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Jayjay1976 said:
I already have an ultra precise German made digital scale from my pot growing days, so I'll stick with that thanks. Being able to make gerolsteiner mineral water from scratch has been an incredible ancillary benefit of learning water chemistry; at $3/bottle my whole setup has already paid for itself probably twice over. We do love our mineral water!
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Stick with whatever works for you. Sounds like an awesome scale. My comment was mainly directed at people starting out and picking out their equipment. Just letting them know you really don't need an expensive digital scale for the salts, measuring cups work fine and come in really small sizes for measuring out grams or even 0.5 grams. I have a cheap digital scale that I had used for weighing my son's pinewood derby car, so I use that to weigh out my hops and grain. But it doesn't do decimals(wish it did), so instead of trying to weigh 1 or 2g on it I just use the measuring cups. I'm far more confident my measurements will be consistent batch to batch which is really what I want when I'm trying to replicate recipes I like.
 
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VirginiaHops1 said:
Stick with whatever works for you. Sounds like an awesome scale. My comment was mainly directed at people starting out and picking out their equipment. Just letting them know you really don't need an expensive digital scale for the salts, measuring cups work fine and come in really small sizes for measuring out grams or even 0.5 grams. I have a cheap digital scale that I had used for weighing my son's pinewood derby car, so I use that to weigh out my hops and grain. But it doesn't do decimals(wish it did), so instead of trying to weigh 1 or 2g on it I just use the measuring cups. I'm far more confident my measurements will be consistent batch to batch which is really what I want when I'm trying to replicate recipes I like.
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Yeah only thing that might not be consittant is moisture but on an oz that varible would be less then .XX0 so if you know how to measure assuming it weights its total volume then its pretty straight forward for us simple folk shotglass with a few extra pellets, but digtals scales nowadays are inexpensive and with a site like amazon ordering never been easyier.
 
I talked about it for years. Then my wife and I were donating some clothes and a beginner equipment kit was sitting in the pile out back of the thrift shop and she talked the dude taking donations into just letting us have it. I looked up the local LHBS, made a recipe (100% extract but my own hop schedule, sort of a Red IPA) and then bought it, and was off to the races. By my 5th batch I was all grain, by my 10th I was winning medals multiple, and after 5 years I went pro.
 
I actually made a few batches of some different MrB kits before I tried a simple one-gallon extract wheat kit, where I had to boil for an hour and add hops.

I've been pretty slow going from one method to another. Except when I realized that my options for munich malt extract were limited to syrup. I got it in my head somehow that DME keeps better in the freezer than LME, not that it matters much to me anymore, I usually just use partial DME bags for bread, pretzel, or pizza dough, or waffle batter. I started experimenting with small batches of beer I made BIAB style before settling into what I call "partial-extract" brewing, where I try to max out my mash tun (which is the same volume as the final volume of wort for most of the batches I brew) and add extract as needed without caring that sticklers probably wouldn't call it all-grain.
 
I moved to a foreign country. Became a huge beer fan and fell in love with many sorts of beer.

My wife bought me a brewing book for Christmas but it never got me interested. A year or so later a friend gave me another brewing book - the big book of brewing by David Line - my friend found it in an antique shop and to be honest that's where it belongs. It's very outdated. But for some reason his enthusiasm and writing style hooked me in. For the next 6 months or so I read everything about brewing I could get my hands on -Watched YouTube videos, listened to podcasts etc.

I decided I was definitely going to do this. The only problem was in this country there was no lhbs Plus a bit of a language barrier. I had to piece together my brewery with mostly dyi stuff including an igloo mash tun which cost more than $100 in this country... Fortunately there was a great malt supplier where I can get it for really cheap (about $1.50/kg).

After piecing it all together my first brew was an all grain ipa using only local ingredients. I used my own recipe because there wasn't any other option. It turned out way better than I expected and I was hooked. That was about 18 months ago and about 10 brews.
 
I brewed one crappy pre-hopped extract thing many, many years go.

Then a couple years ago I decided I was interested in trying the homebrew thing again, but done right.

I spent months reading, figuring out what I wanted / needed in terms of equipment, etc, and finally bought an equipment kit, and an extract recipe kit.

Brew #2 was an extract recipe again, but I pieced together the ingredients myself.

