Fellow INGO Homebrewers!

[chuckp]

I would be all for that. I actually just kegged a citra/simcoe IPA based loosely off of the mango IPA posted, but I tweaked it and converted it to all grain. It is pretty good, but there is a touch of oxygen exposure. Probably from switching carboys around, it went from my six gallon glass to a six gallon better bottle flushed with C02, then to a five gallon for dry hopping because I needed the six gallon. Oh well, I'm going to make it again and be a little more careful, because I can tell it would have been amazing had it not gotten exposed.

If you can, do not move it from the primary carboy until ready to keg. Secondary carboys are a waste of time and another place for contamination. There is no need for a secondary for what home brewers do. A carboy will not allow enough gravity pressure to do yeast any harm over the time it takes before the keg. I let beer sit for months in the carboy before kegging with no problem.


chuck

 

[JettaKnight]

If you can, do not move it from the primary carboy until ready to keg. Secondary carboys are a waste of time and another place for contamination. There is no need for a secondary for what home brewers do. A carboy will not allow enough gravity pressure to do yeast any harm over the time it takes before the keg. I let beer sit for months in the carboy before kegging with no problem.


chuck

FLAME WAR!!!!

I almost always do secondary fermentation. It removes the beer from the trub at the the bottom and gets it off the dead yeast. Secondary is not a waste of time and if you properly manager your sanitation practices, you won't have an issue.

 

[slowG]

If anyone needs a taste tester I'm free. Thanks

 

[jeeper038]

Drinking my homebrew version of it now.

Nice. Which hops did you use? There seems to be some debate whether or not they still use 100% citra.

 

[chuckp]

FLAME WAR!!!!

I almost always do secondary fermentation. It removes the beer from the trub at the the bottom and gets it off the dead yeast. Secondary is not a waste of time and if you properly manager your sanitation practices, you won't have an issue.

If sanitation is covered properly then the chance of further contamination is greatly reduced. I like to reduce my contamination chances after figuring out that secondary's have a negligible benefit if any. So what exactly is trub doing to the beer while in a primary fermented only beer in a carboy?

I can see the possiblity of a secondary needed with a commercial operation with a very tall fermenter. The force of the vertical fluid in those tall fermenters puts a tremendous amount of pressure on the trub that has settled at the bottom so that is why they remove the yeast or transfer the beer.

chuck

 

[JoshuaW]

If you can, do not move it from the primary carboy until ready to keg. Secondary carboys are a waste of time and another place for contamination. There is no need for a secondary for what home brewers do. A carboy will not allow enough gravity pressure to do yeast any harm over the time it takes before the keg. I let beer sit for months in the carboy before kegging with no problem.


chuck

Oh believe me, I know. I knew it at the time, but I thought "Hey, I will be careful, flush these with C02, nothing will happen". I had reason to move it, I needed the carboy it was in. Problem solved now, I have a couple more carboys (7 now?) and I am only using my glass one for wine that I need to use my vacuum pump on. If I ever move stuff around again, I would use sulfites as well.

By and large I just leave them in primary for a long time. I have a brown ale that has been sitting for several months. I will probably keg it this weekend.

 

[Sailor]

Nice. Which hops did you use? There seems to be some debate whether or not they still use 100% citra.

I use 100% Citra, but I am not sure I can find anymore now. Anyone grow hops? I would like to try especially the ones that are hard to find.

I have another bigger IPA that is still a little green in keg #2 now. Its a Centenial/Amarillo beer.

If my hop order comes tomorrow I may brew this weekend also.

 

[JettaKnight]

I use 100% Citra, but I am not sure I can find anymore now. Anyone grow hops? I would like to try especially the ones that are hard to find.

I have another bigger IPA that is still a little green in keg #2 now. Its a Centenial/Amarillo beer.

If my hop order comes tomorrow I may brew this weekend also.

I believe Citra is licensed, so you're unlikely to be able to buy rhizomes. In fact, most of the one are hard to find because of licensing or they just don't like our climate.

I've been growing hops for years and the only one I found to really thrive are Cascades. If you're looking for rhizomes, I can dig you up some big ones this spring. I have a lot of friends in MASH that grow different varieties, too.

