Originally Posted by Marcellus (Post 11991386)

Yea its hard to do all grain without decent equipment. I actually got lucky and got both kegs for free.

That being said I probably still have probably $1000 in my brewing equipment. The quick disconnect fittings are the best investment I ever made but they weren't cheap.

Brew in a bag is actually fairly easy and takes about half the equipment but the efficiency is much lower. I still consider doing that ever now and then since its so simple.

Originally Posted by Marcellus (Post 11987461)

Wow where to start?

Yes you can make beer cheaper than you can buy it unless your goal is to make Keystone or Coors.

I do 10gal all grain batches regularly and cost varies from $25 - $60 per batch which is less than $1 a beer and you cant buy good beer for that at the liquor store.

You definitely have some equipment investment that gets paid down the more you brew.

Brewing is for people who enjoy it kind of like cooking. Its not simple but if its your passion then its always fun.

I have been brewing mostly my own recipes for several years and have made some really good stuff. You can make beer that is as good or better than most commercial beers with a little practice and education.

My first suggestion is to read John Palmers "How to Brew".

Then buy and use a brewing software like Beersmith.

http://beersmith.com/

And to get a subscription to BYO. http://byo.com/

I have brewed around 150gal per year the last few years and actually plan to up that this year.

Right now I have 5 beers either on tap or in the bottle from Pilsners to Stouts to Brett Beers.

I am not an expert but have brewed a lot the last 4 years and if you have questions I am willing to help if I can.

Extract
Mini Mash
Brew In a Bag
All Grain Multi Vessel


They all make good beer if you do it right. :drool:

Originally Posted by cdcox (Post 11991392)

I used a 5 gallon stock pot for my brew pot, had a copper immersion wort chiller, used a couple of plastic trash cans for the mashtun, and a had bucket primary fermentor and a glass carboy secondary.

That limited me to 5 gallon batches which took like 12 hours to brew. Kitchen looked like Vietnam when I was done.

Originally Posted by Marcellus (Post 11991395)

Yea I used to brew in the house early on doing 5gal batches. My wife put a stop to that pretty early. :D

I can do 10gal in about 5 hours with clean up and all.

Originally Posted by cdcox (Post 11991403)

I was doing recipes that called for a 4 hour boil. I'm not sure that long of a boil was necessary.

Originally Posted by Marcellus (Post 11991421)

Interesting.

Unless you are making a really, really, really, strong beer, like 14%, I see no reason for a 4 hour boil. A lot if stuff has changed over the years though.

Anything past 90 minutes doesn't make sense to me unless you miss your preboil gravity by a mile and need to boil off some extra water.

I do mainly 90 minute boils as it removes more of the DMS from the wort than 60 minute but I don't add any hops until after 30 minutes.

I think the longest boil I have ever done was around 1:45 and that was just to remove a little water.

Originally Posted by KCUnited (Post 12220010)

My wife is out of town this week for work, so one night this week I plan to brew the same beer as above but take the late addition hops and use them in a first wort hop instead to see if I can tell a difference.

I've been doing 2.5 gallon batches inside the condo since I don't have the risk tolerance of firing up a burner on my all wood rooftop deck.

Originally Posted by Marcellus (Post 12220025)

Have you added any hops at flame out? I like to do a big hop add at the end of the boil usually 2oz or so in a 10gal batch and let it steep for about 20 minutes. Adds a nice hop flavor.

Ive done FWH as well but havn't been able to tell a huge difference but I have only tried that a few times.

Right now on tap I have a Saison, an APA, a Habanero Stout, and a hoppy wheat beer.

In fermentation I have Belgian blonde that I split a 10gal wart and did half with Belgian yeast and half with a bohemian pilsner yeast. The grain bill seemed close enough to e to make a pils with it. Should be interesting.

Originally Posted by Strongside (Post 11985900)

Anyone here into this? I recently caught the bug, and it's addicting as hell. I'd been toying with mostly 1 gallon batches, and racking via siphon, but I recently upgraded to a larger setup with a FastFerment conical. I'm totally pumped as tomorrow is brew day and I'm whipping up a 5 gallon batch of Cascade double IPA to try this thing out. I'm in a loft downtown now, and am limited on space so I really only have room for extract brewing, but we're buying a house soon and my main requirement is a garage or basement big enough for a fermentation chamber and an all-grain system.

Here's my new setup with the room I have.

http://i.imgur.com/nJSeqNTh.jpg

If anyone here is into the hobby, share your setup, favorite recipes, etc. it'd be great to have a CP home brew tasting at some point. I know some of you ****ers HAVE to be doing this stuff...

Originally Posted by KCUnited (Post 12301706)

I brewed another IPA on Friday, this one with all late hop additions. I'm also planning to dry hop at the tail end of fermentation to see what kind of hop flavor/aroma I can get. This will also be the first beer I keg so I'm a little excited about not having to bottle.