The homebrew thread

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  • mertesnmertesn I am Bobby Miller Yukon, OK Icrontian
  • KarmaKarma Likes yoga Icrontian

    Those whiskey barrels usually come with a bunch of a gunk in them and it takes a good amount of work to get ready before you can age any beer in it.

    mertesnMAGIC
  • georgehgeorgeh Canton, MI Icrontian

    @mertesn‌ I bought a 5g used whiskey barrel from them. It worked well but for the price and the maintenance required I'm going to use oak cubes for future beers.

  • georgehgeorgeh Canton, MI Icrontian

    Oh, and while I'm in this thread, does anyone have a stout/nitro faucet? Mine leaked about a gallon of vanilla porter on Thursday before I noticed, and I can't figure out what part is leaking. You can screw/unscrew the handle, which seems to affect the drip rate. Anyone else experience this?

  • mertesnmertesn I am Bobby Miller Yukon, OK Icrontian

    @georgeh said:
    Oh, and while I'm in this thread, does anyone have a stout/nitro faucet? Mine leaked about a gallon of vanilla porter on Thursday before I noticed, and I can't figure out what part is leaking. You can screw/unscrew the handle, which seems to affect the drip rate. Anyone else experience this?

    A gallon? Ouch.

    This might be of some assistance. Sounds similar to what you describe.

    georgeh
  • georgehgeorgeh Canton, MI Icrontian
    edited December 2014

    @mertesn said:
    This might be of some assistance. Sounds similar to what you describe.

    Thanks, that looks like exactly what I need. And I need to get it fixed ASAP because Vanilla Porter on nitro is fraking delicious.

  • mertesnmertesn I am Bobby Miller Yukon, OK Icrontian

    @georgeh said:
    Thanks, that looks like exactly what I need. And I need to get it fixed ASAP because Vanilla Porter on nitro is fraking delicious.

    I bet it is. I'll have to look into a nitro bottle and faucet sometime soon.

  • georgehgeorgeh Canton, MI Icrontian
    edited December 2014

    @mertesn said:
    I bet it is. I'll have to look into a nitro bottle and faucet sometime soon.

    If... When I get fed up with maintaining a separate system for one tap I'll be sure to include you in the for sale listing. But I did get it pretty cheap a couple years ago on a Cyber Monday deal. You can also watch homebrewfinds.com for deals.

    Definitely a splurge item but damn if it doesn't make some beers (like the Vanilla Porter) taste great.

    mertesn
  • mertesnmertesn I am Bobby Miller Yukon, OK Icrontian

    I'm getting ready to drill a fridge and install some taps. Shouldn't be too big of a deal to have an extra gas tank in there.

  • georgehgeorgeh Canton, MI Icrontian

    I have a keezer that I originally built for 4 CO2 taps. So I had (and still have) a CO2 tank, a regulator, a 4-way gas distributor going to my kegs. On the dispensing side I have 4 shanks drilled into a wooden collar.

    When I got my nitro system I got a nitro tank, a nitro regulator and a stout faucet. You need those because nitro (or technically beer gas, I think AirGas uses a 70/30 Nitrogen/CO2 mixture) because you're pushing the beer at 30+ PSI so you need to be able to handle that extra pressure. The stout faucet is responsible for adding restriction so it doesn't shoot out like 30 PSI would on a regular faucet.

    Speaking of faucets, I strongly recommend spending the extra money on Perlicks. If you're not serving out of the kegerator every day, the piston in the middle of a regular faucet gets gummed up with dried beer and that's gross and embarrassing when you go to pour someone a beer. The Perlicks don't stick like that because of their forward-sealing layout.

    mertesn
  • mertesnmertesn I am Bobby Miller Yukon, OK Icrontian

    I already have everything needed for the normal setup (assuming my shanks are of a suitable length).

    I'll keep the Perlicks in mind for future upgrades though.

  • KarmaKarma Likes yoga Icrontian

    Words cannot express how much I want to make a keezee, but my apartment is just too damn small.

    Do you actually notice a big difference between a porter on nitro vs co2. I am not entirely sold on the nitro beer thing yet.

  • mertesnmertesn I am Bobby Miller Yukon, OK Icrontian

    @Karma said:
    Words cannot express how much I want to make a keezee, but my apartment is just too damn small.

    Do you actually notice a big difference between a porter on nitro vs co2. I am not entirely sold on the nitro beer thing yet.

    IIRC, regular Guinness in a can or bottle uses nitrogen while the Extra Stout uses CO2. Might be worth an A/B test.

  • georgehgeorgeh Canton, MI Icrontian

    @Karma‌ yes - there's definitely a difference in the Vanilla Porter and it's definitely better. But aside from that and stouts, I don't put anything on nitro. I tried an ESB once and it was OK, but the nitro tap is frequently dry.

    If you have a 1-2 tap kegerator, there's nothing stopping you from getting the nitro stuff and swapping it on/off when you have something you want to serve on it.

  • georgehgeorgeh Canton, MI Icrontian

    I don't know if you care or not @mertesn‌ but it turns out an o-ring slipped off the piston on my stout faucet and by re-attaching that it is now A-OK.

    Kegerators: 80% awesome, 20% pain in the ass. And there are days where I would switch those numbers.

  • mertesnmertesn I am Bobby Miller Yukon, OK Icrontian

    @georgeh said:
    I don't know if you care or not mertesn‌ but it turns out an o-ring slipped off the piston on my stout faucet and by re-attaching that it is now A-OK.

    Kegerators: 80% awesome, 20% pain in the ass. And there are days where I would switch those numbers.

    Good to hear you got it sorted out.

    My chiller box is about the same ratio.

