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Noticed in a few other threads we have a couple of home brewers in our midst. What's everyone brewing up these days?

 

 

For me:

 

Currently in the primary I have a batch of Blonde Ale that after a short stint in the secondary soon will be kegged up and ready to go in about 2-3 weeks

 

Hefe that is bottled and a week away from being cracked open

 

Russian Imperial Stout that is bottled and will be ready around July 8th (damn things take 3 months to bottle condition, but they are going to be 9.3%)

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I've done a bit. A buddy of mine from high school has a pretty complicated setup...all grain and a conical fermenter.

 

Unfortunately, I've just this month been diagnosed with celiac disease. So, my beloved beer has to go.

 

Time to try my hand at brewing cider I guess!

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Haven't brewed in a couple of months. My all grain set up is in my shed with no heat, so sitting out in the cold isn't all that much fun. I usually do most of my brewing in the spring and fall for this reason.

 

Currently in the kegerator I have a double chocolate stout, porter and a American pale ale. Planning on putting all the ingredients together for a double brew day in a week or two. I'm planning on a blond ale, and a Belgian wit.

 

Here's a pic of my three tier brew rig for all grain. This is an older pic, I currently use two turkey fryers for the main boil and one for the hot liquor tank.

 

5267863744_5fb597b4ea_z.jpg

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I've done a bit. A buddy of mine from high school has a pretty complicated setup...all grain and a conical fermenter.

 

Unfortunately, I've just this month been diagnosed with celiac disease. So, my beloved beer has to go.

 

Time to try my hand at brewing cider I guess!

 

not to change subjects, but sorry to hear about your diagnosis. Im in a similar situation in February i was diagnosed with crohns. I know how you feel right now about not eating certain things and such. But in the long run youll feel better if you listen to the dr's. I feel pretty good most of the time now and just have to watched what i eat and drink,. Also check out trader joe's. They have some decent snacks and stuff that are gluten free that they had me on for a while when they were trying to diagnose it.

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What kits do everyone use?? I started with a Mr. Beer but now looking to get something nicer.

 

I generally don't use kits anymore. Here's a link for Austin homebrew supply, they have a great assortment of kits. They also have their versions of commercial beers, if you want to make something similar one of your favorites. http://www.austinhomebrew.com/index.php?cPath=178

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I haven't tried gluten free brewing yet, but I have some friends that can't eat gluten and want to brew up a batch for them eventually. I haven't looked into it to much yet, but here is a good resource for it http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f164/

 

Also my friends have a bakery in NJ that is gluten free in case you need a sweet fix.

 

http://www.thecakeover.com/

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I got a brooklynn brew shop IPA 1 gallon kit for Xmas and it came out pretty good. Then I tried my hands at a Long trail ail version using DPE instead of all grains like my first kit. Unfortunately it did not come out nearly as good, while it was still good enough to drink it just did not come out with the right taste. I plan on giving something else a try in a week or so. I have 2 kids so finding the time on the weekends to spend 4+ hrs in the kitchen can be hard. Ultimatly whether it comes out good or just drinkable its still nice to say hey I made this.

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Those with gluten issues should look into buying gluten test kits. I read an article written by a beer lover who had set out to taste test gluten free beers. Most of them sucked so for sh*ts and giggles he decided to test a bunch of his favorite beers with a gluten test kit. Many of them registered so low in gluten they could be considered gluten free by law. It was hit or miss, must depend on grain and how they process it.

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Those with gluten issues should look into buying gluten test kits. I read an article written by a beer lover who had set out to taste test gluten free beers. Most of them sucked so for sh*ts and giggles he decided to test a bunch of his favorite beers with a gluten test kit. Many of them registered so low in gluten they could be considered gluten free by law. It was hit or miss, must depend on grain and how they process it.

thanks for the info. didnt know that. but they had me try gluten free while trying to diagnose and its not that. now i can eat it. cant eat alot of other stuff ( lettuce, raw fruit or vegtables, seeds, nuts) and cant drink.

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Whats your cider recipes?

 

I used apple juice, apple cider (unrefrigerated at Walmart, so it is more like apple juice with pulp almost) then fermented that. I then used some brown sugar and white sugar to sweeten but it refermented and came out horrible. I guess I didn't kill my yeast properly.

 

Now I finished Skeeter Pee recently. That stuff ain't bad.

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I get my cider at farm stands so there's no preservative. Then I boil it down a bit to sanitize and concentrate the sugars (that makes it cloudy, something about the pectin I think, but I don't care) and use champagne yeast so it won't die before it eats all the sugar.

 

I prime my secondary with corn sugar before bottling to get it carbonated. That's it.

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Seeing some of those set ups make me want to go out and buy more homebrew equipment. Why can't I have cheaper hobbies?

 

 

All of my gear was purchased a little at a time. My wife couldn't stand the smell when i was brewing extract, so that's when the first turkey burner was bought so I could brew outside. After that I built the three tier stand, converted a twenty dollar cooler for my mash tun and saved some money to buy my ten gallon brew kettle. About a year after I started brewing I got a better job that came with a nice pay increase, and bought a few other things, like a chest freezer and temp controller to use as a fermentation chamber. I now have just about everything I need, and the only new things I buy are ingredients.

