Belegarth

debuenzo wrote:new guild: Zymurgists

tier 1: Novice
make a yeast fermented beverage that is drinkable

tier 2: Apprentice
consistently make yeast fermented beverages that are deemed "good" by a majority of guildmates

tier 3: Adept
consistently make yeast fermented beverages that are deemed "excellent" by a majority of guildmates

tier 4: Brewmeister
consistently make yeast fermented beverages that are deemed "excellent" by all guildmates

I'm all for running with this one. It is a solid idea which is sure to have some interest.

Anyone with experience interested in spearheading? Anyone with what it takes to be called a Brewmeister? Debuenzo? Bortas? One of the vikings who makes that excellent mead I've had the opportunity to sample?

sure, I'll 'lead' the group but will graciously accept help and input from all who are interested

i'm probably at a 2-3 tier realistically though (unless guildmates are being generous)

basically this guild and its actions would entail bringnig homebrew to events and finding guildmates to share with (and friends too, of course)
we could also talk about procedures, certain styles, etc on the boards (maybe use the cooking forum)
im all about helping new and old brewers alike become better at their craft

Don't forget the mead man...Bothvar is one of the best mead makers I know...that is some * tasty stuff!!

Bothvar needs to get on here.... I want some advice!

IMNSHO, I'm currently t2, with occasional brews yielding 'excellent'. I don't feel I have a broad enough understanding to spearhead, but certainly enough to participate.

-bort

You'll note B.A.M., that the requirements just say "fermented beverage" you could bring wine, beer, mead or cider (or something else that I'm not thinking of).

debuenzo, it doesn't seem to me that someone necessarily needs to be a brewmeister to lead a guild.

In order to get members from the outset, maybe just start everyone as an Apprentice if they've fermented a beverage and figure out who deserves to go up from there (Though I see two votes for Bothvar to be an advanced member).

I believe sake would technically qualify, as well.


I'm looking at getting into homebrewing in the next year or so. I'll be stalking this guilds' formation and any posts made on the topic until I get up and running, at least.

well im drinking a damn-good cherry porter (homebrew)
and thinking...we should put this into action
arrakis bring the sake, bothvar bring the mead, i'll bring the beer!

Lulz, I intend to start with melomel as soon as I get around to not dying of gradschool nonsense. Maybe when I finish my armor...

First, a melomel, then mead and ale, then porter and weizen, then sake and wine.

Arrggg.

But that porter sounds nommy. Anyone try Brewery Ommegang's Three Philosophers Belgian-style Quadruppel with Kreik (2%)? Fan-damn-tastic.

Yes!
My old roomate was English and always drank 12 oz bottles of those or he'd do this gin and crazy black-current juice *. Both are damnnnnnn tasty. As is Bortas' amazing brews!

Latest pick: Abita's Jockamo IPA

This beer is excellently hoppy...not too bitter, but a nice, firm citrus/ floral hop character that is balanced by a subtle malt sweetness. Delicious!

Nice. Lately, I've been enjoying Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stouts and, on New Years, a bottle of Dogfish Head's Fort ale (18%!) brewed with raspberries.

They're both CRAAAAZY.

For any interested members, a local brew shop is going out of business and all of the supplies are 30% off. I can bring materials to Geddon if anyone would like ingredients.

Feel free to PM me with a list or questions.

Barley

Arrakis wrote:... and, on New Years, a bottle of Dogfish Head's Fort ale (18%!) brewed with raspberries.

Even without the raspberries that sounds interesting. Where did you find that one?

Midtown Spirits in Nashville.

It was aaawwwwessommmmme.

Guess I've been away from this board longer than I realized. Brewers guild sound interesting.
Made up 5-1/2 gallons mead and had about 4 gallons left over porter for Equinox, then got the flu and couldn't go; they tell me it was good.
Been thinking of brewing up some saki, but afraid I'd die with 5 gallons of saki at hand.

Bothvar - You can bring out all of your tasty brews to Wintersnight!!!

As a self Appointed, Deligated, all powerful and Ultimate, "Judge"- I can say that both Seeker and Wik do a good job.

I will humble myself and offer my services for just a small price to continue in such capacity to sit as Grand Taster & Judge for taste and quality and may even give a good review. reviews will be based on actual judgement and cost.

Working on it brother!

Bring your homebrews to Okfest!
Come see Debuenzo in Black Company Camp!
We shall trade drink and be happy!

Sorry, unless the gods grant my lotto numbers to hit Octfest won't be in the cards this year.

I'm the guild master for our Brewing guild in my Amtgard park in Cedar Rapids Iowa..we have cultural competitions (arts and sciences) typically I win with the stuff I brew.

Beer and Meads are a good middle item to be brewing wines and the like fall in there as well.

