Homebrewers

[sparkyaber]

goblueM- don't know how I missed this, I have been working at midwest for months now, who is your bud?

[bpoli2]

Is there any brewery within 100 miles?? of St. Paul that I can hire to make up approximately 10 kegs and 50 cases of my home brew for me? Thanks

[goblueM]

goblueM- don't know how I missed this, I have been working at midwest for months now, who is your bud?

my buddy is Pete C.

[sparkyaber]

Is there any brewery within 100 miles?? of St. Paul that I can hire to make up approximately 10 kegs and 50 cases of my home brew for me? Thanks

Wow, that may be tough- you are looking at about 175 gallons, or over five and a half barrels. Some of the brew pubs I am thinking would be about that size, or a smidge bigger.

Would this be for personal use? or trying to get into the craft, for profit?

Or, get 20 carboys and brew like mad for a few weeks

[delcecchi]

I wonder what Schells minimum is? New Ulm. Or Cold Spring in Cold Spring? I think both do contract brewing.

[buddha]

Schell's wouldn't touch it, they are way too busy. They have recetly added tanks to keep up with demand. Check with Vine Park in St. Paul, they may be able to do something like that.

[delcecchi]

I guess the grainbelt nordeast and the craft stuff is keeping them plenty busy. Didn't think of that.

[bloc004]

What are some of the better kits, or what is necessary to get into home brewing (on a small scale)? I remember there being a store around Spring Lake Park area, is this a good place or is online better? Any suggestions would help.

[bpoli2]

Have made batches at Vine Park, great place and great people. Would like to make bigger, less expensive batches. Thanks

[sparkyaber]

What are some of the better kits, or what is necessary to get into home brewing (on a small scale)? I remember there being a store around Spring Lake Park area, is this a good place or is online better? Any suggestions would help.

The place in Spring Lake Park is called brew and grow- in fact where I got my start.

Midwest is a better fit for me, just for the fact that they sell grain by the pound or fraction of the pound.

Midwest- (the place in St. Louis Park) great place to start. (kinda why I got a part time job there, so yes, I am biased).

Star tribune "steal" on thurday is 30 for 60. I heard about this from MHBA, not at work, take it for what it is worth. I am basically saying I know very little about it.

If you want to come in on Sunday, I will be working from 11-5. Ask for Abe.

I will get you all set up.

There is the "other" store in St Paul, but I have never been there.

[goblueM]

Blocc04: being from Hudson, Northern Brewer is going to be a lot closer than Midwest (prob about 15-20 minutes of driving time)

and no offense Sparky, but I like Northern Brewer a lot. Both stores have nice folks and good stuff, the Twin Cities are blessed to have two good homebrew supply stores - a real luxury!

[sparkyaber]

goblue-none taken at all. I agree, we are pretty lucky to have 2 of the 5 biggest homebrewing stores in the nation right here in our back yard.

[sunglow2]

Hey Gents,

I have 3 batches under my belt, so I'm basically climbing the homebrew learning curve. Can I ask you guys, and I'm not quite sure about homebrewer ethics so hopefully no one will be offended, what do you use for water? Tap water, hot tap water, bottled, etc? Does anybody use their dishwasher in the bottle prep process?

Thanks a bunch

[deets22]

i would use the purest water you can. first time i used tap water and the chemicals in it from the city i feel affected the batch and hurt the fermenting process. the next time i went to the store and got gallon jugs of water. turned out way better. just ensure that you have a good pure water source, if you live in the city you don't know what is coming out of your tap.

[sparkyaber]

Hey Gents,

I have 3 batches under my belt, so I'm basically climbing the homebrew learning curve. Can I ask you guys, and I'm not quite sure about homebrewer ethics so hopefully no one will be offended, what do you use for water? Tap water, hot tap water, bottled, etc? Does anybody use their dishwasher in the bottle prep process?

Thanks a bunch

Sun- those are not bad questions at all- I hate the one people always ask about: "the air lock stopped bubbling now what?" My response- "What is your gravity?"

