Ineedaride,

When talking to someone who has never brewed and is interested in giving it a shot, I always recommend going cheap the first time and only after a couple batches upgrading equipment. Sure, you could buy a 60q pot right away, but what if you turn out not to like brewing? Doing a partial boil in a 20q pot will be just fine for starting out. And then you have a 20q pot that is useful for cooking, instead of a monster pot that's only good for throwing a crawfish boil for 50 people. You'll make better beer with some equipment upgrades, but you can make just fine beer with cheaper stuff, and figure out if you want to continue.

That's also why I'd say skip getting a glass carboy at first. What are you going to do with that thing if you don't like to brew? Infuse 5g of vodka with something? If you can get it for the same price or cheaper, fine, but don't go out of your way to spend money on a hobby you aren't sure about.

I think the kit you linked is actually the website/kit I started out with. I still use virtually every single piece of equipment that I got with it.

coff,

I've got a couple better bottles and it seems like I'm one of the few that doesn't like them. I'd rather have glass, which I can hit with super hot water and a brush if needed, or a plastic bucket I can reach my arm into. Nothing at all wrong with using a bucket as primary, and they're a hell of a lot cheaper than glass. But yeah, you probably want a 6g carboy min for primary. The 5g is perfect for secondary, though.

I use the wine thief if I suspect my fermentation is stuck. It doesn't happen with beer often, but ciders, melomels and wines are a different story.

Most of the turkey pots I've seen are aluminium. You want to use stainless steel. The gas burners for turkey fryers are ideal for brewing outdoors.

Funny, that's what I made yesterday. Racked off a lager today. My brewery is neat 'cause it has these serving tanks downstairs in which I place plastic bladders and then fill with carbonated beer. Keeps me from washing, rinsing and filling 16ish kegs every time a beer is ready.
I told him I was in need a new blowoff tube, he asked why.
I don't mind the plastic buckets but I'm prepared to replace them fairly often. Still, if you can find like a 7.5 gallon glass carboy you should grab that ****er immediately.

When I got home, I took a look at that turkey fryer out of curiosity (I haven't used it yet, and it was still in the box).

It says it's 28 quarts and stainless steel. The only weird thing is, it has a spout on the bottom for draining (looks like those on igloo water cooler spouts).

Despite the spout, I don't see why it wouldn't work. It's brand new.

The spout sounds pretty handy
to me.

Yeah that sounds like a great brew pot package labeled as a turkey fryer. Link to product?

Turns out, it WAS aluminum. The box said stainless steel, but....that's the thermometer. Oh well.

http://www.turkey-frying.com/2002050...and_basket.htm

Here is a lot of info about the stainless v. aluminum question. My boil kettle is aluminum.

Regarding carboy size and blowoffs: I have a 6 gal and 6.5 gal carboy but almost never use them anymore, always my old 5 gal carboys. Why? Two reasons: I keg and corny kegs only hold 5 gallons. I tried using the bigger carboys but ended up tossing a couple of quarts when kegging because it wouldn't fit so I went back to the 5 gal. Second reason is that I fill my carboys such that they just barely blow-off. I do that so it blows the top layer of gunk out of the fermenter but not much more than that. Like rapidacid said, we all have our own little quirks to our process. My first reason doesn't apply to bottle-conditioning though.

If you do use better bottles, I've read that tilting carboys when sitting on a hard surface puts a LOT of stress on the small area of the bottle that is touching the floor. Glass carboys can take it no problem but the better bottles sometimes don't (they can crack and develop leaks). It has been suggested that if you 'rock' your carboy to aerate the wort that you do so with a tennis ball placed underneath the better bottle.

Update, got everything ordered.

Ended up ordering this for ingredients:

http://www.austinhomebrew.com/produc...oducts_id=1113

Have no idea if this was good/bad/indifferent, but it didn't look too complicated.

Somehow, I ended up spending $215. But at least shipping was free!

Did you remember to order a big dose of patience? Many first-time brewers need it, I know I did!

Did you get the extract kit, PM kit, or AG kit? I've not done a kit in ages but I've heard good things about Austin HB's kits. Good luck and don't rush it!

So, fruit beers...

Who's made what and how did it go?

I prefer melomels to fruit beers but I started with beer. Cherry wheat, cherry stout, wild plum porter, strawberry blonde, peach wheat, blackberry porter, pumpkin spice ale, and others.

IME dark beer needs a LOT of fruit. Cherry stout took a few tries and I found that 12 lbs. to 5 gallons was about right. I've tried ginger and garlic, both were undrinkable.

I' m a sucker for turning anything in the garden or orchard into something potent and potable.

Funny - I just spent about 1/2hr convincing my boss to let me make a Peach Wheat Ale. Maybe we're on to something. I did concede to making it pretty fruity, but tbh the only fruit beers I like are Purple Haze (fairly subtle) and Lindeman's Peche (sweet as hell!) so I kinda feel like I swindled him.

A lot of my posts ITT from now on will be about conflict between a brewery owner who barely likes beer and a beer geek brewer. Maybe it would make a good BA comic strip - kinda like a drunk Dilbert.

