I got everyone's beers, I'll be doing some tastings this week/weekend.

I haven't sent out any beers yet. Let me know who wants mine and I'll send it out Saturday.

Oh, something might have gotten a bit mixed up. Are you signed up on the Google group with everyone? We were all posting/emailing on there to organize the swaps.

Dont think so.

That there is Marble's Earl Grey IPA, so called because it supposedly has hints of Earl Grey in it. As the only Englishman not to drink tea I couldn't really tell, but it seemed distinctly meh, good enough that it didn't seem like it was 6.8 but didn't really tick my boxes. Then again I'm not a big fan of their beers, so meh. Only drank it as it's the only cask they're ever making of it, the thing being a collab between them and Emelisse in Holland where the rest of it is being kegged/bottled to.

This was drunk at Manchester's museum of science and industry, and the waterwheel in the background was spinning merrily away

Hi thread,

I just got a sweet deal on a bunch of basic homebrewing stuff - a friend's parents were looking to get rid of their stuff so they sold all of it to me for $50. I have:

Fermentation bucket, lid, airlock thing
Bottling bucket w/ spout
Glass carboy (w/ rubber bung for use of the airlock thing)
some siphoning tubes including one with a bottling attachment thing
2 hydrometers (not sure why)
10 dozen! bottles - some are swingtop
Joy of Homebrewing book
How to Brew book

So I'm thinking about making my first batch soon, probably just a pale ale kit for starters. I'm figuring I will also need to get:
Large pot for boiling the wort
Strainer
Thermometer
bottle caps, new gaskets for the swingtops
Bottled water - water at my place sucks
Ice to cool it down before adding yeast
Cleaning solution or bleach?
bottle brush

Anything else I'll need or any tips for my first time brewing? Cleaning specifically - what do you guys use to sanitize? I was thinking about just using bleach but idk if there's a better option. Thanks for any tips, I hope to update you experts on how the noob brewing goes, haha

Just came home from upstate ny. Made a detour to Vermont on the way home and now my fridge has 28 cans of heady topper. I am a happy guy

Schu, you have a really good start. I'm assuming you'll start extract so you will definitely need a pot. If you think you'll like brewing and would like to eventually go to all grain or bigger batches then right away buy a big pot (10 gal) and make sure it's stainless steel. You'll need it eventually, so might as well get it now. Of course you can get by with a 5 gal pot for partial extract batches which won't be too expensive.

As far as sanitizer, you can use bleach but some people don't like it because it can hard to get rid of, you have to cleanse really good. I'd suggest Star San, it's an iodine based cleaner and really easy to use, no rinse necessary.

Best of luck and keep us updated. Also, read the joy of home brewing from front to back, you'll learn so much.

Oberon release in 2 hours. Happy it's summertime again.

I brewed two batches this weekend. The first was my berliner weisse which I had been souring since Tuesday. I took a taste and it was mouth puckeringly sour. Really cool what some natural lacto from the grains and heat can do. I have high hopes for this beer. I pitched a starter and it's fermenting slowly because of the low pH I believe (~3.3).

Also brewed a Three Floyd's Gumballhead clone. It was my first time making a starter with liquid yeast and wow my fermentation was going crazy in a few hours. My only worry is that even though my fridge was set at 64F, the fermometer said 72F during the most vigorous fermentation, so I hope that wasn't too high. I cranked the temp down asap, but by then most of the fermentation had happened.

Brew day setup:


2.5 gallon batch berliner and 5 gallon gumballhead batch.

I like your blow off setup ... I just stick the tube through the stopper ... any advantages to your setup?

I don't think so, I just saw this somewhere. My tubing is too big to stick through the bung so I guess that's why I do it this way.

I cold crashed the beer in the garage before kegging, may have helped. My wort is not that clear pre-boil and I have a ton of trub as I brew-in-a-bag.

Pliny, thanks for the tips. I'm probably going to the local brew store tomorrow and cooking the first batch up on Saturday.

I just realized I did not post my notes on Mark's beer and RunDownHouse's 1968 version. I had notes and I think they must have gotten trashed.

