Anyone brew their own beer?

[zooom]

golgofett...do you use floral hops or the pellets?

[El Matador]

There's a member in Texas that goes by the screen name Murduc. He is hands down the best brewer I've come across. His stouts are spoken of in hushed whispers and and bed time stories.

[GAAN]

You guys planning on anymore brew days? I wanna come up.

nothing in the works but i wouldn't mind having a winter brew available

I've got 4 empty kegs if I can figure out how to clean em

[krolik]

Are they 5 gallon kelly (soda) kegs or beer kegs?







Good general advice has been spoken, the best thing is to keep everything clean. The worst part of brewing is cleaning bottles. THe less you have to clean the more fun it is. That's why I have a 3 keg beer fridge in the basement.

I only brew extract recipes, mostly because of time. All grain isn't much harder, you just need a bit more equipment and about twice the time.

[golgofett]

golgofett...do you use floral hops or the pellets?

I have always used pellet.  I read that whole hops soak up a lot of the wort and pellets are easier to store in the freezer.  I was going to take a chance and grow my own, but after my rhizomes arrived, I decided I did not want to go through the trouble.  Lucky for me, a friend did and traded me 4 corny kegs so know I have about 10 kegs but have never come close to filling them all at the same time. 

Just for a little more motivation to convince a new homebrewer to start, experimentation is half the fun. 

One beer I have made on a few occasions is a espresso oatmeal stout.  I soak a 1/2 pound of hand cracked espresso beans after fermentation is complete for a week, cold conditioned.  When you pour a pint, it smells just like coffee, but has the mouthfeel of a creamy stout.  I have had a couple friends show up and get a little upset when it is gone. I have also made a vanilla Imperial Stout that had many friends calling me after drinking one as they were almost 10 percent alcohol.  Used real vanilla beans and after some time, the flavors balanced real well. 

I also make a irish red that I keep tweaking a little by little.  Sometimes I will stick with the original recipe, other times I will add more hops to give it a different twist. 

[GAAN]

Are they 5 gallon kelly (soda) kegs or beer kegs?

Regular beer kegs

[Speedbag]

Soda kegs are gooder based on helping my buddies....

[ducpainter]

nothing in the works but i wouldn't mind having a winter brew available

I've got 4 empty kegs if I can figure out how to clean em

Pressure washer and a 5% bleach solution?

Wear your raincoat.

[the_Journeyman]

I've got an earthenware crock, capped by a clean dishtowel and held in place by a plate & a quart of water in a jar.  I cleaned it well before I started.  I've brewed prior with this method with no ill results.  Very very simple.  I currently have in there honey and yeast.  We'll see what happens (boiled the honey down with citrus rinds for flavor) when I check on it.  It's got a couple months yet to ferment.

JM

[il d00d]

I have yet to do my own start to finish, but I have helped my dad for years.  Way back in college, I though I might try brewing my own, having seen some of the DIY kits that had become popular.  DME + water + heat + waiting.  Seemed pretty straightforward.  Instead, I bought my dad a kit with the intention of starting up a family hobby.

Well, he took the ball and ran with it.  His undergraduate is in chemistry, and up until then, his chem skills lay dormant, waiting for for an outlet.  Between the time I bought him the kit and the next time I made it home, he had gone from DME brewing to full grain.  He regaled me with complex brewing recipes and phrases like "triple concoction mash" - he got good, fast, so I was content to be brewers assistant and high-volume quality control officer.

Anyways, on to advice.  We tried pony kegs, and found that getting the carbonation right was a bit more work than priming bottles.  You may not want to start with that.  If you bottle, use non-screw-cap bottles, as screw tops tend to leak unless you are perfect in the capping process. Flip-top/Grolsch bottles are great (more beer, less work) but are also not 100% reliable - new gaskets are a good investment.   And if at all possible, try to regulate the temperature during primary fermentation as much as possible.  If you have a cold corner in a basement, or better yet, a wine fridge, I think your results will be better than sticking your carboy in a closet or the garage.  My dad used to lager batches in the pool during winter with no ill effects, but I think the variation in temperature can produce variation in results.  Good luck, have fun with it, and share with the rest of the class 

[DoubleEagle]

My Dad used to make Home Brew as he called it.

What I remember, was he put boiling water in a large Crockery container that stood about 2 ' tall and a foot in diameter.

Along w, the boiling water he added Malt, Barley and Yeast and dissolved it all.

He then put a bobber/ thermometer in it that I think when the Alcohol content was right it would pop up ( which was after a week or 2 ) and a towel over the Crock.

Then when it was ready, he would put like a teaspoon of sugar in a beer bottle then the fermented mix, put a cap on it and cap it w, a caper and put it in a cool dark place for another couple of weeks .......and hope it didn't blow up !

We made Home made Rootbeer also.

Dolph       

[herm]

i tried home brewing a few years ago (i was living in the NW, so it was kind of expected...)

miserable failure.....while the beer that i ended up with was excellent in taste, i was able to drink 3 pints without any kick.

somehow i failed to brew alcohol...

[The Architect]

I bought all the equipment and ingredients yesterday.  I plan on starting the brewing this weekend.  I'll keep you guys posted. 

[MendoDave]

i tried home brewing a few years ago (i was living in the NW, so it was kind of expected...)

miserable failure.....while the beer that i ended up with was excellent in taste, i was able to drink 3 pints without any kick.

somehow i failed to brew alcohol...

That is most unfortunate. I sure hope that doesn't happen to me. 

[krolik]

I bought all the equipment and ingredients yesterday.  I plan on starting the brewing this weekend.  I'll keep you guys posted. 

Good luck.  Remember to wash everything thoroughly.

Oh, and "Relax, have a homebrew."

Props to Charlie Papazian.