How long have you been brewing? 1.5 years
What is your typical batch size (gallons)? 5
All Grain or Extract: Extract, switching to All Grain
Recipe and Equipment
Do you make your own recipes? Do you use any brewing software/tools?
Not completely. I usually use a recipe or extract kit and tweak it to my liking. Recently downloaded BeerSmith to try and start creating my own recipes when I go all grain.
Describe your equipment and setup:
3 gallon pot on the gas stove. Copper immersion chiller. Just bought a RoboBrew to make the transition to all grain/electric.
Boiling : Do you use hop bags, screens, filters, spiders? Typical boil time?
No fancy equipment yet. Boil time is usually 60 minutes.
What is your MVP piece of equipment, technique or trick to make your brew day easier, faster or most impacted your beer quality?
Heated grow mats for better temperature control during fermentation. The room the the basement where I ferment gets a bit chilly.
Fermentation
What do you ferment in?
Glass Carboy
What is your method of fermentation temp control?
Grow mats
Do you use secondary fermentation vessel?
All the time
Personal History
How long have you been a member of NUBS?
Since June 2017
How did you find out about the club?
During a brewing class at Perfect Brewing Supply
What is your favorite style to brew, any styles you wouldn’t brew?
Milk stout is my favorite beer to drink and brew. I would probably brew any style once, just to say I did it.
Have you ever had to dump a batch? If so, what happened?
Yes!! Knock on wood, one bad batch so far. A few things (or a lot of things) went wrong. I was still new into brewing. I made two similar batches, one peanut-butter chocolate stout and the other a peanut butter chocolate porter. I didn’t label them very well, so when I went to transfer and or add ingredients to the fermentation I didn’t know which batch was which. I was also terrible at record keeping and taking notes, which didn’t help. I know I added double chocolate and peanut-butter to one batch because I couldn’t remember which one I had already added too. (Again, I label my carboys way better now.) I had zero fermentation temperature control at the time. I still to this day have no clue which batch got messed up (I am guessing it was the porter) but it was sour, over carbonated, and tasted infected. On the bright side, the other batch turned out pretty amazing! Also that gross batch has still been my dad’s favorite that I have made so far.
What was the biggest mishap you ever encountered when brewing? (bottle bombs, broken equipment, big messes, etc.)
See above story… I’ve only had a couple bottle explosions, nothing major.
What has been your biggest challenge as a homebrewer?
Limited space. Previously we only lived in 450 square feet, not much space for equipment or to spread out. Now we have bigger and better digs, which means a bigger and better home brewery.
What has been your biggest success as a homebrewer?
Talking my wife into letting me spend all of the money that I do on “beer stuff”.
What is your favorite part of brewing your own beer?
Being able to give it away. I love making mixed 4-6 packs for people and letting them try all the different beers I have made over the past few months.