I liked Mark's hop profile a lot, it was as bitter as mine but had more flavor. Similar malt profile from what I call.

RDH's 1968 was my favorite of the group. From what I remember it was pretty balanced and had less yeast aroma but some of the taste. The three (yeast, malt, and hops) worked well together.

I had more detailed notes, but who knows what I did with them.

I have a Belgian Mild that I need to keg as 3 out of 4 of my taps are kicked. Holding off kegging as I want to harvest the yeast from it for a russian (or maybe belgian) imperial stout.

I bottled this weekend a sour beer I made last spring. Made a big rustic saison with spelt, raw wheat, buckwheat and fermented it in primary with American Farmhouse. Tossed in some White Labs Brett L and Brett C from a 100% brett porter, a slurry of Wyeast Flanders Blend, and some dregs from Jolly Pumpkin. Then a bit later added cranberries and cherries.

At bottling there was a nice cherry aroma and more tartness then sourness. I added Wine Yeast (K1-V1116) at bottling as I wanted some more berry notes to it. Also it had sort of a white wine thing going as it was.

I was hoping to have it carbed by Easter, but that most likely is not going to happen.

I realize not everyone agrees with this but your brewpot does not HAVE to be stainless Steel. There are many people who brew in aluminum, the rumors about boiling in aluminum causing Alzheimer's has been debunked.

If you go aluminum, boil a full pot of water to crate an oxidized layer before you brew with it. Just clean it with water and brush, NO OXICLEAN, and you'll be fine.

Coff, I completely agree I just feel that stainless is a tier above aluminum in terms of strength and insulation. If you're going to go big from the start, spend the extra coin on stainless. I started with a 5 gallon aluminum pot then bumped up to a 10 gallon stainless fwiw.

Gotcha, I agree with your points on stainless. I actually have an aluminum pot, I switch from a keggle to aluminum bc I have some back problems and its like a quarter of the weight. Plus I wanted to go bigger and I was able to buy and fit an aluminum 20 gallon kettle for ~135.

figured I throw in a recent review since there haven't been much of those lately:

Boulevard Irish Ale

poured from bottle into a pint glass. Pours a dark amber color with a nice head

Well balanced with very good aromas of toffee, caramel, grains, a touch of hops and bits of citrus.

Nice medium body with a good feel. Nice flavors of toffee, caramel and some citrus but lacking a bit on the mid

A very drinkable irish ale. Yet another beer from boulevard that I've enjoyed and want again


3.78/5

I just ordered the Oberon 2012 shirt off Bells website and some nice pint glasses from there as well. I love Oberon and nothing says summer like 18 holes and a few of these.

So I inspected my bottles more closely - 2 dozen of them appear to have old beer/yeast (several years old) left in the bottom and dried, so I had to throw those out. I couldn't clean them very well. I also found that the tops of several bottles were sort of chipped or had cracking or significant pock marks in them - I threw these out as well. So I still have 7 dozen bottles left, plus a couple dozen Ive been collecting lately. Plenty enough for two batches.

Any ideas what batch #2 should be? #1 is going to be a Pale Ale kit. I'd like #2 to be something to provide a little variety, be drinkable in the warm weather, and be fairly easy to do with an extract/specialty grains approach. I'd like to make my own recipe and not use a kit for batch #2.

Some type of wheat beer sounds like what you are looking for. maybe a hefe? Or you could try Brewing up a kolsch.

Maybe a Saison? I just brewed a Saison 2 weeks ago with Sorachi Ace and Simcoe, had a taste last night and its 1.002 and it tasted amazing.

The fun/easy part about a Saison is you dont have to worry about the ferment getting too hot. You actually want to ramp it up into the 80f range if at all possible. I usually use a heating pad to ramp it up then let it go naturally after that.

I agree with Coff and Wraths about something where you don't have to worry about temperature control. I did a hefe and didn't control the temperature and the banana off flavors were to style!

Hmm, Kolsch and Hefe sound pretty good. (I hate saisons, sorry haha) I came up with a couple of others: Some type of light honey ale - a local brewery does a honey ale and it is great. Or a witbier. Ive got a couple weeks to decide at least.