Beer Feeds

All,

The Details:

Sign Up Deadline - May 16th
Shipping Deadline - May 30th

The Rules for the Pass:

1. Preferably send homebrew, but if your stocks are low you can send a favorite microbrew. If you are sending a commercial style, check in with the person you are sending it to just to make sure they don’t already have a bunch of that in the fridge already. BMC is not pass worthy, so don’t send any of that swill. Sending BMC is grounds for a permanent ban from future passes.

2. The deadline to Ship your beers is 2 weeks after the drawing. That allows some people who get paid every other week to wait for the following paycheck if it falls on an odd week for them. If you find yourself in a situation in which you signed up but cannot provide for the pass, please contact me and we will work it out. I’ve had A LOT of great beers through the pass and I want everyone to have the same opportunity.

3. Every month is different. Just sign up during the month you want to participate. If you want in, just post below and say “I’m in”

4. You are responsible for PMing the person you are paired up with for the month.

5. Minimum of 4 bottles to be sent, can be 4 of the same, or a mix and match. Feel free to send more if you wish.

6. If you don’t receive your pass within 2 weeks of the deadline, post the offenders name and they are out of the name exchange for good, unless everyone who is participating votes to give them another chance, or a penalty is paid to the person who did not receive beer.

7. You must me 21 to participate.

For more information on the beer pass, please see the FAQ, for information on how to ship beer, please see the shipping FAQ that Mach5 put together.

If you have any questions at all, please let me know. Thanks and Cheers!!!!

Mods, please unpin the April pass and pin the May pass. Thanks!

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brewed up a 5 gal batch yesterday. but i have a question about yeast pitching.
did an initial boil of 2 1/2 gallons of wort. the remaining 2 1/2 gallons of spring water i placed in the freezer during the hour long boil. (i dont have a wort chiller so i figured this would be effective for rapid cooling)….it was highly effective for rapid cooling and brought the mix down to 56 degrees instantly. I placed it in the fermenter and left it alone for a few hours so to bring the temp up for pitching. just wondering is there such a thing as too cold to pitch? i pitched at about 68 degrees but was curious if i waited for no reason.

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I just picked up a fat tire clone. It will be an extract with grains. In the ingredient list, it calls for Willamette and Fuggle hops. The list calles for .8 oz of willamette for 90 minutes, .4 oz. Fuggle for 20 mins, and .4 fuggle at 0 mins. In the step by step directions for the brew, It only calls for a 60 minute boil. what should I do here.

Thanks

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Instead of worrying about false bottom, bazooka, etc. to keep trub/hops out of the fermenter. Why not just use one of those funnels with a strainer insert when transferring wort from the kettle to the carboy? Seems much cheap and probably more efficient in keeping crap out. Thoughts?

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I have a regular turkey burner currently with a 15 psi regulator, but I just bought a 150,00 btu burner which is rated for 30 psi regulator. Can I run both of the burner off from the same 30 psi regulator? Well they perfrom relatively the same( from a BTU aspect?)/

Strange question I know…

Also, I had found some old black piping around the house, I believe it was used for plumbing some old gas pipes in the basement. They are in a little rough shape but is a good clean works can I use them for the p[lumbing of the new brew cart? Just curious, could be saving me $35-40 instead of buying new.

Thanks
Dana

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I know it’s Monday and most people brew on the weekend, but you take what you can get around my house!
I’m embarrassed to say that I’m brewing more first batch of 2008 today. I’ve been too busy with work and the kids to jump back in earlier. The 150+ inches of snow we got this year didn’t help either.

So if your out there and brewing let me know what you got.

Here is whats in the mash now…

Big House IPA II

Recipe Specifics
—————-

Batch Size (Gal): 11.00 Wort Size (Gal): 11.00
Total Grain (Lbs): 23.00
Anticipated OG: 1.059 Plato: 14.44
Anticipated SRM: 7.5
Anticipated IBU: 59.3
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75 %
Wort Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Grain/Extract/Sugar

% Amount Name Origin Potential SRM
—————————————————————————–
73.9 17.00 lbs. Pale Malt(2-row) Great Britain 1.038 3
13.0 3.00 lbs. Munich Malt Great Britain 1.037 6
4.3 1.00 lbs. Crystal 20L America 1.035 20
4.3 1.00 lbs. Aromatic Malt Belgium 1.036 25
4.3 1.00 lbs. Cara-Pils Dextrine Malt 1.033 2

Hops

Amount Name Form Alpha IBU Boil Time
—————————————————————————–
1.50 oz. Chinook Pellet 13.00 41.8 60 min.
0.75 oz. Centennial Pellet 10.50 8.6 30 min.
0.75 oz. Crystal Pellet 3.25 1.8 20 min.
0.75 oz. Centennial Pellet 10.50 3.4 10 min.
0.75 oz. Crystal Pellet 3.25 0.9 5 min.
0.75 oz. Centennial Pellet 10.50 2.8 1 min.

