. I use Ranco controllers and I thought about a cool bot and I've spent a ton of time on their website reading builds etc and time on homebrewtalk.com reading about builds. It just needs to be airtight and insulated and wrapped so the humidity won't penetrate and create a mess of mold. just think of a fir hose blasting the outside wall, that's the humidity trying to get into your cooler box. So wrap the exterior in plastic.

For carboys I've aways used mini fridge st without the ice box, takes some searching and contacting people on CL to ask if it has or doesn't have the ice box. But you can get them cheap and they work perfectly. I'm currently using carboys in a chest freezer while I get my conicals setup. I was going to do a custom insulated box but I am not happy with my door seal, so I'm moving to a copper coil and insulation wrap via a setup I've seen on HBT.com

AlaskanAg99
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AggieOO said:

Quote:

I'd be wary that a mini fridge cooling a larger space to chI'll kegs down to 38F may not work well. Even with fans blowing.

It works for fermentation to chill 2 or 3 carboys because you're usually staying in the 60's. A cool bit and a small AC unit may be more reliable for chilling kegs in a custom setup if a keezer isn't an option.
i was looking at using two fridges, but have a couple ideas using the keezer. The problem with the keezer is its top loading, which presents a problem with it being under a bar.


I suppose the question is how much space do you have and how many kegs you want to store and serve? 2 fridges used to cool is a lot of space, plus the box you build needs to be airtight and the opening will always be your weak point. See above. You'll need to wrap it in plastic to regent moisture penetrating and creating a mold situation. Personally I'd look into getting a carriage made for a chest freezer with casters on either side so you can just pull the whole thing out, open the lid and swap kegs. Draft lines are still an issue. If you haven't I'd go to homebrewtalk.com and look at the diy area to see if anyone has done a build that'd work for you.
AlaskanAg99
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Scriffer said:

So here's a thought...in our wet bar, we have an ice maker that has never been used. Would there be a big problem with punching a hole through the side and top, running a copper coil through it, and converting it to a built-in jockey box? I don't have room for a kegerator under there, but this might be a decent solution.


Well, you just need to discover where the coolant lines are to make sure you don't nick one. I did this with a nice upright freezer when installing draw latches. Bricked the whole thing, couldnt get it repaired due to EPA rules. The the issue a jocky box is usually used for 1 time events, it's not good to sore beer warm for extended time, ie,eaving a keg of beer outside and serving through the jockey box will just mean the beer in the keg will have a short life as the heat degrades it quickly. And...you may have to get a custom ss coil made to fit the ice maker. Can the ice maker be yanked out and a kegerator be installed in its location?
AggieOO
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AlaskanAg99 said:

AggieOO said:

Quote:

I'd be wary that a mini fridge cooling a larger space to chI'll kegs down to 38F may not work well. Even with fans blowing.

It works for fermentation to chill 2 or 3 carboys because you're usually staying in the 60's. A cool bit and a small AC unit may be more reliable for chilling kegs in a custom setup if a keezer isn't an option.
i was looking at using two fridges, but have a couple ideas using the keezer. The problem with the keezer is its top loading, which presents a problem with it being under a bar.


I suppose the question is how much space do you have and how many kegs you want to store and serve? 2 fridges used to cool is a lot of space, plus the box you build needs to be airtight and the opening will always be your weak point. See above. You'll need to wrap it in plastic to regent moisture penetrating and creating a mold situation. Personally I'd look into getting a carriage made for a chest freezer with casters on either side so you can just pull the whole thing out, open the lid and swap kegs. Draft lines are still an issue. If you haven't I'd go to homebrewtalk.com and look at the diy area to see if anyone has done a build that'd work for you.
i spend a lot of time on homebrewtalk diy.
AlaskanAg99
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A lot of good projects on there, just need the right tools. The biggest mistake I see is people that put plywood up against the outside of a freezer or fridge. The cooling lines are right behind that metal skin and by putting anything directly in contact you're insulating it. Which means it's way less efficient and the life of the compressor will be shortened. Just as an FYI. This is why built in refer appliances have forward facing vents.
AggieOO
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i think i've convinced myself to use the keezer. Will just have re-route the lines to the side of the collar and use insulated PVC with some sort of cooling to get it to the draft tower.
AlaskanAg99
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2 options are blowing air, but if you have any bends in the path it becomes pretty inefficient. Or a closed loop with your beer lines bundled around a glycol line. Just put a reservoir on the hump and a small aquarium pump pushing.

What kind of tower do you plan to use?

I've bought 5 items from these guys, top quality work.

https://www.acumetalfab.com/phone/products.html
AggieOO
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AlaskanAg99 said:

2 options are blowing air, but if you have any bends in the path it becomes pretty inefficient. Or a closed loop with your beer lines bundled around a glycol line. Just put a reservoir on the hump and a small aquarium pump pushing.

What kind of tower do you plan to use?

I've bought 5 items from these guys, top quality work.

https://www.acumetalfab.com/phone/products.html
building my own in this style:

AlaskanAg99
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Sweet. I've got a leak in my gas setup. 2 regulators, 1 for reg/ales, 1 for higher pressure. A 4 bar gas block and an 8 bar gaslock. So I need to yank all that crap out, fill my sink with water and sub merge all but the regulators to see if there's a leak. But I think the leak is a keg lid seal. It's already cost me a 20lbs tank of gas. Grrrr.....
 
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