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I decided that I should start homebrewing again after a several year hiatus. Not sure how many batches I’ve done lifetime but certainly in triple digits. Like anything, there has probably been progress on the home brewing front that I don’t know about and thus turn to the teemings.

I’m a lazy and/or efficient type home brewer. I’ll be using malt extract with some specialty grains and have had good experience with hop plugs. Targeting ~6 gallon batches in a single fermentation.

One reason to get back into homebrewing is because I want lower alcohol content that the standard micro/craft beers. Probably 3-4% milds and stouts will be in the rotation. I’d like to brew between 2-3% but past experiments didn’t come out well. It’s a real challenge to brew something light that still tastes good. Any tips and tricks in that regard would be welcome.

Fermenter
This fermenter (http://www.mountainhomebrew.com/speidelfermentationtank30l79gallon.aspx ) looks to be the bee’s knees. Anyone used one? Reviews are really good, easy to clean, lots of room, sturdy, light, the spout works well to fill straight into the bottle. Glass carboys are traditional, but I find them easy to break.

Bottling
I started a recent thread with zero replies on maybe a keg system. The more I think about it, getting a couple of cases of 1 liter swing top bottles seems to be the easiest option for now. It’s about 24 bottles for 6 gallons. But I’m not sure how many bottlings the gasket should last for? Any other gotchas?

Could do 22 oz bottles and cap them, but capping always feels to me like an extra hassle. Anyone know of bigger bottles that can be capped and re capped? I couldn’t find anything above 22 oz.

Any experience with PET bottles? I just seems wrong to put a homebrew in a PET bottle instead of glass, but maybe I’m wrong on this? And it seems a little weird to gift some homebrew in a PET bottle. Maybe I’m looking at this wrong.

Happy to hear about how to set up a practical and cost effective keg system. I do have a largely unused fridge in the garage that I would want to store it in.

Sanitizing
One pleasant surprise is that it seems like there are several good non-rinsing sanitizer solutions to clean the bottles. Any testimonials and recommendations for sanitizers like One Step, Easy Clean, or Iodaphor? Are these really rinse free and won’t kill the yeast? This removes another hassle in the bottling process if this works as advertised.

What are the 2-3 recommended on line resources/supplies sites? I’ve found www.NorthernBrewer.com and www.homebrewing.org

Hops

I just ordered a couple of different hop rhizomes. Will plant these for the hell of it. Any tips and tricks for the planting, growing, harvesting, drying and using process? Does beer made with freshly picked wet hops come out well or is the flavor strange (and not in a good way)? I’ve used plugs and pellets in the past, and have had good experience with plugs. Until I have my own harvest, is there any improvements in home brewer hops I should know about?

Thanks in advance.

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I ferment in a plastic 6 gal bucket, but always rack into a glass carboy to dry hop in the secondary. I have no experience with that one you linked. Also can’t help with brewing light. I don’t bother to test my stuff, so I have no idea what the booze content is. I always try to make it as strong as possible.

I use 1L swing-tops. The way to go, if you ask me. The gaskets last for years, and cheap and easy to replace if they get weak. I’ve used plastic 2L soda bottles for travel in the camper, so I could drink and toss them. They work fine, never had any explode or leak. I did notice slightly less carbonation as the bottle got bigger. No scientific evidence for this, however.

I’ve got hops growing. I planted them in crappy soil, and they grow like wild! Just water them is all I do. They come back year after year. They are under a “treehouse” built on power poles and I strung up wires for them to climb up. This spring has been very wet and I swear they grow 6 inches a day!

There are some youtube vids that show how to tell when they are ready to harvest and dry them. You use a box fan and some paper filters (the kind you put in your home furnace). I used them to brew in one batch, and you have to use A TON of them to get any flavor. But then, I have no idea what kind they are.

I’m kinda short on time right now, I’ll come back often and add more. However, there are many more (better) experienced brewers on the board and will probably have better advice for you.

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Use grains with less fermentable sugars - a light Crystal/caramel malt (20L) would be good. It will give your beer some body without a lot of alcohol. I’d also encourage you to try all-grain. It’s not that difficult, and you’ll have more control over the alcohol and body of the beer. For example, mashing at a higher temperature (~154 F) will result in less fermentable sugars while still contributing body.