Happy Brewing!
Dana

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It’s been about 5 years since I first started to learn about what beer really is. Before, beer was, well, beer. It was a golden-light color and was consumed ice cold, because that is how I was brought up.
In small towns all across our nation, beer is something that has one style and flavor, […]

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I’m opening a wood fired pizza and beer place in mid town st louis. I’m trying to be as green as possible in opening the restaurant and want to use only small local breweries. I’m thinking, 5day IPA on Cask…Griesey d, a schalfly and i guess another ofallon, smoked porter. I’de love to have the bavarian witte from square one, definatly worth a phone call

Does anyone else in the area know of any other local outlets for kegs of beer.

I’ll let everyone in st louis know as things progress

cheers

the good pie

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I was finally lucky enough to get some Pacman yeast and am trying to figure out what to brew with it. I guess I would like to do a pale ale, I need a good go to house pale ale. I was also thinking about Denny’s Rye IPA. Any suggestions or comments?

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I recently made a portable regulator to be used with a paintball tank for pushing CO2 to a 3 gallon cornie keg when I take it to parties. When I was cleaning out my basement I found an old paintball remote gas line that was used to connect the CO2 paintball tank to the gun. Given the circular design of the gas line, I thought it would be great if I could reuse the gas line for my brewing hobby. When I tried to sync up the gas line to the gas ball lock disconnect, I noticed the difference in the threads, therefore I wanted to see if anyone had any ideas of how I could make this work and get the line and the disconnect joined? I also need to connect the gas line to the regulator (appears to have the same issue). - See pictures below.

Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

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OK,
So I think I’m going to get this element: HERE.

It’s a 7.2 kW element, and by my calcs, it draws 30 amps and would have NO problem boiling 10-12 gallons. I’m probably going to get the 4 kw element for the HLT. Yeah, yeah, I know, the side-mount elements are cheaper, but most importantly, you can’t put an immersion element around one (without creative bending ) and secondly, I have to drill smaller holes for these.

So here’s the question: will 8 gauge, 3 wire cable be big enough to have my brewcart 50 feet away from my outlet?
The electrical outlet I want to use is a 240v 50A circuit that runs my electric range, and I might make a junction box that has two 50A sockets in it and run the range to that, with an open socket for the brewcart as needed instead of unplugging the range each time I brew.

The limitations would be I or SWMBO can’t cook while brewing, and I can run the HLT or keg kettle, but not both at the same time. Also, since I only have 3-wire 240v, I can’t tap-off a leg for 120v, but given that there’s a plethora (50-cent word!) of 120v sockets, I can run separate wiring for my 120v needs. NOTE - Having additional circuits added is impossible. I’m in Government housing - the military wouldn’t appreciate me tearing up the place just to run another outlet.

So, would 8/3 cable be enough to run a 7.2 kW element 50 ft away, or would 10/3 or even 12/3 be adequate?
-keith

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Posted: by redneckchugger (15 hours ago)

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Posted: by jpaltan (18 hours ago)

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Posted: by mattt (20 hours ago)

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This is rather neat. A guy from England took the audio off our show 149 and made Otto the Comic a video.

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For those of you who are not similar with dark lord day just google ‘three floyds dark lord’….
I met up with DrSteve, but missed carlos and jimvy…
I’m not sure how I missed carlos, he called my cell but I when I called him right back he was already gone…

I’m bad at estimating crowds but I would guess when I got there at 1pm there was about 300 people in line, and another 100 in the parking lot?? Some of the people in line said they’d been there since 9am…

I cut in line with steve when I got there. I met his wife, and two very nice friends of theirs.
I stayed with them in line for about an hour or so, maybe more. Who knew you could go to an event that almost entirely consisted of standing in line, and everyone was having a good time! When we almost got to the door, I ducked out of line to get a sausage (never planned on buying beer), good thing because they ran out of beer about 15 people in front of steve’s group… doh!

The sausage was pretty good (served with onions on pretzel bread) but inconsistent. Mine looked like a giant brat, steve’s wife got one that looked like a small hot dog. I would have complained.

There were a lot of homebrewers and brew clubs there, I took 6 of my stout and traded, and tasted, many different beers. I went more to meet people and trade homebrews then anything. It was a lot of fun. I did eventually try a dark lord ‘07 that they had on tap. One of the guys I was trading with from indy got a round for the group his table. To be honest I didn’t much care for it. It was like drinking a good stout with 4 shots of jack dumped in..

I also tried some of the blueberry ale (good), and blackberry ale(better), I tried corn beer (nasty)…..

The weather was cooler then expected and it was very windy, but thankfully there was no rain. The band didn’t show up, or was possibly playing indoors because of weather concerns. If that was the case it wasn’t very effective considering 90% of the party was outdoors.

Pics to follow…..

Gehan G.

Ps. I have pics of steve but i see he doesn’t have any images on his profile. Maybe he doesn’t want any images of him on here?

Pss. Heres the link to the chemistry blog I told you about: http://homebrewandchemistry.blogspot.com/

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Posted: by HBang (22 hours ago)

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Looking for some input on hop additions for my next batch on Monday.

