re: Homebrewing Thread: Volume II

Anyone else consistently have problems with CO2 leaks? It's fricking infuriating. My beers have been on C02 for weeks, just fine. I even open the keezer up frequently now to check, sure enough not a single dip in pressure... Opened the tap today, nothing, all the CO2 has Leaked out. This is about the 3rd time this has happened.

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hose clamps

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These suck. Since I've switched to all duotights, no leaks in liquid or gas.

9 times out of 10 my leaks are caused by bad o-rings. I change the ones on the posts out every several beers because of that.

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Mine are actually the stainless factory crimped fitting that then screw onto the connection. But I need to look at those duotights

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I switched all of my screw clamps to the manual twist ones like this. They do the same thing, but it's more convenient and i can feel how much pressure i'm putting on the clamp. More pressure is not necessarily better. I've overtightened and created a void for CO2 to escape, before.

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mchias1

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TYFYS. Saved me.

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9 times out of 10 my leaks are caused by bad o-rings. I change the ones on the posts out every several beers because of that.

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Fairly confident that's where my leak was. Switched out the posts and no leak detected... The question is, how do you get these damn O-rings off? I have replacements. Do you just cut them?

So apparently, i drank my first ever created homebrew this day, 12 years ago (pre-marriage and kids). Never thought i'd be into homebrewing even moreso now, than i was then.

My first beer brewed was an extract batch from the book "the complete joy of homebrewing" by Charlie Papazian. Cincinnati Pale Ale if i remember correctly.



For the homebrewers, how long have you been at it?

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I saw a commercial for the Sam Adams competition, and thought it looked easy enough to brew beer, and best of all, no one carded you to buy extract, hops, and yeast. I was also never a fan of Natty Light like my friends were.

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I always liked to cook. So one day, 12 years ago, i went into what was a Borders bookstore on my lunch break. I saw that book, "the complete joy of homebrewing" and got interested. I was just getting into craft beer at the time, so i was curious. I read through half of the book and realized i could do this. First beer, to me, tasted great. Once i did that, i was hooked. My second batch was ok, it was a porter. The next 2 batches i overcarbed my bottles with those carbonation tabs. Every time i'd open one of the beers, a guyser of beer would shoot out the bottle. I gave those 2 batches to a coworker who was making moonshine. It wasn't a complete waste.

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I know I am well north of 200 batches, but I couldn't give you an exact number.

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My last batch was #113 (give or take a couple). I've been using beersmith since batch #2. I'm averaging close to 10 batches a year. That average kicked up in 2020.

2018 - 6 batches
2019 - 8 batches
2020 - 17 batches (covid was good for homebrewing )
2021 - 11 batches
2022 - 15 batches - Started brewing for competitions more last year
2023 - 4 batches, so far. Planning on 2 or 3 in the next couple months.

My brewing has slowed a little now that i'm brewing mostly lagers and my sour beer pipeline is full. I got tired of having 12 or so fermenters of sours a different states of readiness and trying to find time to brew a blender batch to package. I think i'm down to 9 batches currently in the sour closet. 4 of those being my lambic/gueuze project. A couple more of the 9 will be going away once i package my solera. Then the plan is to just stick with the lambic project, and keep 2 or 3 other sours continuously going and blending.

I've been homebrewing for 8 years. Two weeks ago I brewed my 100th batch, which is an imperial stout with chocolate and cherries. It finished out at 11.5%. I know that its not the right time of year for a big girl like this, but I wanted to do something big for the centennial brew. I kegged it last night and dropped a carbonation stone in it. I just pulled a 6 oz sample and it is tasting pretty good. Should be very nice in a couple of months.

My first batch was a True Brew porter kit. I didn't filter my water and the bear ended up with that phenolic BandAid off flavor. It didn't matter since I was getting a buzz from something that I made, which I thought was super cool. A couple of batches later, I bought an Igloo water cooler for a mash tun and started all grain. I still mash in that same cooler.