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briang's OFFICIAL BYO (brew your own) thread where Matt is a Pro Brewer .... we knew him back when!

22,811 2,637 December 17, 2008 at 09:18 AM in Chat (2) Slickdeals
everyone else has theirs.... i want mine.

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Community Wiki

Last Edited by daveotero November 11, 2009 at 10:51 AM
Here it is folks..... add your links.

Good vendors to order from:

www.rebelbrewer.com Almost always the cheapest shipped
www.northernbrewer.com
www.morebeer.com
www.freshops.com
www.austinhomebrew.com
www.midwestsupplies.com [midwestsupplies.com] Accepts paypal
http://homebrewheaven.com


Recipe Database:
Award Winning Recipes, Including Denny Conn and Jamil Z. [beerdujour.com]
Brew 365 Recipes [brew365.com]
Tasty Brew's Recipes [tastybrew.com]

Hop Information:
Hop Union PDF [hopunion.com]
Oregon Hop Commission [oregonhops.org]

Beer Calculators:
ABV and Calorie Calculator [probrewer.com]
Hydrometer Correction Calculator [hbd.org]
IBU Calculator [tastybrew.com]
Bottle Priming Calculator [tastybrew.com]
Mash Calculator [rackers.org]


Equipment How To's:
Create your own Mash Tun [lustreking.com]
Create your own 3-Tier Brew Sculpture Simple Schematic [imajininteriors.com] Pic [homebrewtalk.com]

Great Beer Radio:
The Brewing Network [thebrewingnetwork.com]

All Grain Brewing Info:
Sparge Methods [hbd.org]
Step by Step Video [homebrewtalk.com]
All Grain Home Brewing (1 to 8) [youtube.com]

Keg dimensions for use in determining refrigerator and chest freezer sizes:
http://www.wortomatic.com/article...Dimensions

Terminology & Abbreviations:
Home Brewing Wiki [homebrewtalk.com]

What you'll need to start:
A stainless steel (preferably) stock pot, at least 3 gallon capacity. Aluminum will do.
A basic brewing kit. Northern Brewer item #7601 [northernbrewer.com]
A recipe kit [northernbrewer.com]. I would suggest a porter or a stout for your first brew, as dark brews are very forgiving of beginner mistakes. I would suggest using US-05 dry yeast.
A fermometer, NB item #7411 [northernbrewer.com]
Starsan Sanitizer, NB item #7930 [northernbrewer.com]
I would *highly* suggest some Fermcap-S, unless you like scrubbing nasty gooey dried up wort off your stovetop, NB item #9136 [northernbrewer.com]

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Joined Jan 2006
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> bubble2 19,213 Posts
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AggieMom
07-15-2010 at 05:27 AM.
07-15-2010 at 05:27 AM.
He's annoyed by tourists today. nod
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Joined Dec 2003
L10: Grand Master
> bubble2 26,586 Posts
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Mavtech
07-15-2010 at 05:30 AM.
07-15-2010 at 05:30 AM.
Quote from AggieMom :
We don't have a kegerator now, so DH is fermenting in my bath tub. The carboy goes in a rubbermaid tub with some water, he wraps the carboy with a wet towel and points a small fan at it. We have frozen jugs of water that we put in from time to time as needed. We were able to keep the last 2 batches at 70 degrees with minimal effort. If that's ghetto cooling, it works in a pinch! Not sure how else you'd keep stuff cool in Houston without a rigged up brewing shed in the back yard. We're not there yet... but once the kid's play fort comes down I see a change in the landscaping on the horizon. laugh out loud It'll be a few years.

DH made his first batch of cider this week. I'm interested to try that one - not sure what he brewed yesterday. I'll find out when I help bottle it, I guess.
An old refrigerator with a temp controller [northernbrewer.com] works the best. I got my fridge off CL for $50.
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Joined Dec 2003
L10: Grand Master
> bubble2 26,586 Posts
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Mavtech
07-15-2010 at 05:35 AM.
07-15-2010 at 05:35 AM.
Quote from AggieMom :
He's annoyed by tourists today. nod
And crying babies on the train. LOL
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Joined Jan 2006
Nerd Circus: Ringmaster
> bubble2 19,213 Posts
2,792 Reputation
AggieMom
07-15-2010 at 05:42 AM.
07-15-2010 at 05:42 AM.
Quote from Mavtech :
An old refrigerator with a temp controller [northernbrewer.com] works the best. I got my fridge off CL for $50.
We're on the lookout. Our big issue is storage space - it'll have to go in the house so I'm pushing for something pretty. Ordinarily I'd go the cheap route, but I'm not willing to park in the driveway forever so the beer chiller can have a spot in the garage.

Sadly, there are no basements in Houston. Frown
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Joined Oct 2005
L2: Beginner
> bubble2 91 Posts
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thekingofspain
07-17-2010 at 10:18 AM.
07-17-2010 at 10:18 AM.
Wired up the $30 digital aquarium control last night and have on primary in the keezer and 70F, actually 21.1C. The $30 controller with cool and heat is comparable to $120 controller. Need to rewire it better wire and longer cord for the keezer. Also going to start on the collar today hopefully.

Thinking now about making a fermentation closet using another aq controller and this weird car mini fridge that is dc. Need to read up on it.

