A good day in homebrewing

[fuji6100]

Today was a great homebrew day. My friend, who's only done about 4 batches of beer so far, came over to see how I brew. I also got to put my new conical fermenter to use (its maiden voyage.) I cooked up a nice nutty porter while we chatted and he sampled some of my last 3 batches of beer. After drinking and brewing we went over to his house.

Over there, we drank some more brew and he decided to whip up a batch. I'm not really sure what style he ended up with, but it will come out as a nice hoppy golden ale. I helped him with a few suggestions (making a yeast starter, aerating the wort before pitching, ect) on things he hadn't tried before. After we were done we sat around and drank some more beer.

Now I'm at home and the conical's airlock is bubbling happily away. Life couldn't be better!

[paul84043]

Woo Hoo!! another convert!!
Good Job!

I wish I had someone that I could brew with, my wife tolerates it because she likes the beer and the smell, but she hates the mess and always seems to want to make dinner right in the middle of my mess making process...

I have three kits waiting for me now, and three batches doing their thing in the basement. I picked up the Arrogant 020202 Vertical epic ale from Austin Homebrew, that's next, probably tonight. The Arrogant Ale clone from them is really good....the epic is going into a carboy due to its strength, then there's a B&T from my HB shop, it's a house favorite, this will be our 4th batch, and I got an IPA from them as well, plus some Challenger hops to dry hop it....I can smell it already!!! They are both going into conicals, but I'll probably end up transferring the IPA into a 5 gallon carboy just for giggles and to dry hop it.

I made a Stout several months ago (actually several of them), it has finally aged to perfection! My wife even likes it, it's some good stuff!!

Keep it up fuji!!! Us missionaries have to continue to spread the word despite adversity, and other stuff like work....
:D

[Fast_Eddy]

Originally posted by paul84043
I wish I had someone that I could brew with, my wife tolerates it because she likes the beer and the smell, but she hates the mess and always seems to want to make dinner right in the middle of my mess making process...



At least she makes dinner ;)

My wifes idea of making dinner usually involves heavy amounts of microwave usage.

[fuji6100]

then there's a B&T from my HB shop, it's a house favorite

Where do you order your supplies from? B&T is one of my favorites, and right now I'm working on a rather complicated recipie (it calls for making a lager and letting it ferment for 2 weeks, then starting a porter... when they are both done with primary fermentation, you rack them BOTH into one secondary and let them ferment together for another 2 weeks.)

is there an ingrediant list to that kit?

Having another brewer over while cooking up a batch was really fun. Plus, it helped having a second set of eyes on the brew kettle watching for the boilover while I was doing other things ~_^

[paul84043]

My homebrew shop is the beer nut, www.beernut.com
The black and tan is a very simple recipe, it's not a true B&T, but a darker beer with an easy drinkability. I have converted several yellow fizzites with the B&T.
I think it's only 1/2 pound of roasted barley, 6 pounds (or whatever flips your lid) of amber malt extract, california ale yeast, (I use White labs). Saaz hops to taste.
So far no two batches have tasted the same, but it's always good.

I would like to try a real B&T, I have a Porter that I made a while back that is just overpowering, I wonder if I were to mix it, if it would mellow it out? What types of lighter beers are usually found in B&T's?

[fuji6100]

Hmmm, well the B&T I'm trying to reproduce goes a little outside fo the main stream. Instead of a light ale or lager mixed with a stout, it is a lager mixed with a porter. Not a huge difference but I'm sure the B&T purists would pull their hair out.

I think as long as you use a light bodied ale or lager that isn't too heavily hopped (the stout or porter should provide the bitterness, both from the hops and the darker malts) you will be fine.

This whole "mixing in the secondary" idea is a recipie out of a book I bought "North American Clonebrews" A pretty good guide to a lot of the big names in crafted beer in the US, Canada, and Mexico.