Never tried that. I do it all in glass - a 6.5 gal for primary, then 5 gal for secondary. If you prefer the safety of plastic, the linked one looks fine. Just be careful cleaning it - any scratches will start growing bad stuff, so you can use only a soft cloth for cleaning.

I’ve used the same gaskets on swing-tops for over 10 years with no problems. They are cheap to replace too. You can use Champagne bottles with a standard capper, but that only gives you an extra 3 oz over a 22-oz bottle. I haven’t tried PET and I agree, it wouldn’t feel right.

Kegs aren’t cheap unless you can scavenge the equipment elsewhere (but they are so worth it). The fridge is only one part (and often an old fridge will cost more in energy than buying a new efficient one). The big expenses are taps, kegs, CO2 bottle, and a regulator. Search Craigslist and look for used gear at your homebrew shop. And get a fridge big enough to hold one more keg than you think you want. I’ve built a few keg systems, and am happy to answer any specific questions.

I use One Step or Straight-A for cleaning, and the dishwasher for sterilizing. Back when I used iodine to sterilize, I still rinsed because I was paranoid about off-flavors. But the dishwasher is way easier - run it with no soap or rinse agent, and the dry cycle is hot enough to sterilize.

No recommendation here.

See this thread from last year about growing and using hops. I’ve had good luck with their use for aroma, but it’s tough to use them for bittering unless you don’t care how bitter it ends up. I think if you’re making lighter beers, it will be especially tough because you don’t have much margin for error.

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I used Austin Homebrew Supply for years, but they recently changed their website and lost all purchase history and account info and kind of pissed me off, so I’m shopping around. Austin was VERY good, so I’ll probably just have to tough it out for a while till I get the hang of the new, miserable website.

I’ve been surfing many other homebrew sites, and the problem I’m finding is they don’t list specifics for recipe kits. They say, “milled grains and hops”, but don’t tell you what kind (Not that I would know the difference most of the time, but I have a penchant for Cascade hops). That and the stupid gimmiky names they call shit. I don’t know what a “Dog Fart Hyper-Hop” is, and don’t feel like finding out the hard way. If I want a fucking Sierra Nevada clone, I should be able to search that and find what I want.

Anyway, enjoying a very fine Sierra Nevada clone as I type this.

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Thanks for the replies so far. I think I’ll go for the 1 liter swing top bottles - at least for now. Thanks for the tip that I can just run these through the dishwasher to sanitize.

I have discovered that “Session” beers are the term these days for 4% octane and below. Mild’s, ordinary bitters,Brown Ales, Scottish /60 can be 3-4% range.Basically, less fermentable malts, and a lot more specialty malts such as crystal, chocolate, Munich, etc. I’ll work on these and would appreciate any extract recipes.

Anyone use Picobrew or know anyone that uses Picobrew? The concept is kinda cool, but the price tag isn’t. And it seems like they are trying to lock buyers into “kits” instead of using it to brew a lot of beer. Anyway, if someone has direct experience it would be interesting to learn more.

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brew in a bag vs no sparge brewing. Any tips and tricks? This seems the easy way to go whole grain to me (and I have chickens to feed :slight_smile: ).

I’m interested in an easy efficient all grain brewing. I’d be happy to make a small beer after the BIAG or no sparge.

In the meantime, I have 3 coopers malt kits I bought years ago that I will start with.

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I used 1 and 2 L club soda bottles and they work fine except for 2 explosions during the summer - messy and beer on the ceiling stuff, would also bottle a few 12 oz beer bottles for presentation (now I would get bigger ones. I reused them and that is what most likely weakened the 2 that did explode during fermentation. Bottling was the largest pain in the ass of homebrewing for me and what I wanted to simplify and quicken as much as I could.

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Well, I just got back from 2 weeks in Asia and planted my hops this morning: N Brewer, Cascade and Mt Hood. I realize now that I should have swapped out the Cascade or Mt Hood for Goldings since I want to work on lower octane beers and Milds/Browns. I guess I’ll have to rely on the Northern Brewers if it grows. :slight_smile:

Since my birthday and Father’s Day are both coming up, I decided my kids need to get me the fermenter, 1 liter bottles, and brew in a bag accessories. This will teach them science, fermentation, chemistry, and hanging out with their old man brewing beer. :slight_smile:

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Hey China Guy, missed this one the first time around,

I’m a former professional brewer at a midwestern regional brewery and have been homebrewing for 14 years.

