Any home brewers on this site?

I have taken a stab at a brown ale (turned out like it should) and an IPA (didn't taste like an IPA but still drinkable).  Nothing more than the basics in the papazian book, though.  I have a friend, on the other hand, who's opening a micro brewery in an old service station/auto dealership.  I can't wait! 

 

Been brewing for about twenty years, but did extract and partial mash until 2013.

 

All grain isn't a big deal, but IMHO it allows more control over the end product and is WAY cheaper. I get my grain and stuff from Keegan Ales in Kingston NY for cheap. I even use their liquid yeast that they harvest. Made a 9% dry-hopped IPA. It was clear, light colored, very tasty and drinkable. Best to only have one or two of those! $1 a pound for grain means this batch cost $22! That is CHEAP!

 

I borrowed a stainless turkey fryer, so I still need to buy one. I made a mash tun from a Coleman cooler and some copper pipe and fittings for less than $50. It doesn't take up too much room. Boil water outside, then carry inside and boil on the stove. I did the mash with gravity and a siphon. 170 degree strike water on the stove siphons into the mash tun on a chair, then out of the mash tun back into a brewpot sitting on the floor. Easy peasy!

^ So how did the brew turn out, Tickle? 

I don't have the room at home (we live in a townhouse) but a neighbor and I do the occasional beer and wine batch at the local u-brew. We've done various reds and whites, and several different beers (pale, brown and cream ales, a couple different lagers). We also do a lime cooler (also at the u-brew) every summer (we've tried to make something comparable to a Mike's hard Lime, only in a wine cooler base instead of the malt liquor product of the Mike's) and after 6 years, we think we have a pretty good summer drink- think a potent "adult limeade". We've played with the recipe over the years and they don't taste like wine coolers at all, and do 3-4 cooler batches each summer. All the neighbors like them too. It's more expensive than home brewing, but still cheaper than the store prices around here. Al

Wow! I had no idea there were so many other brew guys here. Cool!

Regarding the all grain - is.it difficult to control the temp of the sparge?

@Jim - don't kid, I've often wondered about how difficult it would be to make some 'shine.

Ted

I got into all-grain because the extract stuff was costing me between $50-75 for a 5 gallon batch. At that point, it is cheaper to buy commercial craft beer.

 

Jim, it was DELICIOUS! Think along the lines of Lagunitas Little Sumpin' Sumpin', which is my gold standard for IPA. I'm probably going to do another batch soon, and if it is any good I'll share in Carlisle

 

AL, I'd like to try a Lime-aid, sounds good on a hot day!

No Ted, not difficult at all, which is why I do it in the kitchen. All you need to do is keep a thermometer in the sparge and turn your burner on for a few minutes, then off. Gas stove is key here. No need to bring sparge to a boil as you do a full boil of the wort after sparge. My first all-grain  took about 4 hours, add a half hour for cleanup. Of course, you NEED a wort chiller, that is the best time saver ever!

They're good, Danny; the women-folk pound 'em back like water, and they're fortified with rum!

Not being a beer drinker or home brewer I'm learning a whole new language here... sporge.... wort.... sounds like the terms were lifted from a Harry Potter script. Pretty cool!

I tried it once with a 5 gallon Sparklets bottle , trash bag etc., but I threw it all away after two of my neighbors went blind from drinking it.  

I prefer the easy way...walking into Stone Brewery with my growlers and having them filled with Ruination IPA and Double Bastard Ale 

x2! some Arrogant Bastard stole my growlers tho!

We are drowning in Great Micro breweries here in San Diego! Iron Fist, Coronado Pizza Port, Lost Abbey,etc.

Heres a list.

http://www.drinkupsandiego.com/sandiegobreweries.html

Nothing wrong with getting it directly from the source, if you can.  When I go on vacation to Lake Tahoe, I get a growler from the local brewery and have it filled every few days.

Where is the Stone Brewery?

 

OMG! Pizza port!??! We vacation in Carlsbad for a week each summer. Stay at the Carlsbad Inn.  We walk over to PP at least twice during the week to score pizza and beer!

T

 

 

Learned two things today:

1) Greenflash is in San Diego!? ( I had a green flash IPA at lunch today!)

2) White Labs also has a micro brewery!? ( I thought they just had kick ass yeast!)

 

 

The Lime Aid sounds like something I"m going to have to try. Do you have a grain bill / recipe for it?

 

I've brewed a Peach Kolsch a few times. I used the White Labs Kolsch yeast. It came out pretty good the first time, as I only used 3/4 of the vial of peach extract. The second time, I tried the entire bottle of extract and the peach flavor over powered the beer. I'll have to go round three this spring.  It was great to quaff one (or three) of those after mowing the lawn.  

 

Post recipes if you have 'em!

 

T

TRP , Stone is in Escondido, fortunately right next to the new hospital! Stone was there first and I think they put the hospital there as an afterthought or by necessity!

Stone might be on that list in my post although they are pretty big now ,not so Micro.

 

Stone is in Escondido, CA (San Diego area) www.stonebrewing.com 

Greenflash is great as is Iron Fist 

I'm not a beer drinker either! Some terms sound like from porn flick; sparge, wort chiller, peach kolsch, Iron Fist! 

