The Beer Nerd - what are you drinking / brewing thread

My brewing setup is pretty simple.

Single vessel (BIAB) system consisting of 15 gal MegaPot and a Blichmann Burner running on natural gas. I brew in the garage and have a hoist hook in the ceiling above my brew area to hang the bag...



I ferment in a 7 gal SS Brewtech Brewbucket. I replaced the regular flat lid (shown above) that comes with the BB with an interchangeable domed lid with Tri-Clover port for a SS Brewtech Chronical fermenter. The domed lid provides a little more headspace and the Tri-Clover port makes for easy access to the beer/wort without having to remove the entire lid, so less O2 enters the vessel when, say, dryhopping. The smaller chest freezer to the right of my basement keezer is my ferm chamber...



When I keg, I push with CO2 (I also backfill with CO2 when I cold crash to keep O2 from being pulled in from the vacuum created when the beer cools and the volume compresses)...

 

Inside shot of the 5-tap keezer. 10 LB CO2 and 5 LB nitro tanks, and a bank of primary regs connected to tank with a high pressure hose. The fan keeps the air circulating to minimize temp stratification.

The only change I've made since this photo was taken has been to add a 5th primary regulator body to the reg bank to give me a little more flexibility when using the 1st tap for serving on CO2 rather than nitro...

Edit: Looking at that pic, it just occurred to me that I also shortened all the liquid lines to 24 inches (from ~10-12 feet). Since I'm using flow-control faucets I was able to get by with extremely short lines.

 

What tubing are you using for beer line? I used something from McMaster I found in a HBT thread forever ago that's real small (I want to say 1/8" ID), so I can get away with shorter lines, but it's a hokey setup of reducers into my connectors and tap.

I see the kegs now, I was assuming an over/under fridge, not a side by side. Nice setup! I like seeing good beer made from simple setups. No need for crazy 3 vessel tables full of equipment.

Once this whole thing settles down, I'd be interested in a homebrew trade to get some critiques.

 

Line is Accuflex Bev-Seal Ultra (3/16" Dia) rigid tubing. John Guest push-to-connect fittings make for a stupid simple installation.

Agreed. I'm all about simple, but effective. I'm a lazy brewer, so multi vessels and pumps didn't fit my bill. I started off with just the basics and upgraded over the years in places where I saw a good bang for the buck. My criteria for selecting equipment has been: Will it make my beer better or make my process less work? And I don't mind spending money on higher quality gear, as long as it's truly better than lesser priced alternatives. Some of my more expensive upgrades (e.g. the Brew Bucket and my Therma-pen) were gifts that I may not have necessarily splurged on if I were buying myself.

I'd definitely be down for some homebrew trading.

 

Dang, everyone uses that stuff, guess it's the way to go. It's hard to use in my fridge setup I would think because of the rigidity, my taps being on my door that opens, and the amount of beers I keep in the fridge that stuff could knock over being so rigid.

Agreed on equipment. My eBIAB is about as simplistic as it can be, with the exception of the pump, which I have enjoyed using for various purposes, but likely isn't totally necessary. I see a lot of other setups out there with lots of bells and whistles I didn't feel are worth the money. Granted, my beer isn't top notch, but I don't think that's the equipment's fault... Water/pH is my next big hurdle I can't seem to tackle. For now I use pretty simple standard additions of CaCl, Gypsum, and some acid malt if needed and hope the pH is right and flavor works out. I'm contemplating trying some of those stainless fermentors, not that plastic is giving me any infections that I know of, but just the robustness and cleanliness of them is attractive. I should also just bite the bullet and start using C02 on my transfers and such.

 

All this talk of simplicity is what I like to see. I don’t think it’s necessary to walk in to a home brewery and be blinded by stainless everything.

Having said that, I have been wanting to make some bigger (>2.5 gallons) batches of brews that I find myself drinking a lot so I “splurged” and picked up a Mash & Boil with recirc pump on saw for $349. It’s only 120v but the reviews are all pretty consistent that once it gets to a boil, it maintains easily.

I will still brew big beers and my hoppiest beers small batch, but 5 gallons of a nice lager or pale ale will last me quite some time.

 

From Saturday and two of my favorite brewing companies colab!

 

I kind of miss having the ability to make a smaller beer, the coil and temp probe location in mine requires at least like 2-3 gallons to stay submerged and useable, so I haven't really tried., since the grain would be above the liquid and not really circulate the mash at all.

 

Okay, yeah, I could see that rigid line being a problem in that sort of application. It would definitely be knocking things over every time you opened/closed the door. It's good stuff, though.

Sounds like you and I are at about the same point WRT water adjustments. I don't own a pH meter, but fortunately our water is about as close to RO that you can get and still be municipal, which makes it great for tweaking with salts. I use the Brewer's Friend water calculator and add salts based on that, along with a Campden tab to de-chlorinate. Based solely on how my brew turns out, it seems to work all right. Besides gypsum and CaCl, I frequently use kosher salt and Epsom salt. I used to use acid malt, but have switched to using the 88% lactic acid that you can get from the LHBS due to better predictability and I think it's a better value. Of course, without having the ability to check pH, who knows? I've contemplated getting a meter, but they seem to be more work than I care to deal with, so until my beers start giving me problems that might lead me to believe I have a water issue, I'm not going to fix what's not broken.

Getting the Brew Bucket is what pushed me into doing CO2 transfers and back purging. I don't know about you, but I always felt a bit uneasy with the auto-siphon. It just seemed like a great way to oxidize my brew and sanitizing it was kind of a PITA, so for that reason I always dreaded transfer day. Once I started doing CO2 transfers, I could never see myself going back. It's about as effortless as it gets and I do believe my beer stays fresher longer.

That reminds me, another thing I routinely do is put a clean and sanitized keg inline with the blowoff during fermentation (see below), so that the CO2 that the yeast produces purges the O2 from the keg. I guess this kind of makes up for the CO2 that I waste when transferring.

 

I will have to look for some

 

I mean, I can't seem to understand the calculators, so I just go with a tsp of each/both/neither depending on what people recommend, added to RO from a machine. I really need to learn to use Bru'N water or something. I have a cheapie pH meter off Amazon and who knows if it's actually reading anything accurately. I hear of people using lactic acid, just never tried, wasn't sure how much to use... My only issue I want to fix is my total lack of head retention in my brews, and I don't know what it might be from: lines, pH, grains, process?

I use the ported brew vessels now, so I just hook up a hose, take off the airlock and let it drain. Only thing I don't is my sours, in glass, which I really should try a pressure transfer with.

Now THAT is a slick little trick on the purging hahaha

 

May want to get your thirstabilities on with these as well then.The “Gubna”(Imperial IPA) and “Ten Fidy”(Imperial Stout) from OB’s are goodies as well.

 

Distinctively i could taste the balance between the colab from both brewing companies.Solid!

 

Will definitely keep my eyes peeled for those.

 

Got 50lbs of Pilsner for $40 plus 10lbs of Maris Otter and going to try my luck with some whole hops for no other reason than I want to lol



I now have a modified schedule at work that is essentially 3-10s so I have tomorrow off. Might try and get a brew in this evening.

 

Pretty good. Bought it out in the desert.

 

Jimmy Buffett style

 

Drinking some coffee while brewing up a Monk’s Beer/Trappist Single to build up a good yeast cake for my Westy 12 clone.

 

Smoothest brew day yet. Hit my numbers exactly. I know it really doesn’t make a difference, but this was the clearest wort I’ve put in a fermenter yet. Most likely due to the simple grain bill.

 

Beautiful day in Germany