Home Brewers

#152
#152
No brewday today. Pulled out the smack pack yeast pouch from the fridge, the nutrient pack must have busted during shipment. I got no activity with the yeast.

Spoke with a northern brewer rep, they are mailing me a new pack. Very happy with customer service.
 
#153
#153
Bottled pumpkin ale tonight. It was a group effort with all the neighborhood guys. Most had never done it before. Below is tasting the last portion that could not be bottled.

Tastes exactly like we hoped, subtle pumpkin. All indications are this will be a goodun! Thanks for the suggestions DarthVaul!
 

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#154
#154
Awesome Steve. How long did it ferment? Where did you get the kit?

I will brew one this October for sure.
 
#155
#155
This one fermented about 1.5 weeks, then in a carboy for 2 weeks. This is our first pumpkin ale. Got some frozen pumpkin that had been home grown this fall from my dad's helpers. This guy did the same one in the Fall and it was AWESOME!

Decided not to use pumpkin spice or pie filler, 100% natural home grown pumpkin and then some vanilla, brown sugar, etc that DarthVaul recommended from his recipe (scroll back a few pages for his recipe).

At first we bought from our local brewery Thomas Creek (they make some good beer btw). Their kits have syrup for the malt. More recently I usually go to Alternative Beverages in Charlotte when I visit my dad. They have an AWESOME set up and warehouse. They use grains for their malt. Picking up an Alt Beer kit today (if the old man feels well enough).

Know you and Count like the really dark and heavy stuff. Alt beers are very specific to the Dusseldorf Metropolitan area. It is a German style Ale using the German Purity brewing laws. Color is dark but it is not heavy. ABV is low (4% range). But it's intention is to be a light very drinkable beer. As they say, you can watch sports for hours and be OK instead of passing out after 3-4 hours with the heavy strong stuff.

Might be worth a try.
 
#156
#156
Interesting. I wish we had a local shop here where I live. Atlanta should have something, will have to make a trip next time I am there.
 
#157
#157
Good grief, AC drain pan and pipes were clogged. Spent about 3 hours repairing that mess. Blistering temps in the attic. Nice cold homebrew. Can't believe I just started doing this. Nothing beats the taste of my own brewed beer.

Cheers guys, time to finish this nascar race. Go Bobby Labonte! Having a great run.
 
#158
#158
USAF_Vol said:
I am going to get one of the pick fruit wheats from northern closer to summer. Maybe do a cherry or raspberry.

Will do the american wheat too, want just a wheat with no fruit.

Of course going to try a pumpkin kit come october.

You look into lagering? I am keeping an eye out for a cheap mini fridge to use as a fermentation chamber.
Click to expand...

I don't have a good setup for lagers so I mostly do ales. I try to keep lagers as cool as possible but haven't put them in a fridge. I am going to take the shelves out of one side of my beer fridge this year when I do my Oktoberfest and put my carboy in there to get the secondary at around 40 degrees. I like to keep my beer fridge stocked and I hate losing that much shelf space but we must make sacrifices I guess. :)
 
#159
#159
SmokeySteve said:
Bottled pumpkin ale tonight. It was a group effort with all the neighborhood guys. Most had never done it before. Below is tasting the last portion that could not be bottled.

Tastes exactly like we hoped, subtle pumpkin. All indications are this will be a goodun! Thanks for the suggestions DarthVaul!
Click to expand...

That's great, glad it turned out well. :toast:
 
#160
#160
USAF_Vol said:
No brewday today. Pulled out the smack pack yeast pouch from the fridge, the nutrient pack must have busted during shipment. I got no activity with the yeast.

Spoke with a northern brewer rep, they are mailing me a new pack. Very happy with customer service.
Click to expand...

Glad to see they are making it right. My next kit's will likely be from Northern. They seem to have better yeast pairings.
 
#161
#161
Got my replacement yeast today. I think the other yeast pack is still good but dunno. Wonder if I can add it to the fermenter too. Wouldnt hurt I guess.
 
#165
#165
Bottled my stout last night. Got 50 full bottles out of it. Pretty pleased with no loss.

Brewing a nut brown this evening, yeast sitting at room temp for now. Whats everypone doing today?
 
#166
#166
Where my home brewers at?

Brown ale in the fermenter. Already planning my next. What should I do? Want to do something lighter. Maybe a wheat.
 
#167
#167
USAF_Vol said:
Where my home brewers at?

Brown ale in the fermenter. Already planning my next. What should I do? Want to do something lighter. Maybe a wheat.
Click to expand...

Here

I opened one of my oatmeal. Its not quite ready, but its soooo smooth. No bitterness and pure awesome
 
#169
#169
USAF - my suggestion is an Alt. Picked up a packet today in Charlotte at Alternative Beverage. Dark beer but light and easy to drink. I find it kinda bridges the gap between casual and hard core beer drinkers. Nice middle road.

I'm at a loss about what to do on yeast. Liquid yeast always makes our batches have a strong yeasty taste. The dry packs actually do better. I thought it was because we were using too much for 5 gallons. Alternative Beverage has different liquid yeast which I think I will try next time. Seems to be far less quantty than what we bought from the local Thomas Creek Brewery.

Couldn't wait any longer on cracking open the Pumpkin Ale. It is AWESOME! Thanks again DarthVaul. My buddy and I, We love you man! :good!:
 
#170
#170
I have only used the wyeast liquid. Have not noticed any yeast flavors. But I did not pitch the second pack. Still in the fridge. At a loss at what I shoud do with it. Prolly just throw it out. Dont know if it is any good.
 
#171
#171
I'm going to pickup the midwest supplies lemon wheat next, anyone try it? Need a summer brew, will be ready for summer.
 
#172
#172
My stout did not turn out as well as expected. Not black either. A very dark brown but disappointed. Think I got the beer too hot, has some off flavors. Not undrinkable but noticable.

Bottled the brown ale I had, afraid it got too hot too with the temps lately.

Going to setup a swamp cooler my next batch. Anyone use one? Been looking for an old minifridge to setup a fermentation chamber later on as a more permanent solution.
 
#173
#173
Just finished a batch of Alt. Looks like this will be what we have available for football season. Curious to see how close it is to the real thing.

Still finishing off the last of the pumpkin ale. Really liked it but it was the most polarizing one we have done. Most did not like it. Generally hard core beer drinkers liked it but general beer drinkers did not.

Man, you never know who each batch will be received.
 
#174
#174
I am brewing a porter today. Was going to do it on the weekend but my yeast was slow and I was nervous about pitching it. It showed signs of life and I should be good.

This liquid yeast always has me on edge. But it has always worked. Thinking about going dry and doing starters from now on, what does everyone else use?
 
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