Tearing apart the basement photo lab that had water damage might be a new a indoor brew room.
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Joined Oct 2005
L2: Beginner
> bubble2 91 Posts
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thekingofspain
07-23-2010 at 09:33 PM.
07-23-2010 at 09:33 PM.
Going to a 3 hour kegging class at one of my local homebrew shops tomorrow. The price is right free. Afterward I will clean my kegs and rank my SMASH Crystal Ale. Hope its good, the last batch is haunting me.
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Joined Dec 2003
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> bubble2 26,586 Posts
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Mavtech
08-12-2010 at 01:25 PM.
08-12-2010 at 01:25 PM.
Tried something a little different this brew. I was really liking the hop aroma I was getting from putting the hops directly in the keg with no bag and just placing a filter over the dip tube. The problem with this was: when I didn't drink the beer fast enough, it would get a grassy taste from the spent hops sitting in the beer. Using a bag doesn't get as good of an aroma. So, I put the loose leaf right in the fermenter after fermentation was done (1.011). I'll use a strainer to pick up most of the hops. I put a mesh ball around the end of my siphon to keep the remaining hop pieces out when I siphon to the keg. We'll see this weekend how it works. (fingers crossed)
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Joined Oct 2005
beeeeeer
> bubble2 11,718 Posts
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mattman688
08-12-2010 at 05:09 PM.
08-12-2010 at 05:09 PM.
Quote from Mavtech :
Tried something a little different this brew. I was really liking the hop aroma I was getting from putting the hops directly in the keg with no bag and just placing a filter over the dip tube. The problem with this was: when I didn't drink the beer fast enough, it would get a grassy taste from the spent hops sitting in the beer. Using a bag doesn't get as good of an aroma. So, I put the loose leaf right in the fermenter after fermentation was done (1.011). I'll use a strainer to pick up most of the hops. I put a mesh ball around the end of my siphon to keep the remaining hop pieces out when I siphon to the keg. We'll see this weekend how it works. (fingers crossed)
I like dry hopping when I have about 2-3 points left during fermentation, then any o2 that gets introduced gets scrubbed out... Plus most yeasts add a good taste addition when it's still somewhat fermenting.
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Joined Oct 2005
beeeeeer
> bubble2 11,718 Posts
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mattman688
08-25-2010 at 07:59 PM.
08-25-2010 at 07:59 PM.
i have an interview at green flash tomorrow afternoon...wish me luck!
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Joined Dec 2003
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> bubble2 26,586 Posts
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Mavtech
08-26-2010 at 04:36 AM.
08-26-2010 at 04:36 AM.
Quote from mattman688 :
i have an interview at green flash tomorrow afternoon...wish me luck!
Which position are you interviewing for?
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Joined Dec 2003
L10: Grand Master
> bubble2 26,586 Posts
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Mavtech
08-27-2010 at 06:17 AM.
08-27-2010 at 06:17 AM.
Any suggestions on a Barleywine? I was thinking of doing this one.

http://www.brew365.com/beer_rogue...tacean.php
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Joined Oct 2005
beeeeeer
> bubble2 11,718 Posts
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mattman688
08-27-2010 at 04:44 PM.
08-27-2010 at 04:44 PM.
Quote from Mavtech :
Which position are you interviewing for?
unfortunately chuck had to leave for the day(brewery expansion) and i couldn't be interviewed until next week.... he wants to interview me to see what openings he can create for me... they only bottle 1-2 times a week, so i am assuming a little bit of everything.... and i heard no one wants to run the filler there, and they have a mini-me of the filler i operate at a way slower speed, so i am all over it...

Quote from Mavtech :
Any suggestions on a Barleywine? I was thinking of doing this one.

http://www.brew365.com/beer_rogue...tacean.php
i would go with jz's old monster... awesome bw.... or listen to the network at get stone's recipe... if you need either recipe, let me know.
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Last edited by mattman688 August 27, 2010 at 04:45 PM.
Joined Oct 2005
beeeeeer
> bubble2 11,718 Posts
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mattman688
08-27-2010 at 04:47 PM.
08-27-2010 at 04:47 PM.
brew365 has good recipes, but knowing off first hand, they don't have the right recipes for clones.
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Joined Dec 2003
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> bubble2 26,586 Posts
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Mavtech
08-30-2010 at 11:55 AM.
08-30-2010 at 11:55 AM.
We went with the one from Brew365 since we had plenty of hops for that recipe. I then altered the hop schedule for more of a hop burst at the end.

We came up short on the gravity for some reason. The pre-boil was pretty close at 1.076 (target was 1.078). So, I thought we would be ok. But, the OG ended up at 1.087. Way off of the intended 1.100. Efficiency was way low. We just cannot get it consistently over 70%. The crush is real fine. The mash temp is perfect and stable at 150-152.
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Joined Oct 2005
beeeeeer
> bubble2 11,718 Posts
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mattman688
09-28-2010 at 07:07 PM.
09-28-2010 at 07:07 PM.
working on the keg line now, but i should be moving up in position in about a month from now...yesterday i bottled just a little over 94,000 bottles of vertical epic... whats crazy with this beer is its Stone's lowest gravity beer at final gravity... it is .4 plato.... or similar to 1.002 ending gravity....
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