obligatory Christmas brew gear thread 2017

I went with the brew bucket before a mill only because I don't brew very often so I'm fine just milling at my LHBS for now. If you brew a lot, a mill may be the better first choice. How often are you brewing these days?

 

This last year kind of sucked brewing-wise because I bought a house in April so all my brew days went to painting and moving... But this year the plan is to brew at least twice a month. I honestly think a mill would be in my best interest. With the payback on malt savings, I could "reinvest" in a brew bucket pretty quick (Being in finance, having the "lingo" help sell things like this to the wife )

 

Didn't get anything for brewing but considering getting a brew bag and a brew bucket with cash I got.

 

I got a new 6.5 gallon conical fermenter. I've only ever used buckets before so this will be an awesome adventure!

 

I got a Blichmann Beer Gun and the new Session Beers book. Looking forward to using both of these in 2018.

 

Late Christmas deliver reveals,,,,,, a uKeg pressurized growler. I don't know if it will work with bottle beer, but a nice thought.

 

Jockeybox

 

Breweries occasionally, tap rooms not for a long time, since home brewing

 

A couple books from Stan Hieronymus: Hops and How to Brew Like a Monk. The latter is quite timely as I was thinking about setting up a Belgian pipeline of Single to Dubbel to Tripel to Quad.

 

So could you rack beer into it instead of bottleing, leaving it pressurized for a week then drink.

 

I don’t see why not. I would still use priming sugar to carb though, and CO2 cartridge to serve.

 

Definitely natural carb with sugar at room temp, chill, then serve with minico2 charges. See and you said kegging wasn't in your future.

 

Hahahahah, guess I was wrong. First on tap will be an Irish stout.

 

It's a fun little gadget although pricey. Really nice looking. Report back how it works for you

 

Will do

 

Got 2 byo magazines with great info and recipes that i'd like to try but for the first time my 100 gal cooling tank froze almost solid so brewing is on hold.

 

Got a BIAB bag and a pump for my chiller. I got the UKeg several years ago, my kids did the Kick Starter. You have to understand most of the Amazon reviews are part angst (they were selling on Amazon before KickStarter's received theirs) and part the fact that the first set of growlers to come out were pretty bug ridden (build issues). I had to send mine back because of leaks around the sight tube, got it back, worked fine for one batch, then gauge went out, they mailed that to me. I have only run a few beers thru it, but it works great and the company is pretty responsive to making things right. It has actually been sitting on my counter for about 1 year and pulled it down and got a growler fill a few months ago and it worked perfect, held pressure well and I let the last pour go about 1 week and it didn't seem to suffer too much. If you are wanting to force carb in it, make sure you get the larger CO2 holder 16 gram as I don't think the 8 will get you all the way there.