My Homebrew Beer Secrets

Homebrew Counter Flow Wort Chiller 25 Feet

Mike — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 11:31:02 +0000

Homebrew Counter Flow Wort Chiller 25 Feet

This counter flow wort chiller has been designed to move hot wort and cold water in opposite directions so wort is always being cooled by increasingly cool water. This chiller is made up of 25 feet of copper tubing inside the hose. Designed to rapidly chill your hot wort to yeast pitching temperatures.

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North American Clone Brews Homebrew Recipes for Your Favorite American and Canadian Beers

Mike — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:47:09 +0000

North American Clone Brews Homebrew Recipes for Your Favorite American and Canadian Beers

Well over 100 extract, mini-mash, and all-grain recipes that will allow homebrewers to duplicate their favorite award-winning American and Canadian microbrewery beers.

User Ratings and Reviews

4 Stars Good, yes. Perfect, not quite
There are a few problems with this book, as already stated elsewhere. However, this is a very good book to get you very close to your favorites brews. I’ve done 5 recipes from this book, and have been pleased with all of them except the Fat Tire clone (try #2 is in the secondary). It saves a lot of research time trying to formulate your own clone recipe. It also is educational.

4 Stars Decent book, unfairly reviewed
While there are mistakes in this book (as there are in Clone Brews and Beer Captured), overall this is a worthwhile book-all the recipes I have made from this book have turned out well.

Much of the criticism of this book seems overdone. Beerman11, for instance, says that the extract version of the Immortales recipe asks you to continue the recipe with mini-mash recipe, and that this would require boiling 7.5 gallons. In my copy, the extract recipe asks you to use the mini-mash recipe after the boil–which would result in a boil of 3 gallons.

Admittedly, some of the criticism is fair. The book does not suggest lowering the amount of hops for the all-grain recipes, which is odd. I could not find the barleywine error mentioned elsewhere (although I’m not a big barleywine fan); it is possible mistakes in the first edition were corrected. On the other hand, Russell did actually include lagering in his recipes, which the Szamatulski’s did not in Clone Brews (and included only in the Helpful Hints section in Beer Captured, their latest book).

Frankly, I suspect many of the problems with this book are a result of the publishing format, which applies to both of the Szamatulski’s books as well. The short, one-page recipe format doesn’t leave enough room to discuss technique and other issues involved with making the beer, and I think a lot of useful information is left out. However, I can get this information elsewhere.

Overall, I liked this book better than the original Clone Brews and almost as much as Beer Captured.

1 Star Give the brewer a break
I bought this book and I am having a hard time with it. I have been an extract brewer for 15 years. I’m responding to “sioux181″ when he says “Give a guy a break!”, give the brewer a break. I bought the ingredients for two of the recipes in this book and when I started making them, I realized that the conversions he made from mini-mash to extract were incorrect and I had to guess at what to do. How can I give the author a break? I will admit that mistakes happen, but you sound like you must be the author because any homebrewer would be very upset with incorrect information on brewing a beer. Both the errors that were pointed out previously are pretty obvious. However, I don’t think the author spent the time to correctly convert to extract. For the Immortale recipe I start with 3 gallons of water for the specialty grains, he tells us to omit some ingredients, then follow the mini-mash recipe. It wasn’t until I started that I looked at the mini-mash recipe and it said to sparge with 4 1/2 gallons of water. I have never brewed an extract beer using a 7 1/2 gallon boil (for a 5 gallon batch). The other recipe I made was Whale Tale Brown Ale, with his recipe I would end up with a 5 gallon boil. If I wanted to do a 5 gallon boil, I would switch to all-grain. It is obvious that the conversions are incorrect. Every recipe is like this. I have to guess at how much water to use for the specialty grains and sparging. Also, among various other small but important pieces that are essential to brewing, he has completely forgotten about adding Irish Moss.

