Not what I mean when I say, "solo." My first South Carolina brew session is behind me. As I mentioned in my previous post, it was a solo brew.  This whole "brew by yourself" is a new thing for me.  While a typical brew day involves conversations over mash tuns and pints of beer over boil kettles, this one was a little different.  Ok, very different.  It was all up to me.  From hitting mash temps to sanitizing a plate chiller, it was all mine to do. "What's the big deal?" you may be asking.  "People do this solo brew thing all the time." Well, yeah, people do brew solo all the time.  But I think having a brew partner is a favorable thing - and it's something I am quite accustomed to. Sharing stories and beers is one of the best things about brewing with someone else.  But division of labor ain't bad either: one can monitor the boil-overs while another cleans the mash tun.  I knew that I wasn't going to have the luxury ...

Sorry for the lack of posting lately.  With vacation and family visiting, writing wasn't one of my top priorities. Summer will do that to you.  But for now, I am back and I'm talkin' pale ale.  You can check out the recipe and some notes here .   Also, I do occasionally post some stuff over at Facebook if you want to "Like" that page.  I'll also update you when I have a new post up here. (Sorry for the shameless plug.) So, the first brew on the new equipment went well.  It wasn't perfect, but it was pretty good, all things considering.  I think I did some miscalculations with my mash water amount (too little water), but the mash still went ok.  I was pleased with how the day overall went.  Fermentation was ok, too, except I couldn't get the stinkin' temperature controller probe to stick to the carboy.  I had to submerge it in the blow-off hose bucket.  So, the temperatures were a little less controlled than I wanted. Curren...

So, the big brew day has come and gone.  (But that is not the big news.   What big news, you ask?  The big news I posted about on Facebook .   That big news is coming up soon.  Oooh, the anticipation!) Eric and I brewed our first all-grain batch of beer - a west coast amber ale based off the recipe in the book Brewing Classic Styles.  The recipe was simple and straightforward.  The mash was a single-infusion (meaning we get the grains and water to one temperature, 152 F, and keep it there for one hour), so that played in our favor.  Nothing too complex or difficult.  The hardest thing to control would be our (ok, my ) excitement. For a brew day, things went very smoothly.  We didn't have any major calamities or setbacks.  Impressive, right?  The only thing is, we didn't quite hit our numbers.  When mashing, we were under temp for a long while, but finally got the temperature up where it needed to be.  When we lau...

So, after a long process, lots of delays, many hours of research, much money spent, and tons of craigslist searches, our first all-grain batch is coming up next weekend.  The actual switch from extract to all-grain isn't really that difficult - if you have the Ben Franklins to drop on the new equipment.  For us, gathering all of our equipment without dropping hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars is what has taken so long.  And we're still not there. Ours won't be so fancy - at first. Our ideal setup is a three keg system (known as a half barrel system, see to the left).  Many homebrewers use old kegs as boil kettles and mash tuns, and for good reason.  First, they are all stainless steel, and thus durable.  Second, they are large, holding fifteen gallons.  They can be used for double (10 gallon) batches.  Third, they look bad ass. It is very easy to attain one of these kegs.  The hard part is doing so legally.  See, most people...

Part of transitioning from extract brewing to all-grain brewing is gaining (read: buying ) more equipment.  It is easy to do if you have lots of cash money to throw around, but if you are like me, you tend not to be so extravagant with your spending (no comments from the wife, please).  Eric and I are piecing together our all-grain brew equipment one tank and burner at a time.  Because of this, I have had lots of time to think about what we need.  I thought I would review what I (currently) see as important to have in the three main brewing vessels. Hot Liquor Tank - The HLT is used for holding hot water for mashing (that's a brewer's word; common parlance would be "soaking" or "steeping") the grains and then for sparging (another brewing term; it's really just rinsing the grains of sugars that are left behind). Ideally, HLTs should hold as much liquid as your mash tun, but a little less is ok.  Grains do take up some volume in your mash...