Capital Startup

Crockpot mash tun $50 (amazon)
14x19 nylon bag $10 (homebrewmart)
8 qt sparge pot/chiller $40 (amazon)
sink strainer, grain bed $10-$16 (amazon)
19 qt boil pot $27 (homebrewmart)
2 1 gallon fermenters free-$10 (grocery store)
Bottle brush $3.50 (homebrewmart)
2 airlocks + stoppers $6.50 (homebrewmart)
Hydrometer $10 (homebrewmart)
Iodophor $6 (homebrewmart)
Digital thermometer $17 (amazon)
Strainer $5
Funnel $5
Scale $10 (amazon)
Ladle $5
Keg Bottle $20
Racking cane $4
tubing $1

$227

Brew8 Bottling

Equipment: Boil pot, jars, draft bottle and cap, tasting bottle and cap, racking cane, tubing, hydrometer, iodophor, sugar

Steps:

1. Cold conditioned beer for ~24 hours start temp:~74F terminal temp:~45F
1. Airlock water potentially sucked into fermenter due to vacuum
2. Changed ice at about ~12 hours, needed to warm water up at ~16 hours due to airlock vacuum
2. Boil jars for 20 mins 
3. Cap boiled water in jars 
4. Put jars in water bath to cool
5. Sanitize all equipment
6. Made sugar mixture of 2.5 tbsp cane sugar and 5 tbsp water
7. Add sugar mixture to bottles that will be bottle conditioned
8. Siphon from fermenters to bottles
1. Siphoned to small bottle first, clamped tube slightly and moved over large bottle, let go to siphon into large bottle
9. Measure FG, if haven't already
1. ~1.011 w/o sugar
10. Burp bottle before capping
11. Add water to fermenter 
12. Rack yeast water to large jar 
13. Rack large jar to small jars
1. Only 2 small jars available. Dumped some yeast water

1. Record temps
1. Current bottle temp ~__F room temp 76F

Brew8 Tasting

Force carbed ~10 oz

ABV: ~5.5%

IBUs (calculated): 40

Aroma: Nutty, sweet

Hops: Very slight pine flavor
Yeast: low/none
Texture: medium
Finish: sweet, nutty
Duration: short (seconds)

Overall:8

Good red. Very tasty.

Brew7 Tasting

Wrapped CO2 cartridge with electrical tape to get to appropriate neck thickness and it repressurized the bottle, but afterward it leaked out CO2.

ABV: ~4%

IBUs (calculated): 40

Aroma: Slight smoky, sweet

Hops: Slight bitter, not very much taste
Yeast: low
Texture: thick, guinness-y
Finish: sweet, lingering grain
Duration: short (seconds)

Overall:8.5

Just like Guinness w/o the nitro

Brew8 Cost Analysis

Materials cost:

• Grain: $3.05
• Hops: $0.78
• Yeast: $0.75
• Water: $0
• Sanitizing solution: $0.50
• CO2: $4
• Priming sugar: ~$0.02

Energy cost:

• Heating: ? ~$0.30 (~2 kWh)
• Cooling: ?

~$9.40

Brew7 Cost Analysis

Materials cost:

• Grain: $2.77
• Hops: $1.63
• Yeast: $5
• Water: $0
• Sanitizing solution: $0.50
• CO2: $4
• Priming sugar: ~$0.02

Energy cost:

• Heating: ? ~$0.30 (~2 kWh)
• Cooling: ?

~$14.20

Brew8: American Red

Based on Sharkbite Red recipe
http://hbd.org/discus/messages/40327/42824.html?1188573053

Single Infusion Mash (152, 60+ mins)

Equipment: Mash tun (6 quart crockpot, nylon bag), Lauter tun (6 quart & 4 quart sparge pots, 8 quart pot, strainer/steamer, funnel, string funnel holder), Boil pot (8qt pot), Fermenter (2 1 gallon carboys), Airlocks, Hydrometer, Idophor, Thermometer, wort chiller (2 frozen gallon bottles, cooler), strainer, funnel, ruler, stirring spoon, scale, pint measuring cup

Recipe:

2.5 gallons water

Target: 1.75 gallons wort, OG: 1.055

2 lb. 4 oz (2.25 lb) 2-row base

8.8 oz (0.55 lb) Crystal 80

IBUs: ~24

2/15 oz Centennial (9.9%) at 60 mins

1/5 oz Cascade (7.5%) at 15 mins

Yeast: Ale Yeast (Brew6 Coopers Dry Sludge)

Steps:

Mash:

1. If boiling prepare bath with 2 gallon ice
1. Bath prepared from cold conditioning stout bottling (~42 F)
2. Heat Mash tun
3. Prepare strike water. Using ratio 1.5 qt/lb, 4.2 qts water to 165  F
4. Temper in grains with strike water
5. With thermometer, maintain mash temp
6. Stir mash every so often
7. Prepare sparge water: ~175 F at .5qt/lb water loss to grain, 1.4 qts loss, 4.2 qts water, round up to 5
8. At end of mash, scoop wort over grains into lauter (4qt pot). When pot is full, pour wort into boil pot. Repeat.
1. Ended mash at ~75 min
9. Measure wort amount to find sparge wort amount.
10. Measure gravity.
1. 1.040 for 1 gallon
11. While measuring gravity and wort volume, sparge into secondary pot until reaching sparge wort amount or 1.75 gals wort in boil
1. Continued to sparge while boiling

Boil:

1. Bring wort to rolling boil
1. Took ~20 mins
2. Once wort has reached boil, pull 4 oz and chill to 90s F in water bath
3. Add hops according to schedule
4. Rehydrate yeast by pouring chilled wort over it. Shake to mix and measure/split mixture into 2 for fermenters
1. ~2.7 oz weight per fermenter
5. With a 10-15 minutes left in boil, sanitize fermenter, airlock, blowoff tube, wort chiller, strainer, funnel, ladle [need to scoop some wort for hydrometer]
6. Near end, add extra water to reach target brew amount if needed
7. Finish boil at 60 mins
8. Chill wort in bath using running water if bath temp rises too high and then aerate
1. Took ~30 mins
2. Used 42F water with ice cubes in sink bath
3. Rapid dropoff of temp at first 10+F per min
4. Slowed significantly around ~110F
5. Chilled to final: ~79F
9. Measure OG
1. 1.050
10. Scoop and strain wort into first fermenter; pour and strain wort into second
11. Pitch yeast
12. Cap with airlock/blowoff tubes

~4 hours start to finish

~73F start fermentation temp

Active fermentation was noticeable ~8 hours later
Bottles hit 75F ~16 hours later. Began cooling with gallon ice and tray of water housed in cardboard box. Fermentation temp reached ~67 F at ~32 hours.

Cider bottling

Equipment: Boil pot, jars, bottles and caps, racking cane, bottling bucket, tubing, hydrometer, iodophor, sugar

Steps:

1. Cold conditioned beer for ~14.5 hours start temp:74F terminal temp:35F
2. Sanitize all equipment
1. Equipment unsanitized between brew7 and cider
3. Made sugar mixture of 1 tbsp and 1 tsp cane sugar and 2.5 tbsp water
4. Measure sugar mixture volume and calculate division according to bottle conditioned bottles
5. Add sugar mixture to bottles that will be bottle conditioned
1. Added sugar to bottling bucket
6. Siphoned both fermenter to bucket
7. Bottled using bottle tube
1. 4 12 oz bottles, 1 22 oz bottle, ~8oz left over
8. Measure FG, if haven't already
1. ~1.010 w/sugar

1. Record temps
1. Current bottle temp ~67F, room temp 75F

Brew7 Bottling

Equipment: Boil pot, jars, draft bottle and cap, racking cane, bottling bucket, tubing, hydrometer, iodophor, sugar

Steps:

1. Cold conditioned beer for ~14.5 hours start temp:74F terminal temp:35F
1. Airlock water potentially sucked into fermenter due to vacuum
2. Boil jars for 20 mins 
3. Cap boiled water in jars 
4. Put jars in water bath to cool
1. Ran out to get water for next brew batch
5. Sanitize all equipment
6. Made sugar mixture of 2 tbsp cane sugar and 4 tbsp water
7. Measure sugar mixture volume and calculate division according to bottle conditioned bottles
8. Add sugar mixture to bottles that will be bottle conditioned
1. Added sugar to bottling bucket
9. Siphoned both fermenters to bucket
10. Siphoned from bucket to bottle
1. Not very much settling time in bucket, so not sure if siphoning to bucket was a worthwhile step
11. Measure FG, if haven't already
1. ~1.013 w/sugar
2. Forgot and made clumsy measurement
3. Burped bottle and some beer poured out
12. Add water to fermenter 
13. Rack yeast water to large jar 

1. Record temps
1. Current bottle temp ~64F room temp 75F

Shopping List

2 lb. 4 oz (2.25 lb) 2-row base

8.8 oz (0.55 lb) Crystal 77

Centennial hops

Brew6 Bottling 3

Poured a little under 12 oz beer from keg into measuring cup. Poured from cup to tilted bottle. Some foam still (potentially from idophor). A lot less foam occurred however than the previous tubing bottle attempt.

