Monk wants to get you drunk: Homebrew beer exchange thread
 

I just brewed 5 gallons of Old Rasputin, and I'm willing to share.
Let's talk about what you're brewing, how you're brewing it, and what you want to exchange.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1424832769

My setup is pretty simple as you can see. I'll be aging this batch in a carboy for a few weeks before bottling.
I'll make a full tutorial on this recipe on the next batch.

Not that I am against this idea but isn't there a set of laws regulating the shipment of beer across state lines by unlicensed private individuals.

I know UPS will ship bottles of wine from vineyard and wine clubs. I have no clue on the legalities of shipping it from one guy to the next.

USPS doesnt allow it. Fedex/UPS have 'rules' about it.

Can't stop Online retailers :dunno: . Tightly pack it and send away! :bigtu:

Just call it more 'party supplies' with MLP stickers all over it :giggle:

Edit* I showed my buddy @ work the bucket you have there and he was like, :eek3: "Ask if he can send us 2 bottles.." :rofl:

Paging Mobius.

We both have kegerators. He has a few homebrew kegs hanging on his garage ceiling.

I admit that I did not even consider it, but it appears that Mike has it right. I envisioned this as more of an exchange for bragging rights/ recipe sampling rather than supply your frat party with kegs of homebrew.
If anyone wants to exchange "party supplies" with me, they will come in individually wrapped 22oz containers.

I really want to see someones keg brewing system. That is my next step.

Just picked up a 15gal keggle, plan to use it as a mash tun for the time being until it gets warm enough to brew outside. Then start brewing 10gal batches and splitting them in half for different fermentation.

This thread makes me want to homebrew. I'm way to busy with school at the moment.

I've been a beer lover since I turned 21, and the thought of one day actually producing good beer sounds amazing.

I tend to dump the majority of our homebrew. 5 gallons is a lot across 2 people, I get tired of it fast. Plus it's a pain in the ass to connect/disconnect/clean the picnic tap that I use. I bought a few 5gal kegs because cleaning/sanitiz/bottling 50 bottles was a pain.

So I tend to just buy beers instead.

I got most of my extended family into it so we have big brew parties a few times a year and competitions at holiday parties. It's fun.

I brew all grain 12 gallons at a shot, fill 2 5gallon soda kegs, the rest goes in bottles.
I want to scale it down to 5 gallons at a time though. i dont drink it all, and it gets annoying having my buddies stop over all the time to drink my beer.
I don't try to exactly replicate beers I've had. I'll find a beer I like and use different hops/ yeast and see what happens.
I'm also going to grow my own hops this year. I want to have it that my fresh hops will in time be the only hops I use.
I only use water from a near by spring.
I only use liquid yeast.

I'm at work so that's all I can type for now. Maybe later I'll post a pic of the setup.

I used to brew mead. Specifically, Barkshack Ginger mead. I sent several bottles through the US Mail to people around the country. 22 oz.

Last time I did it, I got a very official letter from the postmaster telling me to knock it off. Every bottle got to it's destination, but I never tried again.

Just bottled 3 gallons of "apple pie" mead. I imagine it's a hell of a lot easier bottling 750ml bottles of wine than it is bottling 12oz bottles of beer. 3 Gallons = 15 bottles, and our more normal 5 gallon brew = 25 bottles. I would say we have somewhere around 25 gallons of bottled mead in the basement now, aging and getting delicious. Blackberry was definitely the favorite so far - did 2 gallons when we first started and it went quick. Now we've got the berries for a 5 gallon batch, just gotta wait for the spring honey production to kick up.

I sent my brother a bottle of woodford reserve through the post office. "Anything liquid, perishable, fragile"?
Nope.
I never heard a thing. I don't think I'd do it on a regular basis though.

I've sent my friends in the sandbox special care packages to their APO's. Never an issue. :giggle:

I used to get those kinds of packages in the sandbox all the time. Usually, party supplies were stored inside Pringles cans in case the postmaster inspected the box.

The viking woman at my local brew supply store is a freaking wizard at recreating recipes. In the case of Old Rasputin, the brewery actually published the recipe online.
I try to replicate beers I really like, but I stick with the really expensive stuff to keep it cost effective.
A 5 gallon batch of Old Rasputin saves me around $200 over retail, and it keeps forever.

Old Rasputin is an imperial stout, no? I never brewed a stout.
I stick to IPA's and brown ales. If I brewed 5 gallons of stout, it would sit around for a while.

Yes, it is a Russian imperial stout. It won the gold at the Stockholm Beer & Whisky Festival. I'm an IPA drinker myself, but my rule is; when the weather gets colder the beer gets darker. Plus stouts are very easy to brew.
While mine is basically a direct copy, I somehow end up with an alcohol content around 12%.

How in the world did I miss this thread before now? :crx: I'm in for whatever. I just need to come up with something worth making.

I scaled my system up to do 10g batches and I made something like 40 gallons of all grain beer for my wedding. I agree with Tim, even 5g split between 2 people is A LOT of beer. I've got so much surplus equipment now its insane.

Make me a double IPA.

Surplus equipment you say? Have a spare CO2 tank or temperature controller sitting around?

Bout time you show up.

^This.

Wow, it appears I need friends that homebrew.

I love just about all beers except sours, or at least, that's what I think. I had one Duchesse De Bourgogne. Tasted like raspberry vinaigrette. Gross.

Over the summer I'll try to get some equipment so I can make something. Eventually, I would like to be part of this exchange. Don't worry, I'll make sure it's at least decent before I send it out :firedevil

Ok I am here.

