The Liquor Swines Homebrewing

HomeBrew and Art

[theliqourswines]

The Liquor Swines "the beginning"

"What's the LiquorSwines?"... that's a question we always get asked.

Before I was into homebrewing, or had even brewed my first batch; I was just a guy interested in beer. Like most children of the 90s i drank Coors, Miller, and Budlight. My first beer actually was 1997-98 when I was in 7th or 8th Grade. Me and a friend we visiting his father's house and we came across a case of Samual Adam's Cherry in the garage. Not in a refrigerator in the garage, just a case out and opened in the hot garage (Bad beer owner). It was absolutely disgusting, I couldn't understand why people drank that shit. For most of my time leading up to 9th/10th grades I just stuck with Zima, coolers, and sneaking sips of wine (Arbor Mist) from my moms stash. I finally found drinking light beers was the most fun, due to drinking games, and after many nights of puking and blacking out because of spending nights trying to play drinking games with Bacardi. I stuck with the light beers for years, I was 21 and finally allowed to go out n drink. I dabbled with jack n coke, and vodka red bull, but mostly light beers. Natty Ice, and Pabst at parties and get togethers. I was 22 and I decided to join the military, I went to visit my mom and dad before I went to Basic, and that's when I was introduced to ..."different beers". My pops always drank Coors, that's what I knew, that was his flavor. In his fridge he had "Fat Tire" so I asked him about it. That's when I was introduced to casual drinking v. Party drinking.

When drinking a beer casually, or with supper you want a beer with flavor. My mind was blown, I mean I drank to get fucked up. So here i was drinking a Fat Tire and actually enjoying my drink. This was great amber waves of grain... next thing you know every restaurant I was going to I was trying new things, and actually having "favorites".

A few months later I found myself in basic, then tech school, and with orders to Germany in my hand.

Fast forward 4 years, in Minot ND, I met a sweet Canadian women,l. 2 years later we were married, and in Montreal for her immigration interview. We spent 9 days walking around Montreal exploring. We came across a game store and found a game with 3 pigs. The Tequila Pigs. You roll the pigs like dice, and how they land correlates to a numerical value. They got old fast, like after 1 bar... so we decided to stage the pigs trying to get to our drinks, or what not. Then we created an Instagram started posting the pictures. After that it sorta grew after she got me that brew kit into a hole thing. Home brewery, tshirts, stickers, bottle caps, and hopefully one day a Microbrewery.

[theliqourswines]

My First Setup "once I became serious"

In my first story I went over my first attempt at brewing. I tried the one gallon stovetop a few times, then switched to 1G brew in a bag for the grains. This post is about my first 5G setup and dthe equipment I used then.

So we moved into our first home feburary 2016. I was still doing the brew in a Bag, but finally convinced myself to upgrade. I tossed out most of my 1G equipment into the trash and started over fresh. We were planning a trip to Havasu July with some friends and I figured that would be the perfect time to up my game... or at least "try".

Kettle: so to keep costs low because I wasn't quite confident, I purchased a turkey deepfryer pot and propane burner combo. My first brew was boiled and the strike water heated in this pot in its basic form. I did however eventually drill a hole into the side, and add a spigot. Custom built from home depot parts. It was ok, it spun I didnt like that but I got thru 4 brews with it before it met the garbage can.

Strike/Sparge Water Container: 5G home Depot cooler with a custom spigot. I did buy a floating thermometer from the Local Brew shop "What Ales Ya" in Phx. This piece of equipment also ended up meeting a bitter end. When I finally didnt need it anymore, I used it at a party to keep beers in and forgot about it in the backyard. Well the brutal summer destroyed that thing. So that's also gone. That thing made it thru 6 brews.

Mash Tun: 10G Home Depot water cooler. I did splurge on the spigot for this piece, and purchased a false bottom. Both from the local brew supply store. The first brew using this was an IPA I called Hoppy Forth IPA. Everything was perfect except for one fatal mistake. I'll talk about that later, but for now separating the grains from the wort was the bane of my brewing experience. Not anymore!

