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BrettCo124 said:
Thanks all. I use no more than a capful of starsan for each brew.
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mongoose33 said:
A capful? How much is a capful? Is it an ounce, and then you are mixing that into 5 gallons? (doubtful). Or less than an ounce and you're mixing into less than 5 gallons?
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For measuring StarSan, I recommend one of these. That way I can accurately measure the correct amount of StarSan for smaller amounts of solution. 30ml for 5 Gallons, 6ml for 1 Gallon, 1.5ml for a 32 oz. Spray Bottle.

Edited to Add: I'm pretty sure you can get them from a pharmacy for very little.

10ml syringe.jpg
 
That's a great idea. I don't have the exact measurements but I use literally a cap full, like the cap off of a liter soda bottle, for one gallon batches. I mix it in about 3/4 of a gallon of water.

It's not really eating at my skin like in the movies lol, but I can definitely feel it on me very slightly when I'm using it.
 
BrettCo124 said:
That's a great idea. I don't have the exact measurements but I use literally a cap full, like the cap off of a liter soda bottle, for one gallon batches. I mix it in about 3/4 of a gallon of water.

It's not really eating at my skin like in the movies lol, but I can definitely feel it on me very slightly when I'm using it.
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When I get home (I'm overseas right now), I'm going to try a capful in 3/4 gallon of water.

I'll bet that's HIGHLY acidic, far more than what the directions call for, i.e., 1 ounce in 5 gallons.

You need to either get a syringe such as gromitdj posted above, or some other method of accurately dispensing this. You can find syringes like that in farm stores (farm and fleet, theisens, fleet farm, like that) which are used for livestock. No needle, just the body of the syringe.
 
try to remember that ignorant savages have been brewing tasty beer for thousands of years. they didn't worry about a few bits from their blankie getting on the spigot.

I use starsan to sanitize my (carefully rinsed) bottles, and then I just save it afterwards. I use that in a bucket to throw stuff into, and to refill the spray bottle, and next time I sanitize bottles, i can just replace it.

I think if you feel it 'eating your skin', you have a very active imagination, or perhaps are a democrat. ;)
 
Haha I laughed at the blankie part. To be honest, I wouldn't have questioned as many things if so many people (who were only trying to help) didn't scare me in to thinking my 4 hours of time plus the 5 gallons of beer would be completely wasted by a single cat hair landing in the fermenter lol. But point well taken. That's a good strategy with reusing. I absolutely feel it on my skin though. Like I said, it's nothing bad, but I feel the slight acidity of it for sure.

I'm definitely going to get a syringe, but it's accurate measurements because I broke it down to what I needed in teaspoons, which I simply measured in the cap to be the same amount. But I still need to be more precise.
 
I used to be a bartender at a restaurant and the sanitizer we used would eat at peoples hands, sometimes where their rings go since the skin is softer. Turns out 1 guy was just very sensitive to the sanitizer and the other was putting way too much in. You could definitely feel when there was too much in though.
 
PhinneyWoodBrews said:
I humbly recommend you go low tech first to see if you truly enjoy homebrewing, before sinking a bunch of money into it. Read through the forums, watch videos, select a simple recipe for your first go(no bbl aged barleywines or lagers). For less than 200.00, you could be set up to do stove-top small batch all-grain brew-in-a-bag(BIAB). You don't need high end equipment to make top-notch beer. Secure a method of controlling fermentation temperature. This doesn't have to be a huge purchase. I use insulated cooler bags(cool-brewing is the company) with frozen water bottles, monitored by a thermometer probe in a thermowell. Works great for me. After you've done a few batches, and you're hooked(you probably will love it). Then you can start building a high-tech, high-end system. You'll also know more about the route you want to take to get there. Good luck, and welcome to the fold!
Alex
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Hi Guys!

I totally agree with this statement. I used this route to get into brewing and to be honest I stayed right there. I just started experimenting with recipes on my one gallon batches. They were easy to brew (3 to 4 hours including clean up) and gave me enough beers (6 to 8) to enjoy when it turned out great, but not so many that I was devastated if it didn't work out and they needed to be dumped. I got so into in fact, that I started a company around it.

We try to tailor specifically to people very early on in their brewing journey. We offer all inclusive ingredients kits (not brew in a bag), and recipe specific, easy to follow instructions. Our premise is that you shouldn't need to have a world of experience to make great recipes.

