I already have it set to record on my DVR. Beer, is there nothing it can’t do?

I’ve been a fan of Northern Brewer’s Brewing TV since episode 1. The two hosts possess a wealth of knowledge and present the hobby of brewing in a relaxed manner which I find much more appealing than the overly serious books I’ve read on the subject. Hope you enjoy their latest episode.

Ever since I got into home brewing, I’ve wanted a keggle. Sure, I could have purchased a 15 gallons stainless steel pot, but I just like the look of a re-purposed beer keg.

So pretty

My friend Richard sent me a link to a Craigslist ad that he just happened to stumble on one evening. We have both been checking every city within reasonable driving distance with no luck for month. All of a sudden he finds a link for six at one time right in town and we pounce. Now we are both the proud owner of 15 gallons keggles.

I wanted a perfect hole and attempted several jig designs for hold my angle grinder. Finally after several failed prototypes I just free handed it, using the guard of the grinder to butt up against the rim of the keg. Several, several passes later I finally made it through. I bit of sanding later and the edges were perfectly smooth to the touch.

Money is a bit tight right now, so I will have to defer the ball valve until later. I couldn’t be more pleased with it though. Wish I could have bought more.

It says something when the old pot can fit inside the new one

Last weekend was a good one. Two brew days back to back equals two days of mandatory beer drinking. My friend Richard brewed his Pumpkin pie in a bottle I described in a previous post and I brewed an Irish red ale. My wife really enjoys Killian’s so I thought I would brew towards her tastes and give her something similar but with a bit more kick to it.

I used a kit from Austin Homebrew Supply. I don’t have a local homebrew store and they are the closest I know of so I try to buy as local possible. The kit I purchased got very high reviews so I felt confident it would yield a superior brew. This is my fourth full batch and I’m beginning to get a workable routine down, so everything was easy since I had it all set up before hand. Preparation is key, after all.

Jeffery and Richard munching away. Peanut begging for scraps.

This was a very successful brew day since I had twice the number of friends that normally show up…TWO! Richard and Jefferey were kind enough to come and lend a hand and eat some pizza. I supplied a few homebrews while Richard brought over some leftovers from his previous brew day. The SN Torpedo clone I had done from another AHS kit was excellent and the hit of the party, but the Anchor Steam porter Richard brought was also quite tasty. I really like the bottles the porter came in, too. I like stubbies best for some reason.

I named the ale Dog Slobber because my brew dogs, Peanut and Lulu, kept licking the mash paddle and extract bucket throughout the boil, so there is a little actual dog slobber in the fermenter right now.

All in all it was good fun. Like usual a lot of waiting around with a flurry of activity at the end. By high noon the ale was bubbling away happily in the fermenting bucket. I’ll definitely do a sampling once they have been bottle for several weeks.

My new hop/grain strainer

Fall is upon us. Although in Northern Louisiana the temperatures are still hovering in the low 90′s. Brewing a winter beer in such stifling heat seemed out of place, but in keeping with the spirit of fall my friend Richard took an online pole for his next beer. The options were a beer with a hint of pumpkin or pumpkin pie in a bottle. Overwhelmingly pumpkin pie in a bottle was the winner.

Preheat oven to 350 and then add hops

I’ve been to several brew days at friends homes and this one by far had the biggest turn out. That may have something to do with Richard stating that no one could partake in the finished product unless they showed up to at least hang out during the brew. This brew was almost like baking, because the recipe called for 60 oz of pumpkin pie filling to be baked in the oven for 30 minutes in order to break down and caramelize the sugars.

The smells were more heavenly than usual. The mixture of grain and pumpkin made me positively salivate. I think I could have drank that brew before it ever even hit the fermentor. I could imagine drinking it piping hot on a cold Christmas morning.

Definitely one of my favorite brew days yet.

View the entire album here.

What a crazy party

Several years ago I expressed a passing interest to my wife about wanting to brew beer. I even picked a few books and thumbed through them, but I wasn’t certain where to begin so I never took it any further. My wife however, the good listener that she is, surprised me my next birthday with a Mr. Beer kit.

I ohhed and awwed, as was appropriate, read the instructions and promised I would definitely use it my next weekend off. I was very busy apparently, because my next weekend off wasn’t for another year and a half. I’m not sure what finally possessed me to pull the dusty box off my closet shelf and make my first 2.5 gallons of “beer”, but after that I was hooked.

Looking back I see the MRB instructions as laughable. According to the 20 page instruction book I could have drinkable beer in as little as 3 weeks. I now know I would barely have my beer in a bottle at 3 weeks, and probably wouldn’t think about drinking them for at least another 3.

