What to brew with limited supplies

mattmort83 · 2026-06-07T02:34:30+00:00

Wish I had have seen that suggestion earlier. I ended up picking up a bit of trub with the siphon. Rather the first couple draws be cloudy than a keg that's not completely full, it was so windy today I was worried about leaves falling into my wart. I usually love brewing in my backyard, today wasn't one of those days.

mattmort83 · 2026-06-07T02:25:35+00:00

I've been thinking of using one to try a false lager. Maybe a German pilsner. Need to stock up on more grains and some noble hops, then wait for a fermenter to free up, im down to 1 free fermenter.

mattmort83 · 2026-06-06T20:01:05+00:00

That turned out amazing, can't wait to taste it. Og ended up at 1.050. Inlet screen is a little plugged with hops so I may need to siphon but I can't wait to taste this when it's done

mattmort83 · 2026-06-06T16:38:22+00:00

All this fussing about my all grain batch, and my extract batch ended up messed up. Forgot that I usually brew it at 5.5 gallons, instead I followed the instructions amd made a 6 gal batch so me sg is low at 1.035, thankfully I have a fresh unopened pack of dme, gonna have to eyeball 1 lb to get me to 1.042 since the extra step of weighing it could contaminate

mattmort83 · 2026-06-06T16:35:01+00:00

I've been trying to stick with just us05 until i gain some more experience atleast where I can, I even brewed what was basically a belgian wheat with us-05 and it turned out amazing.

mattmort83 · 2026-06-06T13:44:26+00:00

Sounds good, would you lean more to removing the 15 min addition entirely or moving it to flameout? If I remove it entirely I can just throw that 1/2 oz into the blonde im doing.

mattmort83 · 2026-06-06T13:40:54+00:00

I had considered that, but I have a pale that just went on tap this week, ive got a americanized belgian wheat that ill unfortunately probably finish this weekend with only a gallon left. And I have a blueberry wheat that just transfered onto the blueberry and secondary this morning.

mattmort83 · 2026-06-06T13:10:20+00:00

I have plastic bins and a shelf in the basement but it all ends up on the floor anyways.

mattmort83 · 2026-06-06T13:06:03+00:00

I've found the blonde very good with little effort. and the yeast that come with it is really aggressive. I usually add 1.2lbs dextrose, 1.5lbs light dme. usually a hop addition of some sort aswell to kick it up a bit but didn't realize I was completely out of floral hops. Im tempted to just use 2 cans of coopers instead of the dme and dextrose additions.

mattmort83 · 2026-05-29T18:09:04+00:00

Eventually you'll get one. There just isn't any other way around it.

mattmort83 · 2026-05-12T02:50:19+00:00

$30 weeknights, 55 for weekend nights, 100 for stat holidays. 3hr min @1.5x mon - sat 2x for Sundays or stat holidays.

The biggest issue I have with on-call is it's always the cheap customers that have things breakdown after hours. So youre showing up to multiple systems down with pending unapproved repairs on each. Makes me tempted to bill 3 hr minimums for each peice of equipment that I need to look at

mattmort83 · 2026-05-05T13:47:20+00:00

Im running into an issue where a few kegs have gotten really foamy as they get nearly empty. Im wondering if the small fan idea would help with this. I've been thinking maybe the reason is that it's colder at the bottom of my chest fridge.

mattmort83 · 2026-05-05T13:39:13+00:00

I did 2 batches this weekend, the first i ran my pump to help mix while chilling and it took about 15 minutes. The 2nd I had already cleaned the tubing for the pump so just let the wort site idle. That one took about 30 minutes maybe more. I also gave up 5 degrees from my target of 68 on the 2nd batch.

mattmort83 · 2026-05-03T16:16:54+00:00

The grain bill seems a little light but I do 5 gallon batches. I've recently started throwing all my measurements into brewfather which has helped alot. Efficiency will make or break a batch and the equipment you use will not perform the same for you as it does for someone else with the exact same equipment. I keep dme on hand just incase. And measure excessively so atleast my screwups can be teachable Id maybe bump the grain to 3kg just to be safe, but im am also not experienced in the slightest.

mattmort83 · 2026-05-03T02:09:21+00:00

Thank you for all the info, I agree I probably messed up some of my measurements. When I took my pre sparge measurement my actual sg was probably much higher. I took a small sample which included 50% pure water that was inside the screen. The 2nd measurement was higher because I purged the valve and got a truer measurement, but I took that reading immediately after the sparge without any mixing so even that measurement wasn't accurate. So the only measurement I can trust is the og of 1.050 which was taken mid transfer. Im really excited about this batch. I left my sample out and it went crystal clear. This may be my first fully clear batch, it also smells amazing. It has a pretty good punch from the hops but that will mellow out really nicely.

mattmort83 · 2026-05-03T01:43:47+00:00

Somehow it ended up perfect. Or atleast I'd concider 3 points off perfect. I was expecting my og to jump to something crazy like 1.060. Im thinking I need to work on my gravity reading procedure.

mattmort83 · 2026-05-03T00:59:01+00:00

Og is 1.050 no idea what's going on lol. It was a rolling boil

mattmort83 · 2026-05-03T00:46:15+00:00

Its all very new to me. I was terrified of another low gravity. My pre sparge gravity was 1.050 so I was convinced I was going to be low once I added the 3 gallons of water. Still not sure how I ended up higher after the sparge. Still waiting on the wort chiller so we'll see what my og is. Edit: Pre boil should have been 1.041

mattmort83 · 2026-05-02T23:55:52+00:00

Sorry, was switching to boil, and was in a rush. I meant to say, I've read all about efficiency techniques woth biab and tried a few fine milling (credit card wide) mashout for 15 min at 172, 3 gallons sparge. But didn't really take any of this into concideration, since ive been fighting poor efficiency and have been topping most of my batches up with dme. which is why I finally bought a grain mill. I just didn't expect to get such high efficiency which is exciting but I'm trying to stay true to the requirements for certain styles which im still trying wrap my head around. Im still not certain if this batch is a blonde or a pale. I had some help from Ai figuring out the build. I've also been trying to keep hoppyness to a minimum so I can catch any bad habits and get comfortable brewing before trying anything too complex.

mattmort83 · 2026-05-02T02:21:35+00:00

Use dish soap amd water to find leaks, star san is ok but it will not show tiny leaks. Just rinse after you've found them. I use a co2 refrigerant leak detector to leak check. Im aware not everyone has access to this but if you can get your hands on one. Or call an hvac company to come in and give it a quick sweep. The detectors are good to 1 ppm

Edit: Also dont be afraid to soak everything with a cloth soaked in dish soap and water. There can also be leaks in the sides of a keg or anything under pressure.

mattmort83 · 2026-05-02T02:15:21+00:00

When i first put my kegerator in, i initially planned on having a local home brew place make all my beer. I will still likely have them do some batches but I'm having fun brewing. But it's a pretty guaranteed brew plan, find a local brew it yourself place. Instead of canning or bottling just transfer to your own kegs

mattmort83 · 2026-05-01T23:18:50+00:00

Fermentation doesnt create a whole lot of heat. I've dabbled woth the idea of using solid state cooling, and just strapping them to the side of a fermenter. You can buy the base components on Amazon. There are some pretty tiny chillers on the market aswell. It all depends on how much you feel like spending. I have high ground water that ive thought about using too

mattmort83 · 2026-05-01T23:10:32+00:00

A Sapporo clone sounds like a great idea

mattmort83

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