Thanks again KDawg, added most of those to the list, on closer look they are exactly the type of stuff I was looking for.

Good advice Buff. I haven't been to GABF, only been out here a year, but my list is just so I have something to strive towards/reference. The last thing I want to do is wander around sampling stuff from places I've never heard of (too many awesome breweries for me to go randomly into 600+) or to go to big names I can drink regularly (think DFH, Sierra, etc. type stuff... all very good, just not new for me). Then again, if something special is pouring and it catches the eye... should be fun.

The breweries you liked at GABF are great, I've actually visited all of them except The Bruery, and I've had (and really enjoyed) a few of The Bruery's beers. The imperial cascade they make is really good (and two brewer's from Denver won a contest with that recipe and the Bruery made it).

I haven't been able to get into many sours, but who knows, it might come one day.

I left right at the toddler years of their sour/wild program, but there's going to be tons of good stuff coming out. I may actually make a trip back to Nashville for the Flander's Red that should be out end of this year/sometime next year. I'm glad Yakobson was able to put that event together for breweries like Yazoo that got shut out of GABF, and kinda like the metaphorical middle finger of the timing of it.

Renaud is very tasty.

^ I got to have both, they were excellent. Hard to pick one over the other side by side with 1oz to choose, but I leaned towards Renaud.

Had a great time there. Didn't realize it was only 1oz, so I got to try everything on my list and a lot more.

A few favorites (my signal wasn't working great so I couldn't save every beer that stood out, but here are a few favorites):

Oakshire's Watershed IPA

Pelican's Tsunami Stout

Heavy Seas' Siren Noire

Triple Rock's Rye Smile

Thirsty Bear's Panda Bear Ale

Coronado's Black Sails

Mystic's Renaud and Mystic

--

There were many more that were "good" and some others that stood out that I forgot about. The only thing on my list I missed was Three Floyd's. I got there about two hours in and there was a big line for two lagers, thought about waiting but we just passed on lines all day. Most of the lines were for stuff like DFH/Stone (though I grabbed some Stone late in the session when the line was small) or the sour release stuff. Couldn't really justify standing in 20 minute lines for 1oz of anything with thousands of awesome beers and no lines.

Very good time, ended up loving the 1oz thing and the fact that the people pouring respected that line. The festivals I've been to have had multiple ounces more per pour and pourers often seem to pour very liberally. Which is nice if you're at a kegger, but when you want to try as many awesome beers as possible and you're not going to go around dumping extra beer... it just gets you messed up and limits what you can drink.

Thanks again for the recommendations everyone, they were all really good and helped push back the "I'm out of ideas, time to drink that random jalepeno from that brewery in Arizona" until the last hour or so.

xpost:

I guess I should move to San Diego...

I found the Enjoy By near me for $8, my other local has it for $10. Weird. Anyways for $8 I bought some, for $10 it's too much, either way this batch is really great. I've had 3 batches, they've all been pretty different to me.

The Espresso Stout is a really nice variant of the base stout - as long as you like coffee. This was bottled a little bit ago but it's still a huge coffee bomb. I just had some newly kegged Founders Breakfast Stout as well - not sure which one I liked better, they are both A beers imo

^^ $8, I'd be stocking up!

Chicago, sounds like a good time, glad it worked out.

My 20 gallon Boilermaker is in!

/brag

Nice, that's what I've got. Planning on doing >10g batches, or just wanted to rid yourself of boil-over worries forever? I'm the latter camp, especially when doing a few beers, I need 15 or 16g at boil start and had to hover over my old 15g pot. So now I've got a 15g HLT/20g boil kettle and feel spoiled.

I have to put a hold on my brewing as I'm preparing for a move and want to drink down my bottles before I leave.

I did brew up one final batch, a Pumpkin ale. I know they're controversial but the gf requested one so I did one up. I was shooting for a Pumking/Cigar City Good Gourd but it attenuated a little too much so it's probably going to end up like a Dogfish Head Punkin.

I made a pumpkin a few weeks ago. It's a big one, just a touch under 10% abv, and I just wanted to lightly spice it, to keep everything subtle.

Unfortunately, the cloves are pretty strong in it now, but it's a week away from being bottled so there's still a good chance the cloves fade enough.

Same thing for me, gf had a strong pumpkin, not too spiced, at a local brewery and really loved it the few times we were there, so I figured it would be a fine beer to make. The family always loves when I send pumpkin beers, haven't in a few years though.

Did you ever consider using the drops to help keep boil-overs in check?

I used to use fermlab or something like that, the stuff that keeps fermenters from going over as well. I didn't remember any drawbacks reported at the time and I haven't used it in about 16 months, but it always seemed to work nicely for me.

Yeah, I use fermcap regularly, but if you're trying to cram 15g into a 15g pot and bring it to a boil, physics just isn't going to let it happen. With the 20g Blichmann I could possibly do batches with 15g finished of stuff, but I can't really drink it fast enough at that volume. So for me, the 20g Blichmann is really more about never having to care about boilovers and being able to do beers with >1lb of hops than it is about increasing my batch size over 10g. Like I said, it's definitely partly being spoiled/lazy: when I'm done running off I crank the heat and just walk off, coming back in a while to a full boil.

Makes sense.

My burner must be too weak, haven't had anything rise high on my converted keg setup. Granted, I've only had 7.5g in the pot at the start of the boil.

