These are cool, but kinda pricey. Maybe someday...
FastRack Combo - 2 racks with 1 tray : Northern Brewer
I just store a bunch of bottles on my bottling tree. I keg now, so I'm just holding these bottles for a barrel-aged imperial stout.
Home brew
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FastRack Combo - 2 racks with 1 tray : Northern Brewer
I just store a bunch of bottles on my bottling tree. I keg now, so I'm just holding these bottles for a barrel-aged imperial stout.
Registration starts on Wednesday & is open for a week, just in case you hadn't heard. Definitely let me know if you end up going.
Registration Details | 36th Annual National Homebrewers Conference
Thinking I might do an oatmeal stout similar to Founders Breakfast Stout. Something with a lot of chocolate and coffee, and might even decide to add some vanilla bean.
So far I have quite a few IPAs, Black IPAs, Wheats, and regular stouts under my belt, but really haven't ventured into brewing thick, high ABV stouts with additives. Was thinking of just adding a few oz of nibs into secondary since I know boiling them can really screw up head retention due to the fats.
The main thing I want to know about before prepping for this brew is the coffee addition. Was thinking of cold pressing then adding to secondary and again right before bottling. Any guidelines you guys follow when it comes to amount added, bean type, or addition times?
Only looked around a little bit on HBT, but seem to read a lot of differing opinions on it.
Thanks
So far I have quite a few IPAs, Black IPAs, Wheats, and regular stouts under my belt, but really haven't ventured into brewing thick, high ABV stouts with additives. Was thinking of just adding a few oz of nibs into secondary since I know boiling them can really screw up head retention due to the fats.
The main thing I want to know about before prepping for this brew is the coffee addition. Was thinking of cold pressing then adding to secondary and again right before bottling. Any guidelines you guys follow when it comes to amount added, bean type, or addition times?
Only looked around a little bit on HBT, but seem to read a lot of differing opinions on it.
Thanks
I know you mentioned HBT. Did you happen to read through some of this thread: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f68/founders-breakfast-stout-clone-139078/ ? Tons of great info there.
When I brewed this, I added grounds to the boil & then added whole beans in secondary. Unfortunately it somehow became infected -- first time that's happened for me. I'll definitely brew it again, though. Tasted phenomenal going into secondary.
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Thanks for the link. I must have looked at a different one (possibly the one the original poster mentions?) because the grain bill looks somewhat different, and I think it calls for all nibs, no ground bakers choc. The coffee addition looks pretty familiar though. Did you use the 2 oz of whole beans called for in the recipe? Did you soak in bourbon/vodka before throwing in secondary?
All this beer talk plus the great weather is giving me a real urge to brew this weekend. I'm sitting on 100 lbs of grain right now so I really should do something with it.
Probably end up doing a 10 gallon simple smash with maris otter & cascade just to get the kinks worked out again. I only have one open secondary, but I could throw the other half into my 5 gallon barrel I guess.
Or I may just end up bottling my brett beer I brewed on valentines day 2011... I was scheduled to bottle it on easter, but didn't have time. "Three-hearted Zombie Jesus" (3 valentines days old with brett additions on easter 2012 (gave lacto & pedio a year by themselves). Should be bottling and corking in belgians...
Should probably cold crash that fermenter in the keezer.
Probably end up doing a 10 gallon simple smash with maris otter & cascade just to get the kinks worked out again. I only have one open secondary, but I could throw the other half into my 5 gallon barrel I guess.
Or I may just end up bottling my brett beer I brewed on valentines day 2011... I was scheduled to bottle it on easter, but didn't have time. "Three-hearted Zombie Jesus" (3 valentines days old with brett additions on easter 2012 (gave lacto & pedio a year by themselves). Should be bottling and corking in belgians...
Should probably cold crash that fermenter in the keezer.
One other thing... I'm really, really close to pulling the trigger on a conical... I've been letting beers go to long in the primary because I've been so busy. Gives my ipas a fruit punch off flavor... I actually racked my brett beers out of their secondaries into tertiaries (one cuz I added cherries), and then racked the off flavor ipa right onto the brett. I'm hoping the brett will clean up the fruit punch and give me more of a farmhouse saison.
Anyway, a conical would prevent this as it would be easy enough to dump the trub the first day (which I mostly filter out with bucket filters) and the primary yeast cake after primary fermentation. I'm also going straight to kegs, so it seems like this would be ideal for my setup... It's really the last thing I don't have, and probably one of the first I should have gotten. (so expensive, and getting worse).
Any recommendations?
Anyway, a conical would prevent this as it would be easy enough to dump the trub the first day (which I mostly filter out with bucket filters) and the primary yeast cake after primary fermentation. I'm also going straight to kegs, so it seems like this would be ideal for my setup... It's really the last thing I don't have, and probably one of the first I should have gotten. (so expensive, and getting worse).
Any recommendations?
I have two conicals from Stout Tanks and Kettles out of Portland, OR. conical-fermenter.com. They were much less expensive than the others I have found. Had them for about 4 years and love them. Get the thermowell built in. Was so happy with the quality of service and product, I purchased a 7bbl system (240 gallon) system for the production brewery I am starting. Still very happy with the choice.