Brew #3 and onward have all been stove-top, BIAB all-grain, with recipes found various places (mostly here at HBT).
 
I brewed my first batch 10 days ago. Got hooked by watching videos of PID controllers about six months ago and started designing my own for fun.

IMG_6237.JPG


This led to a near obsession for building my system. After several weeks and tons of research and reading on places like this forum, I started purchasing. Fortunately the wife is a big craft beer fan so there was lots of support...

Once I had my kettles and fermenter and general process plan figured out, I decided to do a mock Brew with just water. A close friend of mine that also brews didn't want none of that and said he had a Zombie Dirt kit from Northern Brewer he got for free and had no plans for it, so why not practice with that.... Me: aight!

IMG_6305.JPG


FF to present, just dry hopped and took a gravity (1.012) which based on my OG is coming in at 5.67% and it tasted great. Now I'm trying to figure out how to be patient and wait till it's ready to "rack" (still learning the terminology so not sure if I'm right there).

Anyway, sorry for being long winded, but I have been stalking these forums for weeks and can't contain my excitement any longer. Peace and beer!

MF
 
m3rcy flu5h said:
I brewed my first batch 10 days ago. Got hooked by watching videos of PID controllers about six months ago and started designing my own for fun.

View attachment 589800

This led to a near obsession for building my system. After several weeks and tons of research and reading on places like this forum, I started purchasing. Fortunately the wife is a big craft beer fan so there was lots of support...

Once I had my kettles and fermenter and general process plan figured out, I decided to do a mock Brew with just water. A close friend of mine that also brews didn't want none of that and said he had a Zombie Dirt kit from Northern Brewer he got for free and had no plans for it, so why not practice with that.... Me: aight!

View attachment 589801

FF to present, just dry hopped and took a gravity (1.012) which based on my OG is coming in at 5.67% and it tasted great. Now I'm trying to figure out how to be patient and wait till it's ready to "rack" (still learning the terminology so not sure if I'm right there).

Anyway, sorry for being long winded, but I have been stalking these forums for weeks and can't contain my excitement any longer. Peace and beer!

MF
Click to expand...
I love your controller! Would be cool if you could somehow get those PIDs to run a nixie display!
upload_2018-9-25_17-51-55.jpeg
 
m3rcy flu5h said:
I brewed my first batch 10 days ago. Got hooked by watching videos of PID controllers about six months ago and started designing my own for fun.

View attachment 589800

This led to a near obsession for building my system. After several weeks and tons of research and reading on places like this forum, I started purchasing. Fortunately the wife is a big craft beer fan so there was lots of support...

Once I had my kettles and fermenter and general process plan figured out, I decided to do a mock Brew with just water. A close friend of mine that also brews didn't want none of that and said he had a Zombie Dirt kit from Northern Brewer he got for free and had no plans for it, so why not practice with that.... Me: aight!

View attachment 589801

FF to present, just dry hopped and took a gravity (1.012) which based on my OG is coming in at 5.67% and it tasted great. Now I'm trying to figure out how to be patient and wait till it's ready to "rack" (still learning the terminology so not sure if I'm right there).

Anyway, sorry for being long winded, but I have been stalking these forums for weeks and can't contain my excitement any longer. Peace and beer!

MF
Click to expand...
I'm not sure I can tell how you're using that hydrometer. Its just supposed to be the glass instrument bobbing in a beaker of wort, what's that tube extending up from the beaker with wort in it? Is that the tube the hydromer came in? You don't need to use both tubes, just one or the other. Unless your beaker isn't tall enough, in which case, carry on sir! And welcome to HBT!
 
Jayjay1976 said:
I'm not sure I can tell how you're using that hydrometer. Its just supposed to be the glass instrument bobbing in a beaker of wort, what's that tube extending up from the beaker with wort in it? Is that the tube the hydromer came in? You don't need to use both tubes, just one or the other. Unless your beaker isn't tall enough, in which case, carry on sir! And welcome to HBT!
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Yup. That's exactly what happened and so I had to make do with what was on hand till I get a taller beaker. See, told ya it was my first time....
 
