Invitation to Durham Region Homebrewers

[thekulman]

Hi all;

I'm thinking of inviting homebrewers from Durham Region (Pickering, Ajax, Whitby, Oshawa etc...) over to sort of start a "club" - no membership of course.
I just thought we could sample each-others current beers, talk about equipment and methods, share stories and experience.

I've got a Rickard's red clone - that turned out too dark - more of a Newcastle Brown which was my 2nd All grain attempt to share. It's not Rickard's ... but it's good.

This isn't a "drunk" as I'm sure people will have to drive. I suggest that we bring one beer for every person (so if there are 4 of us we each bring 4 of our current beer).

I'm willing to host the first event and thought we could met ad hoc (once every month or 2 months) as we brew new batches.

It's also an opportunity for those with more experience to potentially help those with less ... if they want the help.

If you don't have it, I also have 3 episodes from a 1992 TVO series called Homebrew hosted by Charlie Papazian - I'm sure most of you have his book (which is the best I know of). It really got me into homebrewing and I still watch it for inspiration. I'd be willing to burn it to DVD for those you'd like it (keep in mind that it's on a 15 year old VHS tape though).

Let me know if you are interested - I'll suggest Sat July 22nd for our first meeting.

TheKulman

[shugalou]

Hey Kulman,

Count me in - I was thinking of contacting you as I'm planning on doing another batch in the near future (all grain). I've spent some time looking at the site you recommened and now I think I have a decent understanding of the all grain process, but a few tips could do me well.

Good idea to bring beer each for everyone to try - now I'm worried that mine stack up agains the competition :) I have about 12 left so I should be good. Although that date might not work out so well for me. I am starting vacation that weekend and will most likely be heading out that day. If I can't make the first meeting hopefully I can catch up with you at some point to pick up a few pointers before I do my AG brew.

Great idea about starting up a club! I'm totally interested in becoming more skilled in the brewing process

[shugalou]

Oh and I would be totally interested in getting a copy of that DVD. I've heard everybody refer to Charlie but I have never read his book. I'm reading "How to brew radical beers" and it's pretty good - but at times things are above me.

[thekulman]

Hi Shugalou;

Not to worry about your vacation. I think I'll have to re-schedule our first meeting until Sept. No one else has responded yet, which isn't a big deal, we can start out with 2, it will grow - but the summers are hard for everyone with vacation and cottaging etc...
I'm going to make my 3rd AG batch this weekend, so it will be ready for when I set the next meeting. The 2nd batch was so good, it's pretty much gone ...
If you do decide to do an AG batch before Sept, contact me, I'd be happy to drop by and offer any advice (if any) I could.

Kul

[shugalou]

Hey Kul,

Good to hear that it¡¦s gonna get rescheduled till Sept ¡V I don¡¦t want to miss it, and maybe if I¡¦m lucky I will have completed my first AG batch that will be fit for sampling. I think I have about 6 beers left from my previous batch, seems my brother in-law likes to forget to stop at the beer store before coming over ƒº

I¡¦m thinking of picking up the Turkey fryer kit at RCS so I can do it in the garage to avoid boilovers and maintain temps a little easier. The site you referred me to the guy uses one of these and they are only $60. Wondering what you use as your mash tun ¡V I¡¦m leaning towards buying a cooler and getting a plumbing drain to use as a filter. I have to stop by that store and Scarborough and see what they have as I¡¦ll be needing to pick up some more equipment to make the AG step ¡V looking forward to making the switch.

[thekulman]

I use a cooler to mash and currently 2 buckets to lauter (one with hundreds of holes in the bottom). But I'm hoping to make the "plumbing" for the cooler before the weekends brew so I don't have to transfer.
I cooled my last batch in the bathtub with water and 3 bags of ice, but I'm going to make a immersion chiller also.

RCS=Real Canadian Superstore? If they sell a turkey frying make sure the pot isn't aluminum, the one at Canadian tire is. They aren't good for beer. You need a stainless steel or enamelled (canning pot) of about 32 liters for an AG boil.