Doh! There it is! I didn't see it on your list the first time I read it through. The second time I read the list I found it.

 

I totally 'get' how microbreweries can out grow their micro status.  When I was a wee lad, I used to deliver the local paper. Every morning I would ride past a stinky warehouse on 20th Street.  Two dudes were brewing something in there. At the time I didn't know what.

 

Today, they are a little bit bigger than they were back then:

It's really crazy to see how big they have become. True home town heros.

 

Ted

LOL!

What's your poison, Jim?

 

T

Jim, its not too late to teach an old dog new tricks! Let me know when that first batch of "Pineapplehead Piss IPA" is ready! (no offense Jim, its a great name!)

 

Ted , Im choking down a Sierra Nevada Torpedo Extra IPA right now, a client dropped off a case!

TRP, Russian River, which isn't too far from you, is also some good stuff!!! 

PINEAPPLE PISS IPA..... Bwaaaaaa Haaaaaa....I love this website and BS'ing with my knucklehead SOC friends! 

 

Maybe brew a beer that tastes like Spam, THEN you'll have a hit in Hawaii! 

MMMM Torpedo. I think the hop of choice in that brew is as close to 'Citra' as we're going to get. I may be wrong. Sierra Nevada is so 'big' they actually created their own hop variety and they use it in several of their beer.  They also created the hop 'torpedo' (similar to a hop shark, but on a bigger scale).

 

My dream, when I grow up, is to go to Sierra Nevada beer camp. I have a 6 week sabbatical coming up from work.  Maybe if I find a speedy, I can take it and go to beer camp this summer.  It'd be like I'd died and gone to heaven.

 

Which industry do you work in where your clients have such good taste? (although my favorite commercial beer is still Lagunitas IPA!)

 

 

Okay - I have to restate something: My favorite beer, when I can find it is:

 

Didn't they just release Pliny the Younger?

 

RR makes some KICK ASS beer, but you can only have one or two before you have to close one eye, to keep from falling over.

 

 

Jim, I think you would appreciate the names of some beers from Belching Beaver Brewery!!!

http://belchinbeaver.com/our-beers/

 

Ole' Dirty Beaver!?  Love it.

If anybody gets near this place in Redondo its a HOOT! right on the water and 100 beers on tap i believe,

 

http://www.najasplace.com

 

Ted, I create sinks and kitchens etc with soapstone along with stone sculpture and VW stuff. A lot of my contractors know that liquid refreshment inspires my crews.

Espescially Chimay or Delirium Tremens!

I actually stand corrected.

 

Sierra Nevada has one seasonal brew which uses their own organic hops; Chico Estate Harvest Ale.

 

Sierra Nevada is the single largest buyer of organic hops in the United States.

 

I've learned a lot today. I had better slow down and pace myself.

Ted-

The place we do it has white wine 6 week "kits" (concentrated juice) that you make first (makes 48 liters, so we get about 96 500ml bottles; actually, with sampling while bottling, we never end up with all 96. Funny that...). I've never asked exactly what the juice is, but I'm sure it's fairly basic. The kit has some sort of lemonade flavoring, and to that we add 275 mls of realime concentrate, about 16 oz of frozen orange juice concentrate (pulp free), a little carbonation and 33-34 oz of white rum. The place we do it filters the mix before bottling, and I remind them every year to add the extra ingredients after filtering. They don't taste exactly the same as a Mike's hard lime, as those are malt liquor products, but everyone who tastes it finishes their glass and asks for seconds. I like it best cold over ice. We've been brewing this (2-4 batches every summer) for 6 or 7 years now and it's taken 4 or 5 years of tweaking to arrive at the recipe for the extras- we started by adding 100 mls of realime and a mickey of vodka and just kept experimenting with every batch, switching over to rum about 3 years ago because my brew partner and I are both rum drinkers. We'll start our first batch in the beginning or middle of March.

 

The brew place just got back to me- it's a Vineco white wine base, but a sauvignon blanc (or anything not to distinctive tasting) will do.

 

PS- Have you looked at the other car yet? 

That limeaid sounds like an excellent drink. I'll talk to my local brew store and see what we can whip up. Bottling is one thing I do not look forward to. I have the luxury of using 5 gallon kegs. They store great and they carbonate so easily. Bottling makes me want to punch myself in the face. 

 

Re: the other car - Not yet. It rained down here. That postponed everything until next week.  BTW - Your package went out today. Not sure how long the post takes to get up your way, but it should arrive by this time next week.  Thanks again for your help. I hope I don't kick myself for passing on that Washington car. I think the price was right if I didn't have to add shipping on top of it. The 1000.00 shipping fee really tipped that scale into the negative side. At least that's what I'm telling myself. That and the 1300cc motor.

Thanks Ted, and it'll get here when it gets here. It's not like I check my mail everyday anyway...Re the car- don't keep second-guessing yourself, as it's not the right one for you. Too many variables, and then shipping on top of it. Even if this other car doesn't pan out, there'll be other cars closer to your area; you live in So Cal, and there's probably way more of them there than any where else. I'm just glad I could help. Al

 

PS- Re the limeade; it may take a batch or 2 to get exactly what you want, but when you do, you won't drink anything else at home all summer. Cheers! and let me know when you perfect the recipe.

 

 

100 beers on tap; I'd never leave....