CP Home Brewing

[Strongside]

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.



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...

[Marcellus]

Originally Posted by KCUnited

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.

Kegging >>> Bottling. You will love it.

Biggest problem with kegging is sharing beer and not really knowing how much is left.

One thing I do sometimes is use carbonation tabs and bottle some bombers at the time of kegging and put them back.

[KCUnited]

Originally Posted by Marcellus

Kegging >>> Bottling. You will love it.

Biggest problem with kegging is sharing beer and not really knowing how much is left.

One thing I do sometimes is use carbonation tabs and bottle some bombers at the time of kegging and put them back.

That's probably what I'll end up doing as I like to send bottles to friends/family. Plus, I'm space limited and can only house one keg so I'll likely bottle some styles that can sit and keg the stuff I can turnaround quicker.

[KCUnited]

Welp, what's the saying, you haven't homebrewed til you've mopped your ceiling? Decided last minute not to use a blow off tube because it's just an IPA.

[Bwana]

Originally Posted by KCUnited

Welp, what's the saying, you haven't homebrewed til you've mopped your ceiling? Decided last minute not to use a blow off tube because it's just an IPA.

On man! I can't say I have ever had that happen at least in such a violent fashion. I have decided to knock that dust off my brewing equipment and start brewing again myself. Along with kicking hunting into high gear again, that should replace my time I spent watching the NFL on Sundays.

[KCUnited]

Originally Posted by Bwana

On man! I can't say I have ever had that happen at least in such a violent fashion. I have decided to knock that dust off my brewing equipment and start brewing again myself. Along with kicking hunting into high gear again, that should replace my time I spent watching the NFL on Sundays.

Fortunately I was fermenting inside a dorm fridge so the blast radius was contained. It actually snapped the s-airlock that was on it into two pieces. I've used that same grain bill and yeast combo in other batches so I'm a little surprise I got that active of fermentation. I didn't hear it happen so it went for some time without a cap. Hopefully the batch isn't ruined because I have a boat load of expensive hops in that thing.

[Bwana]

Originally Posted by KCUnited

Fortunately I was fermenting inside a dorm fridge so the blast radius was contained. It actually snapped the s-airlock that was on it into two pieces. I've used that same grain bill and yeast combo in other batches so I'm a little surprise I got that active of fermentation. I didn't hear it happen so it went for some time without a cap. Hopefully the batch isn't ruined because I have a boat load of expensive hops in that thing.

Yeah that's a decent blast, any louder and you may be getting a visit from Homeland Security.

[Indian Chief]

Originally Posted by KCUnited

Fortunately I was fermenting inside a dorm fridge so the blast radius was contained. It actually snapped the s-airlock that was on it into two pieces. I've used that same grain bill and yeast combo in other batches so I'm a little surprise I got that active of fermentation. I didn't hear it happen so it went for some time without a cap. Hopefully the batch isn't ruined because I have a boat load of expensive hops in that thing.

Oh man, you have my sympathies. I've never had it get that crazy on me. Worst thing that ever happened was a rubber stopper shot into the ceiling at 3 in the morning and scared the shit out of me. Were you fermenting at higher temps than you usually do with that grain and yeast combo?

[Marcellus]

Originally Posted by KCUnited

Fortunately I was fermenting inside a dorm fridge so the blast radius was contained. It actually snapped the s-airlock that was on it into two pieces. I've used that same grain bill and yeast combo in other batches so I'm a little surprise I got that active of fermentation. I didn't hear it happen so it went for some time without a cap. Hopefully the batch isn't ruined because I have a boat load of expensive hops in that thing.

Should be fine plenty of action going on to keep the bugs out. I have blown my share of airlocks and bungs out.

Today I brewed a huge stout with an OG of 1.114 to put into a whiskey barrel I recently purchased. I am hoping it meets my expectations.

28lbs of grain in a 5.5gal batch. Should be about 12%.

[KCUnited]

Originally Posted by Indian Chief

Oh man, you have my sympathies. I've never had it get that crazy on me. Worst thing that ever happened was a rubber stopper shot into the ceiling at 3 in the morning and scared the shit out of me. Were you fermenting at higher temps than you usually do with that grain and yeast combo?

I have a thermostat override on that fridge and keep it at 68F, but yeah, that was my first thought as well. That's only a 3 gallon carboy so I'm able to give it a good shake before pitching and I think that's what contributed the most. I gave it a good 1 minute shake before pitching from a starter. There's still some activity in the new airlock so I'm hoping I'm in the clear.

[KCUnited]

Originally Posted by Marcellus

Should be fine plenty of action going on to keep the bugs out. I have blown my share of airlocks and bungs out.

Today I brewed a huge stout with an OG of 1.114 to put into a whiskey barrel I recently purchased. I am hoping it meets my expectations.

28lbs of grain in a 5.5gal batch. Should be about 12%.

Nice.

Lol, I'm planning on brewing a big chocolate/vanilla stout for the wife in 2 weeks and it's cool enough now that I was planning to ferment it at room temp in a closet while this IPA is kegged in that fridge. Now my butthole's a little puckered thinking about a stout fermentation blast in a clothes closet.