Is that a hydrometer in your pocket or are you just happy to see me

[sweetcell]

brewing a doppelbock today.  an amazing craft maltster in central oregon, Mecca Grade, is shutting down their operations so i recently snagged several sacs of their grains.  already brewed a classic pilsner with their pils malt (100% pils, only Saaz hops - SMaSH!).  using the yeast cakes from those for the doppel which will be 50% pils & 50% munich malt, all Saaz.  not often that i brew with such simple grain bills, it's a tad unnerving... must resist temptation to add anything else.  maybe i should name one of these beers "death to tweakers".

[Julian, Bespoke SEXPERT]

- a rich benefactor bankrolls the brewery and stays out of the day-to-day operations.  i'll get him/her to profitability... eventually.  essentially, it would be someone else's vanity project and i would be its caretaker/mad scientist.

What advantages would Julian’s America receive from this “brewery” over, say, a train? Which we could also afford.

[sweetcell]

- a rich benefactor bankrolls the brewery and stays out of the day-to-day operations.  i'll get him/her to profitability... eventually.  essentially, it would be someone else's vanity project and i would be its caretaker/mad scientist.

What would be the advantage to Julian’s America funding a brewery over, say, buying a railroad, which we could also afford?

while vanity vineyards are much more common among the JA set, there are a few vanity breweries out there as well. 

advantage?  you get beer out of it instead of wine or a smelly locomotive, i suppose... ;-D

[A.I.hatch lııllı|̲̅̅●̲̅̅|̲̅̅=̲̅̅|̲̅̅●̲̅̅|llıl]

Welp, I'm now registered in U of Richmond's Professional Beer Brewer Certificate Program.
(although classes are in Manassas)
I'm a spider baby!

on a related note, a person I know has a winery (where my airstream currently resides as an Airbnb) and wants me to help her start brewing beer to serve at her winery 

[Julian, Bespoke SEXPERT]

Welp, I'm now registered in U of Richmond's Professional Beer Brewer Certificate Program.
(although classes are in Manassas)
I'm a spider baby!

This is Hutch’s bad influence at work.

[sweetcell]

Welp, I'm now registered in U of Richmond's Professional Beer Brewer Certificate Program.

CONGRATS!!!  exciting development... once you learn everything about brewing, imma hit you up with some Q's

[A.I.hatch lııllı|̲̅̅●̲̅̅|̲̅̅=̲̅̅|̲̅̅●̲̅̅|llıl]

Seriously...this was the best part of my Homebrew set up

Brewjacket has been discontinued

I think I'm going to make a fermentation chamber soon anyway, but I've recommended this product to so many new brewers.
They even repaired my unit twice since I've owned it...guess that won't happen again


This guy came up with a great solution
https://ballandkeg.com/products/temperature-control-coil
at $60 a great alternative for 5 Gal homebrewers (still have to buy inkbird)

[sweetcell]

Seriously...this was the best part of my Homebrew set up

Brewjacket has been discontinued

like craft brewing, homebrewing is on the downswing...

(still have to buy inkbird)

if you wanna save a few pennies, keep an eye on https://www.homebrewfinds.com/ (or sign up for their newsletter, or follow them on X) - inkbirds go on sale a few times a year. 

also, you'll need a small submersible pump.  harbor freight has them for cheap.

[sweetcell]

filtering and kegging 50 gallons of cider

dude.

have you gone commercial?

[grateful]

filtering and kegging 50 gallons of cider

dude.

have you gone commercial?

Them apples ain’t gonna squeeze themselves!

[A.I.hatch lııllı|̲̅̅●̲̅̅|̲̅̅=̲̅̅|̲̅̅●̲̅̅|llıl]

filtering and kegging 50 gallons of cider

dude.

have you gone commercial?

well...kinda, but not really

So I'm working with this woman who owns Monroe Bay Winery in Colnial beach (my Airstream is down there for the last two seasons and doing well as an airbnb )

She was already doing wine and cider and some how she was able to get a brewery license (with a little help from me)
but it really wasn't that hard and you should have seen the crap she put together as her brewery equipment
Since she already had an operating Winery, it actually made the process a lot easier as there was no expectation that this would make any money in the next year (which no other brewery could actually do)  So no upfront costs, lease signings, equipment purchases and so on