Pretty basic IPA/Pale Ale Recipe
10gal batch
SG: 1.063
SRM: 6.9

Here is my thought for hop additions…

1.75 Chinook 60min
1.00 Centennial 30min
1.00 Crystal 20min
1.00 Centennial 10min
1.00 Crystal 5min
1.00 Centennial 1min

** I could also replace the Chinook with Perle… I have 2oz on hand as well).

Comments and suggestions welcome

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I was wondering from anyone who has used WY 1007 how long does the primary fermentation normally last? I brewed up a German ALT last Friday and the yeast blew off my airlock three times last week. Its been fermenting since then and still to this minute is fermenting away too. I have been holding the temperature around 55-58 degrees for this one. Does it take as long as lager yeasts. I can look into the beer and see all kinds of yeast activity even still this morning. Also wow what can I expect the FG to be for this. I started at 1.050 at this rate of 8 days I figure it will turn out dry as can be. I have not taken any gravity readings as my carboy is a mess from last weekend and well I don’t have a wine thief so I just wanna let it keep going till activity stops. Thanks for the input.

Mike

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I’m thinking about making the B3 Stout kit. What dry yeast would be best for this application?

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Sorry if this has been covered.

My buddy wants to grow some of my hops, I’ve got three varieties, but the only one i’m sure of is Norther Brewer. They are just starting to come out of the ground, 2-3 years old.

So do I just dig up some roots, starting to grow?

TIA

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It seems like both of these are fermented at slightly lower than normal ale temps (55-65??) but then they should be cold conditioned for a while. Since the only fridge that I have that can accommodate 5 gals of beer is the kegerator, is there any reason not to rack straight from primary (around 2 weeks?) to the keg and let it hang out in there for a month or so?

I’d be interested in other people’s experiences with these two styles.

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I have a big ass 50′ of copper coils wort chiller I use for brewing. It works great, however, I make yeast starters for every batch but I cool the starters differently. I make a one gallon starter, and put the metal pot directly into the chest freezer for 30 minutes or so to cool it. I got to thinking the other day, why am I cooling the wort for my beer rapidly, but not the starter……which is just as critical to cool rapidly! Does anyone use a smaller starter chiller, or have a better more rapid way of cooling small quantities of liquid? (like maybe a mini version of a wort chiller)
Not much has ever been mentioned about this specific issue on this forum (that I can recall anyway).

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Here is the first video in a series

Enjoy,

zymot

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I entered a beer into the COHO competition this month. The judging was last Saturday, and there hasen’t been any sort of update to the web site. Does anyone here know when the results might get posted?

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I brewed an herbal beer, here is the bill:

10# Pilsner
5# Wheat
1# 2 row

2 oz US Crystal Hops 2.5 AA (boiling)

3# Pale Honey
2 oz sweet orange peel
1 oz ginger
2 oz ground licorice

Wyeast 3463 Forbidden Fruit

I added half of the spices 15 minutes before the end of the boil.

Then, I pasturized the honey and mixed it with a tea consisting of the rest of the herbs and 1 qt of water. I then added this to the fermenter after primary fermentation had ceased. Fermentation kicked in afterwards because of the additional sugars. Fermentation is complete and I am about ready to bottle.

Ok, my OG was 1.051. BeerAlchemy (a program that I do not trust for FG or OG predictions, they cannot possibly be right, there is a flaw in the program) says that 3lbs of honey adds 20 points. So, am I correct in assuming that effectively, my OG was 1.071?

Now here’s the kicker, my FG was 1.004. That is way below anything I have ever gotten. That means that the attenuation was 91% if the OG were 1.051 and 94% if it were 1.071. Forbidden Fruit yeast has attenuation rates of 73-77%. Is the BeerAlchemy calculator messing with me? If not then how could this happen?

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I read somewhere the three-piece airlock is preferred for primary and the bubbler type is usually used for secondary. Why? Anybody got a clue? I haven’t used the three-piece, but I find the bubbler type excellent for watching the first day or two of fermenation. What do you guys use each for?

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Background: I only brew on the weekends when I’m free, during the light of day, and outside, which means I am dependent upon good weather. All this means I can’t brew as often as I’d like (only two batches so far this year). I do all grain with a sq-14 propane burner.

I’m thinking about brewing in my attached garage with the door cracked a third of the way. This way, I could brew at night when it’s dark outside, during winter, and even on rainy and windy days.

1. Is this a bad idea?

2. Also, what’s a cheap and easy way to highten my sq-14 so that I can drain my keggle into a carboy?

Thanks in advance to help a brother feed the obsession!

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Can I just drill some holes into it and spray “Great Stuff” into it?

Can I do it from the underside so the top stays clean looking? Or will there be toxic fumes that will be harmful when a mash is going on inside?

Thanks.

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I’m brewing my Steam Beer clone this weekend. I figure in a week or two, I’m going to have a ton of prime second generation yeast ready to repitch into another beer. But what should that other beer be?
I’m a firm believer that this yeast is better than Cal Ale yeast for a porter (ask me how I know).

What else should I brew with this yeast? I’m not much of a lager brewer yet, I think if I was going to do a lager I’d get some German Lager yeast for that.

What suggestions do y’all have for the 2nd generation when I’m ready to repitch?

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