[shugalou]

Hey Kul,

Good points with the Turkey Fryer - I'll have to check that - yeah RCS is the Royal Canadian Superstore - it's withing walking distance to me.

What is the difference between Mash and Lauter? Is mash letting it sit on the grains and lauter is filtering it? Hmm so many things still to learn.

The store that you mentioned in scarborough - does it carry equipment such as grain mills and and immersion coolers? I'll probably be buying some equipment in the next month or so to do the AG brew.

Looking forward to getting into the AG process now

[thekulman]

The turkey fryer at Canadian Tire and Home Depot are Aluminum also.

The store in Scarborough would likely have grain mills, but not chillers - they are easy to make (I plan to make one this weekend). When you buy the copper tubing, it's already coiled in the box, a couple of bends for the water in and out, and clamp on a hose in and hose out (if you can find an old hose, just cut the section from that or you can also buy short hose sections meant for washing machines).

Yes, mashing is letting the grains soak in hot water after milling them. It converts the starches to soluable sugars. Lautering is the process of running water through the mash to seperate the sweet wort form the grains. It can be done in the same cooler as long as you've got pipes with holes drilled in them at the bottom.

[shugalou]

Hey Kul,

I'm back from vacation and getting ready to do another batch in the next couple of weeks - I'm hoping to get brewing by the end of August again.

While away on vacation my wife and I visited a small Library in Perth that was having a book sale and I found 2 books. 1st one was the Revised Joy of Homebrewing by Papazine and the 2nd was titled fearless homebrewing. For both of these books it only cost me 2 dollars! It was one of my highlights from my vacation.

With that money saved I'll be able to by some neat new gear, I'm gonna try and stop by that homebrew store in Scarb that you mentioned on my way home from work sometime this week, hoping to find a grain mill at a nice price.

How did you make out with your wort cooler? If you're interested I have copy of a Brew magazine that has directions for an elaborate cooler that doubles as a server...I believe.

[thekulman]

Doubles as a server ... that's funny! Although I have seen some elaborate ones though.

Went to Brampton last week and bought ingredients for a weekend brew. Didn't happen. The 10 gal. enamelled pot I was planning to use on my propane burner had rust inside it when I got it from my parents place. Heading to Bass Pro Shop tomorrow, they have a 32 quart SS pot on their website, hope they carry it in Canada.

Built a wort chiller on Saturday, I used hose clamps on an old garden hose to hold it to the 3/8 copper. It leaked a bit when I tested it so I've bought compression fittings (3/8" to 3/4" threaded, so it will attached directly to the hose, should work fine now).
Also tried to build a new "manifold" for the botton of the mash cooler out of racking tubing drilled with dozens of holes. Tested that out, didn't work, I think it would crush under the weight of the grains any way (it was a $5 experiment - I have a back up "Zapap" lauter tun, from C Papazians book).
Lastly, I must have thrown out my 2nd air lock, and my good one is in a carboyd of wine, went to the wine and pop place on Burns only to find it closed with reduced summer hours.
All in all, a bad brewing weekend. I'll make the beer next weekend now.

Hope to hold a meeting in Sept, when it's ready.

p.s. - I also tried the new Steelback beers. Both the Red and the Copperhead - very poor quality.

[shugalou]

Yeah I didn't quite get the concept of how it would work as a server myself and once I looked at the materials list it added up to well over $100 so I didn't read the how to.

Sounds like you had a frustrating weekend - That store also let me down when I went there straight after work to get some priming sugar for my last batch. I was suprised to see that they were closed but I was able to get the sugar at RCS.

So you make your own wine too? I do also, do you make it from a kit or fresh grapes - safe to assume kit due to the time of year. I started with a kit and last year I did the fresh grape. Around October if you go to the little Italy area you can buy the fresh grapes and they will press them for you on site - still learning but the fresh batch turned out a bit better than the kit. I'll probably do it again this year.

