Anybody home brew?

[FrankB]

I was curious if anyone was into homebrewing beer, wine....anything else maybe?
I do a few beers in the winter months mostly.

[EMan]

...but my former boss did. His beer actually showed me the light in good tasting beer. It was dark and delish!

[aznrambo481]

my friend decided to see what would happened if he squeezed grapes into a plastic bottle and kept if for a really long time. Ended up smelling like wine vinegar! Apparently the bacteria emmited gas, because the plastic bottle would be under pressure when you opened it.

[guitardedzen]

My roomate and bandmate is planning on going to school to become a brewmaster. Out here in Oregon we have SOOO many microbrew beers and damn near all of them are great! Also the only state that I believe you can get that brewmasters degree in as well. Oh and just to throw it in there, I live about 2 miles away from the largest Oktoberfest in the world outside of the one in Germany. There's a lot of good beer around!

[chickenpicker]

My brother used to, before canned supermarket beer became so cheap over here.

His beer tasted awful, but that didn't stop me drinking as much as possible. In order to make up for the terrible taste, he used to brew it with twice as much sugar, so it was mega strong and so you didn't have to suffer it for as long before you were blotto.

I don't drink at all now, but I look back upon those days with a certain fondness.

[Brewboy]

I used to, but now I do it professionaly. Some of the best beers I have tasted have been home brews. If you do things right, you can make great beer at home.

[Skully]

Does bathtub crystal meth count?

[durango jon-boy]

Originally Posted by Skully

Does bathtub crystal meth count?

UMMM thats the good kind.

[atinder]

I also homebrew, but I'm pretty new at it. I'm just gearing up to start my second beer - the first was pretty successful, but I think I can do better. Steep learning curve. I'm toying with the idea of growing my own hops, too, just because I think it would be fun.....

["S.P.U.N."]

As a wayward young man, I once "home" brewed some contraband sparkling wine using fresh squeezed orange juice, sugar, and raw croissants. We had four to six five-gallon jugs going at any given time, and to burp each one every couple of days. After five days, we had what tasted exactly like mimosas. Potent, but had a tendency to nauseate.

[Skully]

If you ever wind up behind bars, you could find yourself in demand as a brewer of pruno.

[ghosttour]

I just started my second batch - an Imperial Stout. I did a barleywine about 7 months ago that turned out pretty good. Got the inspiration from my Dad, who did a few batches when I was a kid.

So far I'm still using recipe "kits" from Alternative Beverage (www.ebrew.com), but I hope to start working on my own recipes soon. To that end I got a book called "Beer Captured" which sort of "decodes" the recipes for popular brews.

I'd like to start growing my own hops, too - but it seems like rhizomes sell out pretty quickly. And I have a "black thumb."

[atinder]

Hey - nice to hear that someone else is a novice brewer, but has thought of growing hops, too. I know it's a lot of work, but I love the idea of being able to say that I was brewing with hops that NO ONE ELSE was.

My first brew was supposed to be an American Pale Ale, but turned out more like a brown ale: darker, maltier. Still good. Next I'm going for an IPA, and just gonna hop the sh*t out of it.

[Tim Armstrong]

I started homebrewing in 1987, got a job as an assistant brewmaster in 1991, and brewed professionally until 1998, working in a number of brewpubs and microbreweries. I had a lot of fun, but after my last three brewing jobs (in a two-year period) sucked profoundly, I got burned out and got out of the profession.

I've brewed a few batches of homebrew since then, and somehow the thrill is gone. Thank goodness there are so darn many great breweries around!!!

Cheers, Tim

[hollowman]

Used too, in the 80's, before there were many good American beers available in the liquor store. Now you can get so many good, local, fresh great brews that I quit brewing. My neighbor makes a lot of homebrew, so that helps too.

[goldtopper]

I've actually bought a still a number of years sgo from a maker in Oklahoma. I make Corn Whiskey and White Lightning. It's all copper with a jacketed condenser tube and does a 5 gallon batch at a time.

[Mid Life Crisis]

I've just started homebrewing, using standard kit from high street shops.

My first attempts have been drinkable but very sweet - I think its because I was using the wrong kind of sugar i.e. the stuff with artificial sweeteners in, which I didn't realise at the time!

Next batch I will use proper sugar.

[Tim Armstrong]

Originally Posted by Mid Life Crisis

Next batch I will use proper sugar.

Do yourself a huge favor, and use all malt extract. Don't put in any straight sugar. Your beer will be easily twice as good.

Really!

Tim

[1293]

I haven't homebrewed in years. I went all out and built a DC variable speed roller mill, temperature controlled mash tuns, counter flow wort chillers, an aseptic racking system using pressurized CO2, and machined an aluminum cold plate for dispensing. I even used nitrogen to dispense my Guinness clone. I just can't seem to find the time needed to brew a batch of beer anymore.

These days, I make wine with a large group of people. We have work days for crushing, pressing, bottling etc.. The work is distributed, so it isn't the same committment as a batch of beer. Wine is so much easier to make than beer. We make about a dozen different wines, but I usually go for the Finger Lakes Riesling, Pinot Noir, and Seyval Blanc, and Petite Sirah and Zinfandel from California grapes.

[markophonic]

I'm having a reflux still built as I write this...Can't wait to start distilling some of my own stuff

Using a Half barrel beer keg and copper column and condenser.

anyone have any decent recipies they would like to share?

[mojocasterman]

I used to run a site dedicated to Maine Beers. After all, beer is 90% water, and where is water purer than in the good ole state of Maine?

I don't brew on my own. To me, it is a social event. We used to get together during a Patriots game and brew and sample past experiences while watching the game. Mucho fun was had.

[FrankB]

Great responses everyone. Reason I ask is I am sort of hooked on it. Being that my bicycle shop is 2 doors down from a a home brew store....I couldn;t find a reaosn not to try it initially....now I'm the second stop after the homebrew shop. The homebrewers come in and bring me beer or we trade...it's an incredible experience.
When I brew I mostly brew in the colder months since there is less bike stuff happening and I like to do it outside behind the shop ( hillbilly style) it's fun. On days when we have to bottle, I do it while I am open and post t on my blog..that usually makes for a busy day because some of my customers returing and new, come in to check it out and sometimes eveb help us bottle....it's a great time. and they get free beer for helping and being patient while we bottle. And they can hang out and play guitar while I talk to other customers.....much much fun.

[Mid Life Crisis]

Originally Posted by Tim Armstrong

Do yourself a huge favor, and use all malt extract. Don't put in any straight sugar. Your beer will be easily twice as good.

Really!

Tim

Tim, thanks for the advice mate! I'll give that a try next time. What sort of quantity of malt extract should you use, compared to sugar, in a 40-pint fermenting bin?

[Tim Armstrong]

Roughly the same amount of light malt extract powder, or syrup. Maybe add 10% or so...

Also, to make it less sweet, you might look for hopped malt extract.

Warning: actually learning recipes might make you a beer maniac!!!

Here's the Homebrewer's bible: The Complete Joy of Homebrewing by Charlie Papazian.

Cheers, Tim

[Califiddler]

I went through a big home brew period in the '90s and made about 30 or so batches. I even brewed all the beer for our wedding reception, and we did special labels for the bottles. But I got tired of it and haven't brewed in about 8 years.

Washing and sterilizing the bottles is what got to be a drag. If you go with the 5-gallon soda kegs it would probably be a lot easier.

[ghosttour]

Originally Posted by FrankB

Great responses everyone. Reason I ask is I am sort of hooked on it. Being that my bicycle shop is 2 doors down from a a home brew store....I couldn;t find a reaosn not to try it initially....now I'm the second stop after the homebrew shop. The homebrewers come in and bring me beer or we trade...it's an incredible experience.
When I brew I mostly brew in the colder months since there is less bike stuff happening and I like to do it outside behind the shop ( hillbilly style) it's fun. On days when we have to bottle, I do it while I am open and post t on my blog..that usually makes for a busy day because some of my customers returing and new, come in to check it out and sometimes eveb help us bottle....it's a great time. and they get free beer for helping and being patient while we bottle. And they can hang out and play guitar while I talk to other customers.....much much fun.

WOW! That sounds like fun!

[Vol. Knob]

My wife and I took to brewing wines, ciders, ales and meads some time ago. We've let that hobby fall by the wayside since music is taking up a great deal more time these days.

We have 2 carboys full of a pear cider that's been aging for over a year. Plus a blackberry Merlot that's overdue for bottling.

It's not as ultra-cheap as some have tried to tell me, but it's like drinking a microbrew for the cost of PBR.

Easy, like making canned soup only slower.

[Frankie]

Originally Posted by FrankB

Great responses everyone. Reason I ask is I am sort of hooked on it. Being that my bicycle shop is 2 doors down from a a home brew store....I couldn;t find a reaosn not to try it initially....now I'm the second stop after the homebrew shop. The homebrewers come in and bring me beer or we trade...it's an incredible experience.
When I brew I mostly brew in the colder months since there is less bike stuff happening and I like to do it outside behind the shop ( hillbilly style) it's fun. On days when we have to bottle, I do it while I am open and post t on my blog..that usually makes for a busy day because some of my customers returing and new, come in to check it out and sometimes eveb help us bottle....it's a great time. and they get free beer for helping and being patient while we bottle. And they can hang out and play guitar while I talk to other customers.....much much fun.

Now why is there not a bicycle shop here in my town that makes it's own beer, lets cutomers drink it, and play guitars all at the same time.. And I thought I was getting a good deal when my local bike shop bought a pop corn machine..

Wait until I see them guys again, man are they in for it..