I would like to be on the homebrewers ping list. I have been lurking of the Free Republic for years and have diceded to come out of the shadows to help us form our consertive future.
I have been brewing for years. I encourage everyone to go all grain, to convert a sankey keg to a brew pot with bulkhead fitting. That everyone should mash in a 10 gallon cooler at least! and frement in kegs with a #2 stopper. That everyone should fire their batch over a turkey cooker. The reason for this is because:
1.)Extract brewing is too expensive. All grain is cheap and and adjunt grain can be toasted to desired lovebond number.
2.)5 gallon batches are too small, when you and a friend sit down and drink your brew your batch is almost gone in one sitting and for sure gone if 3 drink for two. The costs to buy this 6.5 glass this and 5 gallon glass that. Brew in converted kegs for next to nothing and frement in them for again next to nothing and yeald 3 Xs of 15 gallons.
3.) force carbonation is the only way to go, bottle conditioning is hit or miss and doesnt yield steady results. Force carb the whole keg and if you still care to bottle use a counter pressure conditioner and fill til your hearts content.
4.) life is too short and we in life only have some many batches in us... for very few dollars more than an initinal home brew set up you can be mashing whole kegs.
Other things... Buy whole sacks of grain in 50# or 60# this drops prices to around a buck a pound. Buy your hops on line from tons of hops in 1# bulk bags drops hop prices to below a dollar and ounce. If you live in the north plant a hops ribzone and in 3 seasons you will have crazy hops! Make a counter flow chiller, you will never get a bad batch. Recapture your yeast and wash it after your fist rack and you can reuse it many times again. Buy a 20# co2 tank or bigger and never worry about refilling it as you do with little ones. IF you get to this point and havent lagered, start lagering because only lagers are shelf stable, all ales will go bad after months. Once you got a keg set up drop two batches in a day, every brew day.
You can do all this for the cost of a mid priced pistol and get much more enjoyment out of it.
Brew on Brew up!
I am happy I am here friends!
You are added to the ping list.