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So I'm looking at this job where homebrewing is a plus, how detailed would you get about your homebrewing experience on your resume?
Home Brew Discussion
- Thread starter Heidenlarm
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Hi guys, my dad is giving me his brewing kit and 12 cases of bottles next weekend. I was gonna just brew some mead, but do u have any foolproof first timer brewing recommendations? Can I brew malt liquor? PS, I drink hamms mostly...
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Resume and cover letter sent 
ray:
ray:
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Foolproof? Mead? Here is your answer...it doesnt get easier than Joe's Ancient Orange Mead. And you only have to wait 3 months instead of years for a delicious mead. http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f80/joes-ancient-orange-mead-49106/
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Resume and cover letter sent
Good luck! Well since this was a while ago...how'd it go?
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Its been a while since I, and anyone else, posted here. I have made the conversion to all grain. No more extract, partial mashes, or brew-in-a-bags for me. Surprisingly easy. I have never brewed with anyone else, so I never knew what I was doing right or wrong. I got to brew with an old friend over the holidays. He showed me how to use my current setup, with a few modifications, to do all grain. I feel like that step to all grain made me understand so much better about the way brewing works. I feel way more confident to make my own recipes from scratch as well as start messing with water chemistry and pH.
We brewed an oak-bourbon imperial stout. It is still fermenting 15 days later. It took off like crazy too. Blew out the airlock twice, staining my carpet. Ugh. Now it has a blowoff tube. I will add the chips when I rack to the secondary in a few days.
Yesterday, I made a new sparge arm out of copper coil. Worked extremely well. I brewed my chili beer for the 4th time. However, this was my first time doing it all grain. It is an amazingly popular beer, so I hope the all grain turns out. And of course dealing with the unpredictable chilis is always difficult.
Anyone else got any fun brewing going on?
We brewed an oak-bourbon imperial stout. It is still fermenting 15 days later. It took off like crazy too. Blew out the airlock twice, staining my carpet. Ugh. Now it has a blowoff tube. I will add the chips when I rack to the secondary in a few days.
Yesterday, I made a new sparge arm out of copper coil. Worked extremely well. I brewed my chili beer for the 4th time. However, this was my first time doing it all grain. It is an amazingly popular beer, so I hope the all grain turns out. And of course dealing with the unpredictable chilis is always difficult.
Anyone else got any fun brewing going on?
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Just bought a brew kit yesterday...either this sunday or next I am going to start brewing for the first time. I want to do all grain also...been watching videos on how to brew. Any suggestions for a first time brewer? Any links or videos that can help with not screwing up my first brew?
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Before I got any brew equipment, I read Palmer's book "How to Brew" from front to back. WAY more info than you would need to get going, but it has everything there for you as you advance. It is available online for free. I have not read through the online one so I am not sure if EVERYTHING from the book is there. Ah. After going to the site, the first edition is all online for free. The book is up to the third edition. I am sure it is enough to get you going though.
http://www.howtobrew.com/
Another nice resourcve but certainly not necessary is beersmith. It will help you to document your brewing. Estimate what different grains will do to your beer. A little more advanced. I used an excel spreadsheet for years, but I love using beersmith now. Like I said, not necessary but if you are geeky like me, you might enjoy it. However, not free.
http://beersmith.com/
What came with your beer kit? It is rare that a kit comes equipped for all grain. If it does, wow, congrats. Way to dive right in. I found it too expensive to get eveything at once, so I built my way up, piece by piece. As has been mentioned on here many times, be sanitary. StarSan is your friend. I like to sanitize all of my tools that will touch the beer after cooling (autosiphon, buckets, funnel, carboy, hydrometer and beer thief, etc) and then wrap them in saranwrap. That way it is ready to go when I need it. If I had a better idea of your equipment, I could probably be of more help. But maybe not as much help as just referring to Palmer's book. I would be willing to answer any specific questions though!
Oh, another good source is http://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum.php There are answers to pretty much any question or problem there.