I'm looking for some honest feedback here. For the new people to the club, does this sound like something you guys would be interested in? For the more seasoned brewers, would this have peaked your interest way back in the beginning?

Additionally, we are offering a 4 month subscription for people who would like to learn different recipes. The 4-month Program would cost $85. For that price you would receive one unique one gallon ingredients kit (with very easy to follow directions), designed by us, every month.

I'd love to hear any and all feedback you guys have for us!

If you would like more info, go on over to our website: brewinboxbeer.com

Sorry for the plug, but we value all the feedback we can get!

Cheers,

Joe
 
BongoYodeler: I am having a fun get together with friends on Friday night. That's when I'm officially opening them up and sharing them. Of course, I'm going to try it most likely Thursday before the party just in case it tastes bad.

As soon as I do, I'm going to let you all know! I did taste the beer when I took my gravity reading before bottling... it tasted great actually. So I'm hoping that could be a good sign.

I will send out a post either Thursday or Friday!
 
BrettCo124 said:
BongoYodeler: I am having a fun get together with friends on Friday night. That's when I'm officially opening them up and sharing them. Of course, I'm going to try it most likely Thursday before the party just in case it tastes bad.

As soon as I do, I'm going to let you all know! I did taste the beer when I took my gravity reading before bottling... it tasted great actually. So I'm hoping that could be a good sign.

I will send out a post either Thursday or Friday!
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Make sure you get those beers in the refrigerator 24-48 hours prior to opening. Cold beer absorbs CO2 more readily than warm beer, and the CO2 in the headspace of the bottle can reabsorb into the beer rather than simply being lost upon opening.
 
Thanks for the advice per usual! Can I keep them in my garage? Will that ultimately do the same thing? I'd venture a guess that it's between 34-36 degrees in there. It's not going below freezing before my party, so I'm just thinking of how to save space in our fridge.
 
That will be just fine, since that's a little lower than the temperature of your fridge anyway. Just don't put them out there until they're carbed up -- the yeast will drop out of suspension at those temperatures, which is great unless you still need them to do some work!
 
BrettCo124 said:
Thanks for the advice per usual! Can I keep them in my garage? Will that ultimately do the same thing? I'd venture a guess that it's between 34-36 degrees in there. It's not going below freezing before my party, so I'm just thinking of how to save space in our fridge.
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What Jordan said above. He points out an important element to all this--you don't chill beer until the yeast has done its thing, and since you're bottle carbing, you have to wait until the yeast has done its job carbing the beer.

You might, just for kicks, put 3 or 4 beers in the fridge, the rest in the garage, and see if you can tell any difference based on that. But remember, don't do this until just before the party. Let the yeast be yeast!

And one more thing: You'll have a small layer of yeast in the bottom of the bottles. Most people don't care for the taste of it, so decant the beer into glasses, leaving maybe 1/2" of beer in the bottle. Many will want to upend the beer bottle either while taking a pull from it, or pouring into a glass. Keep that yeast in the bottle.

All this writing about beer tonite makes me want to go get one. I think I will.
 
Hahaha, will do! Party is on Friday. It's been carbonating since exactly two weeks ago. I think ill move it to the garage tomorrow, which would be a little over 24 hours in the cold. Thanks ya'll
 
Hahaha well, even before you mentioned that.... I tested it. And wow. I'm telling you, for my first beer that I ever brewed, alone for that matter from 10pm-2:30am (got too excited when I received the kit and began brewing immediately without realizing how long it will take), this beer was AMAZING. I can't believe I actually did this myself! All of that carrying and lifting of the 10 gallon kettle, sanitizing nonstop of everything, etc totally paid off.

Needless to say, I am going to have a great treat for everybody on Friday night. You can see straight through this beer, and it's perfectly carbonated. I took a pic for all to see.

As always, I would have completely failed if it wasn't for the help of all of you. Thanks for making this new hobby of mine a reality. I will circle back with another post on what everybody thinks after the party on Friday.
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1485435991.601525.jpg
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1485436005.682479.jpg
 
I wanted to also follow up with this question: it's been exactly 2 weeks of conditioning, which was yesterday when I tried it for the first time. It had carbonation but it could have had a little more, and also I poured it so slow that there was no head (as seen in the photos).