I had wanted to brew for years, but I moved so much that buying gear etc. didn't make much sense.
Final move had me in a small apartment, with my husband who had brewed in the past. Previously he had a largish setup that didn't come with us. A local homebrew club did an outreach to get more women into brewing, and I discovered the possibility of doing smaller batches. My first recipe was halving a 5 gallon partial extract recipe. Between my husband and a friend who helped, my first brew went fairly smoothly and I've brewed 10 (small) batches in 9 months since I started!
 
Bubman said:
I got a kit in a can back in the 90's. Instructions said to combine with corn sugar and boiling water then ferment.
It was awful but inspired me to find a lhbs.

FF after a 15 year absence from brewing I'm just getting ready to brew my first batch and I'm stoked!
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I'm an old fart, what is lhbs. Some type of brew system I assume.
 
Jayjay1976 said:
I jumped into the deep end just like you did only I spent 8 months reading books, magazines, and scratch building my elec controller and BIAB rig before I started. My first brew day was my own recipe; a Belgian saison and it took 6 hours from mash-in to pitching two strains of yeast. Still one of my best beers ever.
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So you had never brewed before and built a system. Cudos
 
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Jayjay1976 said:
I already have an ultra precise German made digital scale from my pot growing days, so I'll stick with that thanks. Being able to make gerolsteiner mineral water from scratch has been an incredible ancillary benefit of learning water chemistry; at $3/bottle my whole setup has already paid for itself probably twice over. We do love our mineral water!
Click to expand...
I remember those days
 
I started as a wine maker. My wife was a beer lover so I bought her a kit in a can helped her get it going and when it was ready it tasted great. I got tired of waiting so long before reaping the benefits so I started extract brewing and making my own recipes. It wasn't long before I went all grain, built my own systems, and now I have a complete electric brewery in my backyard. We brew about twice a month. Man cave!
 
Started off with a NB 1 gallon kit, and it turned out to be one of the best beers I've had, immediately hooked. The downside? 1 gallon batch = 8 to 10 beers which is easily gone within an hour if you're sharing it with your buddies haha. Upped my batches to 2.5g which is a good size for me. I can keep the operation inside and get enough of a yield to last me a while, but also get to brew a little more often which is good practice :)
 
My friend invited me I we to help him with a RIS extract kit. It turned out good but was flat in the bottle which got me researching things and I ended up here.

The following Christmas, my brother got me a 5 gallon starter kit with buckets, siphon, capper, etc.

From there, it all went very much spiraling out of control. I haven't invested much money into this but I can now make AG batches. I've made a few recipes from here which was a huge help in figuring out my equipment and process.

These days I'm working on formulating my own recipes for styles I enjoy. This helps me figure out what hops will do and how different malts taste. Next step is a temp controller for the fridge and a keezer conversion [emoji3].
 
I got a few cooper's kits and a massive, but very basic kettle for christmas, and a shopping "budget" for a online brewshop.
After doing the kits, I switched to biab, because i didn't like the limitations of prehopped kits or the cost of lme/dme here in finland.

Never looked back, did some upgrading down the line into a basic electrical kettle and not much else changed.
 
Kharnynb said:
I got a few cooper's kits and a massive, but very basic kettle for christmas, and a shopping "budget" for a online brewshop.
After doing the kits, I switched to biab, because i didn't like the limitations of prehopped kits or the cost of lme/dme here in finland.

Never looked back, did some upgrading down the line into a basic electrical kettle and not much else changed.
Click to expand...
That's a cool looking dog. I'm a dog lover, best animal on the planet and that includes us.
 
Just saw this thread, so....
I lived in Hawaii and surfed off Lanikai beach (flat island) and the locals kept knocking my friend and I out of waves as we were not brown skins. Thus we swallowed a lot of salt water and still were able to catch a few nice rides. We needed to get something to drink periodically and paddled to shore, his mother's house was right on the beach (now a parking lot). One day he said we should brew some beer and bottle it in the new bigger Pepsi bottles (1 liters??? had just come out) and seal them with wine bottle stoppers. That's how it started !
They had 5 gallon glass water carboys so he came up with idea we could dig out under his house (sand) and noone would know. So a 6x6 foot 4 foot deep hole was made and a carboy loaded with sugar and bread yeast from his mom's kitchen.... somehow he knew about an airlock so a jar full of water was put on end of a blow off tube. AH HA Alcohol.... tasted just plain awful but really overwhelmed the salt water taste and got us a bit loopy too. We put in in the shallow rocks of side of island to keep cooler (78 degrees?). One of the locals (leader of the group) asked what we had and I told him beer. He asked if he could have some... I said why would I give him some as he never let us ride waves... he said we could if we shared our beer. we were about 12yrs old they were about 14-15yrs old. The deal was done we could ride the waves they could drink WIN/WIN !!!
All went well until 3rd batch when the carboy exploded and a stinky mess was under the house. You cant mop up sand1 The area really reeked, his mom came home and banished me from the house forever as it was obviously my idea (it wasnt) because her son wouldn't do such a thing!!! I was not alowed in her home until we were in 11th grade (about 5 years later)! We had become friends with the locals and they never bothered us again and we didnt have any awful brew.
I didnt brew again for about 15 years and then did a brew on premises brew ("BrewMaster") it was awesome Helles lager. I started brewin at home 10 yrs later and still at it at 71 years old! All grain with either Propane or next will be electric, I think.
CHEERS
 