4 Stars Worth Buying
I’m glad I read my copy of North American Clone Brews before reading the reviews in this column. Give a guy a break! The book is fine. It does what it purports in a concise and readable manner. So, yes, “White Plains”, Mr Russell’s book contains a typo. Obviously he did not mean to mash (by my calculations) 16.75 lbs grain in 2.5 gallons of water. Mistakes happen. As to reduce the bittering in a full boil: to many variables affect hop utilization (at best 30%) to worry about this. Keep it simple. Relax, don’t worry….”White Plains” and his admirer from Texas clearly have some axe to grind. Odd that with all the “many errors” in the book both ‘reviewers’ point out the same two-and both got the weight wrong. The variety and scope of this book alone justify its purchase. Having examined the quality of the recipes, I plan to do my brewing this season exclusively from North American Clone Brews.

5 Stars So Many Recipes! So Few Fermenters
I love this book. It is informative, original and full of some very good recipes. There are great instructions for the both beginner and seasoned brewer. There is a good variety of easy recipes and just enough variety in the complex brews to keep you busy for months. Each recipe has a complete header of beer specifics. Great for the beginner who wants to move beyond the basics.

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Organic Pellet Hop Sampler 8 oz For Home Brewing

Mike — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:14:33 +0000

Organic Pellet Hop Sampler 8 oz For Home Brewing

Hops have been widely used for brewing beer for centuries, and modern beer would be unrecognizable without them. The hop plant (Humulus lupulus) is a perennial vine that grows in many temperate climates. The flowers are harvested at peak ripeness and are immediately compressed into pellets to preserve the fresh aroma and flavor. Certified organic hops are still difficult to find, but we have gathered the best the world has to offer in one place, all USDA certified organic. Our world class selection contains 1 oz. each of 8 different varieties of pelleted hops. The selection includes German Hallertaur, German Spalt Select, Belgian Fuggles, Belgian Challenger, New Zealand Saaz, American Palisades, and others from our current offerings.

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Make Your Own Moonshine Homebrew Still

Mike — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:25:39 +0000

Make Your Own Moonshine Homebrew Still

Building a Home Distillation Apparatus 1999. 45 pages. Table of Contents:
FOREWORD ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 1
INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 1
WHERE TO START?………………………………………………………………………………………………… 3
WHAT KIND OF STILL?………………………………………………………………………………………….. 5
CONSTRUCTION…………………………………………………………………………………………………… 10
BUILDING THE CONDENSER ……………………………………………………………………………….. 13
BUILDING THE REFLUX COLUMN ………………………………………………………………………. 19
HEATING CONSIDERATIONS……………………………………………………………………………….. 25
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER……………………………………………………………………………….. 27
APPENDICES………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 2
LICENSE AGREEMENT…………………………………………………………………………………………… 3
HOW TO APPLY THE LICENSE AGREEMENT……………………………………………………….. 8
MATERIAL LIST……………………………………………………………………………………………………… 9
TOOLS………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 10
INDEX…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 11

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Maestro Homebrew Beer Kit

Mike — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:14:30 +0000

Maestro Homebrew Beer Kit

Looking for the perfect starter homebrewing kit? Our Maestro Kit is perfect for the beginning brewer. It includes everything you’ll need to create the perfect homebrew right from the start. It’s easy to follow instructions and quality components assure a great experience every time. Each Equipment Kit Includes: True Brew Handbook, 6.5 Gallon Primary Fermenting Bucket, 1 Lid Drilled & Grommet, 6.5 Gallon Bottling Bucket w/ Spigot, Fermtech, True, 3 Piece Airlock, C-Brite Sanitizer 8-Pack.

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India Pale Ale Homebrew Class Homebrew classics

Mike — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 04:19:47 +0000

India Pale Ale Homebrew Class Homebrew classics

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Starter Home Brewery With Organic 7 Bridges Red Ale Ingredients

