The Official Home Brew Thread

[Kettle]

Sorry I missed this. I don't seem to get notifications on this thread for some reason. I haven't brewed in about two months, but the last one I did was brew in a bag. It wasn't all that easy cuz of my equipment, but I've improved that for my next batch. I've made a zapap mash tun with some food grade buckets I got from work. Now I won't have to pull the grains out of the boil kettle like last time.

Doing all grain is supposed to be much cheaper than using extract, but I came out the same because I did a big brew that came out close to 8%. Regardless you're coming out cheaper than if you bought retail beers. I did a breakfast stout, and came out about $1.10 per bottle. Similar beers like the one by founders can run $4 a bottle or $10-12 a 4 pack. Same argument applies to the octoberfest I did before that one which came in at 7.5%.

[Rip Saw]

Id like to be able to do the all grain brews just wondering how much time they take compared to the malt extract brews - I cant see myself standing over a pot on the stove for a couple of hours.

[Kettle]

add an hour to an hour and a half to your brew time for all grain. that time is spent heating mash water, letting the mash sit(30-60 mins) and heating then using sparge water. The benefit of all grain is the cost in some eyes, but more than that you get more ability to alter your flavor profile by using a multitude of different grains rather than a bulk of extract.

[Rip Saw]

Thanks for the information!

[Kettle]

You're welcome

[Kettle]

Finally going full fledged all grain! Picked up a 10 gallon igloo cooler from home depot the other day, and its first run as my mash tun is gonna be awesome. Saturday I'll do a big chocolate stout that will come out about 8.5% ABV. Grain bill came out to 16.5 lbs. Can't wait!

[Guest Tom Cat]

16.5 pounds is a lot of grain - you must have a big brew pot.

[Kettle]

The 10 gallon cooler will hold all the grain during mashing. According to the can i mash it calculator I can do up to 25 lbs in it with 1.25 qt/lb. the brew pot will only get the wort drained from there. It is a 9 gallon pot though that I upgraded to cuz I was tired of worrying about boil overs. My final volume will be around 5 gallons.

[Kettle]

I broke my plastic spoon during the mash of my last brew so I made this to replace it.