Anyone brew their own beer?

[Triple J]

Good luck. Home brewing is fun, and not all that hard. Like others have said...be anal with your cleaning and all should be good. It isn't that hard to make a decent beer, especially if you're using a recipe from the homebrew shop. 

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

Not asked of me, but I've used both. I prefer floral as they seem to give a fresher or brighter aroma. It may be all in my head, but it seemed that way...although I admit I haven't done a specific comparison. Pellets are defintely easier to handle and store though.

[The Architect]

So the wort is in the basement bubbling away.   

I have one concern.  I used the biggest pot I have, a lobster pot.  It's a light weight enamel coated large pot.  When I added the liquid malt extract it took a long time getting it to boil.  I burned some of the extract on the bottom of the pot.  The wort looks dark. 

I wonder what kind of effect this will have on the beer? 

[Triple J]

So the wort is in the basement bubbling away.   

I have one concern.  I used the biggest pot I have, a lobster pot.  It's a light weight enamel coated large pot.  When I added the liquid malt extract it took a long time getting it to boil.  I burned some of the extract on the bottom of the pot.  The wort looks dark. 

I wonder what kind of effect this will have on the beer? 

Burning the malt is never good. If it was just a little it may not be bad...I've done it a couple times as well. You have to be ready to stir when the malt is added! 

[triangleforge]

All I can add is that if you happen to break a 5-gallon glass carboy full of sticky wort indoors, don't bother cleaning it up.

Just sell the house at whatever price you can get for it.

[The Architect]

Burning the malt is never good. If it was just a little it may not be bad...I've done it a couple times as well. You have to be ready to stir when the malt is added! 

Define just a little.  I don't think I burned it much, just enough to stain the bottom of the pot.

All I can add is that if you happen to break a 5-gallon glass carboy full of sticky wort indoors, don't bother cleaning it up.

Just sell the house at whatever price you can get for it.

Oh no!     I was seriously considering buying a glass carboy.   The plastic bucket will do for now. 

[Triple J]

Define just a little.  I don't think I burned it much, just enough to stain the bottom of the pot.


Oh no!     I was seriously considering buying a glass carboy.   The plastic bucket will do for now. 

You don't know what that technical term means?!  Hard to say...if you just stained the pot a little you may be OK. I can't remember how bad I've burned it in the past, but it was always OK...at least the beer was always decent and drinkable. Just see how it tastes.

Personally I'd pass on the glass carboy for now. Plastic buckets are cheaper, more available, easier to clean and transfer fluid to/from, and a lot of people think the flavor isn't affected by them. It's also a hell of a lot easier to dry hop in a plastic bucket, as it's easier to add/remove them. I went to buy a glass carboy from our local homebrew place and the guy said there wasn't any real benefit as far as I can remember (even though he sold them)...so I stayed plastic. Eventually I'll go glass but not for any reason I can think of off hand, other than I like the idea of glass better. 

[triangleforge]

Define just a little.  I don't think I burned it much, just enough to stain the bottom of the pot.


Oh no!     I was seriously considering buying a glass carboy.   The plastic bucket will do for now. 

Don't get me wrong - glass is definitely a step up from plastic, but 5 gallons of any liquid will go into any nook, cranny & crevice you know of, and all the ones you don't (yet), and three or four pounds of glass shards is nothing to sneeze at.  But I did buy another glass one to replace it - I just made a point of being especially careful after that - and didn't have to sell the house; it took a divorce to do that.

Adding one of these handles makes juggling the full carboys a whole lot easier & safer:



And don't get too worried about some minor scorching in the brewkettle - it's not a good thing, but I did the same thing with one of my first batches many years ago -- it added a little toasted flavor to the final product, but nothing too overwhelming. You need to just repeat the Papazian mantra "Relax, don't worry, have a homebrew."

[Stinky Wizzleteats]

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. 

I still have a Raspberry Wheat Beer that I brewed last year. Racked into a secondary onto a kilo of frozen raspberries. Pretty awesome. And a mate of mine tried to make a Banana Beer, didn't turn out that well.

I will definitely try that coffee and vanilla out! 

[krolik]

The main benefit of a glass carboy is that it's easier to keep clean, plastic buckets get scratches in them that are almost impossible to disinfect.

Unless you're using hopped extract, you don't need to add it to the wort until the end of the boil. Boiling the malt extract doesn't do anything, and all that sugar take alot of energy to heat up & time to cool down. I've been adding the extract after I've finished boiling the wort & hops for over 5 years now, and it hasn't made any difference to the end results that I can see (taste).

[The Architect]

I was planning on checking the wort Sunday to see how it's doing.  That'll be 7 days of fermenting.  If the bubbler is still bubbling at more than a bubble per minute, I'll wait. 

How long do you guys typically let the wort ferment?

[krolik]

7 to 14 days depending on the temp.

[brimo]

Just tasted the strawberry wine today (it's had about 3 months in the bottle now) coming along very nicely. Nice balance of acidity and tannin and not too fruity, gonna label this one a success. Pity I only did 8 litres. 

[The Architect]

7 to 14 days depending on the temp.

Temp = 60 degrees

[krolik]

Bottle when you have less then one bubble per minute.

You can wait a few days or even a couple weeks to bottle. Most fermentation occurs in the first few days.

[golgofett]

How long do you guys typically let the wort ferment?

I have always let the primary fermentation go for 2 weeks, usually around 66-70 degrees in my pantry.  I have always done this as a rule of thumb that I picked up from some book but it has always worked out fine.  I usually secondary in a fridge for  a week to pull out the sediment and then rack to a keg.  I could skip the secondary in the fridge step but I try to make the beer as clear as possible. 

I have read that sometimes fermentation could be done in as little as three days and then force carbed in a keg, giving you drinkable beer in as little as 5 days.  I like to take my time and not rush things though.  I have become pretty routine with my brewing as I have been fortunate to not have any mishaps.