Broke a carboy yesterday.  I was just finished cleaning it out and it dropped into the bathtub and smashed into a billion pieces.  It totally sucked.  I still transfered two batched and brewed an IPA, but the day was an overall downer.

It’s 1-20-11 and I’ve finally planned my first brew of the season (I don’t brew in the summer so I consider the fall/winter to be my brewing season) for this upcoming weekend.  I usually start around November, but this year has been super busy and I haven’t had time.  Also, I went a little crazy last season and ended up brewing 15 batches of beer.  I still have a few full kegs hanging around, so I am going to scale back a bit this season.  I’ve posted recipes up before, but brewing is certainly not only about recipes.  Here are a few other practices that I’ve work out.  They may not be the best way of doing things, but they are the best way I’ve found.

• Grain:  I’ve pretty much completely stopped buying recipe kits.  I still do a lot of clones and use pre-existing recipes, but I buy the ingredients in bulk and break off what I need for each recipe.  For my base grains I buy 55 lb sacks from my local homebrew shop, The Homebrew Emporium, in Cambridge .  i just picked a sack of US 2-row for $60 last night.  I know I could get it cheaper online, but I don’t have a grain mill so I still need to use one in a store.  Besides that the guys at the Emporium absolutely rock.  They are a great resource for any brewing questions I have, are always really helpful and very nice.  They absolutely deserve to stay in business.  I buy my specialty grains from them as well.  I don’t need to mill the entire sack at once.  As I need base grain for each recipe I bring what I need from home to the store to mill.  Since I bought the sack from them they are totally cool with me doing this.
• Hops: Hops I do buy online.  The two main sites I use are www.freshops.com and www.hopsdirect.com.  Freshops sell only whole leaf hops and are a bit more expensive, but you can get whatever quanity you want.  I am in love with hopsdirect.  The prices are insanely low.  A pound of Cascade hops is current going for $9.65.  The only issue is the smallest size you can get is a pound.  Typically I buy pellets (a pound of whole leaf hops takes up way too much space) and freeze them in airtight bags.
• Yeast: Typically I buy yeast from my local homebrew shop, but I typically reuse a package of yeast 3 or 4 times to get maximum value.
• Water: I use tap water that I run thru a Brita Filter.  I used to buy bottled water, but with all-grain brewing the amount of water required is too much to go bottled.
• Problems with bulk ingredients:  Buying bulk ingredients can save you a good chunk of money, but there are issues.  The biggest issue is maintaining freshness.  By airlocking my hops and freezing them I can greatly increase their usable life.  It is not uncommon for me to use hops from the previous season.  I don’t carry grain over from season to season, but you can keep your grain fresh by storing it in a cool, dark place.  Also, cracked grain should be used within 2 weeks, but can last out to about a month.  Another issue with buying in bulk is you may very well be tying yourself into a certain type of beer for a while.  With something like US 2-row grain it’s not a big deal because you can make a ton of different types of beers with it, but a 55 lb sack of Belgian Pilsner is not nearly as versatile.  I bought a 1 lb bag of Columbus hops last season.  At 14% alpha acid it is a slow grind getting thru the whole bag.

• A Hefeweizen made for the man who likes some citrus is his beer but doesn’t want a wedge of lemon floating in his pint glass.
• target OG: 1.047
• target FG: 1.012
• target ABV: 4.5%
• brewed: 02-15-09
• 5.5 lb wheat
• 5.5lb german pilsner
• Tried to protein rest at 122 F but my strike water must have been high because the mash settled at 137 F.  Mashed at 137 F for 30 minutes then decocted up to 154 F, mashed for another 60 minutes and mashed out with 170 F water.
• Boiled for 90 minutes.
• 3/4 oz Hallertauh hops 5.0% (17) for 90 min
• 1/2 oz Perle 9.4% (10) for 15 min
• 1/2 oz Perle 9.4% for 1 minute
• Pitched at 80 F with Wyeast 2068 Weizenstephan Weizen.  Temp dropped to 54 F overnight and rose to 64 F the next day. Temp rose to 67 F at end of fermentation. 
• Transfered to secondary after a week.  Simmered the flesh and juice from 2 mini watermelons and 3 stalks (1 oz each) of lemongrass at 170 F for 15 min.  Added the tea to the secondary.  Added brewers belt to fermentor.
• Kegged after 2 weeks with 1/2 cup priming sugar.  Strained out the lemongrass and watermelon, added another 2 oz of lemongrass in the keg.  The beer smelled pretty hot at this point, didn’t think it would turn out well.
• OG: 1.004
• FG: 1.008
• ABV: 4.4%
• Results:  This ended up being a nice, refreshing summer beer.  The lemongrass was a nice touch, but couldn’t detect much of the watermelon.  This beer could actually use more lemongrass.  Next time increase by maybe 50% and drop the watermelon.

This recipe is the Westmalle Trappist Dubbel recipe from Beer Captured with different hops.

target OG: 1.071
target FG: 1.014
target ABV: 7.0%
brewed: 04-11-09

3 oz Chocolate malt
8 oz caramunich
5 oz biscuit
12 lb belgian pilsner

struck with about 5 gallons of 65 F water
mashed for 120 minutes at 150 F
raised temp of mash to 170 by heating up 1 gallon portions of the liquor and adding it back. Sparged out with about 4 gallons of 170 F water. The first few gallons of liquor were cycled back thru.

Boiled for 60 minutes
1/4 oz Hallertauh hops 6.2% (5 IBU) for 60 min
1/2 oz Golding 6.2% (8 IBU) for 60 min
1 oz Hallertauh 3.6% (12 IBU) for 60 min

Irish moss for 15 min
4 oz malto dextrose for 15 min
12 oz dark candi rock sugar for 15 min

Pitched onto a 2nd gen cake of Wyeast 1388 – Belgian Strong Ale
Fermantation temp started at 64 F and rose to 68 F.
Transfered to Secondary after 2 weeks, bottled with 1-1/4 cups DME after another 2 weeks.

OG: 1.064
FG: 1.010
ABV: 7.1%

Results: This beer began with a light malt flavor and ended with a nice yeast spiciness. Got a lot of good comments on this one. I think the fermentation temp is right on, but next time I’m gonna mash at a higher temp, maybe like 152-153 to try to get a better malt flavor in it.  I might up the specialty grain amounts a bit too.  And boil for 90 min.