 

[Sailor]

I believe Citra is licensed, so you're unlikely to be able to buy rhizomes. In fact, most of the one are hard to find because of licensing or they just don't like our climate.

I've been growing hops for years and the only one I found to really thrive are Cascades. If you're looking for rhizomes, I can dig you up some big ones this spring. I have a lot of friends in MASH that grow different varieties, too.

Well I guess I better plan my brewing year out better in the future and stock up with some pounds when I can. I will let you know on the rizomes, thanks!

 

[jetmechG550]

My brewing this year was totally ruined by being gone for work every other week from March until July when I had surgery for an injury I had in May. From may-sept I was either in a boot, on crutches, or in a walking cast and then work slammed again. Now that it is way too cold I am thinking of brewing a couple batches at work since I can do it entirely indoor and use the ice machine. Just trying to find a place where I can put a couple carboys and not have anyone mess with them....or wondering if I should drive home with them and then pitch the yeast?

 

[TTravis]

You guys obviously know what you are doing. I am thinking of brewing some hard cider this year to start off with something simple for a newbie. I just like the idea of brewing something at home. I remember when I was a kid, my grandfather always made concord grape wine.

 

[JoshuaW]

You guys obviously know what you are doing. I am thinking of brewing some hard cider this year to start off with something simple for a newbie. I just like the idea of brewing something at home. I remember when I was a kid, my grandfather always made concord grape wine.

Cider is EASY! I always have cider on tap. Buy some apple juice (I use the Sam's Club brand) and put it in a fermentation vessel of some sort that you can attach an airlock to. I like to add two compact cups of brown sugar for a 5.5 gallon batch. Then add some brewing yeast. Do not use bread yeast, it is two completely different things. I like a yeast called Nottingham for my cider, it is available at every home brew store and online. Let it ferment for about 10 days (or until gravity readings are consistent, usually takes about a week) then transfer to bottles. Caps and a capper are about $20, and you can reuse old flip top beer bottles or buy bottles at a home brew store. That will give you still cider. If you want sparkling cider, look online for a carbonation chart so you can get the right amount of priming sugar for your batch size and mix the sugar in before you bottle. Be sure to keep stuff very clean. A cleaner called Starsan is awesome and available at most home brew stores. Mix it to the right dilution in a Windex bottle and spray it on everything.

If you have questions, send me a message.

I use 100% Citra, but I am not sure I can find anymore now. Anyone grow hops? I would like to try especially the ones that are hard to find.

Can't grow any of the good ones like Simcoe, Citra, or Galaxy. I planted some Goldings this year. I planted five rhizomes, but only two made it through the drought. They got about 8 feet tall, so they should be plenty strong for this year.

As far as finding Citra, Quality Wine and Ale almost always has it. Their website is homebrewit.com.

Edit: Quality Wine and Ale is in Elkhart, but they are very realistic with their shipping prices, so much so that I occasionally have small orders shipped to my house in South Bend because it isnt worth my time/gas.

 

[debeerman]

i know that 4 Horseman Brewery in SB has a 10 acre hop field in MI what varieites they are growing I don't know but maybe Sam will sell some hops to you

 

[billyboyr6]

Ok, now my mouth is watering for some good beer at 8am. Lol. I have always wanted to try brewing my own beer. Would someone be kind enough to take me under the wing and help me get started?

I need to know what to buy to get set up for brewing. If it matters what kind of beer I like, I enjoy arrogant bastard ale quiet often, love me some double ipa's and barley wine's. stone brewing company is my favorite.

I guess I'm looking for a list of supply's to build a nice home brewery to make about 5 gal at a time. I'm guessing ill need a keg or two but that's as far as I go.

 

[REWSTER]

Ok, now my mouth is watering for some good beer at 8am. Lol. I have always wanted to try brewing my own beer. Would someone be kind enough to take me under the wing and help me get started?

I need to know what to buy to get set up for brewing. If it matters what kind of beer I like, I enjoy arrogant bastard ale quiet often, love me some double ipa's and barley wine's. stone brewing company is my favorite.

