Home Brewing Thread III: Return of the Son of Home Brewing Thread

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Goons with Spoons > Home Brewing Thread III: Return of the Son of Home Brewing Thread

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Ghostnuke: Sep 21, 2005; Throw this in a pot, add some broth, a potato? Baby you got a stew going!

Has anyone got one of the new Spike systems? Thinking about grabbing the 20g one.

# ¿ Jan 5, 2017 21:13

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# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 02:35

Ghostnuke: Sep 21, 2005; Throw this in a pot, add some broth, a potato? Baby you got a stew going!

Der Penguingott posted:

I have a 2nd gen spike kettle, 15g, as a mash tun and can vouch for the build quality. The new false bottoms are too low for my tastes, but in a HERMS it's fine probably.

Are you talking about the new kettles or the entire prefab brewing rig?

The new ready to go systems look very good and there aren't a lot of places to get a prefab kit that nice, regardless of price. If you have the cash and don't want to DYI, it's a great setup.

That said, if you have that kind of money - it is worth looking at other companies like brewers hardware and stout for the kettles and buying a stand alone controller that's prefab.

Oh I'm not going to pay for that entire thing, I agree it's absurdly overpriced. I'm going to have them build me some customized vessels (HERMS) and the control panel. I've emailed back and forth with them and it's a lot cheaper to buy it piecemeal.

I built my whole current set up DIY, and while it works fine there are lots of places to improve quality of life type things.

# ¿ Jan 6, 2017 15:30

Ghostnuke: Sep 21, 2005; Throw this in a pot, add some broth, a potato? Baby you got a stew going!

Anyone know of somebody selling lower profile ball lock disconnects than the usual black and gray ones?

edit: I've seen the stainless right angled ones, but gently caress paying $25 for one disconnect.

# ¿ Jan 17, 2017 22:32

Ghostnuke: Sep 21, 2005; Throw this in a pot, add some broth, a potato? Baby you got a stew going!

If your gravity has been the same over multiple readings, the rest doesn't matter.

# ¿ Feb 3, 2017 18:56

Ghostnuke: Sep 21, 2005; Throw this in a pot, add some broth, a potato? Baby you got a stew going!

I've got a recipe that calls for 20 oz of C15, but haven't had any luck finding it anywhere. What would be a good substitute?

# ¿ Feb 21, 2017 16:52

Ghostnuke: Sep 21, 2005; Throw this in a pot, add some broth, a potato? Baby you got a stew going!

robotsinmyhead posted:

No. However, getting your beer off the trub from the primary could help immensely with clarity, if you're concerned about that.

Meh. I see people say this all the time, but it's not a big deal. Cold crash and use gelatine, they come out clear as can be.

# ¿ Feb 25, 2017 20:15

Ghostnuke: Sep 21, 2005; Throw this in a pot, add some broth, a potato? Baby you got a stew going!

Pin locks are invariably cheaper as well.

# ¿ Mar 2, 2017 22:31

Ghostnuke: Sep 21, 2005; Throw this in a pot, add some broth, a potato? Baby you got a stew going!

What's the point if you're going for hazy?

# ¿ Mar 8, 2017 17:26

Ghostnuke: Sep 21, 2005; Throw this in a pot, add some broth, a potato? Baby you got a stew going!

Reflectix is pretty cheap

# ¿ Mar 30, 2017 21:01

Ghostnuke: Sep 21, 2005; Throw this in a pot, add some broth, a potato? Baby you got a stew going!

Must be Kolsch time, I've got one on deck too. Gonna use some 34/70.

# ¿ May 18, 2017 18:49

Ghostnuke: Sep 21, 2005; Throw this in a pot, add some broth, a potato? Baby you got a stew going!

I have one and haven't had any trouble with it. :shrug:

# ¿ Jun 6, 2017 19:35

Ghostnuke: Sep 21, 2005; Throw this in a pot, add some broth, a potato? Baby you got a stew going!

Yup. I use the 8 gallon ones all the time.

# ¿ Jun 26, 2017 21:33

Ghostnuke: Sep 21, 2005; Throw this in a pot, add some broth, a potato? Baby you got a stew going!

Meh, I'd rather eat 1 less cheeseburger per week and drink whatever I want.

# ¿ Jun 28, 2017 16:13

Ghostnuke: Sep 21, 2005; Throw this in a pot, add some broth, a potato? Baby you got a stew going!

