Getting back in the hobby

[acroporabrewer]

Hello. I've been homebrewing since about 2007 but I took 1 1/2 years off when I found out I was having a second set of twins. (yes, that's right) I've been all grain brewing for many years now. My current set up is very simple and basic.
4 gallon kettle for HLT
10 gallon mast tun cooler w/ false bottom
6 gallon kettle for the wort
DIY Copper flex tubing chiller
gravity & Siphon hand pump for transferring liquid
Deep fryer burner for wort

Now that I am wanting to get back into brewing, I've had time to think about my pain points from the prior years. I've decided to eventually switch to 10 gallon batches with a brew stand. For starters, I purchased a Used 15.5 Keggle with Coupling & Blichmann Therminator Plate Chiller. I think my Mash tun will work for the time being as long as I fly sparge (Please correct me if I am incorrect). My next big purchase will be a chugger pump and quick connects.

My real pain point is that I have moved further out in the country and the closest homebrew shop has closed down to open a brewery, lucky them. The next shop is about 45 minutes away. With the young kids, I will never make it out there on a regular basis. To make matters worst, brewmasterwarehouse closed down. I used to order from them because they were fairly close for shipping (I'm in south NC and they were in Atlanta) and I could easily order custom recipes. Does anybody know where I can easily order custom recipes online? I'm not looking at a place that only has a dozen or so prepackaged recipes but a place where I can order my custom recipe without having to buy 50 lb bags.

 

[SGTSparty]

Welcome back and oh my god two sets of twins?! I can't speak to your new set up but as for online retailers I'm biased because they also are my local but http://www.homebrewing.org/ is pretty good. They have like 99 different malts/adjuncts that can be purchased in quantities as low as like 0.1 pound. With each grain you get the option of crushed or not, then you can enter a recipe name and bag number for each selection. Meaning you can order your grains un-crushed in one bag and your non-crushing adjuncts (wheat, rice hulls, oats etc.) in a 2nd bag, both marked for the same recipe. Pretty handy IMO. I order from them all the time and then pick up locally and haven't had a problem but I cannot speak to shipping costs (based in Ann Arbor, MI) but they seem to have a lot of options, including putting ice packs in your liquid yeast shipments to keep them viable. I'd say at least check them out and compare shipping costs to other online vendors.

 

[passedpawn]

I miss BMW also. Great shop, excellent website. Can't recommend anybody for custom orders. My suggestion is think hard about how you could store 10# of about 10 or 15 different malts, plus several 50# bags of bulk 2-row. Buy a mill, and just set up your own inventory so you don't have to buy 1# of anything. That's what I did for years (until a shop opened up about 3 miles from my house).

BTW, are you a reefer?

 

[Bullshivit-brew]

I miss BMW also. Great shop, excellent website. Can't recommend anybody for custom orders. My suggestion is think hard about how you could store 10# of about 10 or 15 different malts, plus several 50# bags of bulk 2-row. Buy a mill, and just set up your own inventory so you don't have to buy 1# of anything. That's what I did for years (until a shop opened up about 3 miles from my house).

BTW, are you a reefer?

This is what I have to do. There are no home brew shop's within 2 hr of me. I shop on line for the best prices plan 4 or 5 brew days and get it all at one time. Free shipping that way.
I just started back up myself. Welcome back. I am in the same boat with you for equipment and looking at some updates.

 

[acroporabrewer]

Welcome back and oh my god two sets of twins?! I can't speak to your new set up but as for online retailers I'm biased because they also are my local but http://www.homebrewing.org/ is pretty good. They have like 99 different malts/adjuncts that can be purchased in quantities as low as like 0.1 pound. With each grain you get the option of crushed or not, then you can enter a recipe name and bag number for each selection. Meaning you can order your grains un-crushed in one bag and your non-crushing adjuncts (wheat, rice hulls, oats etc.) in a 2nd bag, both marked for the same recipe. Pretty handy IMO. I order from them all the time and then pick up locally and haven't had a problem but I cannot speak to shipping costs (based in Ann Arbor, MI) but they seem to have a lot of options, including putting ice packs in your liquid yeast shipments to keep them viable. I'd say at least check them out and compare shipping costs to other online vendors.