 

Most of my stuff is diy also, like a stirplate made from a Radio Shack project box, computer fan, and some old hard drive magnets.

 

Like you said earlier, there's a ton of good info on homebrewtalk.com.

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What no pressure cookers...

 

No, here's an explanation why, from a book called How to brew.

 

 

Dimethyl Sulfides (DMS)/ Cooked Vegetable Flavors

Like diacetyl in ales, DMS is common in many light lagers and is considered to be part of the character. DMS is produced in the wort during the boil by the reduction of another compound, S-methyl-methionine (SMM), which is itself produced during malting. When a malt is roasted or toasted, the SMM is reduced beforehand and does not manifest as DMS in the wort, which explains why it is more prevalent in pale lagers. In other styles, DMS is a common off-flavor, and can be caused by poor brewing practices or bacterial infections.

DMS is continuously produced in the wort while it is hot and is usually removed by vaporization during the boil. If the wort is cooled slowly these compounds will not be removed from the wort and will dissolve back in. Thus it is important to not completely cover the brewpot during the boil or allow condensate to drip back into the pot from the lid. The wort should also be cooled quickly after the boil, either by immersing in an ice bath or using a wort chiller.

When caused by bacterial infection, DMS has a more rancid character, more liked cooked cabbage than corn. It is usually the result of poor sanitation. Repitching the yeast from an infected batch of beer will perpetuate the problem.

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All of my gear was purchased a little at a time. My wife couldn't stand the smell when i was brewing extract, so that's when the first turkey burner was bought so I could brew outside. After that I built the three tier stand, converted a twenty dollar cooler for my mash tun and saved some money to buy my ten gallon brew kettle. About a year after I started brewing I got a better job that came with a nice pay increase, and bought a few other things, like a chest freezer and temp controller to use as a fermentation chamber. I now have just about everything I need, and the only new things I buy are ingredients.

 

Most of my stuff is diy also, like a stirplate made from a Radio Shack project box, computer fan, and some old hard drive magnets.

 

Like you said earlier, there's a ton of good info on homebrewtalk.com.

 

I am looking to build a climate controlled cabinet this summer. I ended up scoring the 103.5 qt (25.87 gallon) pot at homegoods by dumb luck and the equipment acquisition has been rolling on since then. Building a mash tun out of a cooler I picked up as soon as I have time. I'm justify the new purchases as I am not buying any new guns while things are crazy out there, so I might as well spend my fun money on brewing supplies.

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I get my cider at farm stands so there's no preservative. Then I boil it down a bit to sanitize and concentrate the sugars (that makes it cloudy, something about the pectin I think, but I don't care) and use champagne yeast so it won't die before it eats all the sugar.

 

I prime my secondary with corn sugar before bottling to get it carbonated. That's it.

 

I would love to do you this I'm guessing 5 gallons of cider and how long do you boil it

 

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

 

 

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Noticed in a few other threads we have a couple of home brewers in our midst. What's everyone brewing up these days?

 

 

For me:

 

Currently in the primary I have a batch of Blonde Ale that after a short stint in the secondary soon will be kegged up and ready to go in about 2-3 weeks

 

Hefe that is bottled and a week away from being cracked open

 

Russian Imperial Stout that is bottled and will be ready around July 8th (damn things take 3 months to bottle condition, but they are going to be 9.3%)

 

Getting ready to brew Caribou Slobber, a brown ale. Just finished an India Pale Ale.

 

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

 

 

 

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I would love to do you this I'm guessing 5 gallons of cider and how long do you boil it

 

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

 

I get 6 gallons and boil it down to 5 no particular time requirement but it takes a while because I don't have especially big pots. Then it takes a while longer to cool, you can't pitch the yeast when its hot.

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I just floated a keg with a dry Irish stout. Keg 2 has a west coast pale ale in it. both were brewed all grain. I might make another IPA, maybe a Pliney the Elder clone.

 

Pliny... mmmmm....

 

I have my Gingerbread Brown Ale (brewed with ginger and spices) almost done on one tap, and just put my Orange Wit on the other tap. A few pumpkin ales left in the bottle that my buddy and I did for a contest in March. I hope we win! Next up: IPA and the yearly peach sour.

Oh I almost forgot I did a version of a Dogfish Head 120 that is over 21% abv. That one is still aging - going to take some time to dry out.

 

EDIT: I've gotten away from kits lately. They're good but there's just something about making your own recipe or tweaking an existing one (there's a homebrew recipe for just about anything if you search the internet hard enough) and heading to your local homebrew shop. There's one in Boonton, North Brunswick, Trenton, Freehold. Getting fresh ingredients that aren't shipped from Cali in the summer heat has to be a good thing as well. Plus those guys who work at the homebrew shops generally know their stuff so if you have a question you're bound to get a good answer.

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