Scotch: Current favorite- The Arran (anything by them), Glenmorangie 12yr Lasanta, sherry cask finished. The Balvenie Double Wood, also like Oban 18yr, and The Glenlivet Nadurra (Oloroso sherry cask finished) among others. Neat please.
About meReal name: Aaron
Location: Farwell, Michigan - near Clare (dead center of lower peninsula).
Occupation:
Healthcare- Licensed & Registered Respiratory Therapist (RRT) at MyMichigan Health, a University of Michigan Health System.
I tried brewing beer several years back. After 3 attempts I just couldn't get the yeast to take. Did everything the books say, to a T. My last batch I spent about $70 or so on everything including the grains and roasted 'em myself. My wife wasn't happy with the money spent for nothing and I couldn't legally distill my own whiskey so I switched to BBQ! I am a little envious of folks who got it down and make good stuff, and yours sounds really good.
Waster Please do. However, much like why I won't purchase a pizza oven and get good at pizzas, my waist line and closet can't handle me indulging in many more luxuries like great pizza and beer!
Huskee - I went straight into all-grain brewing after watching Ben Cull's video simplest all grain brew day and did exactly the same for quite some time. https://youtu.be/ZYOaZ8g8-ho
TheApartmentBrewer on YouTube also has a lot of great information but its a little more advanced
I brewed for about 25 years, but finally gave it up, just wasn't able to sling around my modded keg mash tun & burners anymore... when that puppy was full of wet grain, it was HEAVY. I kept four old cylinder soda kegs that I'd reconditioned in rotation for many years. Gave my whole setup to a much younger colleague who hailed from Oregon and has kept it all in good use since. Doing BBQ is a very similar kind of fun, with the added bonus that you don't have to wait weeks to taste the results!
Yeah the spent grains can be heave as well as lugging around 5 gallon kegs full of beer, but I think of it as a bonus to do weight lifting while brewing :-)
Waster What recipe did you use? I have Jamil Zainasheff's chocolate hazelnut porter on tap right now. I make it every year but I bump up the malt and the abv is in the 9% range. Its one of the best beers I've ever had.
Last edited by 58limited; January 19, 2023, 03:08 AM.
58limited Thats exactly the base recipe I tried this one. I modified also, to round out the grain amounts, scale for my Brewzilla and also balance the beer a little more (extra ABV doesn't hurt) but keeping the BU:GU ratio. First time Ive tried a Jamil recipe and I just moved to secondary with the cocoa nibs in mesh bag and of course sampled it - tastes wonderful as is - hoping 2-3 weeks on the nibs will take it over the top!
gatorjj Nice! although keg cleaning is a PITA its ultimately worth it to have fresh beer on tap in the kegerator. What Scottish ale recipe are you brewing shilling or wee heavy?
This one is probably some kind of shilling (60?70? I don't really adhere that strictly to styles), it's my "light" one so 5.6%. It's skinnied down from my usual one which clocks in about 7.8%. I usually do the lighter one in summer, or in this case to refresh the yeast harvest before I do the heavy one.
I don't find keg cleaning to be that big of a deal, just take it all apart and soak for an hour with PBW and hot water. It sure beats filling and cleaning 50 "little kegs"
gatorjj - keg cleaning v bottle washing - yeah hands down much easier. I ferment in an old sanke 7.5G conversion and keg in sanke 5G kegs too. I was thinking of converting to corny kegs as those are super simple to dry hop in but still haven't done it for some reason!
I have a chocolate porter in secondary (the keg) at the moment. It is my go-to English "robust" porter recipe, and it has a couple ounces of roasted cocao nibs in a stainless mesh basket suspended inside the keg. No chocolate in the mash or boil. Two weeks of the nibs in secondary is up tomorrow, at which point I will pull the nibs and move the keg from the garage floor into one of the kegerators.
Next up is a Belgian saison.
Currently on tap:
- Truck Stop Honey Brown clone
- Flanders Red, aged 2.5 years in a Buffalo trace barrel
- Old Ale (12.9% ABV!!!)
