Home Brew

[medtech]

Dose any one around here make there own beer? I was looking into some of those home brewing systems and thought I'd check here too.

Thanks
Steve

 

[dttomcat]

I used to make beer about fifteen years ago. Made about four or five five gallon batches. It worked out ok but I always preferred good store bought beer. Keeping things sanitary is absolutely key. Recently I began looking into making honey mead. I tried some one time at a beer tasting and it was very good. Made me feel like Beowulf.

 

[Harry Callahan]

From what I understand you had better like washing dishes (something I hate) in order to homebrew as clean clean clean is the norm. Every instrument, every container. Clean and sterile. It would be a nice hobby and would probably save a buck or two, but if you hate washing dishes it's easier just to grab a six pack on the way home. But this thread is a great idea. Looking forward to the replies. There's gotta be some hop heads around here, for sure!!

 

[dttomcat]

Dose any one around here make there own beer? I was looking into some of those home brewing systems and thought I'd check here too.

Thanks
Steve

BTW, if you do get into it, don't get one of those cheap kits that you see in catalogs that only make like two or three gallons. Find a decent home brew supplier. IIRC, I got a starter kit in the mid 90's for ~$50. Then you need a few extra items like a glass carboy and a bottle washer which attaches to your kitchen sink faucet. If you really get into it and start mashing your own barley it can get quite expensive. I knew of one guy that turned his whole garage into a brewery. Good luck. -DT

 

[medtech]

Thanks for the replys. I read the Mr.Beer kits are not the best, but they seems to get people started into making brew.

 

[dttomcat]

Thanks for the replys. I read the Mr.Beer kits are not the best, but they seems to get people started into making brew.

Yeah, no. I wouldn't go that route. For just a little more money you can get better equipment that will allow you to make much bigger batches. Good ingredients are important. This will also give you much more flexibility with ingredients. Shouldn't be too tough to find a supplier near you where you can just walk in. Most guys who work in these shops are serious about their hobby and love to talk home brewing. It is a lot of work to make a batch of beer and with that little kit you would make less than one case. Not worth it. Just my $0.02. Good luck. -DT

 

[Gollnick]

I haven't made a batch of beer in eight or ten years. I have sort of switched to making ciders which is very similar. If you buy all new stuff, the up-front equipment cost is about $50 and then you own the kit. The cost of materials for a batch of five gallons of beer is $15-30 typically (less if you can boil six or Witt gallons of water so you can go all-grain). Making a perfectly adequate basic beer is not difficult. It takes some time and effort, but it's not hard. The two keys to success are: water and cleanliness. If your water tastes bad by itself, don't expect the beer to be very good. As for cleanliness, one of the biggest mistakes people make is using too much bleach. It's a great disinfectant, but you you really have to rinse throughly to get if off as it will leave a bad taste.

 

[arcteryx79]

Use bottled or filtered water if you do have lots of iron or minerals in your water. Star-san is a great no-rinse sanitizer. Go with a glass 6gal carboy if you can, doesn't scratch when you clean it, so less avenues for bacteria and contamination. They are very heavy when full, however!

You can get extract kits for cheap from midwest homebrew or Northern Brewer. Stay away from the Mr. Beer kits...very limiting and you make smaller batches. Nothing like having 5-6gallons of beer that YOU made.

 

[kinzli]

I'm an avid home brewer and have been brewing for many years. It's a wonderful hobby, I don't drink a lot, but I LOVE to brew and feel like now I can brew a beer that is heads and shoulders above anything I can buy in terms of flavor, quality and I can make it exactly how I like it.

I also would not recommend the Mr. Beer kits. I would instead recommend finding a decent home-brew store and patronize them - they'll likely be very helpful in getting you started. It's quite simple really, for the first few batches, just follow the directions to the T. Later you can get creative when you understand the process.

Getting started with quality gear is not terribly expensive. You can start with what are called Extract Kits - they are basically a syrupy extract that you add water to (and hops) while boiling - then add yeast, ferment, and bottle or keg. I keg all of my beer because IMHO bottling is tedious and I prefer to carbonate as I like it.

Cleanliness is key - I use Oxiclean and Iodophor as the sanitizer and it works great.

There's some great forums out there, and as I said, beer stores are usually very helpful. Good, fresh ingredients make a big difference too, as does fresh yeast (and lots of it - I brew a "starter" yeast mixture - basically just growing the volume of yeast to make sure fermentation starts quickly and vigourously).

I also enjoy baking bread - the process is similar - but that's another topic

 

[daddÿ]

There is an awesome book called "How to Brew" by John Palmer. You can check out the older version of the books at http://www.howtobrew.com/ .

The book can and does get into the technical side of home brewing however it covers the basics very well and is pretty easy to read.

As kinzli said, getting started can be pretty cheap (roughly) $100 will get you everything you need to get into brewing other than a large enough pot to boil the "wort" (what beer is before it ferments.) That includes a fermentation vessel, transfer hoses, caper, and various other pieces of equipment as well as the basic ingredients to make your first batch.

Also there are some pretty good podcasts out there that do a really good job explaining very simple to very complex brewing techniques and other brewing related topics. One that I absolutely love and follow is "Basic Brewing Radio," they also have videos you can watch for free.

http://www.basicbrewing.com/index.php?page=radio

Hope that helps.



daddÿ

 

[medtech]

Thanks for all the great information. I heard of a store called Wine Works close to home, i'll stop by and see what they have.

Steve

 

[Bruceter]

You might also check out books by Charlie Papazian. (I hope I spelled that right) I can't remember the titles, but they are two very good books on hombrewing.

Remember, the first step to any homebrewing recipie is to add one beer to the brewer

Bruceter

Edited to add, the books are "The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing" and "The Homebrewer's Companion".

 

[Brad "the butcher"]

We have been making beer from the Coopers Malt Cans (extract kits as kinzli mentions above) you get off the rack at Saveon etc. for about 10 years
They come with the yeast as well.
About 150$ (make 2 batches at a time) in gear is all you need. And a dark room you can control temperature within 2 degrees.
If you acquire or buy the Grolsch swingtop bottles it really reduces your work.
On a 23litre batch you need about 66 regular beer bottles but only 48 grolsch needed as they are pints. Self capping so you don't need caps or a crimper.

I can make two batches/96 pints for about 32$ at 6%.
Second fermentation is done in the bottles so they need to stay upright and poured off leaving the sediment at the bottom but tastes pretty good. Lots of head and carbonation and clear.
I can drink 8 or more pints without beer headache the next day. 8 of our pints is equal to 14.5 regular 5% 341ml bottles.
No preservatives and chemicals means no hangover.....within reason.
I have one batch ready now and the batch from last monday needs to sit for 6 weeks, they say 3 but that's a little green for me.

We will be making more soon, I will take some pic's and bug the wife to show me how to get pic's up.

Love the old school, I dehydrate, smoke and can as well, need to pic an old Italians brain for a good homemade proscutto recipe.

 

[SonoftheNorth]

I used to make beer about fifteen years ago. Made about four or five five gallon batches. It worked out ok but I always preferred good store bought beer. Keeping things sanitary is absolutely key. Recently I began looking into making honey mead. I tried some one time at a beer tasting and it was very good. Made me feel like Beowulf.

I make mead all the time...Much easier than beer in my opinion...the waiting game sucks though