Brothers who homebrew!?!

[MoldMan]

The biggest question we should be asking is what are you set up for as far as brewing? Extract, partial mash, all grain? It looks like from your pictures you have at least a 3 maybe a 5 gallon kettle so an extract with grains is doable. Brown ales, amber ales a rye extract is available and so on. What size fermenter are you using? Did you pick up one of those one gallon starter kits? Do you like hops or would you prefer a malt forward beer? Sorry for the ramble, haven't had my coffee yet.

 

[rfraser]

No worries on the ramble, all great questions. And I just hit brew on my coffee as well. Anyway, I have a 5 gal kettle and 5 gal fermentation bucket. Since I am a noon at brewing, I am really just set up to do those kits that yield about 5 gal.

 

[KS-Derek]

When I first made the switch over to AG I used a coleman cooler with a braided hose, worked really well. Cost about $6 + spigot to make if you already have a cooler.

You can also make a 13.5 gallon pot with an old keg and a dremel.

If you think of going that route let me know and I'll send you some links to a few "how-to" articles.

 

[rfraser]

Great, thanks KS, sounds like you have a good setup going. One of my buddies in Tucson is looking to go AG after awhile. For me though, I am going to just stick with what I have and first upgrade my kettle with a nice valve and upgrade to a glass carboy. Then move into kegging. After I get going more, then probably move into AG. And it looks like I have plenty of knowledge right here to get started. Thanks guys.

 

[MoldMan]

Great, thanks KS, sounds like you have a good setup going. One of my buddies in Tucson is looking to go AG after awhile. For me though, I am going to just stick with what I have and first upgrade my kettle with a nice valve and upgrade to a glass carboy. Then move into kegging. After I get going more, then probably move into AG. And it looks like I have plenty of knowledge right here to get started. Thanks guys.

How are you chilling after the boil? One of the bigger bangs for the buck no matter how you brew is going to a full boil. If you are going to stick with this get a 15 gallon boil kettle and a good immersion chiller or make a counter flow chiller. Don't spend too much on your 5 gallon kettle. The biggest impact is temp control of your fermentation.

 

[rfraser]

Thanks Mold, I am sticking with the 5 gal for awhile, and right now, I just do an ice bath. Bit I am building a immersion chiller for my next batch. It looks like we should discuss brewing at the herf and I better take notes!

 

[MoldMan]

Will do. So now we know how you are brewing we need to figure out where your taste are. At that point it should be easy to come up with something. And now that the weather is cooling off it opens up quite a few options on what to brew. Bring a note book.