I helped build a 12 tap Keezer for her
I never got the OK to actually brew beer for her and she found a brewery in Manassas she could buy some kegs from (and of course they just closed)
I did make a very generic seltzer that she put on tap



She had a 50 gallon drum of cider she made a while back and for some reason had never kegged it
so I helped with that
Although, her thoughts on what sanitary and clean are a lot different than mine

I plan to try and get some stuff on Tap this next season, but she's been a little weird about it
and expecting to pay me the same price per corny as what the brewery sold her just covers my raw materials and pays me about $3 an hour
Obviously I need more experience and really dialing in a few recipes...which I somewhat don't like to ever make the same batch twice

I actually stopped brewing as life got a little crazy and 6 hours in the shed on a weekend wasn't really working for the fam
Hopefully I can get that back on track

Although I also joined a Brewery Co-op in DC: Fishbowl Brewery
So that's where a lot of my brewing time has gone
every two months we get about 75 gallons into the fermenter using some 50Gal drums and some good brewing calcs
those have been coming out great, but I am just a bit player in that operation

I've also done some volunteer work at a few breweries and have learned a lot
Mostly that so few are making any money and are very leveraged to keep the thing afloat


but I have VERY MUCH soured on this idea as
1. so many are failing
2. I don' have 1million (maybe double is actually needed) just sitting around to start this
3. Can't afford to make $30k a year working 80 hour weeks for the next 3 years (nor want to, I do like my free time)
4. I can make a drinkable homebrew, but I don't think it's even close to prime time

Who knows, I'd love to get a little 3BBL tap room in some exotic location someday
but seems the smarter play is to just keep homebrewing

[notme]

i heard nobody is drinking wine anymore. they are plowing under the vineyards in california.

[grateful]

filtering and kegging 50 gallons of cider

dude.

have you gone commercial?

well...kinda, but not really

So I'm working with this woman who owns Monroe Bay Winery in Colnial beach (my Airstream is down there for the last two seasons and doing well as an airbnb )

She was already doing wine and cider and some how she was able to get a brewery license (with a little help from me)
but it really wasn't that hard and you should have seen the crap she put together as her brewery equipment
Since she already had an operating Winery, it actually made the process a lot easier as there was no expectation that this would make any money in the next year (which no other brewery could actually do)  So no upfront costs, lease signings, equipment purchases and so on

I helped build a 12 tap Keezer for her
I never got the OK to actually brew beer for her and she found a brewery in Manassas she could buy some kegs from (and of course they just closed)
I did make a very generic seltzer that she put on tap



She had a 50 gallon drum of cider she made a while back and for some reason had never kegged it
so I helped with that
Although, her thoughts on what sanitary and clean are a lot different than mine

I plan to try and get some stuff on Tap this next season, but she's been a little weird about it
and expecting to pay me the same price per corny as what the brewery sold her just covers my raw materials and pays me about $3 an hour
Obviously I need more experience and really dialing in a few recipes...which I somewhat don't like to ever make the same batch twice

I actually stopped brewing as life got a little crazy and 6 hours in the shed on a weekend wasn't really working for the fam
Hopefully I can get that back on track

Although I also joined a Brewery Co-op in DC: Fishbowl Brewery
So that's where a lot of my brewing time has gone
every two months we get about 75 gallons into the fermenter using some 50Gal drums and some good brewing calcs
those have been coming out great, but I am just a bit player in that operation

I've also done some volunteer work at a few breweries and have learned a lot
Mostly that so few are making any money and are very leveraged to keep the thing afloat


but I have VERY MUCH soured on this idea as
1. so many are failing
2. I don' have 1million (maybe double is actually needed) just sitting around to start this
3. Can't afford to make $30k a year working 80 hour weeks for the next 3 years (nor want to, I do like my free time)
4. I can make a drinkable homebrew, but I don't think it's even close to prime time

Who knows, I'd love to get a little 3BBL tap room in some exotic location someday
but seems the smarter play is to just keep homebrewing

Well damn. I would stay in your Airbnb if it included unlimited swill and a 25% #930forum discount.