# Beer brewing



## leadchunker (May 23, 2014)

I’m back into home brewing. Figured I would start a new thread. 
l just put a cream ale in the primary fermenter. It’s a malt extract kit with a bag of grains, dry extract, and malt extract. Everything went smooth except I had to swap it n a new propane tank.
Going to brew a German Pilsner today.


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## Eric Walls (Feb 8, 2013)

Sounds good, brewing is kinda like beekeeping. You start out small and then you start buying more stuff, until it takes over the garage!
I give away most of what I make since it's just myself and wife at home, but we do a big Octoberfest party in the fall with home brew, sausage, and pressing cider.
I still have beer in my kegerator from last fall, a lightly hopped pale ale.


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## leadchunker (May 23, 2014)

Eric Walls said:


> Sounds good, brewing is kinda like beekeeping. You start out small and then you start buying more stuff, until it takes over the garage!
> I give away most of what I make since it's just myself and wife at home, but we do a big Octoberfest party in the fall with home brew, sausage, and pressing cider.
> I still have beer in my kegerator from last fall, a lightly hopped pale ale.


I picked up quite a few items from Craigslist. I switched from bottles to corny kegs. That knocked a-lot of time/work off the process. I brewed an October fest beer last year, 3 months ago. It was pretty good. I brewed a German Pilsner yesterday. That makes two primary fermenters bubbling away in the den. I have Hefe Weizen and a Belgian blonde kits ready to brew as well. Making sure I’m stocked up in case the country gets shut down.


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## msl (Sep 6, 2016)

Cornys are a great time saver 
The next big one for me was a mini brew conical I got for about $100 do to some missing bits (that was 15 years ago, there are better ones now) 
The ability to just dump the cold break (all grain), then dump the expended years (no transfer to secondary) then harvest yeast for the next batch (saving you $8-$10) made it hand and it payed for its self very quickly in yeast savings.


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## Eric Walls (Feb 8, 2013)

I would love to get a conical but they seem pretty expensive. I like the ones that you can control the temp to ferment lagers. As it is now I have to ferment in a carboy and then lift it in my chest freezer where I have an external thermostat installed.


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## msl (Sep 6, 2016)

yuck... lagers
lol

I did ales.. mostly low ABV british cellar temp beers.. kept the fermenter in the cellar it was fun to be able to use the racking port to steal a glass out of it to see how things were going
A bit of a cost, but if your brewing regularly the reduction in yeast costs ads up fast.. and it does depend on what your time is worth.. spray the bottom port with sanitizer, put bowl under neath, quickly open and close the valve and you're done.. compae that to cleaning/sanitising a secondary fermenter and racking it over... even at min wage the conical pays for its self fairly fast, not to mention being able to pitch a large "starter" of yeast harvested from the last batch can draistly cut fermentation times, some times to the tune of 1/2... with sanfran super years (steam beer) I could go grain to glass in a week in some cases 
but I wasn't the advrage hobby brewer.. I bought my base grain by the 50# bag, brewed my own recipes about every other week, was moonlighting at a home brew shop...


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## GFWestTexas (Jul 10, 2021)

Alright, so brewing beer is something I know absolutely nothing about. However I am an expert at drinking it, and my son is interested in playing around with beer brewing. That said, I’ve done some reading and looking at small home brewery kits, conical, and such, keg storage, kegerator etc, as I really don’t feel like purchasing bottles and messing with bottling 5 gallons or more of beer. Figured the smaller keg to be a good alternative. I am looking to get him started with the understanding that in return, he is providing the beer. Any good starter kits or systems that any one would recommend, would be greatly appreciated.


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## Gino45 (Apr 6, 2012)

GFWestTexas said:


> Alright, so brewing beer is something I know absolutely nothing about. However I am an expert at drinking it, and my son is interested in playing around with beer brewing. That said, I’ve done some reading and looking at small home brewery kits, conical, and such, keg storage, kegerator etc, as I really don’t feel like purchasing bottles and messing with bottling 5 gallons or more of beer. Figured the smaller keg to be a good alternative. I am looking to get him started with the understanding that in return, he is providing the beer. Any good starter kits or systems that any one would recommend, would be greatly appreciated.


It is easiest to begin with bottling your own. Just by beer with the traditional pry off caps, a capping tool, and you are good to go. A keg is great' however, that requires a much larger investment. Wash your own bottles and fill from the 5 than brewing from scratch. How about a 'Shiner bock' kit?


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## GFWestTexas (Jul 10, 2021)

Yeah, if shiner only made a kit, I see plenty from North American Brewers etc. However from my reading a conical seems to be the way to go. If Shiner made a kit I would probably buy it.😀 As far as the kegs are concerned. I just figure it much easier than cleaning all those bottles and then capping, I would rather spend the money to avoid it if I am truthful. Figured once he comes up with a good tasting beer worth bottling, then I would worry about it. However you do make a valid point as some work and effort isn’t going to kill the boy, and I can provide plenty of bottles.


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## Gino45 (Apr 6, 2012)

A conical is great, but will set you back maybe 10 times as much as a 6 gallon fermenter. I agree, it's probably easier to just start with a kit that give you the basic equipment. What is most important is sanitation. You could begin brewing by adapting a five gallon honey bucket, fwiw. I guess it's how much you want to spend to try it out. Enjoy!


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## Lee Bussy (May 28, 2021)

GFWestTexas said:


> Alright, so brewing beer is something I know absolutely nothing about. However I am an expert at drinking it, and my son is interested in playing around with beer brewing. That said, I’ve done some reading and looking at small home brewery kits, conical, and such, keg storage, kegerator etc, as I really don’t feel like purchasing bottles and messing with bottling 5 gallons or more of beer. Figured the smaller keg to be a good alternative. I am looking to get him started with the understanding that in return, he is providing the beer. Any good starter kits or systems that any one would recommend, would be greatly appreciated.


Buying a brew kit is about the same as buying a beekeeping kit I'd imagine. You can, and there may be parts you use. The problem is most parts you won't, or you may want a different approach altogether after the first time you use it.

There are lots of things you can use in your house already:

Kettle (big pot. A large canning kettle will work fine. Being able to boil at least three gallons for an extract beer would be good)
Funnels
Non-porous utensils (large spoons, etc)
Scales
Ultimately (for an extract beer anyway) you are adding syrup to water, stirring till it's dissolved, boiling, cleaning up the boil-over, adding hops, cleaning up the boil-over that happens even FASTER than the last one, cooling the pot in the sink, pouring the "stuff" (now called wort, pronounced "wert") into a fermenter, and topping off with cold water. Let the wort cool if it's not within 10 degrees of ambient, then you add your yeast and an airlock. About a week later it's done fermenting, a week after that it should be clear enough. Then keg or bottle and enjoy (hopefully).

Like anything else ... you can either start there and stay there, or you can get REAL deep in it. 

We could always approach this from the "what would you like him to make?" side. Name a beer you want to drink, and we can guide you that way. I'll warn you that "Bud Light" may be among the most technically challenging beers to make.


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