- Rye IPA
Last edited by jfmorris; January 19, 2023, 01:56 PM.
jfmorris Sounds awesome. I only have two taps on my kegerator, but have a fermentation freezer and conditioning freezer so can have about 4 beers on the go. Also just got hold of a cannular and looking forward to trying that to aid in building up reserves!
On tap I have a wonderful Belgian triple (TheApartmentBrewer's recipe - it's amazing) and a Duvel clone. Going through a Belgian phase at the moment.
Waster haha it’s just two 2 tap kegerators - basically mini fridges with a beer tower on top. My son in law just bought a used 8 keg keezer so I’m having beer envy right now…
I can bottle from the kegs with a Blichman bottle filler but am usually too lazy to deal with bottles… canning sounds interesting though!
jfmorris - MoreBeer had a steal on the cannular can sealer and cans, so I just looked away and pressed the buy button :-). I have yet to try canning a whole batch - just a few to go, but it is really simple - just a little bit messier than filling bottles, as you cap on foam and then spin the can.
Waster I brew for a brewpub, so it's a lot like home brewing as long as I keep our core beers flowing. Other than that, I basically can make anything I want that I think will sell. Working production is a different story, I enjoyed it but I would not like to go back to it.
As far as home brewing, I haven't home brewed since 2008 or 2009. I miss it as a hobby, but not enough to rebuild my home brewery. And, as I said, I can do whatever I want within reason, so I can just make recipes up and experiment on actual people. And honestly, the thought of taking 8 hours out of my weekend to make 5 gallons of beer doesn't appeal after years of making anywhere from 10 - 250 barrels in the same amount of time.
But I enjoy the restriction of not having any kind of pilot brewery, it means when I make up recipes I have to think them through carefully, and know my ingredients, and I kinda think being restrained over the last 15 years has actually made me a better cook. There's also stuff you can probably do fairly easily in a home brew situation (decoction mash springs to mind) that there's no way to do in my brewhouse. It's tradeoffs. Home brewing is a great hobby, production brewing has it's moments, and working in a brewpub is kind of the perfect median for me. Just... don't turn a hobby into a job unless you really like that hobby.
And I work at San Diego Brewing Co., so c'mon by. I'm the grouchy looking guy in rubber boots.
Last edited by mnavarre; January 20, 2023, 10:12 PM.
Yeah - I know guys here who were homebrewers who took it commercial (3 breweries and a brew pub) and not a one of them brews at home anymore. I imagine if they want beer at home on tap, they can take home a sanke or a growler. They may be tired of beer too after being there all day...
mnavarre Thats awesome you can experiment like that - I had imagined it would be restrictive, good to hear you have some freedom to play.
Thanks for the insights on commercial v home - I had suspected that you probably wouldn't want to home brew and wondered if commercial brewing ruined the home brewing joy - but seems you still get that from the day job - well done!
Friends have asked, but I know I'm not turning it into another job!
Here's something new I've been playing at. I'm repurposing an old 20 inch monitor and unused Raspberry Pi to run in kiosk mode and display a tap list above the kegerator(s):
Browse the menu for Jim's Bar & Grill, last updated May 3, 2025
Been playing with that website. The free version is limited in customization and can only display 4 taps. My son in law already paid his $39 a year so he could have 8 taps showing on an old TV on the wall of his garage... He is also working on a home made version of the Plaato keg weight measurement system, with a way to tie it into a website. I get a 4 tap version when he is done. Then the menu should show a constant live status of how much is in each keg.
That’s fantastic! I’m an automation and controls engineer by day so this is right up my alley.
I was wondering how you got/get the live volume left in the keg and whether this was an external weigh cell, an internal floating device or level probe.
Well now you piqued my interest and I’m gonna have to look into it. I have some old PLC’s and HMI’s kicking around so maybe that route, but that tap list looks nice.
Hmmmm.
Waster he is using a cheap load cell mounted between two thin round sheets of plywood. Keg sits on top of the load cell. We will calibrate it with a full keg with a known 5 gallons in it, and with an empty keg.
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