That's actually where I ordered my kettle and plate chiller from. I'll look into ordering a few recipes from them again in the future. It is a little far away but maybe I just need to buy in bulk from them.

I miss BMW also. Great shop, excellent website. Can't recommend anybody for custom orders. My suggestion is think hard about how you could store 10# of about 10 or 15 different malts, plus several 50# bags of bulk 2-row. Buy a mill, and just set up your own inventory so you don't have to buy 1# of anything. That's what I did for years (until a shop opened up about 3 miles from my house).

BTW, are you a reefer?

Great idea. I have thought about stocking up in a lot of 2 row and other grains. I always like rye in my pale ales so that's another one to keep in stock. Yes, I had to get rid of my other hobby when the kids came. I miss it but it is going to be harder for me to get back into because it requires so much time. I sure do miss my 3 x 3 cube though but it doesn't get me tipsy.

This is what I have to do. There are no home brew shop's within 2 hr of me. I shop on line for the best prices plan 4 or 5 brew days and get it all at one time. Free shipping that way.
I just started back up myself. Welcome back. I am in the same boat with you for equipment and looking at some updates.

Where do you order from online?

 

[Bullshivit-brew]

Morebeer and northern brewer lately. Sometimes Williams homebrew supply. Moorbeer has free shipping on large orders.

 

[Bullshivit-brew]

I get hops though hops direct most the time unless they are out off what I am looking for. But I normally order a lb at a time and vacuum seal and freeze. Save money that way.

 

[bajaedition]

Homebrew supply has flat rate shipping on a lot of stuff
Adventures in homebrew has a great staff if you need advice
Morebeer is 120 miles from me, it gets here quick

but I bulk buy when in town on grain as shipping is so much

 

[garzlok]

I know Southern, North Carolina encompasses a very large area but if you're near the I85 corridor, there's Alternative Beverage, ebrew.com. Oddly enough, I live in Atlanta and stopped in there a few times while passing through (Belmont Store).

I also did some shopping at Brewmasters Warehouse...I liked their website, but their store was a bit dumpy. You may want to try Operation Homebrew. They're out of the Atlanta area. The website/recipe building is nothing like BMW. However, you can put together 5 different grain bills on one order from their site and they'll combine, crush, (if you want) and ship. You may want to check them out, read over their shipping policy and maybe even email them to get an idea of how much shipping would cost.

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

Home brew supply.com has a recipie calculator and you can order what you input. I think if you only need part of a pound of grain or .5 oz of hops you purchase the whole bag.

 

[bkboiler]

i think atlantic brewing supply (who has just recently started advertising here on HBT) allows you to order in small quantities. They have a recipe builder on their website, and i'm guessing soon they'll allow you to save beer recipes then easily "reorder".

 

[acroporabrewer]

Well it has been over a month and wanted to post and update. I brewed a blah Rye Pale Ale (5g) as a starter batch since it has been a while. I am glad I did. I made the bonehead mistake of adding grain and water to the mash tune without the false bottom. Needless to say, that sucked. I came a little low on my numbers but it is not too big of a deal.

Then I bounced around ideas for a brew stand. We had this spindle table that we were going to sell. Then it hit me, throw some swivel casters on it and use the money that I saved on better equipment.

This past weekend I brewed a 10g batch of a summer wheat Ale. The stand worked out great and fly sparging was great. I hit my numbers spot in for the 1st time ever and it was my 1st 10g batch too. After the boil, I was about to turn on my pump and the glass carboys kissed and one shattered. So luckily I had a 3rd one and had to clean & sanitize on the fly. Needless to say, that sucked too.

So today I bought a speidel 60L fermentor so I don't have to worry about glass carboys anymore. I also ordered a custom Rye Pale Ale recipe from homebrewing.org. The plan is to brew another batch this weekend. I'd like to get an electric element for the keggle but that will have to wait until next month.

Here is what my setup looks like today. Cleanup was pretty easy. Just rolled it up to the sink in the garage and when I was done, I rolled everything, including 10g of brew, out to my detached garage.