What casing do I use

[YooperDog]

TexLaw brewing is like riding a bike, it comes back to you as you get going. I had about a two year hiatus but brewed up two five gallon batches, although not all grain. I have slowly moved more back to making wine, I have been making it before I was legal to drink. Agree about the author.

[Chef]

TexLaw YooperDog - I’ve never been known to do things small, so with the bit of reading I see that pot for the initial boiling looks like a large stainless steel pot. My largest is 120 quarts, but I’ll likely make a smaller batch first

[YooperDog]

Chef a five or six gallon SS pot will be a good start and will give you some room for error of a boil over. I think that they make smaller kits down to the one gallon size. Typically they were set for five gallon batches. Good brewing

[pr0wlunwoof]

Yeah most kits are 5 gallon. The easiest mistake is burning/carmelizing the sugar in the extract kits. The bucket kits are probably a decent way to get started. I bought glass carboys to start with and while I like watching the fermentation it was a chore to wash them till I built my sump pump recirculating dishwasher. I have so much brewing stuff its ridiculous.

Chef if you lived close I’d do some horse trading. If my wife ever has this kid I will hit you up and see if I can help you out. Maybe put a starter kit together for ya.

[Chef]

pr0wlunwoof So, are you two expecting. When is the due date?

[pr0wlunwoof]

Chef We are in delivery atm. Woohoo

[cdavis]

pr0wlunwoof good luck hope all goes well and congratulations

[Chef]

pr0wlunwoof great, keep us up to date please.

[Jonathon]

pr0wlunwoof They come in one package but they can easily be stored long term. I just take out one or two when I need and then vac seal the rest and freeze them

[Chef]

Jonathon Are you talking about the casing or the baby?

[TexLaw]

Chef A 5 gallon batch is fairly standard, but YooperDog is correct that folks have been making smaller batches for one reason or another. I have friends that make larger batches, but most of them do so because they compete a lot (so a lot of their beer winds up as entries). I actually make a slightly larger batch because I want to have 5 gallons in the keg when I’m done.

A 30-40 quart pot is about perfect for a brew kettle for a 5 gallon batch. You want plenty of headroom. Anything smaller, and you have a problem with boilovers unless you do a “partial wort” boil (where you add water after boiling to get to your desired post-boil volume). A full wort boil is a good deal more preferable.

My brew kettle is a 40 quart, stainless pot with a spigot drilled into the bottom, and it’s just about perfect for my batch size. I also use a 10 gallon, round Igloo cooler (slightly modified) for a mash tun, and 5 gallon pot for a hot liquor vessel. Other than my mash paddle, I have some other doo-dads and toys, but that’s my kit.

Homebrew clubs are great, although clubs aren’t exactly meeting at the moment. The closest club I know of near you would be the CIA (Cane Island Alers) in Katy. I’m in the Foam Rangers.

[Chef]

TexLaw Thank you. Both clubs seem great. I would love to walk through the process before I start investing in equipment.

[TexLaw]

Chef We (Foam Rangers) were doing a monthly “brew-in” where a member would brew up a five gallon, all-grain batch on a Saturday. That was a great way to show interested folks how it’s done (and to get together with buddies). That’s on hold at the moment. I don’t know if the CIA are doing anything like that.

Once the weather cools down, I might have to pull my gear back out and brew a batch or two. I was going to do that last Fall, but a couple things took the wind out of my sails.

[Parksider]

BarbecueJim I’d also recommend you purchase a picker. It will help let the air gaps out of the casing. Poke it on the stuffing tube or down the casing but NOT right where it’s coming off the tube it will rip the casing.