Do you brew beer, wine, mead, or anything else? Let's hear about it!
I've been brewing beer since about 1995 (my senior year of high school). Now I've got a sweet two-tap kegerator and I brew all-grain beers (most of the time).
As a side note, I also have been writing articles for Brew Your Own, a magazine for homebrewers, for several years now. My articles are how to build your own brew equipment. DIY baby! ;D
Here's a pic of a new fermentor I just got this week. I'll be trying it out this weekend.
I would like to subscribe to your beer.
I make about one batch every two years. Typically when I'm sick of the watery soup they call guinness here.
Tried it once and realized I don't have the patience, so I switched back to drinking beer instead of making it. Turns out, I'm much better at that!!
I started brewing in May with a friend. We've made 5 batches so far using a 5 gallon kit from morebeer.com.
No all grain for us (yet), but we try to keep it creative. We dry hopped a steam beer and it is/was awesome! There's a hop harvest coming up soon so we're going to try to get our hands on a few pounds of whole hops for a Pale Ale or IPA.
I used to brew a couple times a year. I had a very good Belgium strong ale and a dry-hopped pale ale recipe down.
Unfortunalty I no longer drink due to health reasons but I envy those who do ;)
Quote from: aziltz on July 28, 2012, 12:40:24 PM
No all grain for us (yet), but we try to keep it creative. We dry hopped a steam beer and it is/was awesome!
One of my first beers was an extract steam beer. And yes, it was awesome!
As long as the extract is fresh, it will make great beer. Well, that and you have to keep the fermenting temp in check.
I'm also an advocate of extended primary fermentation and no secondary. I generally keep the beer in primary for 4 weeks and then transfer it to the keg, which then sits in the fridge at 45F for another couple weeks. Then I hook up the gas and let it carbonate. Takes longer, but the results are worth it. The extra time on the yeast helps to tame odd flavors that might be been generated during fermentation. Once the yeast go dormant, they begin to reabsorb some of the not-so-nice compounds they excreted earlier (such as diacetyl, wood alcohols, etc). By skipping secondary, you also avoid the extra contact with oxygen during the transfer and you end up with more beer at the end. :)
I am a red wine guy. I have thought about trying my hand at making some but haven't made the leap yet.
I usually do about 2 batches a year. Been brewing since 1998. It is nice cause I live a few miles from one of the biggest brewing stores in the country. Northern Brewer in St Paul, MN. I converted a small fridge where I can fit my glass carboy fermentors in it for lagering. I got sick of bottling after the first couple of batches, so now I keg. I would suggest that to anybody who home-brews. Luckily, I have an extra fridge in the garage so I can fit 2 5 gallon kegs with a tap for each one on the front of the fridge.
Here are some pictures I took during the different brewing stages
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cjrash/sets/72157625914531019/ (http://www.flickr.com/photos/cjrash/sets/72157625914531019/)
Quote from: crash on July 28, 2012, 06:40:27 PM
It is nice cause I live a few miles from one of the biggest brewing stores in the country. Northern Brewer in St Paul, MN.
I hate you! ;D NB is where I get most of my supplies, but by mail order, obviously. Recently, a homebrew shop opened very near me and it rocks, so hopefully I'll be getting more of my gear there.
Here's one of my fairly recent articles in BYO on how to build your own draft tower:
http://byo.com/stories/article/indices/20-build-it-yourself/2488-build-a-draft-tower
At one point I wanted to home brew using as much home grown or local ingredient as possible. I planted 5 scions of Willamette hops in my garden four years ago and every spring it shoots up, does great and then quickly keels over once the temps get above 100 F, which is basically June through September in Fresno, CA. Since planting I have had 2 kids (#3 on the way in November) and have all but stopped drinking. You guys have fun though. Beer is yum.
now that my buddy and I have 5 batches out of the way, I think we'll take our time fermenting in the future.
We've got a pretty neutral wheat beer in the fermenter right now that we just added a vanilla beer to.
I just received prescription to drink as much beer as I can stand until Monday. Kidney Stone day10.
Irony is I HATE beer. Man this sucks.
I told my wife to buy something good like Shiner Bock or Yuengling. She came home with Michelob Ultra with Lime. This room feels like a scene from "Misery". Oh honey drink your delicious beer so you can feel better. Sledgehammer forbodes in the corner.