Good luck! And have fun!
http://www.howtobrew.com/
Another nice resourcve but certainly not necessary is beersmith. It will help you to document your brewing. Estimate what different grains will do to your beer. A little more advanced. I used an excel spreadsheet for years, but I love using beersmith now. Like I said, not necessary but if you are geeky like me, you might enjoy it. However, not free.
http://beersmith.com/
What came with your beer kit? It is rare that a kit comes equipped for all grain. If it does, wow, congrats. Way to dive right in. I found it too expensive to get eveything at once, so I built my way up, piece by piece. As has been mentioned on here many times, be sanitary. StarSan is your friend. I like to sanitize all of my tools that will touch the beer after cooling (autosiphon, buckets, funnel, carboy, hydrometer and beer thief, etc) and then wrap them in saranwrap. That way it is ready to go when I need it. If I had a better idea of your equipment, I could probably be of more help. But maybe not as much help as just referring to Palmer's book. I would be willing to answer any specific questions though!
Oh, another good source is http://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum.php There are answers to pretty much any question or problem there.
Good luck! And have fun!
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I never heard back from them. I got a call from another brewery recently though, had a phone interview. We'll see what happens there.
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What do you do to the chips when you rack them to the secondary to keep them from potentially infecting the beer? I wanna know how the chili beer turns out all grain vs your prior way.
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The oak chips have been soaking in bourbon for almost a month now. The bourbon should sanitize them effectively to just toss them in. I am only going to use about 2oz. I am very concerned about over-oaking.
My starter was weird for the chili beer. White Labs San Francisco Lager yeast. It took like half an hour of shaking to get the yeasties to come off the sides of the vial. Then it didn't ferment like a usual starter. It kept flocculating and sticking to the bottom of the erlenmeyer. But it is fermenting like crazy in the carboy. I dont know. Stupid living things like yeasties getting me all worried.
My sparge water dropped a little too much so I didnt have great efficiency. I was expecting 1.062 or so and after sparge, I was at 1.052. So I boiled it down more than usual in the brew pot. I ended up with only about 4.75 gallons, but it is 1.070. I think it will turn out. It tastes great. My beers used to taste a bit "watery", but I dont think I am going to have that problem with all grain. Very much looking forward to these 2 beers.
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HeHateMe! Vanprooyen! Get in here! How did your first attempts go? Gonna keep doing it? It takes a fairly long time on brew day your first few times. But it gets easier and more efficient as you brew more.
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Thanks for the info, haven't had a good chance to look into beersmith or howtobrew.com...but from what you said I think i will be using both sites a lot.
this is the kit I got:
http://www.amazon.com/Brewers-Best-Beer-Brewing-Equipment/dp/B006J336US
seems to have the essential stuff...my family owns a restaurant so I was having my brother look into a 6-10 gallon pot through one of his suppliers. I am going back to the homebrew store to get an ingredient kit just to get my feet wet and have some sort of guideline before I explore out on my own. I'll keep you up to date on how it goes.
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Right on. Good luck. I started with pretty much that same kit. It is expensive for a large stainless steel pot, but for a long time I was using a turkey deep fryer aluminum pot. It was about 6 gallons. You want to get a good strong boil going so I usually had to only fill about 4 gallons worth and then top up with water after cooling the boil to get it up to about 5.5 gallons. Now I have a 15 gallon pot and it was totally worth it. This one, I think: http://www.amazon.com/Bayou-Classic...5729&sr=8-3&keywords=stainless+steel+pot+60qt
After boiling you are going to want to cool the beer quickly. If you do more than one batch you are going to want to make a wort chiller. They are expensive to buy pre made, but you can make your own fairly easily. Buy coiled copper at the hardware store (or a straight piece if you are ambitious. Buy spring tube benders (you can return them after using them if you want). Or fill the copper tube with sand to keep it from kinking when you are bending it. You end up with something like this:
It is somewhat daunting to go buy your first ingredients when they are not in a kit, but trust me, you can do it. Just google a beer you like with the word recipe at the end. You will most certainly find a 5 gallon extract recipe. There may be a couple specialty grains, but you just steep those like a giant tea bag at ~155 degrees F for about 30 minutes before bringing it up to a boil. But whatever gets you comfortable brewing is the right decision. Have fun with it!
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Anyone got anything new going on? I had a major mishap and my bourbon oak stout keg broke a seal and emptied 5 gallons of beer into my kegerator while I was traveling. I only had one pint out of it and it was absolutely delicious. Very sad day. I just brewed it again last Sunday. I also have my chili beer spicin up in the secondary.