TroutMan is right on when he talks about low-alcohol beers needing extra body. One way to achieve that is control of mash temperature for all-grain. Another is using caramel or similar malts in a partial-mash. The easiest way is to use maltodextrin.

I’ll take an unpopular stand and discourage you from brewing all-grain. When I started homebrewing it made sense to convert to all-grain quickly, as the only malt extracts available were “light” and “dark” and maybe some weird Australian ones in a can. Nowadays, you can get malt extract of Munich, Maris Otter, Wheat Malt, etc, etc. I often brew an extract batch while I’m mashing my all-grain batch, and it’s become increasingly difficult to tell them apart.

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You have a point. If the end product is what matters to you, extracts today can lead to excellent beers and I can’t argue for all-grain. If you enjoy the journey as much as the endpoint, all-grain gets you more involved in the process . Either of those are equally valid, it just depends on what you enjoy.

I personally still enjoy tasting the starchy, sharp mash at the start, then tasting something sweet and delicious an hour later after doing nothing but maintain temperature. I’d really miss that part of the process with extract. But when I’m making brownies, I’m only thinking about what I’ll be eating at the end, and I reach for the packaged mix every time.

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Brew in a bag is so straightforward and light on equipment, particularly for someone who already knows the ropes, I don’t really see the point of extract brewing in your position. I’d heartily recommend this route.

I find bottling to be a major ballache, but I still do it as I don’t know if I’d be safe having a keg of fine ale sitting on my kitchen counter top. I’d end up tanning the bevvy day in day out.

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What everyone else said, BUT:
Sanitizing

STARSAN! You need a cleaner AND a sanitizer. I use OxyClean to clean/loosen gunk, rinse well, then Starsan with no rinse. Works great. OxyClean, EasyClean, even “one step,” I think, are cleaners rather than sanitizers, and I wouldn’t trust iodophor/iodine as a no-rinse sanitizer, personally. Starsan is proven to be an effective sanitizer as well as inert and harmless when diluted. You could rack your beer onto a quart of the stuff and it would have basically no effect on your beer, (it’s been done) so let alone racking onto a tiny amount of residue and foam.

Starsan!

As for kegging, I started with this: 2 Faucet Basic Homebrew Kegerator Kit - Kegconnection and put it in this: http://www.costco.com/Danby-Dual-Tap-5.2-CuFt-Compact-Keg-Cooler.product.100007041.html (which wasn’t nearly that expensive when I bought it…maybe $250). The assembled kegconnection kit was good stuff for a ready-to-go set for someone who wasn’t completely sure how it all worked yet (me). You might be able to assemble all the stuff separately from somewhere for cheaper, but that was a great hassle-free option for me.

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Kegs - You can pick up 5 Gallon pin lock Kegs on Amazon for under $50. Most are re-purposed soft drink canisters. Now that soft drink makers are going to bagged syrup containers some brew suppliers have been getting their hands on the surplus and selling them.
You would probably have to change out the O rings and clean the Coke/7Up syrup out of them but a lot of home brewers are going after these as they work well with 5 gallon brew batches and they can fit into your spare fridge if you’re willing to remove some shelves.
My son runs a brew supply store and has been selling these out of his place and on Amazon. I’ll refrain from plugging his place.

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I missed your previous kegging thread. However, I recently geared up for kegging. After spending some time looking around for used gear and being disappointed, I ended up going the new route. I now have 2 new ball lock corny kegs, a double regulator setup, a new 5lb aluminum CO2 tank, an Edgestar keg refrigerator (capable of holding 3 corny kegs and the 5lb CO2 tank, and a dual tap tower with Perlick faucets. I’m about $1100 into it right now and I’m somewhat questioning my sanity.