You should get some good Belgian beer. It's quite a bit different from "standard" beer, and it'll get you hammered pretty quick. Most of it is > 7% ABV.
If you despise shitty beer like Budweiser, give a try to Chimay, or LaChouff, or Saison Dupont. There are some great domestic micros that are making great Belgian-style beer as well. If you want some suggestions, I'll be happy to make you a comprehensive list. :D
i had a saison recently from a legitimate brewery. I've never had one before, but this was best described as smelling like cheese curls and tasting like apple juice.
Wow, must have been really funky one. Most of them are slightly funky and a little sweet but also with a dry finish. Saison, like most Belgian styles, really doesn't have a very well defined style guideline. Belgians just refuse to follow rules. ;D
I see what you did there :-* Naughty :-* Naughty :-*
After years of "thinking" about brewing I finally started this year. I've done 2 batches so far on my own, but have helped with many other brewers now. My biggest push has been joining a local homebrew club, and a good club at that. We have an awesome meeting once a month at our local homebrew shop where we taste based on a style of the month. I've been hanging with the guys that provide most of the beer, helping them brew whenever I can. They always do all grain which is great experience for when I get some better equipment. Some of the guys in the club are extremely technical (EE's and the like) and make very fabulous beer. There's even a chemist that's basically our brain guru, ask him anything! Only about 5% of the members actively brew so its really a drinking club, and they really know how to drink.
My question is are any of you BA's? :)
We had a great bottle share yesterday. Here's a link which has a full list of what was opened and link to pictures...
http://beeradvocate.com/community/threads/bottle-share-in-redondo-beach-july-29th.29663/#post-385147
https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/306391_360355920701893_2090296372_n.jpg
Quote from: bigmufffuzzwizz on July 31, 2012, 01:04:01 AM
My question is are any of you BA's? :)
You mean members of the Brewer's Association? I think you need to be pro for that. But I'm a member of the AHA.
I've been tempted to study up for the BJCP, but it's such a pain in the ass to get a local group together. You can't just study and take the test, it's this ludicrous process.
I actually wasn't talking about that, but yea I'm part of the AHA also. I absolutely love the zymurgy, so much fun info.
I was referring to Beer Advocate. That chemist guy in our club is a beer judge and it is a really crazy process. I understand the whole fitting the style guidelines but I think its a little too much. There's so many grey areas between styles it kinda makes the possibilities endless. I saw you said you skip the second ferm. process. My first batch we did transfer and the second we didn't. Given they are completely different beer styles its hard to compare but they both came out great. I think the plus to using the conditioning stage is how you can add all sorts of extras...makes its kinda easy to dry-hop or oak chips/cubes to make a taste alike barrel aged..
One of the guys I help out recently took the dregs of a Fantome bottle, made a starter and pitched it into a saison. The yeast finished something like 1.002! It was pretty damn tasty...
You can still dry-hop or add other flavorings if you don't go with a secondary fermentation. Once the yeast has sufficiently flocculated and fermentations is largely finished, you add your goodies.
The main reason homebrewers started doing secondary is because there was a belief that leaving the beer on the trub too long would cause bad flavors. There is now more and more evidence (mostly anecdotal) that this is not the case, and that extended primary can even help remedy some off flavors.
Quote from: bigmufffuzzwizz on July 31, 2012, 02:30:12 AM
One of the guys I help out recently took the dregs of a Fantome bottle, made a starter and pitched it into a saison. The yeast finished something like 1.002! It was pretty damn tasty...
Culturing from commercial beers is fun. But you have to be careful, because some breweries add a different yeast for bottle conditioning (that is, it's not the same strain they fermented with).
Decided to do another batch, so I picked up a can of Brewtec Dark Stout and some dextrose (is it? The special sugar stuff) from Super Value. I'd normally buy from the local homebrew store (which carries UK-made stuff as well), but they close about five minutes before I can get to their shop after work. No, I don't do the True Jedi thing with boiling stuff on the stove. The closest I get is standing the can in hot water to soften the malt in it. It still works out a lot better than the shop beers.
