been brewing for 6 years now, im starting a micro brewery, well its in plans of course, but we are currently making really good beer.

i brew ipas, 2ipas, RIS, everything above 1.070

Quote from: monsterjoe on July 04, 2012, 12:48:49 PM
been brewing for 6 years now, im starting a micro brewery, well its in plans of course, but we are currently making really good beer.

i brew ipas, 2ipas, RIS, everything above 1.070

Where are you at?

My brewpub goes live in September

2nd batch of strawberry wine.  WAY better than the first and it WILL take your legs away very quickly to be a wine.



JM

Quote from: the_Journeyman on September 24, 2012, 06:54:37 PM
2nd batch of strawberry wine.  WAY better than the first and it WILL take your legs away very quickly to be a wine.



JM

Looks delicious.  My next step is "wine" making (wine out of a box is hardly wine, but it tastes like a Merlot and it will get you drunk ) but for now the brewing will have to suffice.

It looks as though I'm a few years behind the party, but I thought I would add my two cents and see how everyone else has been spending their winter.

My first batch was earlier this year and cost me close to $100!  A local "brew shop" (read local odds and ends store that also had ridiculously over priced brewing supplies) was going out of business and seeing as how the beginners kit I bought a few years prior was just gathering dust, I thought I would give it the old college try.  The brew actually came out pretty decent (think Irish red with a nice cream finish) but I made the newb mistake of trying to carbonate/condition my bottles in the fridge.  Doh.  There was a bit of fizz, but not enough really.  Did it do the job?  Absolutely.

A few assisted brews under my belt, I have 11 gallons worth (3 different batches worth) fermenting in the closet as we speak.  The first was a recipe my buddy dubbed "Fiery Blonde".  A very light blonde ale with lots of spice and hop flavor, but low alcohol.  All his batches had been all grain so he made up an extract recipe for me out of Rye liquid and British Malt liquid with Nugget, Mt Hood, and Cascade hops with adjunct oats. 

Long story short it looks like a standard pale ale in the carboy.  No "blonde" at all, but everything smells right, so I'm hoping for the best.  I got a kegging kit for Christmas this year, so we'll see how everything turns out post carbonation.

The other batch is a bit late for fall drinkability, but I'm making what I hope to call "Blackberry Apple Pie a-la-mode".  It SHOULD end up as a blackberry hard apple cider that I plan on "dry hpping" with cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and vanilla steeped in vodka. 

The little batch was a half gallon of cider I had left over that I heat up for 5 minutes, threw some brown sugar into to dissolve, pitched yeast, and tossed in the fermenter.  Being new to brewing I thought it would be a fun experiment.  The big batches are getting force carbonated (maybe one or two bottles of the cider will get bottled.  For science) and the little guy will get bottle conditioned and carbonated. 

I'm definitely hooked on this "money saving" hobby and after reading through all 25 pages of this thread I'm hoping I'll get some good advice from you more experienced cats and maybe trade a brew or two.  Cheers.

Just about any fruit (provided it can be had cheaply enough) can be used to make wine, some of mine:

Mango (from my own trees) pretty good quite strong tasting.

Passionfruit (from a neighbour's vine) fermented to a dry finish, nice and refreshing on a hot day.

Strawberry- (storm damaged fruit from a local farm) femented til dry -delicious

Mulberry (from my own trees,) fruity- had one batch that ended up having a secondary fermentation in the bottle-mulberry champagne! that one was excellent.

Rosellas- a disaster, the high pectin level caused it to go a bit thick, tasted nice but a bit like drinking spit, will use some pectinase next time.

Beetroot-pretty ordinary

No beer brewing on at the moment, too warm down in the brew room.
Pear cider from last winter has turned out pretty well.
Czech pilsener good
Ginger beer is a bit powerful
Amber Ale good too, all together a pretty successful brewing time last winter.

Had a bumper crop of apples and pears this year so I decided to try my hand at cider.  Have 5 gal of apple in secondary fermentation now - should be about 7.2% Alcohol, gravity is down to 0.  Have 5 gal of pear with about 1% of alcohol potential remaining yet and just pressed another 6 gallons worth of apples last night.  Trying different yeasts, etc.  Should be interesting!  Before next year, I'm going to build a grinder out of a stainless steel garbage disposal and a press.  I processed all the juice with a countertop juicer - major mess and PITA, but I do have 15+gallons doing its thing.  Took a bit of the dry apple cider and am making apple cider vinegar out of it.  Just checked it last night and it has a good amount of the vinegar mother so I think that is working well.  I might try to do some pear cider vinegar if I have a bit extra. 

Quote from: WarrenJ on November 07, 2013, 07:11:49 AM
Had a bumper crop of apples and pears this year so I decided to try my hand at cider.  Have 5 gal of apple in secondary fermentation now - should be about 7.2% Alcohol, gravity is down to 0.  Have 5 gal of pear with about 1% of alcohol potential remaining yet and just pressed another 6 gallons worth of apples last night.  Trying different yeasts, etc.  Should be interesting!  Before next year, I'm going to build a grinder out of a stainless steel garbage disposal and a press.  I processed all the juice with a countertop juicer - major mess and PITA, but I do have 15+gallons doing its thing.  Took a bit of the dry apple cider and am making apple cider vinegar out of it.  Just checked it last night and it has a good amount of the vinegar mother so I think that is working well.  I might try to do some pear cider vinegar if I have a bit extra. 

(I'm bringing this back) How did that turn out? We are doing things with apples as well,  but none of them involve making drink......yet.

Two of my latest:





Black IPA and a Belgian Wheat Ale. Both my own recipes, and quite tasty.

   

Looks good. I wan't some.

Quote from: NoNing on October 01, 2014, 03:00:49 PM
Looks good. I wan't some.

+1 on that