That said, it’s really nice. There have been a few issues to work out, but overall it seems to be working well. I currently have an American light ale (with much more flavor than a macro-brewed American light lager) and an American pale ale in my kegs. They are carbonated and ready to drink. I’m having a party at my house this weekend to go along with my town’s annual summer festival. I’m hoping to get my light beer drinking friends some exposure to a beer with some flavor (the light), while keeping myself happy with the APA. If there is APA left after this weekend, I will bottle that from the keg (using a Last Straw).

I do have concern about the cost versus how much I will use it. It will be unplugged for at least a month after this weekend. I already know that I would like at least one more keg for transferring and possibly filtering. I will also need a filter system for said filtering. On the plus side, when the refrigerator isn’t storing finished beer, I can see myself using it for lagering. This will save me from having to figure out some other form of temperature control.

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Hmmm, point noted on the partial mash. I’ve always said that some crystal malt improves most beers and provides that mouth feel (actually I’m plagiarizing Papazian and the JOHB, which I must have read about 50 times when I lived in Japan). So, I’ll definitely give a heavy hand to the caramels, etc. I’ve used maltodextrin before to good effect.

If I do the all grain or brew in a bag, should the mash temperature be adjusted up or down from the regular range if aiming for low alcohol?

I really am intrigued by the brew in a bag method and will probably get around to that once I hit my extract stride. I do have a bunch of chickens, and I know they would love the spent grains. :wink:

In my previous brewing life, I found that dropping below a pound of extract/gallon became challenging to get something I really enjoyed. As you well know, homebrew is quite forgiving (as in very wide leeway on ingredients) to get to something tasty (but maybe not repeatable).

I’ve got a few cans of Coopers leftover from at least 6 years ago that I’ll try first. Coopers + 2-3# honey + hops turns out mighty fine and about an easy a route as one can take.

I will definitely load up on the Starsan. That’s a major improvement since I last brewed. Between Starsan, 1 liter swing tops and a 7.5 gallon fermenter with a spigot on the bottom, that should take out about 80% of the pain in the ass hassle that I used to face in brewing. So, I’m pretty excited.

Anyhoo, thanks for all the replies and advice , and I’ll probably get to the neighborhood homebrew supply store in the next week.

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I use the mnemonic “MALT” More Alcohol - Lower Temperature, so you would want the opposite of that. Mash at the higher end of the range for the results you want, around 156°- 160°F

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I buy the smallish bottles (8 oz) and it lasts FOREVER. You mix 1 oz to 5 gallons of water to get the right concentration. So I usually buy a gallon just of distilled water (minerals in tap water often have some reaction and it becomes cloudy…still effective, but I think it doesn’t last as long) and add about a fifth of an ounce of Starsan. Mix, and pour some of that into a spray bottle. The spray bottle is an easy way to coat just about anything efficiently and easily. Another option, that I used to do, is to fill a Home Depot bucket with 5 gallons of water, 1 oz of Starsan, and just dunk/soak everything in it. Put a lid on it and put it away, use it again next time. That lasts quite a while, but since you’re dunking things in the whole batch (as opposed to spraying it with the spray bottle), you probably should change it out more often. As long as the pH is low enough (< 3), it’s still good, though, technically.

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That thing is slick! I may look into one of them whenever I get back into homebrewing.

I’ve used repurposed soda bottles- they work fine in the short term, but I think over a longer period, they’re permeable enough to lose carbonation.

For my money, PBW is hands-down the best cleaner on the market, and Star San is the best no-rinse sanitizer. I tend to use Iodophor though, because it’s super-cheap.

Where do you live? Hop plants are kind of finicky about the latitude that they’re grown at- day length and what-not. North of 35 degrees N or South of 55 degrees N is pretty much where you have to live, and they apparently prefer about 45. So if you live roughly as far north as Portland, Duluth, Minnesota, or Montpelier, you’re set. If you’re south of roughly a line from San Luis Obispo, through Albuquerque, Memphis, Chattanooga and Greenville, you’re probably going to have more problems growing hops. Similarly if you’re north of about Fort McMurray, you’ll have issues as well.

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Seattle area, so think i’m good.

This pdf link seems to cover all the bases on hop growing: Hop Growing

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You should be; something like 3/4 of the hops grown in the US are grown in the Yakima Valley, which is not too far southeast of Seattle.