Opened the fermenter tonight (it's been sitting next to the PS3 with a teatowel on top for dust), and there was this incredible, nose-watering smell of strong vinegar. So it's sitting overnight with 25 liters of sterilizing solution in it, and it's getting a good scrub tomorrow. (I don't know if this is good practice, but when I empty the sterilizing solution, I empty it into the bottles I intend to use, so they can sterilize for a week or so while I wait.)
I also tend to not put anywhere near enough sugar in the bottles when I decant it after a week or a week and a half, so my stuff tends to be a wee bit flat compared to anything else. I don't mind, it means one, never worrying about exploded bottles and two, not feeling gassy like when you drink coca-cola.
Quote from: culturejam on July 30, 2012, 12:08:50 AM
You should get some good Belgian beer. It's quite a bit different from "standard" beer, and it'll get you hammered pretty quick. Most of it is > 7% ABV.
If you despise shitty beer like Budweiser, give a try to Chimay, or LaChouff, or Saison Dupont. There are some great domestic micros that are making great Belgian-style beer as well. If you want some suggestions, I'll be happy to make you a comprehensive list. :D
Yeeeessss! Talk dirty to me :P
Some friends of mine are brewing their own beer in Brazil (the comercial ones have to be verrrrry cold in order to mascared the terrible taste).
they asked me in the beginning some raw material from Germany but now they can find there in some shops. Its been a increased homemade producers in the last couple of years and im pretty sure came from the US invasion :P
As DutchMF said: im better in drinking it! so, Please now that you started the thread we are all interested in tasting you beer, right guys?
Do you know the Kwak ? if you have something based on this recipe would be awwwwwwweeesome!!!
love this beer!!!
PS: how do you find time to build also great pedals?:P great time manager! thumbs up!
Culturejam, cool hobby mate...I just don't think my bank account could afford both pedals and brewing :D
I don't like beer but I do brew wine and cider. I love what's called a Wurzels Orange Wine (WOW) but with doing varients of it. Best one I've done is with pineapple juice and white grape juice. When it's sweetened up, tastes just like the Gallo wines, the Moscato one. Even better when it's about 60p a bottle!
I haven't brewed since splitting up with the ex, I do need to start again soon though
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At the moment I have an all grain oak aged imperial stout in secondary, about 12% abv.
Im a all grain homebrewer as well, been brewing off and on (had to take a break for grad school) for like 10 years. Been brewing every week like clockwork for the last year or so. Love the hobby, going to brew a kolsch after work today.
On and off brewer for 20 years or so. I loved doing it and looking for new equipment and all. Sterilization was a huge bummer if done incorrectly. Just one fingerprint would ruin a batch. Lots of fun though. After a few batches you would learn how to tweak your recipes to suit your taste or style. Once I made a ale that was 14%. Never got into lagers, they required a lot more equipment to ferment properly. Lol my 2nd batch of beer, I was so proud of. I made about 80 bottles of that batch. drank about 50 of them before sharing one with the guy that was teaching me. He took a huge swig and said, "oh mad, this is bad beer. its moldy" then went on about how proper sterilization was the key. all that time I thought it was just a skunky beer ! LOL
Quote from: Gledison on January 15, 2014, 10:07:18 AM
Quote from: culturejam on July 30, 2012, 12:08:50 AM
You should get some good Belgian beer. It's quite a bit different from "standard" beer, and it'll get you hammered pretty quick. Most of it is > 7% ABV.
If you despise shitty beer like Budweiser, give a try to Chimay, or LaChouff, or Saison Dupont. There are some great domestic micros that are making great Belgian-style beer as well. If you want some suggestions, I'll be happy to make you a comprehensive list. :D
Do you know the Kwak ? if you have something based on this recipe would be awwwwwwweeesome!!!
love this beer!!!
PS: how do you find time to build also great pedals?:P great time manager! thumbs up!
Kwak tastes awesome. I've been to Belgium this summer trying a new beer every day... I think I took some notes. I remember liking the typical Brussels beer: "Geuze" beer, bitter and strong (I read somewere it is not for everyone, but it suited me)
This is one I found recently and enjoyed quite a lot: Samichlaus: (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_e4SZORJjQdQ/SVB1ON97tpI/AAAAAAAAAsw/-7zlAJT2bQg/s320/samichlaus.jpg)
I would love to brew myself, but I have a certain lack of space...