Buddy and I bought a used extract kit off of craigslist about 5-6 years ago. Made a couple batches of terrible beer before starting to do some research and slowly improving process. Friend not brewing anymore, but I just got my first BOS in a BJCP comp!
 
Me and my then-SO moved out from town, sort of out in the sticks. No hills to skate and no pubs to visit.. I figured I needed a new hobby. I went straight for AG. Biab, and the little "engineer" in me started to figure out how to make things more effective/easy after the first batch. Here I am.
 
W
Smellyglove said:
Me and my then-SO moved out from town, sort of out in the sticks. No hills to skate and no pubs to visit.. I figured I needed a new hobby. I went straight for AG. Biab, and the little "engineer" in me started to figure out how to make things more effective/easy after the first batch. Here I am.
Click to expand...
What is SO?
 
zzzzzzzzz said:
Just saw this thread, so....
I lived in Hawaii and surfed off Lanikai beach (flat island) and the locals kept knocking my friend and I out of waves as we were not brown skins. Thus we swallowed a lot of salt water and still were able to catch a few nice rides. We needed to get something to drink periodically and paddled to shore, his mother's house was right on the beach (now a parking lot). One day he said we should brew some beer and bottle it in the new bigger Pepsi bottles (1 liters??? had just come out) and seal them with wine bottle stoppers. That's how it started !
They had 5 gallon glass water carboys so he came up with idea we could dig out under his house (sand) and noone would know. So a 6x6 foot 4 foot deep hole was made and a carboy loaded with sugar and bread yeast from his mom's kitchen.... somehow he knew about an airlock so a jar full of water was put on end of a blow off tube. AH HA Alcohol.... tasted just plain awful but really overwhelmed the salt water taste and got us a bit loopy too. We put in in the shallow rocks of side of island to keep cooler (78 degrees?). One of the locals (leader of the group) asked what we had and I told him beer. He asked if he could have some... I said why would I give him some as he never let us ride waves... he said we could if we shared our beer. we were about 12yrs old they were about 14-15yrs old. The deal was done we could ride the waves they could drink WIN/WIN !!!
All went well until 3rd batch when the carboy exploded and a stinky mess was under the house. You cant mop up sand1 The area really reeked, his mom came home and banished me from the house forever as it was obviously my idea (it wasnt) because her son wouldn't do such a thing!!! I was not alowed in her home until we were in 11th grade (about 5 years later)! We had become friends with the locals and they never bothered us again and we didnt have any awful brew.
I didnt brew again for about 15 years and then did a brew on premises brew ("BrewMaster") it was awesome Helles lager. I started brewin at home 10 yrs later and still at it at 71 years old! All grain with either Propane or next will be electric, I think.
CHEERS
Click to expand...

Have you kept in touch with your friend over the years?
 
Toxxyc said:
SO = Significant Other, as in wife or husband or w/e float your boat.

PS: w/e = whatever.

:)
Click to expand...
Coming from a Telecommunications background I used to be very good at guessing Acronyms but that was because I knew the equipment and business so well. Now I'm not as up on the ones used in social media but I'll get there. I got the whatever but SO could have been two thirds of SOS... Siht On a Shingle.;-)
 
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I started with Mr. Beer. Their recipes were a great starting point and before long I was brewing other extract recipes in it. I still have the little kegs and plan on using them for some sour beers at some point.
 

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