Yeah I tried a can of steelback and I won't be trying it again - with all that money spent on advertising you think that they would have a better product.

[shugalou]

What is this brew gonna be?

I'm still deciding what I want to brew - I may look into an octoberfest style of beer cause that's when it would be optimal. Then after that I was thinking of maybe a pumpkin beer since they'll be in season.

So many options

[thekulman]

I'm trying to perfect my Red Ale. Less roasted barley this time and some dextrine malt as well. Also, I'm cutting the hops down to only 1 oz of goldings at 30 mins. So, I'm trying for a sweet red ale (a.k.a. Richard's Red).

You should make the Octoberfest beer. A Marzen is the traditional Octoberfest beer, named after the month it's made (Marzen = March in German) and drank at Octoberfest (which is when then brew the Bock beer for spring).

Marzen is also a red beer, but a lager. Gorden Beisch (before it closed) used to make a good one.

I'm making wine from kits from Wine Kitz. They are $75 a kit, but Costco has packages of 2 kits for $69! Less than half the cost, and they include corks, labels and shrinks. There is also a place up by my work on Midland that sells wine juice the Italian way (fresh juice) I may try that.

[shugalou]

Wow 69 bucks is a steal I may have to check that out. If each kit brews apx 28-30 bottles than that's almost $1 per bottle. I should get on that and make it for Christmas time.

Yeah I remember tasting the Marzen at GB but I couldn't remember how it tasted - I want to say that it had a bannana taste but I can't remeber if it was the Marzen - I tried the sampler that came with 5 of their beers.

The fact that it's red is a bonus as lately I'm liking the amber and red beers. I think I might give it a go - I'll just try and find a decent recipe on this site or the brew site.

Good luck on the Red Ale - sounds like you're getting close!

[thekulman]

Yes, the kits at Cosco make 30 bottles. There is a little less syrup in those kits as compared to the Wine Kitz kits. Costco kits have 7l of syrup at compared to the 8.5l if I remember correctly in the Wine Kitz kits.
Just got back from Bass Pro Shop. The largest SS pots they have are 24 quarts. The 36 q model on their website isn't available at that store, although they do have a 32 q pot as part of a burner and pot set for $149 - but I've already got my burner. Going to try the Oshawa N. Home Hardware tonight and just buy an enamalled canning pot of 32 q.

The Complete Joy or Home Brewing book you just bought has a good Marzen (Winky Dink Marzen I believe) recipe. Also, search this site. I posted one called Garfield Marzen a while ago. But they are lagers so once you pitch the yeast and it starts working, you should put it in a fridge at about 12 C/ 55 F for 3 weeks. That's too warm for milk and lunchmeat, so it has to be a dedicated fridge.

I say to let the fermentation start before you cool it to lagering temps because I didn't do that once. Put it in the fridge as soon as I pitched the yeast - very slow activity until I took it out for a day and the fermentation started in earnest ... or you could just do it at basement temps and just lager as many bottles once it's bottled.

Kul

[shugalou]

Hey Kul,

Good to know about the Kits at Costco, at that price I’ll probably still give it a shot even though there is a little less juice. The last batch of wine I made I bought oak sticks to put into the wine to oak it after it had fermented, then I chopped those sticks up and placed them inside the bottle and corked them so they could continue to get oaked – turned out pretty good.

I’ll have to check out bass pro and look into that burner pot combo. As I’m in need of a complete set-up still. Funny how much money some of this equipment is, 150 for a nice burner and pot combo and a nice grain mill is about the same!

Glad to hear that my new book has a good marzen recipe in it! I’ll have to look for it now.

Wow a 3 week fermentation – that’s crazy, guess those low temps will make it taste good with very few esters – I always tend to get those. Instead of a fridge I would probably sit the fermenter in a cooler with some towels and cold water – although more difficult I don’t have access to a second fridge and the cold cellar wont be cold enough yet. Good to know to let it get started first before throwing it into the cooler temps.