Speaking of double IPAs, I'm trying to put together a recipe using Apollo and Zeus (Columbus). Here's where I'm at so far, just need to get the hop schedule down.

18.00 lb Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM)
1.00 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM)
0.25 lb Honey Malt (25.0 SRM)
1.00 lb Corn Sugar (Dextrose) (0.0 SRM)

? - FWH

Not sure where to take it from here yet.

# ¿ Sep 5, 2017 20:46

Ghostnuke: Sep 21, 2005; Throw this in a pot, add some broth, a potato? Baby you got a stew going!

LaserWash posted:

No way this works. Right?

http://www.homebrewfinds.com/2017/09/reader-tip-stainless-steel-beer-gun-bottle-filler-31-82-free-shipping.html

Why wouldn't it? Everything Blichman is grossly overpriced crap you could buy for 1/3 the cost from anyone else.

# ¿ Sep 28, 2017 21:08

Ghostnuke: Sep 21, 2005; Throw this in a pot, add some broth, a potato? Baby you got a stew going!

Well nothing is simpler than just putting a tube on your faucet and just dropping it in the bottle.

# ¿ Sep 29, 2017 15:16

Ghostnuke: Sep 21, 2005; Throw this in a pot, add some broth, a potato? Baby you got a stew going!

robotsinmyhead posted:

Last Saturday, I mashed for my Margarita gose. The efficiency sucked, so I ended up using 2/3rds of my DME to get it up to snuff. I boiled it in the kitchen (gently caress) and as soon as I dumped in the DME, the foam went wild. I've never used DME before.

So I'm frantically stirring and loving with the heat, a few minutes pass for my salt and minimal hops addition and BAM - foam gone. Salt is magic!

recipe?

# ¿ Jan 22, 2018 17:37

Ghostnuke: Sep 21, 2005; Throw this in a pot, add some broth, a potato? Baby you got a stew going!

Did 15 barrels on a commercial set up this weekend. It's basically the same as what I do at home, except with way more cleaning.

# ¿ Apr 16, 2018 15:56

Ghostnuke: Sep 21, 2005; Throw this in a pot, add some broth, a potato? Baby you got a stew going!

Glottis posted:

German Pilsner. I can grab the recipe if you'd like!

yes please

# ¿ Jul 12, 2018 15:59

Ghostnuke: Sep 21, 2005; Throw this in a pot, add some broth, a potato? Baby you got a stew going!

There is something to be said about the simplicity of immersion chillers. You barely have to clean it, never have to worry about what's inside it. I'm in the planning stages of replacing all my gear and spending a bajillion $$ on brewery of my dreams and I'll probably still stick with the old immersion chiller.

# ¿ Jul 19, 2018 15:02

Ghostnuke: Sep 21, 2005; Throw this in a pot, add some broth, a potato? Baby you got a stew going!

It's easy enough to switch, but I'm not using 2 piece valves anywhere. Those shits get gross pretty fast.

# ¿ Jul 19, 2018 15:33

Ghostnuke: Sep 21, 2005; Throw this in a pot, add some broth, a potato? Baby you got a stew going!

Spike is the way I'm going as well.

# ¿ Jul 19, 2018 16:30

Ghostnuke: Sep 21, 2005; Throw this in a pot, add some broth, a potato? Baby you got a stew going!

rockcity posted:

Have you taken a gravity reading where it's at now? I think that is what they were asking for above, rather than the starting gravity.

Yeah this. Bubbles are not a measure of fermentation.

# ¿ Aug 16, 2018 17:39

Ghostnuke: Sep 21, 2005; Throw this in a pot, add some broth, a potato? Baby you got a stew going!

robotsinmyhead posted:

Someone on Milk the Funk just posted a pic of their Lacto-Kveik beLEANerweiss beer that was colored a really intense purple with Butterfly Pea Flowers. I'm tempted to try something similar know, but go all-in on the Lean aspect and dig up some Sprite-like flavors with a Lemon Lime + Lactose.

that sounds pretty cool, let us know how it goes. (aside from pea flowers, wtf)

# ¿ Oct 16, 2018 16:05

Ghostnuke: Sep 21, 2005; Throw this in a pot, add some broth, a potato? Baby you got a stew going!