Keep in mind, conicals don't necessarily improve your beer. Temperature control is the bigger upgrade. I made my best homebrew with the conicals in a fridge which had a controller on it. It also had a reptile heater as well so I could heat and cool in order to hold my temperature within a degree or two. If you are mechanically inclined, I would suggest a BCS-460 controller from Embedded Control Concepts. They really do a lot but you need to be able to wire up relays and such. They have a great website with forums to help out. I am using two of their controllers to run our commercial brewery.
Keep in mind, conicals don't necessarily improve your beer. Temperature control is the bigger upgrade. I made my best homebrew with the conicals in a fridge which had a controller on it. It also had a reptile heater as well so I could heat and cool in order to hold my temperature within a degree or two. If you are mechanically inclined, I would suggest a BCS-460 controller from Embedded Control Concepts. They really do a lot but you need to be able to wire up relays and such. They have a great website with forums to help out. I am using two of their controllers to run our commercial brewery.
So I finally did it... Brewed an Americanized ESB (american hops, english malts) this weekend (OMG cleanup is a pain). AND I pulled the trigger on 2 shiny new 14 gallon conicals from Bru-gear. They did a kickstarter campaign and I was able to squeak in via their store. Similar prices to stout initially, but like everywhere else, I expect the prices to go up. $450 buys you a 14 gallon stainless conical with tri clamp fittings, (2) 1.5" butterfly valves, lid with a 3" tc opening on top, & tc racking arm. Also has a thermowell and thermometer, and sounds like they added fittings in the 3" TC lid to drop a coil in for cooling. Has pretty much every option I could want (except casters, but I'll just add those myself). Pretty stoked about the conicals. They arrive in June, so probably won't brew again until then. My 8 carboys will be relegated to long fermenting ciders and brett beers I guess. (might give wine a shot). Keezer should be maxed out by fall.
I know they are not in season, but would anyone know where I could find whole cone fresh hops? We're using them as greens for my boutonniere in my wedding. Dried ones can sometimes get brown and flaky so as of right now, I think we're going with plastic.
I did not soak my beans before adding them to secondary, so that may be what caused my infection.
A dedicated fermentation fridge with a conical or two is definitely on my wish list once we have a house. I have my eyes on these 7 gallon ones:
http://www.ssbrewtech.com/products/7-gallon-chronical
I'm officially out of homebrewing. I put everything on craigslist for $300 and it was gone by that night. I guess I should have asked for more.....I did keep a carboy and a few little things around so I can make the apple cider stuff.
I was eyeing those too. Great price for a nice looking fermenter. I do 10 gallon batches so I stuck with the 14 gallon (half barrel was too big). I think they have 7 gallon at $375 at bru-gear.com (includes butterfly valves). Not sure how many they have left for this initial order. The initial cost on those 5 gallon st/st buckets was awesome. Too much to spend now though on what would end up being a primary fermenter for me. 5.5 gallons of beer is heavy enough in a plastic bucket for me to haul to the basement from my garage.
Cider is definitely easy. Takes 15 minutes and 15 more to clean up... versus the 8 hour day I had on sunday for 10 gallons of all grain beer.
Curious about why you dropped out of homebrewing? Lackluster results, too much time, money, or work? I've probably invested $5k over the past 5 years in this hobby... Not terrible, but definitely not inexpensive. I could probably get back half that if I sold everything... Sadly, I brewed more in my NYC apartment then I do now that I have a house... (I have kids now). Also, the jump to all grain is incredibly time consuming. Extract beers are so much easier, and have so much less clean up.
I enjoyed brewing but here are a few things I don't like:
If your going spend the time you may as well do a 5 gallon batch. With a 5 gallon batch, your talking 50 bottles of beer. I like a lot of variety.
My results were just average. I would rank Miller Lite, Bud Light, etc. a 1.5. I would rank most of the beer I made a 3. The problem is that there are so many 4+ craft beers out there that I like. I've also tried other peoples home brew and none of them were great IMO. I'd rather take the money that I was spending on brewing and make a beer run to pick of some beer from Toppling Goliath, 3floyds, Bells, Surly, etc. that tastes a lot better than I could produce.
I will say that it was great learning experience and made me appreciate the work required to make a good beer.
Simple solution. When at my heyday of doing 5 gallon batches, I had over 20 cases of bottles on one shelf in my basement. So prolly 15-20 different batches to pick from at will. Alas....kiddos and work schedules means I haven't brewed in almost 4 years.
:sad:
What particular varietals of these do you favor? I am always up for trying new brews. Anyone try lagunitas? Big fan o most of their stuff. Really like Hopsutra from peace tree as well. Got talked into a 6 pack of peace tree blonde fat ale because it picked up the gold at the beer competition and it was in drinkable IMO.
I'm a hop head. Some if my favorites IPA's:
lagunitas Sucks
3floyds Zombie Dust
Stone Ruination
Bells two hearted
Hopslam
Odell IPA
Toppling Goliath Psuedo Sue
Surly-I like 3 of them
Steel Toe Size 7
Racer 5
Sculpin IPA
Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale
in your neck of the woods , I like Lucky Bucket and want to try some from the Nebraska brewing company.
and about 5o other IPA's
i did try out something different (for me) the other day at Red Monk. I tried my first Lambic and loved it. The good news is that I'm going to Belgium in about 4 months and they supposedly make the best Lambics. I'm not a huge fan of quads that always rank so high.
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