Great Idea Dan, I hadnt thought of the 5 gal soda tanks.. I may have to turn the bathtup into an impromptu sterilization tank! Hmm.. Now if i could find a tall skinny fridge..run the tapper thru the front..

 

You mean like this?

3 Aces!! (Well, with the pair of sixes, I guess it's a full house)
Front left is an almost empty stout.
The blue top behind that is a full "pre-prohibition lager" that's almost ready to go.
On the right is the porter (named after my dog, who's named for the beer) that I just tapped on Sunday, yummy but needed another day or two under pressure to be carbonated to my liking.
The six-packs in between are also homebrew, the Pocono Wheat in the center and the one behind it are my hefeweizen (my favorite summer beer) and the ESB is holding the last of my ESB. The door has some WCPA and another batch of lager and that plastic bottle is Scotch ale (11.5% ABV).

Commercial beer is in the other fridge.

 

I guess I should correct myself, I just ordered 2 "kits" and they avereage a bit above this figure. The Altbier was $29 and the Belgian Triple was a bit more...

That and the requisite "couple goodies for the brewer" were $91 +shipping.

 

isnt making beer really illegal unless your a lisenced brewery and stuff?

 

VERY NICE, Dave! The most I ever had flowing was two, and I had that little CO2 cyl tucked in there with them. It looks like 4 would fit.. what a great sight!

 

Having done the research on this I have concluded- The average per state is 200 gallons a a year for "personal" consumption. (YMMV) You will only need a license if you plan on distribution and sales.
Most off the shelf brewing components from your local brew shoppe are "run of the mill" and anyone can make a batch similar to yours, so there really is no market except for personal (and friendly poker night)consumption.

200 gallons is about 5 gals a week- a good quantity to make it worthwhile for the homebrewer (Less is the same amount of work, more is even more work- sterilizationa nd kitchen capacity and all) That's an awful lot of "personal" consumption!

I'm really liking the "soda keg" idea- cuts down on a LOT of cleaning, bottling, capping, storage and glass breakage issues!!!

 

Actually, 5 would fit, but I only have the 3 that are in there. I had the 3 plus a carboy of lager (secondary) in there for a while and still had a little room left.
It's a regular 22 cu ft fridge, you should have seen the look on the salesman's face when (after the extended coverage sales pitch) I asked it it would still be covered "after I'm done with the holesaw an re-wiring it."
The CO2 is in a K cylinder out in the garage, there's no way I'm lugging a 120 lb tank into the house. fourty feet of hose did the trick nicely.

 

with my recient bout of the nine dozen doldrums, i will be more than happy to be a taste tester

 

That hops plant looks awesome! I was trying to grow cascase hops out of my flowerbox garden and it did okay for a while, but not well enough to really get going like that. Yours looks outstanding!

I was thinking it was too dry here maybe, but the homebrew shop I go to has a humongous one in a planter behind their place. Nice job!

 

Thanks, it's all in the timing. Spring 2003 I planted those 2 cascade rizomes and 1 cluster on the other side of the yard. The cluster took off first but suddenly died after a few months. The cascade put out some vines but only a couple masde it to the top of the trellis, they produced no cones at all. This year the established plants took off early and were at the top of the 11' trellis by mid June, I'm picking cones every weekend. It takes about a million cones to make an ounce once they are dried but my Porter was dry hopped with the first 1/4 ounce.

 

Well, I will soon be gainfully employed- no more 1099's for me for a while (I liked the flexibility of short term contract, and the pay scale- but NO benefits starting making me nervous- can you imagind NO health insurance for over 4 years, and I'm getting up there baby..)

So I'm guessing a month or so I will begin the experiment- I'm starting to price acoutremants now- I'd prefer to get better equipment- so used will be fine for tyhe better stuff. When I'm done with this I can always sell to another noobie like me.

This of course, is if the VERY local police allows me to proceed!!

 

Check with your local brew store because they usually sell starter kits which include a fermenting bucket, bottling bucket, funnel and screen, and other stuff you will need to brew. I'm not a fan of pre-packaged kits as the yeast is probably bad. Always use fresh liquid yeast and make a starter. Malt extract makes life easier and is the better way to go in the beggining but add grains for a more complex brew (partial mash brewing). Always start with an ale.

Research the web first as there are lots of websites that will guide you through your fist batch.

Enjoy.

 

There are kits and then there are kits, or to put that another way, a kit can be anything from a can of malt extract and a pack of dry yeast to a big box full of grains and malt with the correct liquid yeast for the style.
Again, Northern Brewer is a good place to start since they have some of the best kits you'll ever see. For a first brew there's no reason to do anything but a very simple kit (malt extract, hops and yeast only, you can steep some grain for the second batch).
Starters are a good idea, especially if the yeast is questionable, but most liquid yeast come in a big enough package that a starter is not needed unless it's old of it wasn't kept cool.

 

Congrats! Care to tell us more?! Still close to my office, or far away? I missed out on our chance to do a power lunch on your last job.......



Jeremy