This became a really fantastic beer: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f75/requ...spberry-56285/ ... not my recipe

I have 10g of it fermenting now ... it's really a Raspberry Brown and people can't seem to get enough of it ... for a 5g batch you drop 3lbs of Raspberries on top and swirl around every couple of days ... racking to secondary beforehand is up to you

Awesome to sample daily and watch the tartness mellow into something that is very, very quaffable

Edit: The allgrain version is on post #52 of that thread

I'm going to take a tangent and do a few beer reviews right quick. My wife got me a beer of the month subscription for our anniversary, so I'll probably be doing a few of these.

Note: I know dick about beer. I've spent the majority of my adult life drinking ****ty beer. I'm not trying to brag here, but I'm probably the most uneducated beer drinker that posts in this thread. But I've seen the light. I see Blue. He's GLORIOUS.

That's enough introduction. Reviews to follow.

I bought a lotz of beers and iz reviewing them even though Im stupid and don't have a very great pallette

Rochefort trappistes 10- not reviewing this but i will give it 4.5 out of 5 space badges.

Hoppin Frog Imperial oatmeal stout - very strong beer to me, lots of chocolate and alcohol. very wooden and roasty-ish. I gives it...4 ouf 5 space badges

Lindemenns gueze lambic unbelievably sour and tarty with a very nice warhead style smooth soury finish. I gives it 5 out of 5 space badges.

Rougue chocolate stout easily drinkable with a strong chocolatey and coffeeish flavor to it. I gives it 4 space badges

trappistes Rochefort 8 better than 10. loads of complex chocolate and fruity flavors with no signs of alcohol I give it 5 space badges

De dolle extra belgian stout too sharp for me. very thin body alcoholish and cofeeish I give it 3 space badges.

Avery Mephistopheles stout I cant say enough good things about this beer. I had batch number 5 and the 16.8 % alchol is lighter than expected, very creamy with strong notes of toffeee chocolate and vanilla. I give it 5 space badges.

Ok i iz done noaw.

The first thing that really strikes me with decent beer is that you can let a beer sit on the table. Seriously, it gets a little warm, and it's still drinkable. That ****'s amazing to me!

The four beers I drank tonight were:

Sam Adams Pale Ale
Sam Adams Summer Ale
Buzzard Bay limited (I'm assuming this is also a pale ale of some type, but it doesn't really say)
Flying Dog - Doggie Style Classic Pale Ale.

If I had to rank them, it would be as I've listed them. 1, 2, 3, 4.

I've had both of the Sam Adams a few times before, and for some reason they vary between pretty good and a little bitter depending on how my taste buds feel that day. I don't want to spend much time on them, because it's ****ing Sam Adams and you've all had it, but as a base line, on a scale from 1 to 5, I'd say the Sam Adams Pale Ale is a 2.5 and the Summer Ale is a 3. The Summer Ale has more character. Not really sweeter, just not quite as bitter, with a pleasing flavor. I wish I knew the words.



The Buzzard Bay was markedly better. It smelled stronger upon first whiff, but it was smoother and more flavorful. This is real beer. It's like, for most of my life I've been hitting ground balls off the range. I drank Sam Adams, and I thinned a few about ten feet high. The Buzzard bay was a well struck iron. You know you finally hit it. I'm positive my ranking system sucks, but for the sake of continuity, I'll say Buzzard Bay scored a 4.



Now the Flying Dog. Maybe it's the beer talking, but this keeps getting better. The Flying Dog was even more nasally stimulating, and although I was prepared for it to be a little too much for my taste buds, it was ****ing awesome. I can't believe how much flavor this beer has....and yet I love it. Smooth and flavorful. I always thought this was just something people said. I'd like to give this a 4.5, but that seems ridiculous because it wasn't THAT much better than the buzzard's bay, so I'll give this one a 4 as well.


I know this is the ****tiest review in the history of beer reviews, but I thought this thread needed more good beer virgins giving their opinions of their first time. I can't speak for the beer, but it was good for me.

You obviously havent read any of my posts in this thread I really like your review

Nice try, Satan.

Im not saying that i am satan but if I were, I'd appreciate some sympathy.

Can I make this my new drunk thread? It has content and a lot of structure, but it would be so convenient if I could randomly drunk post here. At the same time, I'd hate to introduce contaminates to the fermentation (to use home brewing parlance). (I don't know what the **** I'm talking about)

Hint: My drunk posts would derail the thread. Severely.

Oh yeah. Told my wife I ordered $215 worth of beer brewing equipment today. Her eye-roll was historic.

HISTORIC.

I'll show her, though. I'll SHOW THEM ALL!

Holy ****, this porter is pretty good. Spontaneous beer review:

Road Dog Porter - Good Beer No ****.

Seriously. That's the name. Where do they come up with this ****?

Ok, this beer...is a porter. Apparently. I don't know what a porter is, but it's darker than the other beer I've been drinking. Which used to mean that it sucked. But now that I'm a real beer connoisseur, I can confidently say that it's a decent beer. Smooth and bland, like my penis.

I'm so happy that I actually like a porter, I'm going to give it a 3.75 - firmly between the SA Summer Ale and the other beer that I REALLY liked.


P.S. I'm pretty sure this is the last beer subscription I'll ever get, because I'm abusing the hell out of it. More reviews to come!