The party will be 2 weeks and 2 days, so I'm hoping that extra 2 days will do a little more carbing.

I just was curious if that's pretty normal with an American ale? Like I said, it tasted amazing but when I poured it, there wasn't a big white fluff of head or anything. I used US-05 yeast originally before I put it all in the fermenter, and I used corn sugar mixed with the boiled water, which I mixed directly in the bottling bucket.

One thing I did do, based off of your advice, was to not use the full bag of corn sugar since I was minus about 1/2 of a gallon of beer due to boiling it off. I measured it out correctly and used just enough to add to 4 1/2 gallons.

Any thoughts? Worries? It tasted great to me which is all that matters, but the lack of foam when I poured it was a little alarming, even though I did it ever so carefully.
 
I definitely worry more than I need to, but I'm using this thread to simply get answers to questions that I can apply to my future batches. They are basic newbie questions, so it will allow me to not question things on future batches. If the lack of foam after 2 1/2 weeks of conditioning was an indicator of something I did wrong, I'd rather know about it so I can adjust for my next batch.

I'll worry less tomorrow night when the beers kick in! Lol
 
Well I guess you'll have to just crack another and see if you get better foam from a vigorous pour, right down the middle! Really, though, your best indicator is the taste. If the sugar is all consumed, there shouldn't be any unwanted residual sweetness. If that's the case, but you still don't have quite as much carbonation as you would like, just remember it for next time and adjust your priming sugar accordingly. For real, though, that beer looks absolutely beautiful, and I'm a little jealous of your party guests!
 
Haha thanks Jordan! I'm really excited about it. It tastes great. Happy I got in to the hobby and was able to be directed by all you fine people. This thread will certainly help a lot of newbies like myself.
 
You will find there is a certain art to pouring a bottle conditioned home brew. Needs to be fast enough to develop head, yet smooth and and not chugging at the neck of the bottle. Ideally you want to do it all in one pour, watching as the sediment starts to make its way out and stop at the right time. Don't be so careful on how it goes into the glass, ie slowly pouring it down the side. Instead focus on how smoothly it's coming out of the bottle so that things don't get stirred up.
 
PADave said:
You will find there is a certain art to pouring a bottle conditioned home brew. Needs to be fast enough to develop head, yet smooth and and not chugging at the neck of the bottle. Ideally you want to do it all in one pour, watching as the sediment starts to make its way out and stop at the right time. Don't be so careful on how it goes into the glass, ie slowly pouring it down the side. Instead focus on how smoothly it's coming out of the bottle so that things don't get stirred up.
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This is great advice.

Let me suggest something, Brett: after you pour one, leave behind an inch or so of liquid in the botttle. Pour that inch of liquid into another glass and taste it, so you can see what having the yeast in your poured beer will taste like.

I think that until you know what it is you're trying to avoid by pouring as Dave says above, you don't have any way to know when a poor taste is the beer or when it's the yeast.

Anyway, glad the beer has turned out. Let us know the response from those at your party.
 
Thanks so much for the advice! I was successfully able to pour the beers for everyone! So, here is a recap of last night for those who care to hear:

The night started off with an immediate glass of my hard apple cider (I had one gallon jug of apple juice that I made in to hard apple cider, and also a one gallon jug of honeycrip apple cider from a local farm that I turned in to hard apple cider.

To make if fun, I siphoned it out for everyone straight from the jug so they had it as fresh as possible. They absolutely loved it.

Then we opened the beer bottles, and they were a hit! Everyone loved it. I had nothing but compliments all night. I also had homemade pizzas coming out of the oven all night, so it was just a perfect night of homemade things.

Thanks all for your help! I honestly couldn't have done it without you. I love the new hobby :)
 
BrettCo124 said:
Thanks so much for the advice! I was successfully able to pour the beers for everyone! So, here is a recap of last night for those who care to hear:

The night started off with an immediate glass of my hard apple cider (I had one gallon jug of apple juice that I made in to hard apple cider, and also a one gallon jug of honeycrip apple cider from a local farm that I turned in to hard apple cider.

To make if fun, I siphoned it out for everyone straight from the jug so they had it as fresh as possible. They absolutely loved it.

Then we opened the beer bottles, and they were a hit! Everyone loved it. I had nothing but compliments all night. I also had homemade pizzas coming out of the oven all night, so it was just a perfect night of homemade things.

