How to Siphon Beer?

"Son-of-a-Bitter!?"

Ah, yes! I remember my first time siphoning and the nightmares I had for weeks about spilling precious beer. My first siphon wasn't even the proper size either - meant for siphoning from a one-gallon jug. It took me several batches trying to perfect my technique and I still wasn't able to get a good solid siphon going. There would be this bubble that formed where the hose mated with the racking cane and it would start out small and only got bigger the further I siphoned, or at least, attempted to siphon. I thumbed through all of my brewing books looking for a step or even an asterisk that I had overlooked; none were found. But then it hit me like a tomato whipped at wall - suction, I was losing suction.

How to Install a Valve on a Brewpot

So, you decided to finally put a spigot on your brewpot, huh? And now you need to know how to go about doing it? It's a damn great feeling when you know that soon you won't be lifting 40 lbs. of 212 degrees F wort. No more ice baths and waiting 30 minutes for it to cool.....because it won't fit in the sink anymore. Unfortunately, I was apparently so excited that I became absent minded in the process, because I completely forgot about this aspect until it was time to cool down. Don't make the same mistake as I did y'all, and be sure you know how you're going to chill your wort before you make any improvements to your setup. If you have homebrewing buddies, they might be willing to lend you a chiller - at least, for your first few batches.

"And now for something completely different." - Monty Python's Flying Circus. That's right. Let's get down to materials and process for our homebrewing excursion.


What You Will Need For Installing a Weldless Valve on a Brewpot:

How Much Priming Sugar?

Recently, I was asked by a fellow brewer how much priming sugar to add to a batch of beer to carbonate it. Priming sugar is something that most of us take for granted. Most kits come with a pre-measured amount of priming sugar. And those of us that prime the typical 5 gallon batch have a regular volume or weight that we use. But what happens when the batch is 4.5 gal or 2.75 gal - what then?

Creating a Beer Recipe

So, you already know how to brew, huh? You've been doing one or more of the following for a while now: extract kits, mini-mash kits, and/ or all-grain, and now you want to start coming up with your own recipe. You're chomping at the bit to have a beer that you can say, "Yep, this is totally, completely, and beyond any shadow of a doubt 100 percent my own recipe! My own beer!" You're done with the cookie cutter pale ale kit that everyone else at your homebrew club has made. Then hop to it son and create your own.

Determine the Style

Porter, wheat, fruit, mild, tripel, specialty? There are so many styles to choose from. The first beer that I could call all my own was an IPA. I brewed it because I hadn't made one before, and I knew that I liked commercial versions. Aim for a style that is familiar so that your taste buds have a reference point.

Appropriate Beer Profile

For a list of some of the most common beer styles and their appropriate characteristics, go to BJCP (Beer Judge Certification Program). It will help you to ensure that you'll end up in the correct style ballpark.

Facebook

Texas Homebrew Roost now has an Official Facebook Page.

Facebook will have additional content not featured on the blog, and you can find all pictures and videos from blog posts there as well. Albums will be labeled by the corresponding post title.

Cheers!

BJ's Restaurant and Brewhouse

Right, so BJ's isn't technically a brewpub. But here in the Great State of Texas, BJ's contracts brewing their beer out to Saint Arnold Brewing Company in Houston. So for our purpose we'll consider it a Texas beer.

There's a BJ'S near my wife and I in North Texas, which we frequent often enough to order without looking at a menu — that includes their tasty beers for me. The other weekend we went to Austin while our carpets were supposed to be cleaned — damn things never were that weekend because of a miscommunication on account of our apartment complex. My brother wanted to get together while we were down and have dinner out, spouses included, so I suggested North by Northwest Brewpub (NXNW); in addition to having an awesome hefeweizen with great banana notes, their garlic fries and gourmet fire grilled pizzas are nothing short of robust. Unfortunately, the wait was just over an hour. Fortunately, BJ'S was just one mile away and the wait was only forty minutes. Plus, my brother and his wife had never been to one.

The #1 Homebrewing Equipment Kit: Part I

For beginning homebrewers it can be difficult determining where to start. Don't even bother looking at recipes yet because it'll just be Greek. Go for equipment first.

I bought a starter equipment kit from my local homebrew supply that got me through my first batch of beer, but there were some things that I would have liked to have changed. Three years, twenty-one brewing days, and one-hundred-five gallons of beer later I've come up with an equipment list that a new brewer will need to make a high quality homebrew. This kit allows for growth as your skills and home brewery expand.

By no means is this list all inclusive, because every brewer will tailor it to his or her brewery and budget, but it is a great starting point. Talk to other homebrewers and see what equipment they find useful. There's no sense in buying things twice because the first thing just plain sucked or wasn't needed at all. For this kit I would budget around $280-350 with the difference being the size brewpot.

The #1 Homebrewing Equipment Kit

What I Brew

"So what kind of beer do you brew?"

I often get asked this question from brewers and non-brewers alike. I tell people every time, "I brew what I want." and I think that's the best way to run a home brewery. If you're wanting to become a homebrewer to save money by making a clone brew of watered down horse piss lager, then you should probably leave the building and be sure to let the door hit you on the ass on your way out. Don't worry, I'm sure the secretary will be kind enough to call an ambulance for you.

Homebrewing is for the passionate, the adventurous, and above all, those who love to fail.

"Why would I welcome failure?" If you're not failing, then you aren't challenging yourself enough. Through failure much knowledge can be gained.

The Virgin Batch

My now wife and I were in the process of planning our wedding and she asked me what I was going to get for my groomsmen. Here I was just three months before the big day and I still hadn't thought of anything manly enough –and our tight budget wasn’t helping (motorcycles and a trip to Vegas were out of the question).

I was on the internet browsing one of those 'custom jewelry & gifts' places that you usually see in the mall. It gave me a few ideas – but there was no way I was going to pay $40 a pop for a flask that wasn't even engraved yet. That, and the image of somebody taking a dram from a flask to me just screams, "Yep! Future AA applicant right over here! Sign me up now!"

About a week went by: Coming up empty handed, I stumbled upon a site where a guy homebrewed beer for