The biggest thing is dont just pigeon hole yourself into only beer or only wines and meads..though there is a HUGE variety out there of those keep it going into other avenues.

I've been doing alot of Cordial work lately, its much easier to brew a cordial but it takes some talent getting the exact flavor your looking for to compliment the food you've made.

and at the risk of admitting to a crime, Moonshine isnt that hard to make and if your making a cordial but what it to knock some one on their * and the shine doesnt have a taste (akin to everclear) then shine is the best way to throw in a sucker punch if that was the intent of the brew.

-------------------

currently racking / fermenting

Honey / Oatmeal - Beer
Chocolate Liquer
Milk...yes Milk Liquor
Honey Liquor
and a non-alcoholic berry mead

well, it seems a few people know beer/ brewing

it looks like a "guild" might not fly, but let's start talking beers/ recipes/ etc....turn this thread into a beer forum of sorts

also, we can meet up and trade at events

I personally just brewed a xmas spice/ winter warmer beer. Cinnamon, Ginger, and Clove on a porterish base
about 7 abv

I'm looking to make a budmillercoors type thingy but use 1056 at a low temp.

I just started reading a **** ton about brewing after taking a break for about half a year. I'm about to make the switch from extract to all-grain brewing...Going in baby steps, though!

The batch I'm about to throw will also be the first time I've ever used a yeast starter. Should be exciting...

I just switched to AG. If you can swing it, do it. It's not really any harder than extract and it's way cheaper. $30 for an extract brew or $15 for an all grain? I know which one I pick. Equipment costs were minimal for me as well. I picked up a turkey fryer kit with a 30 qt aluminum pot - my stove can do full boils of 6.5-7 gallons, so I'm fine for 5 gallon batches for now. I took an old cooler I had and bought a hose braid, some brass nipples and a ball valve to make my mash/lauter tun. With the turkey fryer kit for the pot, my total investment was less than $80 to make the switch from extract. I do still need to pick up some kind of chiller though.

I just kegged an Irish Red and have a Pale Ale finishing up in the fermenter.

I'm thinking a blonde ale and a DFH 60 min IPA clone is on deck.

That's more or less the setup I use, but I have a CPVC manifold in my MLT. I also made my 50' copper wort chiller.
I recommend doing that.
Here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8EolKTDZUQ

Nish, make the switch! As Derian said, it's just as easy and WAY cheaper. If you have any Q's, just ask!

Also, kegging is the way to go.

Fly sparge with that, yes?

Batch sparging seems easier to begin with, just because it's less testing that you have to do, it seems like as long as the crush of your grain is good, your efficiency won't suffer too bad.

How do you adjust the flow of your sparge water with fly sparging? I've heard it's generally more efficient than batch sparging, so I'd like to use this method, but I'm not entirely sure how it all works. I intend to try both methods, but I definitely need to do more research before I make the switch. The batch I'm about to make is partial mash. I intend to sparge through a wire-mesh strainer, and I know my efficiency is going to hurt so much from this, but I've no other option at the time.

Yeah, the homebrew shop in town was selling a home-made wort chiller for $60. The design you linked seems much nicer though, and it'd be about the same price I think. I gotta get on making one though; I'm still chilling my wort in tubs of ice water.

Gah...so much **** I want to do, so little money! I wish balancing all of my hobbies wasn't so hard!

Nish, you would open or close your ball valve for the desired outflow

And derian,
I kinda do a batch/ fly hybrid sparge, where I pull off one gal wort, then add one gal 175F water, repeat....til pre-boil volumes.

You're right though, if you have a nice crush, your efficiency shouldn't suffer much...and besides, with efficiency, consistency is better than high yield (getting both is the trick)

debuenzo wrote:consistency is better than high yield (getting both is the trick)

True story.

Consistency and working out your process will make a much bigger difference in quality than switching from batch to fly sparge or vice versa. Too bad it's much easier (and more fun) to switch equipment or methods than to repeat over and over.

Yeah, the reason I've been so hesitant to make the jump in the past is because I still don't have my process down as it is. I mean, I know what I'm doing and I am confident in making extract beer, but I feel so disorganized and wasteful (mostly with sanitizer) every time I brew. I'm trying to do more planning for the next brew session.

dude, you can re-use StarSan as long as the pH is low. I make up 5 gals and use it for 5-6 batches...maybe more.

Yeah, it's something like 3.2. As long as the pH is there, you're golden.

I see. I had heard that it breaks down over time; I wasn't aware that it would stay good at a certain pH. I don't have any way to test the pH of my water right now though. I'll go find a cheap kit somewhere!

Also, how do you guys feel about using bleach as a cleanser? I just got my buckets back after lending them to a friend, and there are some wort stains that I'd like to get rid of. I'm guessing most people probably use PBW for this, but I'm flat **** broke ATM so bleach is going to have to do. I've used bleach at cleansing-strength solutions before but have never used PBW. If either of you have used both, how much easier would you say cleaning with PBW or Oxyclean is than bleach?

