My apologies to Denny for using his name, but in the past year he’s always been really helpful when I’ve posted a problem or question. After one year of starting this obsession I still have more questions than answers, but I would like to share a couple things I’ve learned in the past year for the people who got that starter kit for Christmas and feel overwhelmed. Chime in people we’re all in this together.
1, Time is a beers friend: My first batch an American Amber went from a flat bottle of swill to a very drinkable beer in a week. ( I still remember the clerk at NB who I forced to try it say “It’s not terrible” , dang I was proud.
2, Kegging is great, but you’ll always want to have some bottles: Right after I gave away four cases of cleaned bottles I was scrambling to find more for my Holiday beers.
3, Everyones tastes are different not wrong: People can be critical, which really stinks when you spend alot of effort and passion on something you care about. If you don’t like a beer with aroma, flavor, and depth it just leaves more for me.
4, You’ll be the only person sober on the micro brew tour: You will also become the target of the tour guide when you ask “Don’t you add hops somewhere in the process” She forgot. I also got goose bumps when I saw the copper brew kettle.
Please have some fun with this in the spirit it’s intended.
Good post. Everybody on this forum has been helpful at some point. Beer rules.
When in doubt…add more hops.
I started a similar thread a while ago. It’s funny to see the same questions pop up after each holiday season. Here’s a link:
Tips & Tricks
http://forum.northernbrewer.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=69253&hilit=newbies
Should I post tips here?
The community (denny included) have made my life better.
Good tip: cool your bottles when bottling them.
We need some T-shirts that say “WWDD”
Big hop flavor… dry hop, dry hop and dry hop some more. No such thing as too much dry hopping if you ask me! 1 year into brewing and I’ve finally realized I don’t necessarily like big bitter IPA’s like I thought I did. I actually love APA’s with big hop flavor.
He would have a beer, then a nap…
A little Brettanomyces never hurt anyone
He would have a beer, then a nap…[/quote]
perfect!
He would have a beer, then a nap…[/quote]
perfect![/quote]
Guess we have a front and a back for the T-shirt! I’m in, loves it!
I’m a big fan of using a non-contact laser guided temp gun. I use it all the time for brewing and otherwise. I don’t know why more folks don’t rave about it. ?
:cheers:
Ignore your wife’s comments like “are you brewing AGAIN?” She’ll come around one of these days.
You will never believe you have enough gadgets, even after you run out of space to store them.
If you brew outside at least one of your neighbors will believe you are making crack. Do what I do, black out all but 4 of teeth, smile at them and wave when they go by.
And the one that I always forget. Make sure you have an answer for why you need 14 kegs when the next shipment arrives.
:lol:
Paul
I’m also in on the t-shirt - I’m going to my local t-shirt joint and have one made up ASAP!
[quote=“Chester3”]
I’m a big fan of using a non-contact laser guided temp gun. I use it all the time for brewing and otherwise. I don’t know why more folks don’t rave about it. ?[/quote]
I used one of these a few brews back, but it seemed a little inconsistent. It read 140° in my MLT when my probe read 155°. It also read 200° in my BK at full boil. I assumed the laser was too focused and was reading cooler areas of the MLT and BK, but maybe I just needed to calibrate it? If you’re having good results with it maybe I’ll revisit this on my next brew day.
I have two other thermometers and it matches those pretty close, the few times I checked. For in the mash tun I have to be stirring it and scooping up from the bottom and point the laser where the grains come up to get a proper reading. If you used this same method for boiling water I think you’d get a higher reading. A few degrees off could be your altitude, but wouldn’t think as much as 10.
I also use it to shoot the side of my primaries, basement floor, celler beer, beer in glass (I love taking the flavor temp ride!, some beers are like 2), kegs, dogs. Everyone that comes over just love playing with the thing. My dogs used to chase the red dot, but they soon got wise. My brother’s 4 year old just keeps chasing. Good stuff.
Good for finding cold spots in the house too. This past summer I used it to find out which cylinder was missing on my 4 cyl motocycle. As you can tell, I love mine.
[quote=“SlowBrew”]Ignore your wife’s comments like “are you brewing AGAIN?” She’ll come around one of these days.
You will never believe you have enough gadgets, even after you run out of space to store them.
If you brew outside at least one of your neighbors will believe you are making crack. Do what I do, black out all but 4 of teeth, smile at them and wave when they go by.
And the one that I always forget. Make sure you have an answer for why you need 14 kegs when the next shipment arrives.
:lol:
Paul[/quote]
I have had both good and bad experiences brewing outside when the neighbors get involved. At our last house when we were still renters I had a neighbor come over and question what I was doing. He thought I was having a crawfish boil. I told him I was making beer and he asked if it was any good and if I had any to try. I busted out the keg of my house standard ESB that I pretty much have on tap at all times. He proceeded to hang out in my garage the rest of the day while I was brewing and damn near killed a half a keg. From then on anytime I had the garage open he was there with beer mug in hand.
The flipside is what happened a few weeks ago. I decided to split my brew up to help work around our crazy schedule with 2 very active boys under the age of 3 in the house and do my mash on a Friday night and then get up very early in the morning to boil. I had a lot of cars driving by very slowly checking out what was going on. Most of my neighbors in this new neighborhood (we have been here 6 yrs now) know about my brewing but I guess there were some people driving thru that thought I was up to no good as evidenced by the Harris County Sheriff Deputy showing up about halfway thru my mash. He checked things out and I explained stuff to him and he was very interested in my final product. He turned down my offer of taking a few samples out of the fridge since he was on duty but I told him to drop by some weekend when I was brewing and he was off duty and I would more than happy to share. 
mtodd,
thats a good story. I enjopyed it.
And the immersion chiller looks like a still.
