So, since I'm lacking proper equipment for beer...

Just took a batch of a pumpkin & spice mead off the stove.  Details:

Something good is brewing on the stove - Cooking pumpkin, spices, honey, water


In short - liquid pumpkin pie


Needed equipment for brewing - Crock (holds around 3.5 gallons, nearly a century old), notebook, yeast


Waiting on the mixture to fall below 115F.


Still waiting - it takes a while for a 3ish gallon batch to cook from cooking temperatures


Finally down to 113F, time to proof yeast


Final color after adding yeast - Once yeast is added, they top ferment and are quite active


Can't wait until fall 2011 to drink me some pumpkin pie with a kick ~

JM

Now thats old school.

Coopers kit arrived.  It's been bubbling nicely since Friday.  I tasted the wurt and I can taste where its going.....so far so good!   

Plan is to make 5-10 batches with the extract then move to the real stuff. 

My kids love to watch the airlock bubbling away.

Quote from: rgramjet on December 12, 2010, 07:41:10 PM
Coopers kit arrived.  It's been bubbling nicely since Friday.  I tasted the wurt and I can taste where its going.....so far so good!   

Plan is to make 5-10 batches with the extract then move to the real stuff. 

My kids love to watch the airlock bubbling away.

Let us know how it turns out.  Yes the kids love the airlock, they like it even more when you explain the bubbles are from the yeast burping.  Wait till I tell the the alcohol is from the yeast pooping. 

Yesterday I brewed a batch of stout.  The house smelled like coffee and chocolate. 

I bottled the beer last night.  Each bottle was primed with two sugar drops for secondary fermentation.  I'm hoping this step gives the lager more body.  There's something missing.....guess I'll know in about a week. 

Looking to do a stout next.

Semi dumb question to all you beer experts.

My brother in law and I recently had a discussion about taking cold beer from a store cooler, taking it home, NOT putting it in your 'frig immediately, it getting back to room temp and then cooling it back down several days later. Not just to wrongly punish the beer and hurt it's feelings. But as in you buy a cold 12 pack, get home and realize you don't have enough room in the 'frig for all twelve. So you store the leftover beer for a later date with the 'frig. A friend says the answer is easy... buy a bigger 'frig!! Does doing that cold/room temp/cold cycle really mess a bottled beer up. I have never noticed that it does. But my brother in law says it does. Maybe doing it 20 times, sure... but just once? Talk amongst yourselves.

Depends on the beer... we talking the standard swill from Bud Miller Coors?  Then no, biggest enemy is light.  They killed all the critters in the beer long before it was bottled, so there's really nothing to wake up in there.

Craft brews... maybe. Depends on the beer again.

Overall, i wouldn't switch em back and forth just for the fun of it... but If I bought more beer than the fridge could handle... I wouldn't be worried.  Allthough, I would get started on teh beers that were about to warm up!

Quote from: Punx Clever on December 18, 2010, 10:47:14 AM
Overall, i wouldn't switch em back and forth just for the fun of it... but If I bought more beer than the fridge could handle... I wouldn't be worried.  Allthough, I would get started on teh beers that were about to warm up!

I approve this method.

JM

FINALLY got some brewing done today.  5 gallons of Pale Ale and 5+ gallons of cider.  New experiment with these batches: fermenting in soda kegs!

The kegerator mini-fridge:


The kegs about to be bubbling away happily in a temperature controlled manner:



HUZZAH!

Where do you guys usually buy your supplies from?  This is something I've been wanting to do for quite some time, and I don't want to be spoiled on the process by purchasing poor equipment/ingredients. 

Here's one good place:

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/

Try to find a local home brew shop.  You'll pay a little more for the stuff than you would online but Q&A with he shop owner/operator is really what you need. 

I picked up one of those home brew kits.  It has everything you need and then some.  Once you have the kit you can then add to it.

Quote from: Punx Clever on December 19, 2010, 06:31:07 PM
FINALLY got some brewing done today.  5 gallons of Pale Ale and 5+ gallons of cider.  New experiment with these batches: fermenting in soda kegs!

The kegerator mini-fridge:


The kegs about to be bubbling away happily in a temperature controlled manner:



HUZZAH!

Nice setup!  Couple questions:  how do you fill/sanitize the soda kegs?  What are the steps involved with fermenting in a keg?

Quote from: Punx Clever on December 19, 2010, 06:31:07 PM
New experiment with these batches: fermenting in soda kegs!

What serves as the air lock?

Quote from: Adamm3406 on December 20, 2010, 12:26:34 AM
Where do you guys usually buy your supplies from?  This is something I've been wanting to do for quite some time, and I don't want to be spoiled on the process by purchasing poor equipment/ingredients. 

Austinhomebrew.com is good if you don't have a local shop.

QuoteNice setup!  Couple questions:  how do you fill/sanitize the soda kegs?  What are the steps involved with fermenting in a keg?

Thanks!  The soda kegs have a hatch in the top that you open up.  It's big enough to get my arm up to my bicep in (yeah, I'ma pansy!), which is deep enough that I can scrub all the way to the bottem with a scotchbrite pad.  Sanitation is the same as anything else... I prefer StarSan, but Iodophor works good too... in a real pinch some bleach will work.

QuoteWhat serves as the air lock?

Pulled off the liquid out post and dip tube, clamped some 1/2" vinyl tubing on, and have the other end in a mason jar full of sanitizer behind the kegs.