  • mertesnmertesn I am Bobby Miller Yukon, OK Icrontian
    edited December 2014

    @mertesn said:
    Time for an update:

    Dark Cider:
    Current status: aging in secondary
    This is a slightly toned down version of the fabled dark cider in the short keg that was consumed before Expo started. This batch is on about the same schedule as the first, so I'm expecting similarly awesome results.

    Mead:
    Current status: aging in secondary
    This is my first attempt at mead. It's using the same orange blossom honey from this Expo's Honey Ginger Saison. While the saison didn't retain as much of they honey's aroma as I had hoped, the mead so far has retained a significant amount of the honey's aroma and flavor. This batch is going to be split into two smaller batches - one 2.5g batch of "plain" and one 2.5g batch with a couple extra flavor components.

    I have another four batches (of actual beer) planned.

    expo2015cantcomesoonenough

    From right to left: Dark Cider, Mead part 1, Mead part 2.

    All have been sampled and are progressing nicely. the leftmost carboy holds the mead with extra flavors. What are they? Two words: Cherries & Chipotle. How is it? Tasty and spicy.

    I'll probably have to make another batch of mead for Expo...this one might not make it ;)

    georgehoni_dels
  • KarmaKarma Likes yoga Icrontian

    @mertesn‌ How do you like the big mouth bubbler? Also what is the white bag and stopper setup coming out the top of the that carboy on the left?

    Looks good though.

  • mertesnmertesn I am Bobby Miller Yukon, OK Icrontian

    @Karma said:
    mertesn‌ How do you like the big mouth bubbler? Also what is the white bag and stopper setup coming out the top of the that carboy on the left?

    Looks good though.

    The plastic ones are awesome. The glass ones are another story. The five gallon ones seem to be good, but the six gallon ones are fragile as hell. I suspect they use the same amount of material for both sizes. There are all kinds of bubbles in the glass, which doesn't give me a whole lot of confidence either. I've had two shatter - one was full of beer. In both cases, nothing unusual was happening. The full one was being moved to a different spot in the kitchen (I was fortunate it was on a cart and not in my arms).

    The bag contains the chipotle peppers. They were left in to steep for about a week. They came out this morning.

  • KarmaKarma Likes yoga Icrontian
    edited December 2014

    @mertesn‌ said:

    Ouch yeah one of my biggest fears of brewing is having a carboy break on me. THE CLEAN UP OH GOD THE CLEANUP. So it sounds like they have some manufacturing problems. Guess I'll hold out on getting a couple for a while. Have some other things I need to pick up first anyways.

  • mertesnmertesn I am Bobby Miller Yukon, OK Icrontian

    @Karma said:
    Ouch yeah one of my biggest fears of brewing is having a carboy break on me. THE CLEAN UP OH GOD THE CLEANUP. So it sounds like they have some manufacturing problems. Guess I'll hold out on getting a couple for a while. Have some other things I need to pick up first anyways.

    Yes, five gallons of beer on the floor was not fun. Fortunately it wasn't over a carpeted area. Took about two hours to get everything cleaned up, but I was still finding little glass shards for a week after.

    Get the plastic ones. They're great.

  • georgehgeorgeh Canton, MI Icrontian

    I've seen too many second-hand injury reports to buy glass again. I have a 6.5g carboy and a 5g carboy and anything else I buy will be plastic.

  • KarmaKarma Likes yoga Icrontian

    @georgeh I am very sensitive to the taste of the plastic. Yeah they say it's complete inert and will impart no flavor. I call bullshit on that. So I'm keep using glass. And treat it like it is made out of glass because it is. Most of the stories I've heard about carboys breaking usually involve a lot of user error.

  • mertesnmertesn I am Bobby Miller Yukon, OK Icrontian

    @Karma said:
    georgeh I am very sensitive to the taste of the plastic. Yeah they say it's complete inert and will impart no flavor. I call bullshit on that. So I'm keep using glass. And treat it like it is made out of glass because it is. Most of the stories I've heard about carboys breaking usually involve a lot of user error.

    My big mouth carboys shattering was no user error. The things are just that fragile.

  • KarmaKarma Likes yoga Icrontian

    @mertesn said:
    My big mouth carboys shattering was no user error. The things are just that fragile.

    I did say most. I am not saying you had any user error and believe that the big mouth was poorly manufactured.

    However most stories I've heard are of dudes putting the carboy in an ice bath in attempts to cool the wert fast but siphoning hot wert into causing the whole thing to shatter, people carrying them poorly.... so on and so forth.

    I have a couple of those Italian glass carboys, love those babies.

  • mertesnmertesn I am Bobby Miller Yukon, OK Icrontian

    @Karma said:
    However most stories I've heard are of dudes putting the carboy in an ice bath in attempts to cool the wert fast but siphoning hot wert into causing the whole thing to shatter

    That's just...wow.

  • KarmaKarma Likes yoga Icrontian

    @mertesn said:
    That's just...wow.

    YUUUP. Maybe I just remember most of these stories, and less of the carboy was just super weak. People carrying full carboys with those carboy handles is another fairly common one I hear.

    My family still has some of my grandpa's carboys left from when he made wine in the 70s, my Uncle has them. Those badboys can last for ever.

  • mertesnmertesn I am Bobby Miller Yukon, OK Icrontian
    edited December 2014

    Got bored and decided to experiment today:

    • Cider
    • Light Belgian Candi Syrup
    • White Labs WLP644 (Brettanomyces Bruxellensis Trois)

    Now, for those who aren't familiar with the various yeast strains, this is a Belgian strain that should produce a much more tart/sour cider than normal. If you were around for @RyanMM's Flemish Sour beer tasting a couple years ago, this should produce results similar to some of those...hopefully some of the better tasting ones.

    georgeh
  • MAGICMAGIC Doot Doot Furniture City, Michigan Icrontian

    What temp are you fermenting at?

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