I just entered a competition with my belgian pale ale. The judging is tomorrow. The winner gets to brew their beer with Dry Dock brewing at the pro-am competition at the Great American Brew Fest. I got silver 2 years ago with the same beer. While I was hoping to submit my bourbon oak stout, I think this beer has a good chance. Here's to hoping.
I just entered a competition with my belgian pale ale. The judging is tomorrow. The winner gets to brew their beer with Dry Dock brewing at the pro-am competition at the Great American Brew Fest. I got silver 2 years ago with the same beer. While I was hoping to submit my bourbon oak stout, I think this beer has a good chance. Here's to hoping.
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Bummer, this is in the food and drink section now. I hope people actually use this subforum.
But I guess since this topic dropped so far from inactivity, no one cares too much anyway.
But I guess since this topic dropped so far from inactivity, no one cares too much anyway.
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Right on. Good luck. I started with pretty much that same kit. It is expensive for a large stainless steel pot, but for a long time I was using a turkey deep fryer aluminum pot. It was about 6 gallons. You want to get a good strong boil going so I usually had to only fill about 4 gallons worth and then top up with water after cooling the boil to get it up to about 5.5 gallons. Now I have a 15 gallon pot and it was totally worth it. This one, I think: http://www.amazon.com/Bayou-Classic...5729&sr=8-3&keywords=stainless+steel+pot+60qt
After boiling you are going to want to cool the beer quickly. If you do more than one batch you are going to want to make a wort chiller. They are expensive to buy pre made, but you can make your own fairly easily. Buy coiled copper at the hardware store (or a straight piece if you are ambitious. Buy spring tube benders (you can return them after using them if you want). Or fill the copper tube with sand to keep it from kinking when you are bending it. You end up with something like this:With proper pieces it will attach to your kitchen faucet or hose spigot outside.
It is somewhat daunting to go buy your first ingredients when they are not in a kit, but trust me, you can do it. Just google a beer you like with the word recipe at the end. You will most certainly find a 5 gallon extract recipe. There may be a couple specialty grains, but you just steep those like a giant tea bag at ~155 degrees F for about 30 minutes before bringing it up to a boil. But whatever gets you comfortable brewing is the right decision. Have fun with it!
As for the proper piece to attach the chiller I ended up using something like this: http://www.amazon.com/Profiles-Sham...1395086581&sr=8-9&keywords=rubber+hose+faucet
Super simple.
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What was the outcome?
I haven't done anything, don't have the opportunity. I've been itching to like mad though. I did apply to Lagunitas and had a phone interview, but in the end they wanted someone with more experience.
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Welp...I didnt win. Didnt even win my category, but they also lumped my category with French, and sour ales, which seems odd. I havent picked up my critiques yet, but I will do that tomorrow at homebrewer night (about 70 homebrewers get together and bring 2 or 3 of their own beers and everyone just goes around sampling and giving quick critiques). A bit bummed because I thought it actually had a good chance. But on the plus side, my Citra IPA has been keg conditioning for a few weeks and it is fantastic now. I just brewed, on Saturday, my dry-hopped dunkelweizen that I did about 5 years ago, but this time I did it all grain. Excited for that because it was so good last time.
Bummer on not getting the job at Lagunitas! That would be a great opportunity. Well, keep working and you'll get what you want. My buddy just opened a brewery in Freeport, IL. Actually it is still in construction, but very exciting.
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So a category of Belgian pale, French, and sour ales? What because sours are generally Belgian? That's dumb.
Yeah I applied for the bottling line since I have some experience on packaging lines and I figured that'd be a safer bet to get my foot in the door. Oh well. I'm going to write to another brewery, they're not hiring, but damn it my mindset on beer is so similar to theirs and the one dude is into metal so perhaps I dunno maybe at least stick out later in their mind whenever they expand.
Yeah I applied for the bottling line since I have some experience on packaging lines and I figured that'd be a safer bet to get my foot in the door. Oh well. I'm going to write to another brewery, they're not hiring, but damn it my mindset on beer is so similar to theirs and the one dude is into metal so perhaps I dunno maybe at least stick out later in their mind whenever they expand.