I remember having to watch boil overs like a hawk with my old turkey burner (same keg setup there, same volume, so really must be burner difference).

I actually already have a 20g kettle that I outfitted with parts from Bargain fittings. It was perfectly fine, and there wasnt really a good reason to replace it except that I became obsessed with the Boilermaker. Plus I hope to go electric at some point down the road and when I saw Blichmann's Boil Coil at NHC I figured I should start slowly making my system all Blichmann so once it comes out I wont be dropping $1500 all in one shot.

I do 10 gallon batches, sometimes I'll do a ~15 gallon if its a known recipe and I'm brewing for an occasion.

This is the kettle it replaced.



Anyone interested in doing another Homebrew trade like we did over a year ago?

I'm not big on pumpkin beers, but I picked up a 4 pack of fat heads spooky tooth today and it's solid. It's a 9% imperial that has plenty of spice (which is the part I don't like much about pumpkin ales), heavier carbonation and good mouthfeel. Would recommend it at $10/4 pack.

That's a slick kettle Coff.

I'm down for some trades, I have 5 beers fermenting, 4 being bottled within the next ~8 days.

Drinking Copper Kettle's Mexican Chocolate Stout tonight. Chocolate throughout (nibs) but can taste the cinnamon and dried chiles as it warms up. Everything plays well off each other. Really good beer. 7% 50 IBU. It won a GABF in 2011, and I think 2013 too. I can see why.

My wife just gave me the ok to upgrade my brew system. She just had an expensive girls long weekend in Houston which made negotiating easier.

Leaning towards getting the High Gravity Brewing Electric Brew in a Bag system. As doing Full-Volume Electric brewing should cut down my brewing time dramatically. Which means I can brew more often.

Brewing the Gramarye clone tonight. Bought the grain last weekend while she was traveling, but with two kids alone - the brewing did not occur.

Pretty simple recipe - 6 Gallons:
8 lbs 2 Row
1.125 Rye Malt
.875 Crystal 45L
Mash 156


.25 oz Cascase FWH - (not in recipe, but I need FWH to prevent boil over and for IBUs to hit the recipe target)
.35 oz Columbus at 60
1 oz Cascade Flame Out
1 oz Amarillo Flame Out
1 oz Cascade Dry Hop
1 oz Amarill Dry Hop

WLP001

28 IBU
4.5% ABV

Should be a nice session beer.

Mini-disaster. Started to pour as I was chilling. Pulled it inside. So will have to chill in the fridge prior to pitching.

Had a St. Arnold Pumpkinator yesterday. Local brewery and apparently this beer is very hard to come by. It was good but super dark. Not worth following trucks around the city to clear the shelves, which is supposedly what happens come October 15.

I'm going to start brewing again. I brewed when I was younger with some buddies but one has passed and I'm not sure what his parents did with all our stuff so will be buying all new stuff. It's been at least a decade since I've brewed. More like 15 years I think.

I'm looking for advice on buying stuff. If I follow a basic beginners brewery list is that sufficient? Is there a better list than the one here?

http://homebrewmanual.com/home-brewing-equipment/

I remember having a wort chiller which isn't on these lists I'm seeing.

I'm right there with you A-Rod. I've come to the conclusion that rarely is it worth following trucks around, waiting in massive lines, etc. in the beer world.

I waited in line for Dark Lord many years ago, but it was more of a one time novelty.

There's just too many great accessible beers for me to feel that it's worthwhile to do things like waiting in 5 hours lines these days.

Pliny is great, and I've had a few shipments sent to me from a friend out there, but the local IIPA I had last night at a brewery near me is in the same ballpark. Dark Lord was an awesome beer to drink fresh (I don't love big stouts aged, so I no longer enjoy the bottles I have), but the Copper Kettle Mexican Chocolate Stout I posted about the other night was in the same ballpark.

Of course, standing in line with friends, at a festival, eating good food... that can change things, but purely going somewhere for a beer and waiting in a line for hours on its own kinda sucks to me.

^that's why I'm willing to go back to DLD next year. My friend and I for some idiotic reason thought we'd be able to get in and get out in under 45 minutes and ended up just standing in line for 2 1/2-3 hours.

Big Hugs day is a lot more fun as the line is (at worst) around the corner and the employees at HA bring out samples of Big Hugs to drink while waiting.

Ah that isn't bad, drinking while waiting... that doesn't even count for waiting in a line! I used to live within walking distance from Half Acre, never knew about Big Hugs, but it may have started after I left. They made really good beer. Metro up the road a bit is awesome lagers too.

In general, shop the big online homebrew suppliers - Northern Brewer, MoreBeer!, Rebel, etc - and buy one of their kits. They're typically the same or even a little bit of a price break from buying the pieces individually and will have just about everything you need outside of a pot and a heat source. And this stuff is all generic/interchangeable, so shop purely on price. If you want to go the in-person route, use their kits as a template and maybe even bring the item listing with you to your local shop and see if they'll match price.

EDIT: I see that link has plastic bottles filled with water and then frozen for cooling wort. I do not recommend this method.

RDH - you work for a brewery right? I homebrew as well but only on a basic level / as an excuse to get together with buddies

would be curious what you - or any of the more serious homebrewers - think what the easiest (or best) ways to make a leap are, to go from making 'good' to 'great' beer. is there equipment which helps? maniacal OCD? using evian ? ingredients?