I’m somewhat torn in whether or not I should give MRB credit for getting me started in my homebrewing hobby. The instructions are not good at all. I found the Home Brew Talk sticky about MRB just a day later and learned I had made some classic mistakes. I considered ordering another kit from the MRB website, but after some research decided to take the plunge and buy a 5 gallon batch starter kit from Midwest Supplies. Some of the kits form MRB can be as much as $40 and are only 2.5 gallons, where as a kit from Midwest Supplies is about the same price and will give you 5 gallons of beer.

I would have to say that if you have a friend who homebrews or live close to a local brew club then that would be a far better introduction to brewing than a MRB kit. Go to a few brew days, ask some questions and then take the plunge with a 5 gallon kit. Leave the MRB kit for the wannabe brewers.

There are many pieces of equipment that you will eventually collect over the course of your homebrewing addic…I mean hobby. A lot of which can be made for much cheaper than buying them retail. Homebrewing by its very nature attracts the DIYer. This has led to tons of creative projects that can take a few minutes to entire weekends to finish.

One piece of equipment that is very easy to make and can greatly improve the quality of your homebrew is a stir plate. Basically a stir plate will keep liquid yeast suspended and provide aeration to the growth medium which will give you maximum cell count before pitching.

If you were to purchase this equipment it could cost you as much as $100.  My version suit my purposes just fine and cost less than $12 to make.

I posted a detailed how-to on Instructables, probably my favorite how-to website beside Home Brew Talk. If you like my instructable, leave a comment. If you actually make one based on my instructable then I would love to see a picture of it.

Proost!

If you live anywhere near the North East Louisiana area, then you may be interested to hear about Shreveport’s upcoming 2nd Annual Brew. This coming October 16th from 4 to 7 there will be a beer tasting, followed by a Soul Asylum concert. Tickets are $50 online and you will receive a souvenir tasting glass for four-ounce pours of the featured beers, a ticket to the concert, free food samples from some of the finest restaurants in the area, answers to your beer questions, and live music during the tasting.

According to the website, there will be a whopping 115 different beers to sample. At 4 ounces per sample that could potentially be 38 full beers! It isn’t just commercial brewers who will be present. S.U.D.S. (Shreveport Urban Diastatic Spargers), Malt Munching Mash Monsters, and East Texas Homebrewers Guild will be giving samples of their best recipes.

I’ll definitely be there. Sounds like a great time, so come out and join the festivities. Drop a comment and maybe we can meet up and compare notes.

And now for something completely different!

Me and my brew dog Peanut. I think I have a Sierra Nevada Torpedo Extra IPA in my hand. Extremely good.

I think I’m going to open up a man candle store. I’m pretty sure my three most popular scents will be boiling wort, hops, and bacon. My most recent brew day was amazing and a delight to my olfactory senses. My friend Jean was kind enough to invite me to his home when he was brewing an all grain double batch of IPA he dubbed Soul Stripper IPA. This was his second batch of a Ska Modus Hoperandi clone which was amazing, but he tweaked this batch to be less bitter with more malt flavor. Less bitter with 69 IBUs…

I’ve only done a few mini mashes, so grain brewing is nothing new, but Jean goes all out. Every piece of equipment is homemade, and the brew is planned to the most minute of detail. I’ve never had a brew of his that wasn’t excellent so why mess with a good thing. The beer was excellent and good times were had by all.

Nice setup with a sweet jet burner

Pushing the limit of what this keggle can handle

Jean Gourd (John Gourd)

Makes me hoppy

Home made counter flow chiller

Jean is nice enough to provide recipes and simplified explanations of his brewing process on his website, so be sure to check it out here.

The standard “Hello world!” greeting seemed appropriate for once, so I decided to leave it be. My name is Trey Crowe and It’s Brew Day is my personal blog that will chronicle my new found hobby of home brewing. I fancy myself the DIYer and I love to share the wealth, so I will attempt to explain what I have learned and share projects in future posts.

Of all the hobbies I’ve had, for some reason home brewing has become my most obsessive. I enjoy beer of course, and brewing it is deceptively simple. I think that may be were the obsession comes to play. To make “beer” all you need are four simple ingredients: barley, water, hops, and yeast. Ipso facto, beer. But beyond those four ingredients are flavors and nuances I never dreamed possible in brewing. I personally could brew the same recipe over and over, tweaking the ingredients just so, before I became satisfied, and that is just one type of beer in the cornucopia of beer varieties I have yet to try. So join me in my journey for the perfect brew. Hopefully we will both learn a little, drink a lot, and become the best of friends.

Prost!