Who Brews on the Forum?

Guitarded

Rolanddeschain said:

This Christmas Day I'm doing a Russian Imperial Stout that will be barrel aged until next Christmas. It's a fun way to spend a few hours with the family as we make next years Holiday beer.

Maybe you could show up at the herf next year and we could help with emptying that keg. Sounds like a great brew! 

90+_Irishman

Rolanddeschain said:

This Christmas Day I'm doing a Russian Imperial Stout that will be barrel aged until next Christmas. It's a fun way to spend a few hours with the family as we make next years Holiday beer.

Man that sounds awesome, enjoy and have fun with it!

avengethis

@Rolanddeschain I think a barrel aged stout would go over very well at the Milwaukee herf...just saying.

Rolanddeschain

That could be done. Barrel aged stout and a double IPA on tap!

Wylaff

I haven't tried all-grain yet, but I'm itching to make a stout, so I think I'll have to give it a try.

Rolanddeschain

Brew in a Bag is an easy way to get into all-grain if you have a large enough brew pot.

Wylaff

We bought a 15 gallon, so that should be fine. We did our partial via bag, so I assume it's a very similar process?

Rolanddeschain

Yes and no. I bought my mashing bag from Amazon, sized to fit my brew kettle. You get your water to temp, mash in the milled grain and let it sit for an hour or so depending on the recipe. Ive GROSSLY over simplified it but thats the basic idea. Extract brewing is definitely easier but I love the flexibility it gives me.

Amos_Umwhat

I made beer for a couple of years, many years ago.  Raisin wine, too.  I keep telling myself I'm going to get back into it, but our house is smallish, even just for two of us,

and 6 cats,

and 3 dogs. 

Thank God I finished the chicken coop!

My sister got me a Mr. Beer kit a couple years back, but that looks like it would make just enough to piss me off, considering the time involved per return.  It was a lot of fun, back when, and made some great beers, too.  Had one infected batch, came out much as described by @ExpendableYouth above, horrible, threw it out.  I may need to figure out a spot in the house.  There's room for brewing, but where to stash the beer?

hmmm...

rsherman24

Wylaff said:

We bought a 15 gallon, so that should be fine. We did our partial via bag, so I assume it's a very similar process?

A cooler and some PVC pipe for a filter/strainer works well.  Look into batch sparging.  Dump your grains and water into the cooler and close the lid for an hour.  Drain into your pot and boil as normal.  Takes a couple batches to get your temp and volume numbers down, but once you do it makes it very easy

Yakster

Take the cigars out first!

avengethis

I thought that is how you get infused cigars.

Rolanddeschain

I've had enough stouts that TASTED like an ashtray, but..........

Rolanddeschain

I'm going to be brewing in the next few days. I should vherf while doing it to kill two birds:)

avengethis

I would be intrigued to watch your process.  I want to get into brewing but there is so much info and so many different things to know, it is overwhelming to jump in.

Wylaff

It's so much fun try to even at the extract level though. And even a basic recipe provided by your home brew store has a tendency to taste better than most store bought.

Rolanddeschain

avengethis said:

I would be intrigued to watch your process.  I want to get into brewing but there is so much info and so many different things to know, it is overwhelming to jump in.

Extract kits are a great way to start. YouTube has a ton of videos on brewing. It's really not as daunting as it may sound.

Rolanddeschain

Simple setup for brewing tonight.
Mango IPA 

avengethis

Get on the vherf and walk us through it.  

Rolanddeschain

My iPad died so I couldn't play online. I'll try and do that in the near future. Here's 5 gallons of wort headed into the fermenter.