Ok, it's been at least 5 years since brewing my last batch and I want to pick this awesome hobby/passion back up again. I am wondering about the best website for a refresher on All grain brewering. I have a Red IPA in mind for my first batch, I'll have to get a new cooler to build a mash tun but I have: Converted keg for the boil Carboy's Pony keg's A good amount of cleaning supplies I'm thinking of buying a kit or possibly keeping things very simple and using dry yeast for this first batch. Thoughts? Nice easy going recipe's for a red (hue) IPA?
After 5 years away, a kit might not be a bad idea. (Can't recommend one though, as I don't do kits.) How to Brew - Section 3 - Brewing Your First All-Grain Beer Edit: BTW, nice 'burst. Yours?
I personally do not brew kit beers but Jami’s Evil Twin IPA sounds interesting: “Jamil's Evil Twin® IPA All Grain Kit SKU: U0144 Homebrew figurehead, author, multiple Ninkasi Award-winner, Brewing Network host, and all-around good dude Jamil Zainasheff's Evil Twin® is a strong, deep copper-red ale that boasts a complex malt profile but is really a showcase for hopbursting. Smooth bitterness in a pint suffused with a fragrant fog of hop flavor and aroma.” http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/jamils-evil-twin-all-grain-kit.html Cheers!
I realized I need a new burner and need to replace my mash tun (old cooler which I installed a braided cable setup). I'd like to go cleaner/more sturdy this time around and less DYI because I have very little time. Do you recommend mashing in a cooler or possibly mashing in a kettle? My brew kettle is a converted keg and I'm even wondering if that is too much to handle at this point (I'm quite sure the inner working should probably be replaced (don't even know what the inside kit was from lol). I even built a reverse flow wort chiller from a garden hose lol... man, I used to work from home and was BIG into homebrewing, it's a shame I have lost so much of this knowledge and need to build again...
If you search the archives* for Averagely Perfect IPA, you'll find a recipe that many of us brewed this past year as kind of a community experiment in recipe creation (Vikeman gets major kudos for organizing the effort over what must have been about 20 polls). This recipe had ingredients that won't be difficult to source. It's not red though. Add an ounce, maybe two, of carafa special and I get it gets some color. *nevermind, I did that for you: http://beeradvocate.com/community/t...rfect-american-ipa-project-the-recipes.74647/
I probably use dry yeast 2/3 of the time, primarily US-05 and Nottingham, but I have used Windsor, T-58, and something else that I can't remember right now. They've all worked great. No starter needed, just rehydrate and go. You could get a kit, or you could just make a fairly simple recipe out of the chute. Ask for advice here if you decide to brew your own and need to tweak the recipe. Heck, I'd just make a SMaSH, but then I'm addicted to making smash beers, so my opinion on the matter counts for extra. Nice axe man. We'll have to start the BA drunken advocates metal band. Or something.
Awesome beer. i brewed it first, so that counts for extra. One of my top five beers still. Gonna brew it again and again, both the identical recipe to the original, and with modified hop bills. I plan to keep the basic additions the same tho (15, 10, 5, big 0, chill to 170 and hopstand 20-30 minutes, add just enough high AA hops at 60 to get to 64 IBUs, dry hop liberally). Actually, top five is sorta meaningless if you haven't figured out which five those are... I can for sure say it would be the APA IPA, my PtE pseudo-clone, and my fresh hop pale ale (drinking that one now). I guess you'd have to consider my citra-bomb from hell, my bravo/munich smash, my Al's Red-Eye ale (extract), and my cascade/willamette IPA (also from back in the extract daze). So yeah, top five is sorta relative. I think Einstein figured that out already tho. I'm just extrapolating on the obvious extensions.
Was your old avatar some sort of pickle thing? In your absence, did you learn to play a guitar? What have you been doing with your time away from the hobby. And welcome back.
Thanks all! Cleaned out all of the gear for this weekend: http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg225/Gasp100/Brewing_zps3d883e23.jpg I got a new Bayou Burner (over 100,000 BTU and 22" span to hold my Keggle): http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/bayou-cooker-burner-and-stand.html Mash tun conversion kit: (no false bottom, I'm going with the steel braid technique like I used in the past) http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/all-grain-system-mash-tun-5-gallons.html and grabbed Northern Brewer's all grain "The Inn Keeper" kit: http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/the-innkeeper-limited-edition-all-grain-kit.html I decided to go with a kit for my return, it should be a tasty quaffable session brew and I'm going to have some friends over to re-learn / teach and of course drink at the same time. I went with the dry yeast (Nottingham) option and I would like to try and harvest the yeast for an English IPA (LOVE South Hampton IPA) and then re-harvest for a Barleywine that I could age for some time I got heavily into brewing when I worked from home so I was able to take IT support calls and do teleconferences while mashing or boiling in the backyard lol... those were the days!!! I got back into music last year and was gigging regularly but have switched things up to acoustic gigs and figured I would fill in some empty weekends starting to brew again. But, I've got 3 kids, 60 hour work week, etc... so I still won't be able to brew (or gig) as much as I would like My old beveragaire was converted to 2 - dual faucets and I could fit 4 - 1/6 barrels so I usually had a LOT of brew available when I was on my game. Now I have a newer (but smaller) converted kegerator and a nice dual faucet rig so I hope to have 2 brews on at all times. I'm excited -- I forgot how fun it was sourcing brewing gear and when I look at my rig I recall at lot of DIY stuff I did that I don't get a chance to do much anymore. At this same time while into brewing I built a home bar around my kegerator as well, I'll have to snap some pics!