Fermenting: I went classic, glass carboy. Eventually moved to a wide mouth to ease cleaning. I'm a huge sucker for glass though. I have always felt glass was superior to plastic, even though I'm not sure. The fermenting setup was not ideal. I moved the cooled wort to the glass carboy, pitched the yeast, placed the carboy in a dark closet with a fan on it, and basically prayed. Obviously this effected the fermentation effect, flavors, and other things but I had no choice.

Bottling: I bought a 5G white bucket from walmart, bored out a hole on the side added a spigot. It was so flimsy and it spun. This was also not ideal, but it worked. I mixed the priming solution with the "fermented wort" which is as you know green beer. I also splurged at the brew store and got a "bottle filler" it worked great.

Misc: I got a hydrometer, hop sacks, bottle capper, a bunch of empty bottles, and I made a big spoon from wood. I went thru 4-6 brews under that setup and had 2 beers I enjoyed.

Hoppy Fourth IPA: so this was my first brew with the new setup. I set the equipment in the garage. I calculated the water to grain ratio, and wrote everything down. I heated my water to 179°F in order to transfer it to the sparge cooler to wait for after the mash. Here is the kicker, and I'm sure if you have any knowledge or experience in brewing will shake your head, ask why, and probably think I'm an idiot... you're right. I used the hose. I had no idea, no rational thought process. I just figured in order to brew 5G the hose would be easier. In my mind, it was absolutely the most efficient brew I had ever did and I was excited. Fast forward a little over a month, in the camper. I pulled out 3 beers and passed them out to my wife and a friend. Haha well the rubber taste was unmistakable, it was so strong it drownded out any taste of hops.... oh god it was a timely, and costly mistake.

[theliqourswines]

[theliqourswines]

My First Homebrew

I had wanted to try homebrewing for around 3 years, starting in 2010. November 2013 I had moved from Minot, North Dakota to Glendale, Arizona and at this point had only researched it and read a few books. In all honesty I was just really scared. The technical aspects of brewing had always deterred my pursuit. I have since then, believed reading the books about professional brewing; distorted my views on brewing. I know now I was reading advanced stuff, with no basic foundation in the brewing process. So there I was overwhelmed with information that might as well been written in an alien language. This killed my ambition and prevented me from ever attempting it. 2 years later established in Arizona, and my wife's immigration processed, it was our first Christmas in our home together. What did she get me? A $45.00 brew your own beer kit, that was on sale at Michael's for $15.00. I remember thinking, oh wow... I never thought about buying one of these little kits. It was a Brooklyn Brewery "All-grain" kit, and I now know that I never had a chance to brew a good beer, but in the moment I was determined. I pulled up the incomplete instructions, and I gathered my equipment. I "boiled" yes "boiled" my grains on the kitchen stove. After the 1 hour of an (atrocious) mash session, separating the wort from the grains became a huge ordeal... holy shit! That was the worst experience ever. I was able to pull out a half gallon, then boiled it with the "pinch" of hops that came in the package. By the end of the boil, ai ended up cutting the wort with >1/2G of fresh water. no OG, no refractometer, hydrometer, nothing but if I had to guess it was really really low. I put the packet of "premium yeast" in the 1G growler under the bathroom sink. (Guest bathroom, nobody used it). So like I bet everyone does their first time, I checked it hourly, daily, constantly watching the blowoff and eventual airlock. 2 weeks later I filled up some bottles I emptied by drinking the beers, cleaned them, and filled them up priming each one individually.... so yeah I lost three in the conditioning phase, and a few others were under carbonated.

The beers weren't that great, but honestly not that bad. I got 5 beers out of it, and the work wasn't worth the effort. I did however learn to love brewing, and developed an actual desire to pursuit it further. I was ready to gain a basic knowledge, and since my first have stuck with All grain brewing. Now each brew progresses in taste, finish, and mouth feel.