I'm in Columbia between 2 notch and decker. Been brewing for around 3 years, brew a lot of different styles depending on what I feel like making. Currently have a munich dunkel and a pale ale on tap with a kolsh fermenting. DIY homebrew on 2 notch was doing monthly homebrew tastings on the last saturday of the month, not sure if they are still going on or not.
Understandable. I've got inlaws in Charleston. I'm curious how the Cola one is this year. I've never been because I've heard so many bad reviews. But I did see they moved it this year to the fairgrounds which is a great step in the right direction. Something just ain't right about going to a beer festival inside a conference hall.Ah I'm going to Columbia beer festival at the fairgrounds i don't think I could do another one especially that far away. That's a long way for a DD and it sounds expensive if you get a hotel
I've never been before
Last time I went by (December) he was still doing them. Well, he didn't do one in December because of the holidays but he said he was kicking it back up in 2017. I haven't been to one yet because I've always had something going on. But I hope to make it out there for one. DIY is a longer drive for me than BetMar, but I've started getting most of my grains and hops from DIY anyway.
For me it's just product availability. I feel like BetMar caters more to wine makers. Also, DIY on Two Notch always has a much better selection of hops. Otherwise, grain prices are roughly the same. DIY just usually has a bigger selection. Case in point: I went by yesterday to get some pils, vienna, and wheat. He had german pils and belgian(?) pils. BetMar just has "pilsner."Seems I'm a little late to this party too. Those who go to the Two Notch store (that I didn't know existed), why is that your preference over Bet Mar? What's better about it?
I knew bottles had supplies now and I've gotten some random things like stoppers and muslin bags. But I did NOT know you could swap tanks there! How much was it? I'm getting fed up with Airgas and Praxair in Cola because there is no consistency whatsoever to their pricing. I swear they charge whatever they feel like when you walk in.Well I'm not a big fan of bet mar I just thought it was the only hbs around. I need to go check out diy. The guy at bet mar has told me wrong a couple times now and I'm kinda like do you really know what you're doing? Oh and you guys know bottles on ft Jackson blvd sells homebrew equipment? Me and Healey went there to get a c02 tank swap. I think it was the only place open on saturday to get c02
Nice setup poopsmitherson! Is that a 5 gallon cooler? Have you had any problems with heat retention? I had a 10 gallon for like a week and I lost a lot of heat but I probably don't need a 10 gallon really. And all the headspace plus
This hole and the grooves in the lid I felt like were the culprit to the heat loss I felt like it needed a gasket around the top and that hole plugged. I realized I don't want to do all that and I don't think I really need a 10 gallon mash tun so I returned it
Thanks! And yeah, it's 5 gal. I haven't had much heat loss, and the loss I've had (a few degrees over the course of an hour at most)
I chalk up to the hole I cut in the top to have my sparge arm on the inside. My thought process was that keeping the lid on while sparging would help with heat retention. Things I didn't think through: cutting a hole in the lid is counterproductive. But I toss a towel or two over the top and that helps.
I also preheat the cooler by tossing in a small amount of strike water, closing it up, and letting it sit for a minute or two. Then I toss in my grains and the rest of my water. This helps prevent some of the initial loss, I think.
Greetings. I am from Darlington and would enjoy meeting some of y'all
Hey man, welcome, my buddy Healey is in the army and works in Darlington he said there's a brew pub there that he goes to sometimes
Yeah I preheated the 10 gallon with strike water emptied it heated back up and dumped it back in. I had 16 lbs of grain I believe and a little over 5 gallons water. I went from like 151 to 147 in an hour and only got 47% efficiency so I ended putting in a lb of dme on top of the 2 lbs candy to try to make up for some of the loss. Not a whole lot of unfermentables in there I just put it in secondary and it was about 1.005 so it's about 9.5% now. Haha
Ask him the name of the place he goes in Darlington. There are a couple of decent places in Florence...Seminar and Southern Hops.
I have a 10 gallon cooler and I typically heat my strike water at least 10 degrees hotter than needed and empty into the tun and let it sit for about 10 minutes. Then I'll open it up and stir it until it cools off to strike temp then add the grains. I typically lose a degree or two over an hour mash and that's with batches that range from 1.040 to 1.075, all 5 gallon batches. All systems will probably react a little differently but maybe it's worth a shot.
That's a good idea. I guess I'm just use to mashing in my 8 gallon stainless kettle. I just wrap it with a towel for the mash then uncover and turn on the flame for a mashout. I also like the size of the 8 gallon kettle. I might just try to get a 10 gallon aluminum boil kettle if I can
Yeah man. I've got so many projects I want to knock out this year. Everything is pretty much on hold for now until after my wedding in April. Brewing some beers for the wedding too so I'm just rolling with it until after the honeymoon.No pump here but that and a whirlpool arm are probably next up on my list of upgrades.
What's next up for y'all?
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