Is anyone else trying to take advantage of the Spike sale today? The sale is one day only and their ticketing system says they might reply within 24 hours, and I have questions! This is so frustrating.

# ¿ Nov 26, 2018 20:36

Ghostnuke: Sep 21, 2005; Throw this in a pot, add some broth, a potato? Baby you got a stew going!

McSpergin posted:

I nearly nearly bit but I don't think their "finance solutions" are available to Australians lol. Just gonna wear the full price when I get paid for this large design job

I'm buying the kettles and some bits and bobs, but I'm going to buy and build the control panel myself.

# ¿ Nov 29, 2018 14:58

Ghostnuke: Sep 21, 2005; Throw this in a pot, add some broth, a potato? Baby you got a stew going!

Beersmith is like $20 you goons.

# ¿ Dec 10, 2018 02:12

Ghostnuke: Sep 21, 2005; Throw this in a pot, add some broth, a potato? Baby you got a stew going!

works fine for me :shrug:

# ¿ Dec 10, 2018 15:05

Ghostnuke: Sep 21, 2005; Throw this in a pot, add some broth, a potato? Baby you got a stew going!

I don't like using hot water from the taps because it comes from the water heater instead of straight from the main city line. Who knows what kind of gross poo poo is in my water heater, not to mention the mineral content difference.

# ¿ Jan 7, 2019 14:55

Ghostnuke: Sep 21, 2005; Throw this in a pot, add some broth, a potato? Baby you got a stew going!

robotsinmyhead posted:

Yeah it just feels like I'm going backwards with this stuff. First it was just a post on a keg, then full kegs, then multiple kegs, then my regulator spontaneously started leaking, now possibly my tank itself.

Aside from loving up by swapping out some incompatible poppets, I don't understand why these little problems keep popping up. Adding to the frustration is other people with kegging setups not offering any substantive feedback. YES. I have in fact put leak detector on my kegs. I have a giant bottle of it. I use it all the time, but we're talking about leaks literally starting overnight and it's messing with my head. It's some real gremlin poo poo going on here.

it ain't rocket science man. put your regulator on the tank, turn on the tank but shut off the flow valve on the regulator, leave it over night. did it leak? no? then add the next piece and leave it overnight. did it leak? no? then add the next piece...

# ¿ Jan 8, 2019 14:35

Ghostnuke: Sep 21, 2005; Throw this in a pot, add some broth, a potato? Baby you got a stew going!

robotsinmyhead posted:

See here's what I mean. I know this. I've done this multiple times. I've recently had popup leaks occur in my regulator that hasn't been touched in 2 months while I'm pressure testing kegs, so I think I have a keg pressure problem, isolate it, fix it, then put it back in the system and it's "leaking" again. I'm having leaks backtrack through my system or pop up spontaneously all while trying to nail down troublesome kegs and it's extremely frustrating.

It's super easy to say how this is supposed to go, pressurize your system for a week straight, then come home a day later to a blown bottle of gas for no reason.

edit: I'm gonna drop this cause it's circular and I'm just really frustrated by it. I'm either gonna switch to Sanke kegs or scrap like 6 of 8 of my kegs for being irredeemably lovely.

poo poo doesn't just "pop up in your regulator". I'm guessing you hosed something up when you changed the bottle 100 times cause of your leaks. post which model you have, some of them require a washer and some don't. the ones that don't often have a washer built in that gets worn out over time.

# ¿ Jan 8, 2019 20:48

Ghostnuke: Sep 21, 2005; Throw this in a pot, add some broth, a potato? Baby you got a stew going!

Jo3sh posted:

gently caress, I should have said.

So I bought some distilled hop oil. I was reading a few reviews of the stuff, and some said the stuff was great where others said it was complete poo poo and not worth the money. I figured there must be some variable, probably the way it was being used, so I did a little more looking, and I found a paper from a commercial brewery about how to use the stuff.

They recommend mixing the hop oil 1:1 with 95% ethanol and using CO2 pressure to blow it into the bright tank before packaging. I figured I would try that, with variations for homebrew. Apparently, 1mL of the hop oil can be too much for 5 gallons of beer, so I figured using a larger volume of 95% ethanol would not hurt anything, but would make it easier to measure volumes.