Mike — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 01:49:01 +0000

Starter Home Brewery With Organic 7 Bridges Red Ale Ingredients

Before brewing your first batch of beer, you will need to obtain the basic equipment. Just like a good cook needs a well equipped kitchen, a home brewer will need a well equipped brewery to produce quality beer at home. Our starter kit includes our Organic 7 Bridges Red Ale ingredient kit for 5 gallons and the book “The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing”, by Charlie Papazian. We believe knowledge is the most important brewing tool you can ever have, and a full featured brewing guide like this book makes the process of acquiring knowledge easy and fun. Our starter kit has everything you need to brew 5 gallons of beer except a brew pot (a stainless steel stock pot at least 3 gallons in size) and standard beer bottles. Any non twist off or flip-top beer bottle can be used. Included in this package deal: One organic beer ingredient kit (not in picture), a glass 5 gallon carboy, plastic airlock, rubber, stopper, 40″ blow-off tube, 5′ siphon tubing, 22″ curved siphon cane with sediment tip, small tubing clamp, small organic cotton straining bag, 18″ heat resistant plastic spoon, bottle filling wand, bottle capper, 60 bottle caps, bottle brush, long water bottle brush with bent tufted end, 8″ plastic funnel with snap in screen, the book: “The Complete Joy of Home Brewing, 3rd Edition”, 4 oz. of Iodophor sanitizer (safe iodine based), & 8 oz. of Straight-A oxygen based home brewery cleaner.

User Ratings and Reviews

4 Stars Great kit!
Bought this for my boyfriend who has been wanting to brew for a while. He’s a ‘semi-beginner’, because he has read a lot on the process, knows the basics, visited breweries etc, just hadn’t started on his own yet. He LOVES it & finds it easy and quick to do without being ‘so beginner’ that it’s boring.

5 Stars Easy to make great low cost beer at home – and organic too!
This came in a well packaged box with all the pieces and ingredients well-labelled and easy to understand for a complete beginner.

I thought it would be a lot more complicated than it was, but following the one-page instructions it was actually really easy. It only took me 2 hours to brew a batch of my own, organic red ale from scratch!

The equipment is also a lot simpler and smaller than I expected. Basically all you need is a big pot, like a chili pot, to boil the beer in, and then a big plastic bucket to store it in (where it ferments). Then after a week I bottled it, which also took about two hours, and within three days I tasted the first bottle. Yeehaw! It was good! I’m already thinking that I’m going to try bottling in bigger bottles or maybe even a keg in order to reduce the work involved in bottling. It was actually really satisfying to clamp the lids down on the bottles and know that I had just manufactured my own bottle of beer, but on the other hand, it looks like there are a bunch of equipment options that making bottling easier, so I might upgrade.

Bottom line, after seeing how easy this was, I’m going to be brewing a lot. It was fast, definately cheaper than buying beer of equivalent quality, plus now my friends think I’m really cool. I’m starting to worry that their enthusiasm for my beer might deplete my supply pretty fast though. Considering how good the beer turned out and how easy the whole thing was, I’m going to encourage them to get their own brewing hobby going. All the more beer for the rest of us!

One aspect of this kit that seems unique is that the ingredients are all organic. I buy some organic food, and I really like beer, so I figure it just makes sense that if I don’t want nasty chemicals in my food, I certainly don’t want them in my beer. So the organic aspect of this kit was a real bonus. Three cheers to Seven Bridges for making this available.

2 Stars Old ingredients makes for a dull brew
I had high hopes for an organic brew. I was at the hop addition stage and after snipping open the hop bag I was greeted with some old, not very fragrant hops. Turned out they were 2006 and not well stored. At that stage of the brew you have no choice but to use them if you don’t happen to have a back up supply.

Sadly I have 5 gallons of drinkable but bland beer. The response of Seven Bridges – sorry someone should have pulled the old hops from the kits! I am going to toss some leftover hops from a different batch into the keg and see if I can perk it up a tad.

Moral here is to buy from suppliers that have higher turnover of the ingredients and check your ingredients carefully before the brew day.

4 Stars First time brewer
I recently purchased this brewing kit and have had a fantastic first time brewing experience. The instructions were easy to follow (although i suggest reading up on how to brew as much as possible…in fact you should buy How to Brew by John Palmer, it is a tremendous help). The only qualm I have with the kit itself is that the box that the ingredients (malt, hops, etc.) came in said that Yeast was NOT included…HOWEVER, it was actually included (which is a good thing) in the kit. It was not a particularly big deal, but i felt like a yutz when i went out to a local brew store to buy more yeast when i didn’t need to.

I also found myself dumping a bit more money on a thermometer, hydrometer, a long stainless steel spoon (the kit does come with a plastic spoon, but i didnt like the idea of using plastic), and stainless steel 5 gallon pot (ouch on the wallet). Was it worth it…absolutely. But keep in mind that if you want to do things right or turn brewing into a regular hobby you may have to dump a little more money into it.