Then I get, "What is gravity?"

As for the water, Does it taste fine to drink? If it does, it is perfectly ok to use for extract. Water chemistry becomes way more important when you start extracting sugars from grain, or all grain brewing. The minerals in the water are important to the conversions of the sugars in brewing, but when you use extract, that step is already done. Cold tap water is unsoftened, that is what I used when I brewed with extract, now (all grain here) I have to cut it with distilled water on some batches, and add minerals back in. This changes from style to style, or the color of the beer. Way to much info to try to explain in a forum. Get John Palmers "How to Brew" very well written and tons of info.

I have used the dry cycle to sanitize my bottles in the past, but it is time consuming and I need to have it planned out ahead of time. I bought a bottling tree and a bottle rinser that I use star-san in. Much more convenient.

What beers/styles have you done so far?

[tacklejunkie]

I've heard of home brewing and thought it would be neat to try. How would one get into it if he was interested in starting?

[sparkyaber]

Tackle- I suggest you get your hands on "How to Brew" by John Palmer. Very well written and easy to follow, a book you can use from the day you first start to the day you open your own brewery. My mother lives near Duluth, and I have visited a liqueur store there that had a very, I mean very, limited stock for home brewing. Try homebrewing forums on the web, and the big one is very helpful.

Brewing is really easy once you get the hardware.

[Redlantern]

Sparky, not sure how much it matters since I haven't tried using their water but Minneapolis has soft water. I think St. Paul may be the same, which means parts of Maplewood and some surrounding cities that are on St. Paul's water system.

[tacklejunkie]

Tackle- I suggest you get your hands on "How to Brew" by John Palmer. Very well written and easy to follow, a book you can use from the day you first start to the day you open your own brewery. My mother lives near Duluth, and I have visited a liqueur store there that had a very, I mean very, limited stock for home brewing. Try homebrewing forums on the web, and the big one is very helpful.

Brewing is really easy once you get the hardware.

Is the start up cost pretty expensive?

[goblueM]

depends... for decent stuff I'd say you are looking at about 200 bucks

there's cheap ways to do it and the right way to do it (imo)

check out northernbrewer.com and midwest homebrew supply, they both have starter kit materials

[tacklejunkie]

depends... for decent stuff I'd say you are looking at about 200 bucks

there's cheap ways to do it and the right way to do it (imo)

check out northernbrewer.com and midwest homebrew supply, they both have starter kit materials

I'll check out the links.

Thanks for the info

[Carp-fisher]

I took up homebrewing last year and have done about 20 all grain batches. Some were good, bad, and ugly. One thing I'd really recommend doing is reading "How to Brew" by John Palmer before buying a single piece of equipment.

Nothing like drinking one of the best beer's you've ever had and knowing it was born in your garage.

[solbes]

Just got a home brewing kit from my wife for Xmas. I think she bought the kit from Von Klopps in Pine Island. Got the Palmer book from my parents too.

Hope to be starting my first malt extract batch later today or tomorrow. American Amber, mmmm.

I hope to do some of the extract brews first and later on move to all grain batches.

[Jim916]

I wonder if there would be enough interest to have a home brewers section here. I know there are other forums out there but it would be nice to go to 1 forum .

[solbes]

Woke up this morning and the primary fermenter was bubbling away! That was a fun process. Being a complete rookie probably added extra time and effort, but I think it'll be worth it. It took me almost 3 hours to clean all the equipment, boil and cool the wort, and move into the primary.

The smells were fantastic when I was steeping the grains. Then the smells got a little interesting after adding the bittering hops. My 7 year old ran around the house plugging her nose after that. It took an hour to actually boil the wort with 2 hops additions, but I was suprised how long it took to bring 2.5 gallons to a boil on the stove. I bought a turkey fryer kit because it came with a 30 quart thick aluminum pot, that seemed to work pretty good. When it gets a little warmer I'd like to try heating the wort with the propane attachment in the open garage.