| Author | Message | ||
     P47b |
Any one out there doing home brew? Beer, Mead? | ||
| Dapope |
No way eh. "I use to think drowning in beer would be like heaven. Now my brother ain't here and I got two soakers. this ain't heaven this sucks." | ||
| Beache |
I've made two successful batches. Not to labor intensive. It's nice to be able to offer a friend a beer that you actually brewed. Next christmas I plan to make a few different brews and hand out four packs to family and friends. Even brewed up some root beer with my daughter. | ||
| Ferrisbuellersdayoff |
my dad use to do 2 batches of 5 gallons a week for 26 years, its been a while since he's made any. Doctors said he had to stop drinking beer because of his diabetes. since then I've been experimenting with some harder formulas | ||
| P47b |
Well I am wanting to learn how to do this. I normally don't drink but one bottle a week. I've got hooked on S/A Black Lager. It's not going to be around for ever. So I figured I'd learn how to make something I like. | ||
| P47b |
Hey Steve, I know where you’re going with that. I've lost allot of my friends from over indulgent behavior. | ||
| Aesquire |
I have friends that win Gold medals at the NY State fair, every year. Here's my Kingdom's Brewers guild link page... lot's of data out there. http://aebrewers.tigerfire.net/resource.html | ||
| Jackbequick |
Here is the definitive book for wanna be home brewers. http://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html That book by John Palmer (or just using the online version of it) will get you through it all. I evolved from kits to using malt extracts and specialty grains and was making ales, not lagers (Section 2 in the Palmer book). Ales are the best way to start and if you like beers with body and flavor, there is no need to ever move on the the slightly more complicated process for making lagers. For comparison purposes, ales are like British beers and lagers are like German beers. Think of it as being like the difference between a bitter, brown or stout and a beer like Heineken. Either type can have a wide range of flavors and characteristics and the joy in brewing is in learning and playing with the variable and consuming your mistakes. And successes too. I was making five gallon brews (two cases in 12 oz. bottles) every two or three weeks for about two years. From start to finish it is ready to drink in two weeks but can been "sampled" sooner and gets better with more aging. I stabilized on making the one that I liked best regularly. It was a brown ale and everyone that ever tried it said it was an excellent beer. It averaged about 9-11% alcohol by volume. People that do not like Sam Adams or stouts generally did not care for my beer as a matter of taste but it had no unpleasant characteristics. Many people that were not beer drinkers who tried it found it intriguingly different than commercial beers. They would usually comment on the flavors and aroma and that is all about the grains and hops you choose and use. I think home brewing and making good ales with good grains and hops was a little more expensive, bottle for bottle, than buying Bud/Miller/etc. when they were on sale in 24 packs. It was cheaper than buying good specialty beers. Home brew is better for you than many other forms of alcohol. It is the live yeast in it, it will not dehydrate you as much as commercial beers and dehydration is a major component of a hangover. The live yeast that is in home brew is not present in mainstream commercial beers. I have not been drunk in many years, I have been slightly to lightly intoxicated many times and always enjoy it. Making and sharing you own beer with friends was one of the most pleasant things I've ever done. I need to get back to brewing, not doing it has left a hole in my life... Jack (Message edited by jackbequick on March 30, 2008) | ||
| Jaimec |
Dapope: Take off, ya hoser! (Reminds me of the obscure movie thread that was on here last summer). | ||
| Hdbobwithabuell |
I'm all about Ales. Even built a two tap keg fridge that holds 5 gallon soda kegs connected to a 20# CO2 tank. I don't wash no stinking bottles! | ||
| Gohot |
I used to make beer from scratch, or rather used caned suryp and the apropriate grains and stuff ie sugar and yeast. I always made Gunness types and they actually came out pretty good. I moved here in North Carolina from So. Cal...never goin back, this is Meca. But a fiew friends I'v met around here make... or get shine from ..? wherever, but its expensive $35 for a mason jar. Usually it comes with Pear, apple or peach slices in it for flavor, just 3 or 4 slices per jar, but man this is sippin stuff, hot dam its good, done in moderation, a shot here and again in an hour or two when its cold outdoors here, but yea back to the beer the best source is a magazine that comes out bi-monthly called Zygurmy......think that is how its spelled. their the vintner/brewers Bible | ||
| P47b |
I've just started getting into Ales. Always been a a Lager fan. Gohot still have the recipe for that. My wifes biggist problem with me doing this is the smell. She's afraid that it will stink up the house. I was going to do it outside anyways.  | ||
| Jackbequick |
Does she find the smell unpleasant? I never did. It is like cooking odors, a harbringer of good things to come. I used a Canadian light malt extract (LME) that I bought through a local store in five gallon jugs. Then I experimented with a number of different grains to get the color and flavor I liked. Start with LME and you can always go darker and heavier with the grains. I considered all grain brewing as just a little too space and equipment intensive but would have gone to it if I ever wanted to increase production. To really close in a your favorite ale, play with the different grains and hops a little at a time. I cooked my grains first in a smaller pot and them added them to the boil. I have a boiler made from a beer keg, used a propane turkey fryer burner for the heat source, and did my boils outside. The basement was the perfect area for ferments, a very stable 55 degree temp. The average modern kitchen stove just does not have enough horsepower to get a good boil of any size. To do five gallon brews I had to get more heat and moved up to the beer keg and turkey cooker burner. Jack | ||
| Dobr24 |
I brew a lot. What kind of questions do you have? | ||
| P47b |
Well where do I start. Is it a mistake to go right to whole grains? I'm not a big fan of extracts. Other wise I've been reading The Complete Joy of home Brewing & listing to Basic Brewing pod cast. My biggest drawback is that I don't drink a whole lot. Is it worth the time? | ||
| Dobr24 |
I find that I actually give most of my homebrew away. I did two extract batches before going whole grain and never looked back. The Joy of Homebrewing is a great place to start. Also try these groups they have oodles of information: http://forums.moreflavor.com/ http://forum.northernbrewer.com/index.php http://brewboard.com/ I found that the flavor and variety of beers I could make doing whole grain was much better than using extracts. the one detraction is the added time. An extract beer takes about 2.5 hours to make, whole grain you are looking at 4.5-5 hours. Plus you need a lot more equipment. Read on the groups above and you will find guys who win competitions with both types of beers, I think its more a matter of how meticulous you are rather than which process you use. I have had good beers made both ways and really bad beers made both ways. Temperatures are probably the most important thing to watch in whole grain they affect everything from efficiency to fermentability of the wort. Just a few degrees difference during the mash can totally change the profile of the finished beer. I have found brewing to be immensely satisfying, but I am kind of a tinkerer and love the process of brewing almost as much as the beer. If you have any more questions pm me or call me. Chris five one three two nine five 249 nine. | ||
| Jackbequick |
The How To Brew pages will walk you step by step through an extract brew. http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/index.html That's a good read just to get a feel for the process. And if you're only going to buy one book on brewing, that one is hard to beat. The author shares the entire book online. John Palmer's heart is pure about brewing, he knows that making good beer is more important than making money. Jack | ||
| P47b |
Dobr24 are you and any one else on those brewing board? I going to take a look.  (Message edited by P47B on April 03, 2008) | ||
| Dobr24 |
I am a member on all those boards. |
