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Topic: Open offer for the next tournament  (Read 4509 times)

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MolBasser

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Hey,

I am on the verge of completing my home kegging system, and I have got several very tasty all grain beer recipes figured out.

I will be able to provide keg homebrew at NCKA tourneys next year if you folks like.

MolBasser
2006 Kayak Connection Father's Day Champion
"The Science of Fishing"
Relax, Don't Worry, Have a Homebrew!
  :happy10:


Kokayak

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Mol,
What do you use for a Mash/Lauter Tun? My brother and I have tried several times with the cooler method and cut copper pipe, the spinning drip hose in a modified Keg. He's looking at getting a stainless steel conical fermenter. I just stick to partial mash recipes. Any picks of your setup? Home brew systems are like looking at custom choppers, even the funky rigged ones are cool.
And you could hear me screaming a mile away as I was headed out for the door....


MolBasser

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Here is my set up.

The rig:





The manifold in my mash tun:





The sparge sprinkler:





Pooky Pale Ale wort:




Boiling the wort while sterilizing the imersion cooler:





Starter of yeast:





Aeration set up:




MolBasser
2006 Kayak Connection Father's Day Champion
"The Science of Fishing"
Relax, Don't Worry, Have a Homebrew!
  :happy10:


*<><Aliens

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Hi there Molbasser,

You got Quite the set-up for making home brew! I would try some of that when you make it available. Do you regulate the alcohol by Vol. or is it different each time :smt033 I take it , its more potent then your average brew!


Kokayak

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Aliens,
The alcohol level of a beer is controlled by the amount of sugar you get out of the malted grains. The wort you see pouring into the bucket in Mol's pics is basically a sugary tea made from malted grain. Different strains of yeast have different alcohol tolerances. They basically die off at a certain level of alcohol. I've heard of people adding champagne yeast which can live at a very high alcohol level. I think if you were to make a barley wine like Sierra Nevada Bigfoot you might add champagne yeast. Also if you don't top off your final volume when you bottle your beer it might have a higher alcohol level. Most of the beers my brother and I have ever made are similar to any microbrew beer. They definitely have more alcohol than coors or butt-wiper. I've also heard of people freeze distilling. Apparently if you freeze alcohol some small portion of water with freeze while the alcohol won't. You can scoop out the ice crystals leaving concentrated beer. I don't know if it works or if it is considered distilling which I believe is illegal, I doubt you'd be able to remove enough water to come up with a high proof hard alcohol.
And you could hear me screaming a mile away as I was headed out for the door....


b3d

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mmmmmmm, Bigfoot is yummy stuff.  That is probably why I spent so many years living in Chico where it's brewed.

3Dog


Kokayak

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check out the set ups on these web pages. You can get pretty crazy with this stuff:

http://brewery.mvlan.net:8080/folder/011/Homebreweries Directory/

http://www.barleys.nl/index.htm?thuisbrouwerijen
And you could hear me screaming a mile away as I was headed out for the door....


Mr.Matt

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Just great!!!
ANother expensive hobby......

Looks like a serious undertaking. Thanks for those links.
Matt


MolBasser

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What davkrat said.

You can make beer any alcohol content that you want.  With homebrew, you control everything.

My beers (all ales at this point as I don't have the equipment to lager yet) average 5-8% ABV.

I have just recently graduated to all grain from extract brewing and I can confidently say the difference is amazing.  My first all grain brew was the best beer I have ever brewed and I still have A LOT to learn.

I'll bring some beer to the next event.

I need to get my CO2 set up, and hopefully Santa will help out.

MolBasser
2006 Kayak Connection Father's Day Champion
"The Science of Fishing"
Relax, Don't Worry, Have a Homebrew!
  :happy10:


MolBasser

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Quote from: Mr.Matt
Just great!!!
ANother expensive hobby......

Looks like a serious undertaking. Thanks for those links.


It really isn't that expensive to get started extract brewing.

You can get kits with all the stuff to do it minus bottles for like 75 bucks.

If you want I can post links, or you can just visit your local homebrew shop.

all grain is a tad more expensive, but managable.

My MLT cost a total of like 30 bucks to make....

It really isn't that bad.  Plus, for about 50-75 cents a beer you can make beer that is better than anything you can buy......plus you make it!

MolBasser
2006 Kayak Connection Father's Day Champion
"The Science of Fishing"
Relax, Don't Worry, Have a Homebrew!
  :happy10:


Kokayak

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Mol,
Were you doing partial mashes before. I usually use pale malt extract and then steep a few different Crystal Malts. The few times we have gone through the all-grain it seemed like a lot more work without that big of a difference. An all extract brew is definitely not worth the time when a partial mash gives you much more control and better results.
And you could hear me screaming a mile away as I was headed out for the door....


MolBasser

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I steeped grains, but never a true partial mash.

I disagree with your assesment that you get more control with partial mashes.

*edit* I misread your post.  Yes, when extract brewing you are foolish if you do not steep grains or do a partial mash, it is no extra effort and the flavor is infinately better *edit*

If you gonna mash at all, do the whole thing.  The degree of control that you have over the final product with all grain cannot be beat, and you are not depending on another person to make your wort (extract).

All grain is NOT that big a deal, at least to me.  With batch sparging it is even easier, although I fly sparge.

Yes, you need to pay better attention to your water quality and other such things, but brewing is a very forgiving art.  I don't do diddly to my water (yet) and my all grains have been successful (although my effeciency is still a little low, but I attribute that to not controlling the crush of the grain as I have the LHBS do it for me right now).

Personally, I find that AG brewing just takes more time, but isn't that much more complicated.  

MolBasser
2006 Kayak Connection Father's Day Champion
"The Science of Fishing"
Relax, Don't Worry, Have a Homebrew!
  :happy10:


Kokayak

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Maybe we didn't do it enough times. You hit the nail on the head TIME. It seemed like it took forever bringing it up to temperature and trying to maintain that temperature. We also kept clogging our lauter tun and it never seemed to filter too well. Our sparge was boring right through the grain bed. We never got it to evenly rain down. My brother bought a complete all grain set up with modified 15 gallon keg for pots. It all came from a guy in Santa Cruz that was fed up with the whole thing. Maybe there were some built in issues tat were problems for the previous owner as well. I go in and out of brewing from time to time. At one point my brother and I had over ten 5-gallon soda kegs lying around. I think we have gotten rid of a few of those. Maybe we'll dust off the kettles and try a few all-grain batches again. Even better maybe we'll do some comparisons between all-grain and partial mash recipes. Taste testers needed.  :smt002
And you could hear me screaming a mile away as I was headed out for the door....


*<><Aliens

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Thanx guys for all the info. It looks like you have to know what your doing to produce what your after. I think it's great that you guys could make your own brew :smt003 Cant wait to try some!

Let me know when you need a taster :smt016


MolBasser

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Davkrat,

That sounds a little frustrating.  My MLT works great, but yes all grain brewing takes time.

30 min to heat strike water
60-90 minutes mash time
60-90 minutes sparge time
30 min to heat wort to boil
60-90 min to boil wort.
30-60 min to chill wort and pitch.

But it is WORTH IT.  And, most of that time is relaxing do nothing but drink homebrew time.

Without seeing your mash tun, I couldn't help you, but it sounds like your manifold was not working well....

PM me and we can talk brewing.

EDIT * DUDE, if you have any of those kegs and want to get rid of them let me know!!!! **



MolBasser
2006 Kayak Connection Father's Day Champion
"The Science of Fishing"
Relax, Don't Worry, Have a Homebrew!
  :happy10: