TT Homebrewer & Vintners Club

“OK, who homebrews?

I just racked a 5 gallon batch of all-grain weissbier into a secondary carboy. I want it ready for for the summer months ahead. I love this stuff when the weather gets hot... that and kolsh. I think kolsh is my all-time favorite ale. I brought some of my last batch of kolsh to the TT Mammoth Cave hike. It didn't last long. 8)

Tonight I put 5 gallons of wine into a primary fermenter. I am shooting for a good montepulciano (my favorite wine). It won't be ready for many months, however. I don't make wine as often because I don't drink it as fast, it takes longer to taste right, and it's a heck of a lot more expensive to make than beer.

When I say expensive I mean the grape juice for 5 gallons is like 90 bucks, more or less depending on quality and type of grape. 5 gallons is like 23-25 bottles of wine. It works out to be like $4 per bottle. You have to believe me when I tell you the quality of the end result is FAR SUPERIOR to that of a $4 bottle of wine... 8)
last edited: 5/13/06 7:55:47 PM”

“Dude, your beer ROCKS!!!!!”

“Your Kolsh hit the spot after the drive to mammoth, thanks again.

We have a local shop where you can make and bottle your own wine then take it home to age. A friend of mine and his fiance do this yearly, the place is called "Divine Wines" I believe.

Sounds like a blast Jimmy, I have wanted to home brew beer for sometime...hmm..”

“Hmmmmm.....

I have two beer kits and two glass carboys(only used the white plastic buckets) but I haven't made beer sice '99.

I recycled my brown bottle collection a long time ago.

They say that using glass is better than the buckets but I never made a bad batch of beer/ale.”

“I do the primary in a plastic pail and once the fermentation has “blown” and settled down I rack to a glass carboy for a while. Then I rack again to another glass carboy to get the beer off of the trub... dead yeast, hops, and other junk at the bottom of the carboy that I think produces undesirable flavors in the beer as it ages/breaks down. I have friends that do all their fermenting in plastic buckets. Their beer turns out as good as mine as far as I am concerned. I think the primary reason people use glass is that it’s supposed to be easier to sanitize since it’s not prone to scratches… like I said, my friends make great beer. 8)”

“Uh huh.
You sound like a purist, not that there's anything wrong with that.............beer must be pure.

I was gonna use the glass jugs instead of the buckets but kinda lost my desire to brew.

In the '90s I wasn't working fulltime and I had more time to cook and brew and practice music.”

“I am hardly a purist. So, for example, a purist would never prime with corn sugar... they would set aside a portion of the unfermented wert to add back into the fermeted wert to carbonate it. It's a process called Kräusening. That way the beer is only malted barley, hops, water, and yeast... "pure"... "Rheinheitsgebot" sort of pure. I tried it once and it was too much work and the result wasn't anything I felt was better than using corn sugar to prime my beer... so Rheinheitsgebot pure my beer ain't.

My grandmother told me she would have to go to the local brewery to get beer for their father in a bucket. They would bottle it at their home and drop a raisin in each bottle to prime it. I guess the amount of sugar in a raisin is just right to prime a bottle of beer. Clever.

Also, I don't bother using bottled water like a lot of people. I just use tap water.

I am pretty strict on sanitization, however. I have never had a bad batch of beer or wine, although I have had a few experiments that weren't so good. It would suck to lose $100 worth of grape juice because you didn't do a good job washing a spoon.

I made green beer once. It sounds like it would be cool on St. Patricks day but it was only sort of green. The contest was to make Romulan Ale (ala Star Trek). I struggled trying to find a food that I could make beer with that would make the beer blue other than food coloring. Well, naturally, I settled on blueberries. Ever hear George Carlin rant on about how there is no "blue food" and that it's a food reserved for immortals? Well, anyway, the resulting beer had a greenish brown hue sort of like baby sh-it. The beer tasted good (not at all like blueberries) and I drank it... but it was not blue. Actually, nobody in the contest managed to make blue Romulan Ale.”

“That contest is funny!!

I too used tap water and I was a fanatic about cleanliness.

I washed and rinsed the hell out of my bottles just before bottling and never had a bad batch.

Some might even say I "wasted" water.

Hoppiness is where its at for me and I would boil the finishing hops for at least 45 minutes instead of the recommended 15-20.”

“There are edible blue flowers you could add to try and get a blue tint. Borage flowers, cornflowers aka bachelor's buttons, violets, things like that.”

“I think the problem with my blue beer was that the hopped wert on it's own is naturally a yellow/brown tint. Given the right roast (light) it will be fairly yellow. Mix something blue to it and you get green. Blueberrie juice is more purple than blue if you ask me, so the result was... well... not the desired result.

Then who is to say the the Roulans used barley? I say they would not! We ALL know they would have used quadrotriticale for sure and as Chekov would tell you this is a Russian invention that's a wheat/rye hybrid... not barley!”

“I brew with friends every fall. We have always screwed something up in the process, yet the majority of the beer we have made has come out okay. The batch we brewed last fall tasted better at room temp than cold. It was a steam beer we brewed, the same we tried the year before, however we spilled the hops all over the garage floor. We sweeped it all up and brewed it anyways. The name of that ended up being garage floor punch.

Last year the kit dit not include the cheesecloth to seep the hops in so we used the panty hose of wife. You don't want to know what we called this batch.”

“i keep dropping the hint that i want to try this around my birthday and christmas in the hopes of getting a starter kit as a present but so far it hasn't worked...i guess i'll just have to bite the bullet and buy it myself ;)”

“I'm getting back into wine making from a kit this week. I used to do it a lot, but stopped when buddies and I would suck it out of the carboy and empty the 5 gal. carboy without ever bottling any of it.”

“I've got some dandelion wine working right now.
We make that, and raspberry, and strawberry, from our garden.
I'd love to try making beer someday; I bought about 3/4 of the equipment...”

“I'm getting a wine cellar in my new house, I am not a collector. Can I turn it into a home brewery or winery?”

“turn it into a poker room...put in some ventilation for cigar smoke, maybe a pool table, space permitting”

“Don't know about the making of wine that much, but if it is anything like brewing beer, you may want to do this outside. Brewing beer give off a very pungent odor. This is why we always do it in someone's garage.

Starting this fall, I am starting to fix up my basement. I have a nice corner that will be turned into a wine cellar.”

“You don't want to know what we called this batch.”
Wounded Knee
9:37:57 AM

Butt Beer?”

“negative, much worse.”

“I've been brewing some beer here and there, but I don't really know enough to come up with my own concoction. I get the kits they already have put togethor at the brewery store.

I live in a 2 family house and the downstairs unit is currently being used as storage by a general contractor. I've been thinking about seeing if I can use his refrigerator for a few weeks and try brewing a batch of lager.”

“To make wine all you need is a quiet dark place for it to sit that is nice and cool but not cold. It is very easy and I think much easier than beer. Making beer involves converting stach to sugar in grain using enzymes and then frementing that sugar. Wine involves fermenting sugar already in the fruit. The key is getting good grapes or juice. I can buy juice that is as good as the best wine producers or at least close. Sure you will find wine better than mine however when you make your own you will find it is your favorite. It is very rewarding. This is especially true for beer because you brew it the way you like to drink it... hopping it and blend of grains ect. So if you are making a wine cellar (lucky!) I say for sure you should stock up a few dozen bottles of your own favorite home vintage!”

“When I made my first batch of beer my wife and I lived an apartment. As I was boiling the wert and putting the hops in I think she was about to kill me. The entire apartment, and a small one at that, really smelled like boiling wert. She told me later that after a few batches of beer she got used to it and started looking forward to the aroma. I cook my wert on the stove with the vent fan on and I use a pot with a tight fitting lid. That helps a lot.

It does smell when it's fermenting, but only a little bit. I keep my carboys in a dark closet in the back of my house. It smells of brewing, but it's a smell I like.”

“Ungh, my closet smells of fermenting wine. It's at that "rolling boil" stage. A few more days of this and it will be time for the secondary fermentation. What a smell!”

“i just picked up "The Beer Machine"...a complete , unused brewing system for $2 at a garage sale

any tips?”

“Sell it for 5 and go buy a 6-pack.”

“Just make sure you get it super clean before brewing. I have one, every batch I've made has been excellent.”

“Man, have fun! I always drink my home-brewed beer while I make beer. Sort of a tradition. Kits are a great way to start.

My wine is turning out great. I added the clarifying agent to it the other day and drew out a shot glass to sample. The SG was .998 so it was ready to sit and clarify... clearly the secondary fermentation was done. Anyway, it tasted great... not at all sweet... very rich and complex (it's a red wine). The flavor was a tad harsh, probably from the alcohol which makes newley brewed stuff taste "hot" (closest I can come to describing it)... aging takes the edge off this in a big way. It should be pretty good in 3-6 months.

10 days from now I rack it to another carboy and let it polish. Then after about a week I bottle it.”

“drinkin homebrew tonight...”

“Schweet.

I've got a bottle of 6-year-old mead I'm opening for thanksgiving.”

“Isn't mead similar to beer?
Shouldn't it be drank sooner to the fermentation finishing?
Apparently not if you are brewing it you would know.”

“mead only gets better with age. i have some that i made with my first son was born 12 years ago and it's amazing stuff. only a few bottles left, however. new mead doesn't taste that good. it has a lot of alcohol and has a "hot" taste, too sharp.
last edited: 10/13/06 5:12:41 PM”

“Mead's more like wine, meangreen. It's made from honey.

And in this case, flavored with cinnamon, cloves and Orange peel.”

“So it's more like wine then?
Does it ferment in the bottle, or in a cask, and then gets bottled?”

“depends...

i ferment mine in a glass carboy. sometimes i bottle it still (i.e. with no carbonation) in which case there is no fermentation in the bottle. there just isn't enough sugar left over to keep the fermentation going.

if i am making a sparkling mead then i "prime" it with corn sugar or a portion of the unfermented mead. then i let it ferment a little more in the bottle to make the "bubbles"

but i think traditionally it's a still beverage like wine. I generally don't flavor my mead with spices (this is called a metheglin i think). melomel is when you mix it with fruit juice.

it's all good.

i use red star champagne yeast.”

“Fascinating. I would love to get started brewing, but it is kind of expensive to start isn't it?”

“Fascinating. I would love to get started brewing, but it is kind of expensive to start isn't it?”

“well maybe not THAT fascinating...”

“Its not that expensive, i used to have a kit and made a batch every few months - it was fun.

the worst part was having to acquire bottles the first time around - i had to suffer thru drinking several cases of beer - and relatively good beer too - had to be bottles that could be reused and resealed.

:)

I used to find that i could make a case of beer for about the same price as a case of nice microrew would cost in the store.”

“The weather is gray and rainy here so I think I'll open a bottle of "McBeer" a Strong / Scotish Ale with molasses and extra malt. It's a real Kilt Lifter!



I like fermemting in a glass carboy to be able to watch the swirlling and churning! It's like a Science Fair Project gone awry! And always ask myself, "You're going to drink THAT?"
And every batch has been VERY good, well except for the time my yeast didn't proof and I use Bread Yeast.”

“making wine is cheap if you look at it on a per bottle level. i make wine in 5 gallon batches which produces 24 750ml bottles. the cost runs about $4/bottle but the wine you get ain't $4/bottle wine... that's still around $100/batch (a lot) but per bottle it's a great deal. you save big money in the long.”

“i think my worst batch of homebrew was better than most beers i've bought in the store.

i don't think it was that expensive getting started. It's been a while so I don't really remember, but I already had a real big pot, which is probably one of the most expensive things you need. The carboys aren't too much, and you can always just use a 5 gallon bucket(food grade) instead.”

“i don't inderstand you all's engilsh but I have some moon shine and it's clear and strawberry.............some tter's know what I mean and have tried this stuff......right sticks???????????/”

“my uncle makes the stuff... burns like hell”

“started a 6 gal batch of syrah today... the holiday season had been brutal on the homemade wine cache.”

“YUMMY!”

“that's the correct word. there is nothing like getting hammered on your own wine. well, quite a few things like it but you get the point. it doesn't take much, that's the beauty of it.

this batch will have to age for at least two years so it won't take the pressure off of the cache... i'll have to make more to do that.”

“Bottled 25 bottles of syrah last night. Tonight re-cleaned the primary and set 6 gallons of pinot noir out to ferment. My stock was running low and I was about to have to tap into the stuff I was trying to age for over 5 years.

I am in the mood to make some more beer. It's been almost a year since I lautered mash.

When I went to the homebrew store to get corks for my wine bottling they told me they are closing... and moving almost a mile from my house! Such luck!

All these trips to Kentucky have me curious about making moonshine. My uncle makes the stuff... takes the paint off of cars... awful stuff. It is enough to make me curious.”

“LEt's do some beer man! If you have the stuff, I will buy the kit. I know of a company that has a great steam beer.”

“Sure! All we need is the grain, hops, and yeast. I was thinking a Kolsh but if you have a different favorite brew i am game. I can't make beer that requires cold temps for the fermentation (lagers, etc)... always wanted a fridge for this... an IPA or a steam beer would be a good bet. steam beer is basically made with lager yeast that is fermented at room temp.

a good wheat beer might be a treat as well. weihenstephan yeast is easy to get these days and produces outstanding beer.

your call. we can stink up my place or yours... i love the smell of boiling wert!
last edited: 8/06/07 11:19:08 PM”

“Ha Ha! We can talk about it this weekend. If I can find the phamplet on the kits, I will bring it and we can choose something.”