First off, Ryan, fuck off! This is beer we are talking about. The holy ambrosia of the anointed chosen. When shipping via UPS, claim it as "books."

I have a 1/2 barrel system. I use converted kegs for my boil kettle, my mash tun, and my hot liquor (water) tank). All but one of these sort of fell into my possession and were converted. My system, in true caveman style, uses fire for heat - camp chef propane burners to be exact. I use the stainless steel baker's rack shelving available at the likes of Storables to hold my HLT and Mash tun up in the air. I don't apply direct heat to the mash tun, it's wrapped in a hot water heater blanket and has expandable foam on the bottom. I found a giant wok lid at a restaurant supply store for its lid.


The baker's rack setup is so that everything is gravity fed and I don't have to run wort through a pump. It's all high enough so I can drain into the boil kettle, and the boil kettle is still high enough to then drain into a 5/6 gallon carboy. I may move to a pumped-wort scenario in the interests of time savings.

Surprisingly, I find I haven't any good pictures of my setup in action. My fail. Apologies.

I have a relatively mediocre dunkelweisen to offer for exchange. It doesn't have as much head as it should (and, really, who among us does ???). I'm not sure why. I hit all my targets with regard to temp. Possibly to much crap entered the boil and screwed that part up. Maybe my failure to remember to add Irish Moss, the FLUX CAPACITOR of home brewing, is to blame.


Edit: in case it is not obvious, which it is to true brewers (probably NB owners all) I am an all grain brewer. Going back to DME is ... only for emergency purposes

What happens if you bottle the bear in plastic bottles instead of the glass ones? Only interested because it would probably be safer and easier to ship it in plastic bottles. Far less chance of the bottle breaking.

Plastic isn't good for long-term storage because it is porous, but it is fine in the short term. Some beer brew kits like the "Mr Beer" kit come with plastic bottles.
Plastic can also leech small amounts of chemicals that can alter the taste slightly (coke in plastic vs glass kind of thing).

Humm... what to make. I've had my eye on a great big porter for a while, but its not exactly winter out here anymore. ;)

Make something like this, and I will love you long-time.
https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1425487442

I went out for a 2 mile run real quick before I had to leave for work. Part of the reason was to check the spring where my beer water comes from to see how it's flowin. Flowin ain't the word. Looks like I might be brewing on Sunday. I wanted to do a crooked tree replica, but I gotta see what hop pellets and grain I have. Maybe I'll just fathom something wild up. I want to experiment early with small 5 gallon batches, then during the summer, I'll produce 10 gallon batches once I come up with something that I find suits mine and everybody else's liking.
Crap I think I have laying around to throw a batch together for this weekend is:
Maybe 20lbs rahr pale ale grain, chinook hop pellets (2oz maybe), centennial pellets (maybe 4oz) and I have no idea what else. I know I have no yeast, and I'd have to mill my grain as well, but the 1/2" drill I use on the mill just burned up the other day (typical garbage freight).
Stand by later in the week with setup/ ingredient updates.

These feels, I has them. The best water I've ever consumed in my life comes from here:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1426570879

That rock wall on the right with the moss on it has a spring that flows out of the limestone, separately from the waterfall. When the falls go dry in the summer, water continues to leak from the mountain year round. Unfortunately, that location is about an hours hike into the backcountry from highway 1 in Big Sur, and water weights about 8.3lbs/gal. Humping 66lbs of water through that country would probably kill me at this point, but I can still dream.

Something interesting that the brewers at Bells told me, is that their beers are unfiltered and still have live yeast so you can make a starter from one of their bottles.

After I typed that, I came across this from Bells.
"Stealing" Bells yeast

Also, I am bottling on Friday. Books will be sent in the mail shortly after.

I made a starter last year from the sediment that I took out of a firkin of raging bitch. It didn't turn out as expected, but using that sediment actually worked to ferment a tiny batch.

I love pirating yeast. Last year I helped one of the local yeast nerds out with a bottle of Westvleteren (blond IIRC) who then proceeded to isolate and plate it. The first time we tried it from a bottle of Westy 12 but most of the yeast were retarded from the alcohol exposure. The blonde worked WAY better.

I have a Belgian Triple in primary right now that I have high hopes for. Also some Berlinerweisse and a flemish red sour in the pantry along with with apple cider/wine that I simply call "Fermented Apple Beverage" or, in miata parlance, "FAB" for short. I'd be interested in making some trades.

add some vodka to it and call it FAB9

:party:

FTFY :hahano:

I can't imagine a Triple full of vodka, that's just, yikes.

Update: Bottle conditioning is taking longer than I expected, but the batch is finally becoming drinkable. I'll probably call it good in a week or so. Anyone want to trade?

I really, really wish I had something to trade right now. My lack of mobility has prevented me from brewing anything. Building a brewstructure is very high on my list of "things to do" as soon as I find a design I like that I can build on the cheap.

I will contribute to your convalescence.

Find something commercial from the west coast that you want to dip your toes in but can't get locally and we can setup a trade. :bigtu:

Ill trade you back those hidden surprises in my dolch pc :giggle:

5/3 is National Homebrewing Day. Who's participating this year?

I found some mead in my bar that I forgot was there. Depends on how good it is how soon I get back into brewing.

How does one participate? If it's by getting shit-faced on homebrew, I've already celebrated this year.

Sunday? That would be a great day to test out my crooked tree recipe.
We'll see...