chrisisasavage
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Homebrewing
OK, since my beer brewing has gone beyond coffee pots, I'm making a Homebrewing thread.
Last weekend I decided to jump head first into all-grain brewing. I was a little scared at first, but my hydrometer measurements are near what I expected, and the wort tastes good. I'll be bottling later this week. I put the crushed grain in my brew pot and gradually got up to 150 and did my best to hold it.
It was messy and hard work, so I'm going to bottle this, and a partial mash next time.
I have a cooler, and am going to try and rig up an all grain brewing system.
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chrisisasavage
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This is the kind of set up I want to make:
www.brewingtechniques.com
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chrisisasavage
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I've started working on a program to do all of my calculations. I made an excel spreadsheet already. I'll post the spreadsheet later, and the app when it's done.
I've been using this site, but the goes down a lot:
beercalculus.com
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Indy
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I think I am going to need a sample. You know.. for quality control purposes. :-) If I had the space I'd love to try this once. Beer and wine.
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chrisisasavage
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I want to get you a sample Indy, however, I'm still researching how. Plus I'm only now getting good beer going.
A friend gave me a 5 gallon glass carboy, and I just picked up a 6 gallon food grade bucket as a primary fermenter, and a siphon. I can now do proper 5-gallon home brews. I'm doing a "hard root beer" in it, maybe tomorrow.
It'll use:
Pale Malt Extract
Molasses
Maple Syrup
Crystal 40L Malt
Chocolate Malt
Flaked Barley
Maltodextrin
Dark Candy Sugar
Sarsaparilla
Vanilla Bean
Spruce Essence
Wintergreen Leaves
Licorice Root
Anise Pods
American Ale Yeast
It'll be kind of like a true root beer. A beer made with spices and root flavors. Should be interesting, an early American style beer.
I did a heather ale in one of my Mr. Beers today. No hops. Should be interesting. It's a scottish ale, so it'll need to ferment at 55-60 degrees (or so), so I'm experimenting with keeping my office at 60 degrees right now by opening and closing the window. It has Mugwort, Sweet Gale, and Heather. I'll post more on the recipe later.
I'm also planning on doing a brown ale soon.
I can do 9 gallons of beer now 
My mild ale is very interesting. It's self formulated (no recipe), but it is what it is, a thick, low alcohol (3.2% ABV, lower than Bud light), but also has some sweetness almost. Copper/Red color. Very nice. I like the style, it's not bitter at all. I want to do another mild soon. Never had beer so smooth. I like sweet ales though.
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chrisisasavage
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Anybody home?
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Indy
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I'm here sort of. No home brewing for me. But I do have enough alcohol in the apartment to have my own bar :-)
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chrisisasavage
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Cool, I checked in time to time and didn't see anyone. I've gotten pretty good at it. It's a lot of work, unless you just do extract based brewing.
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