Overall i’d say this is a fantastic kit and i am very pleased with what i got.

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Homebrew Orange Soda Pop Concentrated Extract 2 Ounce Boxes Pack of 3

Mike — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 13:32:16 +0000

Homebrew Orange Soda Pop Concentrated Extract 2 Ounce Boxes Pack of 3

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Designing Great Beers The Ultimate Guide to Brewing Classic Beer Styles

Mike — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 09:07:04 +0000

Designing Great Beers The Ultimate Guide to Brewing Classic Beer Styles

Part 1 of Designing Great Beers is a complete book in itself, focused solely on home-brewing ingredients and techniques (including three superb chapters on hops alone). Ray Daniels proves himself the “techie” type, infusing his introductory chapters with as much brewing math as brewing lore. Yet, Daniels never hops off the deep end of beer geekdom. Instead, he complements this emphasis on data with the creative use of graphics; where one could get bogged down in the stats, there is usually a clear visual depiction to instantly summarize their meaning.

This focus on facts continues into part 2 of Daniels’s guide, where it backs an admirably pragmatic take on beer styles and their importance in home-brewing. Daniels devotes a chapter to each of 14 major style categories, detailing historical origins and modern brewing techniques. He lays a contemporary groundwork by compiling and analyzing the recipes of the National Homebrew Competition’s most successful beers. The assumption is that beers deemed representative of particular beer styles in modern competitions serve as ideal models for recipe creation. Among the information provided for each style is a chart showing the percentage of brewers using each type of grain and in what proportions the grains were added. Similar data are supplied for hop varieties, yeast strains, and water treatment. This reverse engineering of award-winning beers naturally benefits experienced brewers seeking to wow judges at the next competition. Yet, even brewers taking their first shy steps into creating their own recipes have much to gain from this kind of practical analysis. Daniels provides the basic tools a brewer of any level can use to formulate recipes with confidence and creativity. –Todd Gehman

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars Great book for the serious home/craft brewer
This book is amazingly well written and immediately applicable for either the home brewer or small craft brewery. It’s not for beginners wanting to copy down some easy recipes. Instead, it is a great compilation of equations, tables and facts that will greatly help the consistency, quality and authenticity of the beer you produce. So if you are looking for a book that will help you construct a grain bill for your award winning stout or trying to figure out how much gypsum you need for that porter, this book is for you. I wish I bought this book years ago!

5 Stars Brewing Bible
Very good book with many recipes and very techical notes on brewing classic beer styles

5 Stars Must have book for any brewer
I picked this book up on the recommendation of others and I’m glad I did. It is a bit dated but the information is timeless. This book will not teach a beginner the steps to brew, it teaches the whys not the hows. This should be required reading before any brewer advances to all-grain.

3 Stars Good book but might be getting outdated now
A very useful and informative book, packed with lots of great in-depth detail, covering a wide range of information from historic beer-brewing facts and analysis through to modern home-brewing techniques and tips.

However, a substantial portion of the information provided focuses on ‘NHC Second-Round Beer’ and what (home) brewers used (or did not use) in their entries into the second-round of the NHC Competition. So much so that at times it almost seems like a statistical analysis of the competition entries. Given that the data is about 10 years old now and is focused on only a small sample, I do wonder how relevant that portion of information is now and what may have changed since.

5 Stars Excellent guide for designing your own recipes
This is a great book for the advanced brewer who is tired of blindly following recipes.

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A Year of Beer 260 Seasonal Homebrew Recipes

Mike — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 18:16:56 +0000

A Year of Beer 260 Seasonal Homebrew Recipes

Each chapter begins with a description of a beer style, with recipes for every level of brewer–from extract to all-grain.

User Ratings and Reviews

4 Stars Not the best for beginners
Most of these recipes are all grain. Not a great idea for beginning brewers. But a great idea if you are thinking about making the move up to all grain. A creative brewer could probably make many of them into extract recipes.

The best part is helping you figure out the best the brew for the time of the year. Over all, a fine book.

5 Stars A lot of good recipies.
Recipies from award winning homebrews. There are a lot of good recipies in here and a lot that it’s hard to imagine that they won anything at all. Regardless of the material the author did a great job compiling all of the recipies and presents it well in this edition. A must have for homebrewers.

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