Over at his blog Morgan River Brewing, David posted a great idea he had for a hop hanger (aka spider). Here's what he had to say about it:

As I mentioned in Weekend in Brewing, I used to just throw the hops in the kettle. During that brew, I used a paint strainer bag to keep the hops contained. This worked beautifully. After seeing multiple forum posts and write ups about hop spiders, I decided to build my version of one.  I didn’t like the usual hop spider design, which used three or four long bolts in an attempt to center the bag in the kettle. I felt this restricted stirring more than I wanted. So, I decided to make mine a little different. [Read More]

Okay brewgeeks, we have come to a crossroads.

We've had a nice launch followed by a few months of steady traffic and people seem to be enjoying the site. Our goal is to build the largest online library of brewing DIY projects, but we can only get so far by asking members of other forums if we can showcase their projects. So, if you like our site and want to see it grow, please leave a comment or contact us and chime in with your thoughts on how we can make it better. 

Here are a few of mine... We could create a forum with different categories of DIY projects and other general/community forums. I'd love to see it grow into a nice place to share DIY projects that would be featured on the site.

I also have a listing of about 1500 brewing clubs around the world that I could email to see if their members have any projects to share. I've found that most brewers are very generous with their projects and would like a place to read ideas and share projects.

Regardless of what we decide to do, there will always be funny and informative posts up on the blog...but the challenge is, what's next?

-TK 

I'm brewing a barleywine that I've never brewed before and at 12%, it's by far the highest ABV I've ever done.  Fermentation notes are at the end and it will be racked onto oak chips and bourbon for 6 months to a year.

Oooh I can't wait!!





Recipe: Hard Target
Brewer: tknice
Asst Brewer: Pleepleus
Style: American Barleywine
Type: All Grain

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 13.46 gal
Post Boil Volume: 11.96 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 11.00 gal   
Bottling Volume: 10.42 gal
Estimated OG: 1.114 SG
Estimated Color: 19.6 SRM
Estimated IBU: 94.4 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 57.4 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
1.00 tsp Calcium Chloride (Mash 90.0 mins) Water Agent 1
1.00 tsp Gypsum (Calcium Sulfate) (Mash 90.0 mins Water Agent
30 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 3 67.0 %
6 lbs Munich Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) Grain 4 13.4 %
1 lbs 8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM) Grain 3.4 %
4.0 oz Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 0.6 %
1.50 oz Centennial [9.70 %] - First Wort 75.0 mi Hop 29.7 IBUs     
2.00 oz Chinook [11.10 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 41.2 IBUs
2.00 oz Centennial [9.70 %] - Boil 25.0 min Hop 14.5 IBUs
1 Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining
2.50 oz Centennial [9.70 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 9.0 IBUs
6.0 pkg Safale American  (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) Yeast
5 lbs Light Dry Extract (8.0 SRM) Dry Extract 11.2 %
2 lbs Sugar, Table (Sucrose) (1.0 SRM) Sugar 4.5 %

Mash Schedule: BIAB, Full Body
Total Grain Weight: 44 lbs 12.0 oz
----------------------------
Saccharification Add 10.73 gal of water at 170.6 F 156.0 F 90 min
Mash Out Heat to 168.0 F over 7 min 168.0 F 10 min

Sparge: Remove grains, and prepare to boil wort

Notes:
------
Fermentation:
Brew on Saturday
66F until Tues add 1 lb sugar
Rise to 68F until Thurs, add 1 lb sugar
Hold till Friday, then reset the schedule 71-75 rise each day

Oak & Bourbon:
Boil chips for 10 mins to sanitize.
Soak 1oz oak chips in 1 cup bourbon during primary (x2 for 10 gal).
Pour chips and bourbon into 1 gal paint strainer bag (over keg).
Tie off bag and toss in.
Rack beer on top.

Created with BeerSmith 2 - http://www.beersmith.com 

Credit goes to Zeke Shore for making this very impressive hop chart. You can see more of Zeke's work on his web page.

Do you consider yourself a serious DIY enthusiast? If so, then I'm guessing you have made lots of trips to the hardware store (list in hand) to find exactly what you need for a project. If you're like me, you've even gone looking for something and don't even know what it is. Apron dude just stares at me while I try to describe it.

Enter amazon supply.  

While I'm not sure if this site will be a success for Amazon, they boast having more than 500,000 scientific, industrial, and business supplies to choose from. The Lab & Scientific Section alone is worth a visit. Do you see anything useful? 

Let us know what you think!

Homebrewtalk.com has been one of my favorite and most informative sites since beginning this great hobby.

If you like reading about homebrew and participating in that community, there is a great chance you will love their new companion forum as well.  

It's called beerforum.com discussions and is primarily focused on craft beer. There are sections by style as well as general beer discussions and group events local to your area.   

I mailed an entry last year and kmcogarable is spot on with his instructions for packaging homebrew for competition.  The only thing I'd add is the fear we all have for "will it arrive"!?  haha.  Basically, the deal is the U.S. Postal Service will not ship alcohol of any kind and, although I've seen people recommend labeling your box with "Yeast Samples" or "Glass Bottles", I probably woudn't do that.  Some boxes do get x-rayed and it is illegal, epecially if you misrepresent the contents.

It is not illegal to use private carriers like UPS or DHL in the states, but some do have a policy of shipping alcohol only when a contract was established a head of time and usually in a commercial relashionship. The best way I've found is to use a private carrier and clearly label the box as fragile, just as kmcogarable shows in the video.

If you happen to live in Austraila, then it's perfectly fine to ship beer across state borders! 

We've had some nice growth after another two weeks.  Bine 1 has climbed to around 3 feet tall and bine 2 is not far behind and has begun to spiral nicely as well.  

And look!  Finally one of the newly planted nugget hops decides to poke his head out and say what's up.  Hey there little feller!

The joy of kegging is a big step in a homebrewers life. But once you have the kegs you realize that you still have to clean the kegs to keep the beer tasting great. With some cheap supplies from Lowes you can accomplish this with ease.

Here is the parts list: 

• A cheap aquarium pump about $16.00
• Corny keg liquid "Out" about $5.00
• Corny keg gas "In" about $5.00
• Clear plastic tubing that will fit on your "pop-its"  .50 a foot at Lowes
• One T valve about $3.00

[Read More]