However the beer probably does not have enough carbonation to keep it carbonated. Need to try pouring from cup to plastic bottle, force carbing bottle, pouring from bottle to bottle, and then capping.

Also, changed CO2 on keg. Added a folded aluminum foil of a couple layers to top of cartridge. CO2 was still lost when the cartridge was punctured. Some kind of washer is needed.

Water bath test

Boil 1.75 gallons water
Cover
begin timer
Chill in running water bath

Brew6 Bottling 2

Sanitized 12 oz no label bottle, larger diameter tubing, and a bottle cap

Filled bottle with carbonated beer

Foam filled 40% of the bottle

Tried pouring beer into measuring cup then from cup into bottle, made little progress.

Capped beer at ~75-80% full.

Probably best to fill bottles by pouring beer into measuring cup first then from cup into tubing slowly, so as to reduce the force the beer has when hitting the sides of the bottle.

Brew6 Tasting

ABV: ~7.5%

IBUs (calculated): 105

Aroma: Passion fruit, slight cider, citrus, very faint barnyard (yeast/hop, earth grass)

Hops: Some pine, citrus
Yeast: medium/wheaty
Texture: Crisp, liquid
Finish: dry, lingering wheaties
Duration: long (minutes)

Carbonation: Slightly below average

Fairly bitter

Overall:8

Getting better...

Brew7: Stout

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f68/ode-arthur-irish-stout-guinness-clone-28239/
Single Infusion Mash (152, 60+ mins)

Equipment: Mash tun (6 quart crockpot, nylon bag), Lauter tun (6 quart & 4 quart sparge pots, 8 quart pot, strainer/steamer, funnel, rubber band funnel holder), Boil pot (8qt pot, 6qt pot), Fermenter (2 1 gallon carboys), Airlocks, Hydrometer, Idophor, Thermometer, wort chiller (8 frozen water bottles or 2 frozen gallon bottles) and water bath, strainer, funnel, ruler, stirring spoon, scale, pint measuring cup

Recipe:

2.5 gallons water

Target: 1.75 gallons wort, OG: 1.045

1 lb. 8 oz (1.5 lb) 2-row base (66.7%)

9.6 oz 0.6 lb. flaked barley (26.7%)

3.2 oz 0.2 lb. black malt (500L) (8.9%) (I might have actually measured 3.6 oz of this)

1.75 gallons boil

Target: 1.5 gallons

IBUs: ~30-40

1/2 oz Goldings/NorthernBrewer at 60 mins

Yeast: SafBrew dry

Steps:

Mash:

1. Heat Mash tun
1. Heated to around 135
2. Prepare strike water. Using ratio 1.5 qt/lb, 3.45 qts water to 160  F
3. Temper in grains with strike water
1. Temp was low at 145 F
2. Tried pumping heat in by raising cooking temp on cooker from warm to low
3. Then from low to high
4. After half hour and 2 8 oz additions of hot water temp reached 152 F
4. With thermometer, maintain mash temp
5. Stir mash every so often
6. Prepare sparge water: ~175 F at .5qt/lb water loss to grain, 1.15 qts loss, 4.7 qts water, round up to 5
7. At end of mash, scoop wort over grains into boil pot.
1. Stuck sparge
2. Raked grains with spoon
8. Measure wort amount to find sparge wort amount.
9. Measure gravity.
1. 1 gallon of wort 1.041
10. While measuring gravity and wort volume, sparge into secondary pot until reaching sparge wort amount or 1.75 gals wort in boil
11. Measure gravity

Boil:

1. Add hops according to schedule
2. Rehydrate yeast if needed (boil 1/2 cup water per 7g packet, cover put in freezer or water bath until 95-105 F reached ~30 mins) (or boil 1/2 cup wort and put in freezer or water bath to get a starter going)
1. Poured chilled wort over yeast sludge to help break it up
3. Bring wort to rolling boil
4. Partial cover pot if at all
5. With a 10-15 minutes left in boil, sanitize fermenter, airlock, blowoff tube, wort chiller, strainer, funnel, ladle [need to scoop some wort for hydrometer]
6. Near end, add extra water to reach target brew amount if needed
7. Finish boil at 60 mins
8. Scoop half wort into secondary pot
9. Chill wort (use bath and immersion) and then aerate
1. Disaster! Moving pots to bath (cooler with sanitizing solution) did not work. Both pots wouldn't fit at the same time. The ice bottles were not very dry when immersed in the wort.
2. It took over 20 minutes to chill the wort to ~85F
10. Measure OG
1. 1.041
11. Pour and strain wort into fermenters
12. Pitch yeast
1. Disaster! Starter yeast blew out of their holding container. Yeast were definitely lost.
13. Cap with airlock/blowoff tubes

A little over 4 hours from start to finish