I guess I'm looking for a list of supply's to build a nice home brewery to make about 5 gal at a time. I'm guessing ill need a keg or two but that's as far as I go.

I use northern brewer for my online stuff, and beer "kits".

Beer Brewing Equipment Starter Kits : Northern Brewer

with the extract kits you can brew on your stove in about 3 gal's of water then mix in plan water to get up to 5 gal. or you can do a full boil on a turkey frier. if you can make ramin noodles you can make great beer from one of NB's kits. there are all kinds of how-to videos on their site, and the tab at the top that says "brewingtv" is a good watch when you have time to kill

This is how i roll..

 

[jetmechG550]

You guys obviously know what you are doing. I am thinking of brewing some hard cider this year to start off with something simple for a newbie. I just like the idea of brewing something at home. I remember when I was a kid, my grandfather always made concord grape wine.

I'm in Plainfield as well, if you ever need a hand with anything while brewing (or whatever) hit me up. I'm fairly new to home brewing and had plans to expand this year until I went and screwed up my foot and leg. Back to normal now

 

[JettaKnight]

Ok, now my mouth is watering for some good beer at 8am. Lol. I have always wanted to try brewing my own beer. Would someone be kind enough to take me under the wing and help me get started?

I need to know what to buy to get set up for brewing. If it matters what kind of beer I like, I enjoy arrogant bastard ale quiet often, love me some double ipa's and barley wine's. stone brewing company is my favorite.

I guess I'm looking for a list of supply's to build a nice home brewery to make about 5 gal at a time. I'm guessing ill need a keg or two but that's as far as I go.

Check out Great Fermentations in Indy. It's a pretty big store with a friendly staff and they do regular beginner sessions to guide you through the process.

 

[JettaKnight]

You guys obviously know what you are doing. I am thinking of brewing some hard cider this year to start off with something simple for a newbie. I just like the idea of brewing something at home. I remember when I was a kid, my grandfather always made concord grape wine.

Cider is indeed relatively easy to make and scale to whatever size you want. Although it's too late now, I recommend contacting a local cidermaker and getting some unpasteurized and untreated cider. This will allow some of the natural yeast to help with the fermentation and the chemicals added (sulfates) kill off the yeast and bacteria you want. Their are dedicated cider yeast, but Nottingham beer yeast is good too. It depends on high dry you want it to be.

You're local homebrew shop can help pick out yeast and any necessary equipment.

Start saving your beer bottles now!

 

[EvilKidsMeal]

Brewing again tomorrow. 5/6 for a small tasting party for my parents' friends.

So far I've done an Irish Red Ale, Sierra Madre Pale Ale, Dead Ringer Ipa, and American Wheat from Northern Brewer extract kits. Tomorrow I'm brewing a German Blonde extract kit.

I've also done a Chocolate Maple Porter all grain kit from Brooklyn Brewshop, and Next week I'll be doing a Bruxelles Blonde all grain.

I love the variety I get from 1 gallon batches. Half of all these batches are going for the tasting and the rest is for personal consumption. Will be nice to have 8 different beers to choose from for a while.

Only downside, is for some reason i lost some beer on my last 2 batches. The krausen was different than previous batches, it was alot lighter foam and not dense at all, like dish soap suds. I rig up blow off tubes to my batches and because of this different krausen a good amount of it just flowed right out. Probably lost a bottle or 2 from the batches. I don't know why it was different all of the sudden. Switching to a 2 gallon bucket for fermenting after I brew the rest of these party batches.

 

[Reno316]

Check out Great Fermentations in Indy. It's a pretty big store with a friendly staff and they do regular beginner sessions to guide you through the process.

Word. Was in there a week or so ago, and found the folks very helpful and friendly.

If you want to start small (1 gallon batch, or about a 12-pack and a bottle), I suggest a kit from Brooklyn Brew Shop: Brooklyn Brew Shop

(I don't have any financial interest in that link, but it is where I got my first home brew kit, a chocolate maple porter that I brewed the same day I proposed to my now-wife. I call it Proposal Porter, and it wasn't half bad.)

Also, search for some local home brew clubs in your area.

Last, if you want to drive to Muncie some weekend, let me know.