Home brewed beer

“After I move into my new place in a few weeks, I'm thinking of treating myself to a home beer brewing kit. I know there's a lot of work involved, especially with sterilization, but I remember a friend of mine doing it (who I no longer keep in touch with), and he really had a great time doing it.. and the beer actually tasted really good! Plus, half the fun would be designing and printing up your own labels for the bottles.

Anybody here brewed their own before? I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts.”

“You'll put your eye out with that thing.”

“Hopefully a few brain cells also.”

“Yes sir... try this message board for some tips...

http://forum.northernbrewer.com/

Great hobby BTW”

“dumb and blind. "That is no way to go through life, Son."

-Dean Wormer”

“I say, "Go for it, Artex"! You will have fun. Make no mistake, it is time consuming. You must be careful to do each step just how it is described in the book. I started with a book entitled simply "The World's Greatest Beer Recipes".
Do you have a store nearby that sells supplies? They are usually willing to help you with any questions, and tell you what equipment you need. Stay basic at first and then add equipment as desired, (just like backpacking) and after awhile you will tweek the recipes to come up with your custom brew. The beer you brew will be as good or better than anything you can buy, if you do it right.
Let me know how your first batch comes out.”

“Grow your own hops! I don't know what a hop is, but grow your own.”

“A beer and a shot sounds good right about now!

Man it sucks that I can't drink!

8(”

“Mike, you have so much going on in your life, alcohol is not much of a sacrifice. Besides, somebody has to post sober on this site.”

“He posts that sh1t sober? Man I thought Crazy Mike was bombed all the time. Good meds, I guess.”

“I had some friends in CA that did it. They made great beer, and a had blast doing it. They loved people who drank Grolsch, their favorite bottles, even though they hated the beer.”

“Ya my meds are cool!

I just have a great love for scotch!

anything as old or older then 18 years old!

Ummmmm gooood!!!!

8)”

“Especially single malt.”

“YES!!!!!!!!!

8)”

“Just make sure everything is CLEAN, CLEAN, CLEAN!! and even your worst batch will be better than the swill you get in the store.
I agree the labels are half the fun "Double Malted Llama Logger" yum yum.”

“Mna all this talk is killing me!!!!

8o Agggggggggg!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

“a friend of mine made some beer a few years ago... he proudly gave me a great big bottle of Cornholio Cream Stout "Are you drinking me?" good beer, GREAT label”

“Sounds good!

8)”

“Homebrewing is a great hobby. Check the local Yellow Pages for homebrewing supply stores, most places have beginner classes where they'll cook up a batch of wort in front of you, while tasting and teaching you about many different types of beer during the session. Watching someone do it for the first time is beneficial, imo. And I concur with Mr.bacpac...no matter what your vice, grow your own!!!”

“My parents tried to make homemade root beer once when I was younger. Can't remember if that was before the homemade yogurt or the homemade cottage cheese or the homemade purple cow (don't ask). Can't remember how long after that I decided I was definitely moving away for college.

Good luck with the brew...”

“Thanks for the tips, guys. I'll be sure to post my results once I make a batch. Hey Crazy M, if you get off dem meds, swing by and have a few and then we'll hit the Catskills!”

“the first couple times you do it you can buy premade kits from the homebrew store. it has all the ingredients you need for 5 gallons of beer and it lets you get the techniques down(which are not hard at all). after a while you'll start to learn what does what and how to change taste, bubbliness, etc.
NUMBER ONE RULE:
don't drink when you're brewing. you'll mess it up. it's almost a guarantee.

but it really is so much fun. it's not hard at all i don't think. it helps that i clean everything in an industrial kitchen at work though, i guess. like naviguesser said if everythings sterilized your worst batch will be better than most store beers.

your budweiser days are numbered”

“Just keep it simple the first few times, and follow J0SH's advice. Don't jump into making grain mashes until you're good at making beer with a kit. The best beer I ever made I made from a liquid malt extract.”

“Top 2 things to remember 1) Keep an eye on your temperatures..when your brewing the wort and that you rapidly cool it down...and also during the fermentation phase..with ales you want it neither to hot or cold..2) Keep your stuff ultra clean...past that it's really quite simple and hard to mess up...”

“Sweet! I'm getting stoked about the project!”

“Welcome! Just keep it simple and clean,, I've been doing my own for over 20 years, and don't let the snobs get to you, make it to your taste, and don't be afraid to try! I started with beer, went to ale( different yeast) and finally got to my favorite , mead (made with honey)get a good recipe book, start with canned extract, and go from there, you'll have a ball, believe me.”