I haven't used PBW or Bleach (for brewing), but Oxiclean is pretty slick. It takes that stuff off right quick. It also makes short work of labels on bottles.

Neat. How long does it take to clean a batch of bottles? When I used bleach, I had to let them soak probably 24 hours before the labels would even come off, and even then certain brands took a lot of elbow grease to remove.

I'm not sure about minimum time, overnight works for me in most cases.

Just pitched some Wyeast 1056 into half a gallon of wort. Excited for brewday tomorrow.

Nish, how'd things go? I hope you have a happily bubbling airlock, yes?

Here's my recipe for the Black Company Beer I made. It's a robust porter, and it turned out great.

It's starting to die down right now. Started bubbling really heavy about 8-12 hours after pitching. It's stayed at 66-70 the entire time, which is awesome. I was worried it might end up getting a little hot.

I decided not to dry hop it though. I did dump in a **** ton of hops between 5min and flameout, so hopefully it has some good cascade aroma. Also, i've been reading that most brewers these days like to let their beer sit in the primary for like a week after fermentation stops. I think i'm gunna go ahead and do this and just not bother with racking to a secondary. Any of you got any input on that?

Also, that looks like a tasty beer! I don't know anything about northern brewer hops. what are they like?

should be fine to sit in the primary for up to a few weeks (i've even heard months) with no ill-effects

and the hops: http://www.brew365.com/hops_northern_brewer.php

I haven't put any of my recent brews in secondary. I've also heard that up to months is fine as long as you can keep light & oxygen out and your sanitation is under control.

Lots of people only use secondaries to dry hop or add fruit or oak chips or something.

Just found an old dirty-ass 48-quart cooler in my back yard. I guess the previous tenants left it here.

Gunna clean it up and start converting it within the next two weeks!

In the meantime, I'll probably bottle this batch 1 or 2 weeks from today, and hopefully I can get another extract or partial mash batch fermenting by then as well. I'm really anxious to brew more beer so I'm thinking I may just use my 5-gallon secondary with a good blowoff rig.

Also, either of you know of any good deals on a 30-40quart stockpot? Mine comes in at 22quarts, which I think is just shy of what I need to do full boils.

I grabbed a turkey fryer kit from Home Depot for ~$70. It included a propane burner and a 30qt aluminum pot plus a thermometer. As long as I'm careful, I can do full boils on my stove with it.

If you go with aluminum, you need to be sure to build up an oxide layer to prevent off flavors. Boiling water in the pot for 30 minutes or so does it, but you have to be careful because it will come off with scrubbing. Luckily it's easy to fix.

yea...turkey fryer set-up works well

you could probably get a cheap one now

Sniff...Im too young to benefit from this guild but ONE DAY!!! I shall be one of your biggest fans!

Just took a gravity reading on this batch of beer. Finished up at about 1.009

It's got a great cascade aroma and flavor without a whole lot of bitterness. I'm actually really impressed, as this tastes amazing. I'm glad I've been so patient; I wanted to put this in bottles two weeks ago. I bet it would have tasted way green if I had followed my previous fermenting schedule (1-2 weeks in primary, 1-2 weeks in bottles...)

Anyway, there were some beige crusty spots on the surface of the beer, but I'm going to assume they were just leftover bits of krausen since the beer smells and tastes wonderful. I intend to bottle this Thursday.

I'm thinking about making a batch of EdWort's Apfelwein. Have you guys heard of it? It's just 5 gallons of applejuice, 2 pounds of corn sugar, and montrachet yeast. Cheap and dirty. Actually, everyone at homebrewtalk.com raves about the stuff. They say it's dry, crisp, and smooth as all hell.

Apfelwein is **** delicious and it gets you to' up.

I've made two batches. I call it 'Turbo Wine'. It's seriously so easy to make I can't really justify not doing it. And a new kegerator makes it even easier to do.

I have a batch of EdWort's pale ale going into bottles very soon. I'm pretty excited for that, I'll let you know how it turns out.

Yeah, I've been describing it as TurboCider to all my friends, trying to get them excited for it. I actually just picked up the Montrachet yeast last night. I might swap out the corn sugar for brown sugar though, because I've got a good friend who's allergic to corn, and I'd like for him to be able to drink it.

heard of it, but never had any

derian, post pics of your kegerator, please.

also, i just brewed my 1st lager.

It's nothing spectacular yet, just a chest freezer with a Love controller wired up and sitting on the lid. Plans include painting + building a collar to house the Perlicks, but that won't happen until after I move to Texas in a couple weeks.

I'll post pics when it's worth it.