COVID-19 Impact on Homebrewing

I guess I panicked. Mostly because I did not know what I was going to do on the weekends with the potential lockdown/shelter in place. Bought a 55# sack of MO, a pound and a half of hops, some specialty grains, a few yeasts, etc. All at the LHBS. I have a Bitter in primary. Haven't brewed since 2017. It was really refreshing to grind, mash, sparge, boil, toss in some hops, cool, sanitize, and pitch. I must say....it felt good, Damn good.

 

Omega Yeast suspending production indefinitely. Not sure how widespread it’ll get but maybe start to think about reusing your yeast.

 

Bill, do you have a Wegmans near you?

This past weekend I tried to buy some distilled water at my local Walmart and it was out but I went to a nearby Wegmans and there was plenty of distilled water there. I will be using some distilled water in a couple of days to brew my annual Kolsch. I typically just use carbon filtered tap water (and lactic acid when brewing pale beers) but for brewing my Kolsch beers I use some distilled water to 'build up' my water (along with filtered tap water).

Cheers!

 

We sometimes play a bar game known as Armageddon Team, End of Days Team etc. Though now that we are in this situation it's a bit less funny. The point is to assemble a tribe of useful people. So you might be an English professor by day but you also have some primitive fishing skill, or know how to raise sheep and weave. That sort of thing. If your skill is some BS like "I'm a real good cook", yeah, no.

I could pretty much always get a space on a team because I just tell people "I know how to brew beer". People get that. Need firewood? 5 gallons of IPA. Socks? 4 pints.

It is fun to find out that your drinking acquaintance has some hidden skill. Of course the fact I brew is not exactly a secret because like most brewers I never shut up about it.
Cheers

 

Yeah, I was there earlier Jack.
Plenty of oysters, so got those. Go figure.

Some bottled water but limit of 2, and no distilled. Wegmans is communist this way I guess. I actually stopped by my local brewery friends but I don't think I have the grapes to ask for 10 gallons of their treated water!
Cheers

Edit
That RO system that's been in my Amazon cart forever should probably be ordered I guess. Looks like it's going to be dark for a while before the sun shines. Must brew.

 

Doesn't hurt to ask.

Given today's situation they may not be producing as much beer right now and 'goodwill' for when the situation improves it a worthwhile thing for them.

Cheers!

 

Do the local grocery’s stores not have the RO machines where you can fill up your own containers? Literally every store where I live has them. I couldn’t imagine actually buying 1 gallon plastic jugs of water every time I wanted to brew beer. What a waste!

Nows the time to learn how to use slaked lime or the ol’ preboil and decant method. My well water is atrocious but both of those methods will work and produce great pale beer.

Personally I’m gonna finally start learning to count yeast. Bought the scope and hemo on eBay a while ago and have just been too lazy to spend the time to learn how to use them.

Got about 200 lbs of base malt and a freezer full of hops to go through. 40-50 gallons of mixed fermentation beer needs to be blended and bottled as well.

 

The current state of affairs has inspired be to get back to brewing. I haven't brewed since 2017 due to moving to and renovating the house. My Morebeer order is due for delivery today and this weekend is set for cleaning all of my equipment and getting a starter on the stirplate. First new brew scheduled for the following weekend. Hope it is like riding a bike!

 

@VikeMan I agree wholeheartedly. State police were call to a store cause 2 dudes were trying to beat the hell out of each other over toilet paper. Just stupid.

 

Curious to see what this does to hop prices. This will cause a glut of supply.

 

We are all going to be looking at very stale draft beer once the fog lifts.

Unless you home brew. That beer is fresh and will be fresh as long as we keep making it. Sort of a necessity for a while, like food and sleep. Take away the beer and there will be pitchforks in the streets. Watch.

I am finding that I spend slightly less on beer because I am picking up Crowlers and cans wherever I can. It is fun in its own way actually.

Brew On!

 

Just realized that my CO2 is running low. This could be a big problem...

 

Sippin on some imperial stout

 

Our club space has 5 brew stations, packaging station, temp controlled ferm room and lager fridges, along with a bar and 6 tap keezer. We've shuttered it for the duration of IL's shelter in place order (4/7). Fortunately, I had just carbed a keg of IPA that I brought home last week.

 

Man, I wish you didn't tell me about that. One more thing to worry, but I guess this is a pretty small item all things considered.

Force carbonating uses a lot more gas than dispensing, so maybe switch to keg conditioning and all that entails for the time being. This should at least squeeze some more kegs out of what the CO2 you have left.
Cheers

 

Well the city where my LHBS is basically went full specially changed political, and shut everything "non essential" down. Everything "essential" can only do non-face-to-face activities, or curbside pick up if able. The LHBS is apparently a grocery store so still able to be open, but restocking and size has limited what he can do. Picked up a bag of 2 row today, in case the area goes more sideways... Hospitals, large grocery stores and apparently the pot shops (I don't get this one, but that's a different argument...) are still allowed to have people in them.

 

Just realized that may be what gets me as well ... especially with VA putting additional restrictions in place today. Hopefully my neighbor has some extra CO2 in his garage.

 

Heard about the MD Governor's order while at work, so placed an order for some malts and yeast at Maryland Homebrew Supply for pickup. When I got there, asked them if they were considered "essential", and dude very frankly said "No." Here's hoping they'll get through this, they seemed to be doing fairly brisk pick-up business, and I know they did a fair amount of shipping even before this all started, not sure if they'll be able to continue that part of it.