shirtsleeve

Wow! just bought a Kegerator and filled it with my second batch of Sam's Boston Ale clone! Carbonated it for 2 days and tapped the beatch tonite!

Way better than the original!

Anyone else brew out there?

JoeSixPat

I take it a Kegerator is a brewing type kit?

I've done some brewing in the past - exceptionally labor intensive but fun - from the scrubbing of the bottles to all the carbouys etc...

Even grew my own hops to use in it (fresh hops make a HUGE difference)

Made a good brew - my preference generally was a Pale Ale as well - occassionally I'd make a winter batch and throw in a cinamon stick or a bit of nutmeg for a hint of holiday flavor

After awhile I stopped bottling and just went right for the keg (not a real keg - those cannisters that hold soda syrup that are conveniently found behind restaurants are especially good)

Generally it still just took way too much time to do though

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Alk

No, a kegarator is a refrigerator with taps on the outside of the door. You then put the keg in and hook it up.

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JoeSixPat

Thanks - I guess I built my own kegerator from when I was brewing

But I assumed his Sam Adams "clone" was indeed a homebrew as he asked if anyone brewed out there

Its a nice thing to say you have done and can do, but the drawback is, if you missed one little spot in your cleaning and let one little microbe into your batch of brew - you've got a skunked keg - which is not fun.

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shirtsleeve

Been brewing my own for a while now and haven't skunked or estered a batch yet. Doesn't mean I wont, but so far so good. Kegging is new, but the steriliztion rigors are the same. Still, though, easier to sterilize a 5 gal pony keg (like the ones you mentioned) than all those bottles, caps, capper, hoses, bucket, etc. etc.

Mine is a two tap system, two pony kegs, a co2 bottle, and regulator and hosing. Second batch just went into the other keg today! I pressurize for two days at 30psi then reduce pressure to 8-10 to push the beer.

You are right about fresh whole hops instead of pellets. Growing them sounds fun. I cant see investing the time and effort into getting into all grain mashing, though. I typically use a partial grain recipe, some extracts and the hops. Flavor is super close to mashing without all the equipment and work. Mashing only makes sense to me if one plans to open a micro-brewery. Then its an economics thing. At that point one would also breed yeast and everthing else.

JoeSixPat

While Kitchen Aid makes a grinder add on to their mixer I'm not familiar with anyone who does this themselves

Growing Hops is easy - my only problem was that they grow too well - I had them growing on a trellis next to my house and by the second year they were attempting to completely cover the house - so plan where you plant them accordingly - I think setting up some wire fencing and planting them along the bottom would work perfectly - also they are like a weed and spread out - so you don't need to go overboard buying a lot

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IcyPatriot

A friends Kegerator earlier in the evening was what led me to become the BSamson Clones...