I just finished my experimental dose this evening, and holy poo poo, that stuff works awesome. It adds a boatload of hop aroma and flavor to finished beer. Here's what I did:

First, I bought some syringes with blunt needles on Amazon. I used 5mL syringes, but suit yourself. Once I had the hop oil, the syringes, and the corn alcohol all in my possession, I used a syringe to measure 10mL of corn liquor into a small jar. Then I dumped in two 1mL vials of the hop oil. I used a further 5mL of corn liquor to rinse the vials out into the jar, then I agitated the mixture, which turned milky white, like adding water to ouzo. I figure this gives me 17mL of the mixture, near enough.

Tonight, a couple of nights later, I tested this mixture. I had a keg of beer fairly mild beer that was fully carbonated and drinking well. it probably had 3.5 gallons in it. I disconnected it, vented it to relieve pressure, opened the lid, and used a syringe to draw up 3mL of my prepared hop oil mixture. I then injected this into the beer, put the lid on, repressurized the keg, and pulled the pressure relief to purge any air. Then I disconnected it again and gently inverted the keg to mix. I immediately hooked it all up again and drew a glass.

The beer is transformed. It's super aromatic now. Giant hop aroma and flavor, turning it from a fairly mild light amber ale into a hop-aroma bomb. Floral, perfumey, and wonderful. And actually cheaper than dry-hopping at the rates that would be required to get this normally. The hop oil costs about $5-6 per mL, and I used less than half a mL for this beer.

This is really interesting. Where are you getting the oil from? Morebeer is the only place I saw that has it, and they only have 2 kinds.

# ¿ Jan 18, 2019 15:19

Ghostnuke: Sep 21, 2005; Throw this in a pot, add some broth, a potato? Baby you got a stew going!

I made a Belgian Dark Strong that won a silver recently, but it's not extract.

# ¿ Jan 24, 2019 15:21

Ghostnuke: Sep 21, 2005; Throw this in a pot, add some broth, a potato? Baby you got a stew going!

I picked up a $3,000 glycol chiller at an auction yesterday for $80 :captainpop:

# ¿ Feb 1, 2019 14:56

Ghostnuke: Sep 21, 2005; Throw this in a pot, add some broth, a potato? Baby you got a stew going!

Just happened to see the auction and watched it in case it went cheap. I don't even know what I'll use it for, I already have a pretty baller fermentation chamber. I was actually thinking about running a trunk line upstairs to the kitchen and putting some taps on the wall. This beast has two pumps so I could actually run a trunk line AND do some extra fermentation at the same time.

edit: it's an older version of this

# ¿ Feb 1, 2019 15:45

Ghostnuke: Sep 21, 2005; Throw this in a pot, add some broth, a potato? Baby you got a stew going!

Yeah, it was an online auction of a local business that went under and was selling all their equipment. If it ends up working well, I guess I could get rid of my giant fermentation fridge and get some of those temperature controlled conicals, but that's $$$$. I wonder which one would be more energy efficient... it would have to be the glycol right? The compressor only cycles on when needed, but the pumps run 24/7. Whereas the fridge has to condition all the air inside it too.

Ghostnuke fucked around with this message at 16:35 on Feb 1, 2019

# ¿ Feb 1, 2019 16:31

Ghostnuke: Sep 21, 2005; Throw this in a pot, add some broth, a potato? Baby you got a stew going!

Biomute posted:

All my beer blogs are dead because the authors started breweries.

ugh, like yes I wish I had time to brew more but I for sure don't want to do it professionally.

# ¿ Feb 27, 2019 17:12

Ghostnuke: Sep 21, 2005; Throw this in a pot, add some broth, a potato? Baby you got a stew going!

I like 34/70

# ¿ Mar 7, 2019 20:30

Ghostnuke: Sep 21, 2005; Throw this in a pot, add some broth, a potato? Baby you got a stew going!

If you're at all handy, the world is your oyster if you've got more power. You can build any number of setups to do what you want.

# ¿ May 6, 2019 17:03

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# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 02:35

Ghostnuke: Sep 21, 2005; Throw this in a pot, add some broth, a potato? Baby you got a stew going!

my cereal killer has been problem free for years as well, hooked up to my cordless drill. I have been keeping an eye out for a cheap motor to attach to it though.

# ¿ May 29, 2019 13:28

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Goons with Spoons > Home Brewing Thread III: Return of the Son of Home Brewing Thread

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