Thanks all for your help! I honestly couldn't have done it without you. I love the new hobby :)
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So happy to hear how well it turned out!
 
BrettCo124 said:
Thanks so much for the advice! I was successfully able to pour the beers for everyone! So, here is a recap of last night for those who care to hear:

The night started off with an immediate glass of my hard apple cider (I had one gallon jug of apple juice that I made in to hard apple cider, and also a one gallon jug of honeycrip apple cider from a local farm that I turned in to hard apple cider.

To make if fun, I siphoned it out for everyone straight from the jug so they had it as fresh as possible. They absolutely loved it.

Then we opened the beer bottles, and they were a hit! Everyone loved it. I had nothing but compliments all night. I also had homemade pizzas coming out of the oven all night, so it was just a perfect night of homemade things.

Thanks all for your help! I honestly couldn't have done it without you. I love the new hobby :)
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Yum, beer and pizza is a great combination. Congrats on the success. :mug:
 
Thanks all! Yes I do, I brewed a grapefruit Belgian Wheat with my girlfriend last week, so it's fermenting as we speak! I decided to try my hand at a one gallon batch for this one, but I have my eyes set on a 5 gallon batch of "Zombie Dust" I believe it's called... it sounds really good.

Here is a photo of the bottles I put together for the party last night. View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1485644767.582616.jpg
 
BrettCo124 said:
Thanks all! Yes I do, I brewed a grapefruit Belgian Wheat with my girlfriend last week, so it's fermenting as we speak! I decided to try my hand at a one gallon batch for this one, but I have my eyes set on a 5 gallon batch of "Zombie Dust" I believe it's called... it sounds really good.
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That is my next brew too. Will be second time brewing.
 
BrettCo124 said:
I have my eyes set on a 5 gallon batch of "Zombie Dust" I believe it's called... it sounds really good.
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Ooh you will NOT regret it! The original is brewed by 3 Floyds, which is local to me, and we get it fresh in bottles and on tap around here, and it's just fantastic. 100% Citra hops, hopped like an IPA (even though it's called a pale ale), just a really bright and beautiful beer.
 
Congrats, Brett.

Let me offer a bit of caution: keep thinking where you want to be in 3 months. You've brewed one successful batch, have another (1-gallon) fermenting.

Keep working on the process, each time try to do something better. I'd also suggest you stay with one type of volume, either 5-gallon or 1-gallon. Hard to dial in the process when you keep changing the process.

And as you're still early in the process, simpler brews are more likely to result in satisfactory results than complicated ones.

Yesterday, for the first time, I (we) did a double brew day, two batches. A friend of mine is getting started in brewing, we first did a recipe for me, then one for him, and he took the fermenter w/ his brew home to, well, monitor it.

That was my 25th and 26th batches and still there were a couple goofs--forgot to include a water addition (added it late, it was fine), and didn't get one yeast reconstitution going as soon as I should have. Wasn't a problem, just extended the time a bit. Part of that was having a friend there (better than the last time though, that's for sure), and part trying to coordinate two batches, both of which were all-grain.

I don't know the point at which I become an "experienced" homebrewer, but I sense I'm not quite there yet. I'm still learning things (I suspect that never ends), still finding ways to improve.

So, as you move forward, my suggestion is you do so at a brisk walking pace, and try to avoid the temptation to run at full speed.

*************

Part of yesterday was breaking in new brewing equipment. A beautiful new 10-gallon Spike Brewing kettle, a new Blichmann Hellfire burner, a Jaded Brewing Hydra immersion chiller, a new Thermoworks Mk IV thermometer.

For the most part, outstanding equipment. The in- and -out connections on the Hydra are reversed from what I've had, and I needed to adjust to that. Need a new hose for the out side, my old one is only 10' long. I had that secured in the sink (I thought :) ) and it flopped out when the water was turned on, a little exciting for a minute or two.

BTW, that chiller is freaking fast. So is the burner, and the kettle is great.
 
Looking forward to the zombie beer! And thanks for the additional tips!

Glad you like the burner, because my next purchase will most likely be the hellfire burner. It seems to be priced nicely and its the best buy when it comes to burners. There was just too much condensation when I did it indoors, and I did mine on a glass top electric stove. It worked well, just too much condensation and I don't want to do that again. The burner should solve my problems. Plus, it sounds more fun to do outside.
 

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