I thought I'd spend some time weighing each component and talking about it for a while, but I finished a project Monday and wanted to brew, so I bought all the key components in this picture yesterday and brewed 5 gallons of IPA today. Chinook and Cascade hops.

You put propane in your beer?? I've gotta try that!

Red, do your neighbors look out the window and think, "WTF is that guy doing now?"

One set of neighbors do probably think "WTF". The others were in the back yard with friends yesterday, so they just asked.

...and it's the 1st time I've ever had to buy a propane tank. I have to be a bit careful with it, the rubber grip of the spigot handle was smoking at one point. I got a 30 qt boil pot, but a cooker that can handle 162 qt. Apparently it can burn through a tank in under 2 hours. I haven't even tried opening the valve up all the way yet.

Why the super-powered cooker? Planning on moving to a bigger pot eventually?

deathroh said:

Why the super-powered cooker? Planning on moving to a bigger pot eventually?

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'Cause when I told the Mrs. that I was going to buy it, she got visions of blue crab pickin' and deep fried turkey. There is a smaller version (smaller frame for setting the pot on) of this burner that has the same thermal output that would have saved be about $40, but if we're going to think about doing stuff with taller kettles and especially with other people around, I want the biggest, most stable platform I can get.

The thought moving to a bigger pot did cross my mind though. If 5 gallons goes well, the next step would be to use converted kegs. I would have to get a shed or something before I could handle that much equipment.

Ahh, makes sense. 5 gallons a pop should do the trick. Especially early on while you're experimenting.

What level of alcohol content are you shooting for?

deathroh said:

Ahh, makes sense. 5 gallons a pop should do the trick. Especially early on while you're experimenting.

What level of alcohol content are you shooting for?

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This batch should be around 5%. That's as low as I've gone so far (my highest has been 8.1%). I was actually shooting for 6% but my OG came out low. I think I added too much water, but I find it hard to believe that I missed my mark by that much.

I'm guessing it's pretty hard to make the higher percentage stuff drinkable. We don't shell out the big bucks for Hopslam for nothin.

deathroh said:

I'm guessing it's pretty hard to make the higher percentage stuff drinkable. We don't shell out the big bucks for Hopslam for nothin.

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The 8%er was ok. Not the best beer I've made, but not the worst either. I didn't get to 8% by mashing at a high temp and squeezing everything I could out of the grains, I got to 8% by mashing about 50% more grain than normal, but still at a low temp. Keeping the mash temp low gets you lot of the good stuff in beer that isn't alcohol...I just don't want to know how many calories there are.

You can keep a lot of people happy by just putting a lot of hops in a beer, which isn't expensive with small batches. I'm pretty much over my fascination with hops. It's trickier to make a good beer with fewer hops. If you can't get enough hops, you can always eat a hop pellet. It's getting flavors like citrus or coffee or "sweaty horse blanket" (lambics) from grain that's more amazing to me.

12% is a magic number. I think it's tough as a home brewer to approach 12%. A lot of yeast dies off in that area. Dunno how drinkable a beer would be if I tried. I'm not sure what it would take. I think getting a fish tank air filter and using it to pump pure oxygen into the mix is one of the things you have to do to get there.