“My friends had a book that had recipes of some commercial favorites that they used to get started (much better than shelf beer though!), then they started experimenting.

One thing they did that I thought was a very good idea was keeping a log book of each batch to know what went right and what went wrong.”

“I made some mead about 12 years ago swamp yankee...I still have some of...it's damn good stuff when made right...”

“"McBeer"
Welcome to the Clam!”

“I wish I lived next door to Naviguesser. Some royal brew concocted by that man. Come on out to a llama rama that he goes to and taste some good sh..stuff.He also has some stuff that makes the girls...welll thats another story.He has many.”

“I used to make a lot of beer and I think I'll start again. I used to get a Scottish bitter called 80 Shilling. I just put in in the tub for a week and bottled it. It had to age in the bottle for about a month.
Lagers, especially the European kind need to spend extra time in the carboy beyond the minimum the the recipe suggests, I found. Either way, it needs to spend at least three weeks in the bottle. Not drinking it right away is probably the only real tip that I can add to the others (all good). Have fun.”

“I haven't made any for a couple years now, but one of the last ones I brewed was a cherry stout; 2 lbs of choke cherries and 3 lbs of sour cherries. It was great!
I need to get going on a batch to justify all the beer bottles I have stashed in the basement.”

“Home brewers can buy Grolsch bottles here. I forgot to mention that I don't like to use chlorinated water. Filtered water is available at the local grocery store, although I have a well and use the water right out of the tap. Makes good wine, too.”

“"Full Gale Ale"
Well Blow Me Down.”

“Boiling the water for a little while before using it will drive off the chlorine. Also, letting the water sit for a few days in an open container will work, but in that period you might get some nasties in there.

The best home-based beermaker I know is also very fastidious about cleanliness. He always cleans the kitchen thoroughly before starting a batch.”

“I have a friend who brews constantly. She has 5-gallon syrup containers which she puts the brew in, a refrigerator that fits 3 of those containers inside and has 3 taps on the door, all run by a CO2 system. Just brew, carboy and decant a few times, pour into the 5-gal containers, hook up to the CO2 system and she has beer ready to drink. No priming, no sterilization and bottling and capping, no waiting for natural fermentation to carbonate the drink. She's got the system downpat!”

“One time when the yeast didn't proof (and the beer store was closed) I used Bakers Yeast. Boy what a mistake that was! Turned the brew sour.”

“Sometimes you can culture the yeast from the bottom of the bottle of an earlier batch. I've never done it, but I've heard of it being done in a pinch.”

“"Full Moon Ale"
Something to Howl About.”

“I have a friend who makes mead. He screwed it up and it came out really carbonated the last time. The way he keeps it affordable is he collects $2 from everyone ahead of time, asks them to collect a couple Grolsh bottles for him, takes a vote on what flavor to make (he made chocolate once) and a month later, you get your beer. I never developed a taste for it though, too many sediments.”

“Just a month? Wow, that's quick for mead!

Mine sat in the fermenter for 6 months before I bottled it.”

“As I recall, Old Timer brought some home made meade to the llamarama last year, too. It wasn't exactly to my taste.”

“Mine is really dry, like champagne, probably because I used a champagne yeast. I made a strawberry that was pretty good, but overcarbonated, so it spews when you open it.

Because I used champagne yeast, it also came out at about 13% alcohol. It was the only time I ever saw a specific gravity of less than 1.”

“Oh maybe it was more like 6 months. Ü I don't remember, I don't even think I gave him 2 bucks because I was skeptical he could make it come out right

Store bought beer is the best!”

“But biz, with home brew you can jack up the alcohol content to over 10%!”

“And then it aged another 6 months in the bottle before it was even drinkable.

I have some that's almost 15 years old now. Stuff's almost old enough to drive. Maybe I should crack one tonight....mmmmmm”

“that sure is a hellofa long wait”

“Most of it is in champagne bottles, and I don't want to crack one just for me. I'm almost out of the 12oz bottles, and besides, that's like drinking two glasses of wine. Gets me a little loopy.”

“Buddur, marry that woman. If she's already married, become VERY good friends with her husband. Bitpusher, you are my hero. Good evening, everyone.”

“If my recollection is right..I think mead is the oldest known alcoholic drink...dating back to the Egyptions....A 5000 year old mummy can't be wrong...”