She's real excited about the Hefe that I'm brewing now.
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I love the DIY wort chiller. Great job! I looked into buying copper to do it, but ended up buying THIS ONE, and am happy with it. It was basically the same price as the copper would have been at Home Depot.
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I brewed a sour Robust Porter on Sunday afternoon. On Saturday night I boiled a gallon of water and then let it cool to 170. Then I added 4 oz of acidulated malt and a pound of light DME. Then I set it on top of the furnace and let it sit for 18 hours. On Sunday I did a regular extract/steep with the balance of the ingredients, and added the sour wort into the rest of the wort for the boil. If tasting the finished wort is any indicator, the souring process seems to have worked. It's bubbling away in the bucket now, and I'll be interested to see how this turns out. If I had more time before the warm weather arrives I think I would have added some Brett Brux for that horse blanket-y flavor, but I read where that takes about 6 months to develop. If this sour porter works I may try it with the Brett Brux in the spring for next fall/winter.

6 lbs amber LME
1 lb light DME
.5 lbs crystal 80
.5 lbs chocolate malt
.5 lbs special roast
.5 lbs brown malt
.25 lbs black patent
.25 lbs acidulated malt

.5 oz Yakima Warrior - 60 mins
1 oz Willamette 30 - mins
.5 oz Willamette - 10 mins

Lallemand Nottingham dry yeast

OG = 1.056
SRM = 31
IBU = 28
Plan FG = 1.014
Plan ABV = 5.8%
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When I priced the copper at the big box stores it was higher than the price at NY Brew Supply. However, after finding the 50' roll at the metal scrap yard I have less than $50 invested for a recirculating system.

(50) 3/8" ACR Tubing $27
(1) Spring Bender Tool Set $9.48
(1) 1/2" FIP x 3/8" FIP Brass Reducing Coupling for Pump $4.37
(1) 3/8" Barb x 3/8" MIP Brass fitting for Pump $2.48
(4) #4 Adjustable Clamp $1.82
(2) Rubber Gromment $1.04
(10) 3/8" x 5/8" Braided Vinyl Tubing $0.00
(1) SmartPond DP560 560 GPM 14.3' Head Pond Pump $0.00
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I've been looking at getting a wort chiller, but have read that I can't attach it to my kitchen sink faucet because I have a sprayer installed with the fixture -- something about that makes it not work with the faucet .?.?.?
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I have the same type of faucet but I do my brewing outside. You can attach a barbed x female garden hose adapter to connect to a garden hose.
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I'm with Justin--all my brews are outside, and I have a cut off portion of hose (with the female end intact) clamped to the intake on my chiller. Easy enough to attach a garden hose & run the water through. Once I finish building out my brew garage, I'll have a laundry sink next to my 3-tier system.
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In the brew closet:

10 gal of sommersault clone in the fermenters.

In the Keezer:

(1) 5 gal keg of SamSmith Nut Brown
(2) 5 gal keg of Honekers ALe
(1) 5 gal keg of Red IPA

In the kegerator:
(1) 5 gal keg of Broken Arrow NBB
(1) 5 gal keg of SamSmith Nut Brown

So 30 gal of beer ready to drink/conditioning and 10 almost ready to keg ;o)
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I was in the store the other day and saw this...How did the kit turn out? You have any left?

Mikes
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I do have the propane burner and setup to brew outside, but haven't tried it yet. The problem for me brewing outside is that when I brewed my last batch on the stove this past weekend, it was -15F outside. (and I've got the water to my outside spigots turned off for the winter).

I'll have to take a closer look at my faucet and see what I can figure out ...
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What about just buying a cheap pump and setting up a recirculation system?
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Next time I'm in Austin I'll have to visit the store. Is it pretty nice? I'm brewing their Bavarian Hefeweizen.
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Ya it is HUGE compaired to the old location. I would say only a 1/4 of the warehouse is the store front with the other part being storage for all of the mail order biz that they do. Place is ALWAYS packed. I think you would like it....
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Im brewing my 1st Barleywine (American style) today. I will report back in a year to let you know how it turned out!
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It hit 50 degrees here yesterday, so I ventured out for my first brew session of 2011. I put together a "light American Ale" recipe to plan on sharing with friends & people from work who aren't much into craft beers.

3# Briess Pilsen Light DME
1# Rice Extract Syrup
8 oz 10L Crystal Malt
8 oz Malto-Dextrin

¾ oz Willamette (20 min)
¼ oz Willamette (10 min)
¼ oz Cascades (10 min)
¼ oz Hallertauer (flame out + 10 min)

Nottingham dry ale yeast

OG = 1.041, IBU = 13

I'm hoping the Nottingham will give it a lager-like quality. This will no doubt be the lightest beer I have ever brewed.

Drank some good homebrew & smoked a nice cigar while doing it :-)
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Picked up Northern Brewer's cream ale kit this morning and brewed it this afternoon. My girlfriend doesn't like dark or hoppy beers, and the guys at NB said this should be good. And, I'm sure I'll have one or two too :-)
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Primary fermentation started in less than 12 hours and finished in two days. Damn. :-) I've had good results previously with Nottingham, so I'm hoping it just quickly ate up the minimal sugars that were there and that it's not stuck. Won't find out until I rack it this weekend.
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Racked a sierra pale ale clone over to secondary on Sunday. I tasted the beer and it was very "fruity", probably esters. I hope this subsides a bit in secondary.
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Just racked it SG = 1.013, so I guess we're on track. Tasted like Budweiser. I know, I know, but it is kinda what I was going for.

I think I may use this for my boss's daughter's wedding brew. :-)
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I have a Imperial Stout that has been fermenting for 3-4 weeks now,,, Started at 1.115 and I measured it last weekend @ 1.060... still going though.
In the mean time I made this...
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