What findings do other people have for water?
The water where I live is quite hard, and I really like the taste of the beer I make with it. (I'm cheap and lazy, as everyone knows from my build reports and graphics, and I'm not paying for 30 litres of bloody bottled water.) But I've read that most other people prefer soft water.
Also, people here know vastly more than me, so I have a question...
My SOP is to use a can of that malt stuff, and a kilo of the inverted dextrose stuff that is a nuisance to get (compared to normal sugar). What would happen if I used two cans of malt and no dextrose? Would I need to use more than 23 litres total in the fermenter? Would it turn out stronger than normal, with more flavour?
Give it a shot, I used to double my malt all the time. You will get a higher gravity but sometimes it takes a little longer for the yeast to get going. Got to love that yeast poop ! LOL
Quote from: alanp on January 22, 2014, 08:35:37 AM
My SOP is to use a can of that malt stuff, and a kilo of the inverted dextrose stuff that is a nuisance to get (compared to normal sugar). What would happen if I used two cans of malt and no dextrose? Would I need to use more than 23 litres total in the fermenter? Would it turn out stronger than normal, with more flavour?
What is the volume of the cans of malt?
You will end up with a beer that is likely going to be slightly less strong in terms of alcohol (can't tell how much without knowing the malt quantity), but you will have a much more "robust" tasting beer. The invert sugar is 100% fermentable and contributes zero to color or flavor (or aroma). The malt syrup is about 65% fermentable sugars, and the rest being non-fermentable sugars, melanoidan compounds, and other complex sugars that are the result of Maillard reactions that happen during the malting process. Lots of good caramelly tastes and smells in that stuff. :)
So yeah, more flavor and body, and probably a little less alcohol. That's the way I would go. You can still add a cup or two of plain table sugar if you want to jank up the gravity a bit. Despite what people have historically said about table sugar, it does not impart "off flavors".
Forgot to mention:
Your final/terminal gravity will also be higher because of the additional unfermentable sugars. This may or may not be a good thing, depending on how much body you like in a beer, or the beer style you are aiming for.
Hmmm. When I have enough 1.5L bottles spare to do another batch, I'll have to buy two cans of stout malt-extract-brew-stuff and ask again here with the details for 'em :)
(I like strong bodied beer!)
Handy hint -- did a bit of googling tonight, and the search term you want for two can extract brewing is "toucan". Apparently Aussie homebrewers are quite strongly into this.
Definitely going to have to have a crack at this. Going by the forum threads I've found, though, it froths up like mad, so I might add the sugar a few days into the fermentation.
Loaded up the fermenter tonight :) (Had Korpiklaani playing on the stereo -- figured it to be appropriate, given their track record with song names.)
1x can Coopers OS Dark Ale (1.7kg, I think)
1x can Coopers OS Real Ale (same)
1KG Coopers Brew Enhancer (dextrose, light dry malt extract, maltodextrin, supposed to be good for dark full bodied stuff, I dunno.)
made to 23 liters
Brand on the basis it was the cheapest at Supervalue :)
OG of roughly 1.058, I think. (I need to replace my plastic thingy you put liquid in to use the hydrometer... don't know the name of it.)
Hope it doesn't overflow my 30L fermenter.
Oh man.. another dredge, this time an even older thread.
I have just discovered the delights of homebrew beer... Student life (and trying to save money on beer) has also opened my mind in unexpected ways ;D
I started earlier this year with the Mangrove Jacks Starter box, and have been brewing kits in the plastic drum. Have done a half dozen brews now, my favourite so far is Coppers European Lager. Excited about my first Blackrock Pilsener Blonde bubbling away atm. Good fun!
Here's a photo of my temperature controller for the brew cupboard.
(https://i.imgur.com/x4EVJhd.jpg)
Arduino based, thermistor set and forget @21.5 °C. Thermostat switches the power socket, to which I connect a small heater in the cupboard. Anyone else brewing atm?
Holy shit. I forgot I even owned that fermentor in the first post. ;D
I've been homebrewing for a few years doing half-size batches, 2.5 - 3 gallons or roughly 12L, just enough for a case of bottles. Took last year off because of house repairs and the fact that I'd created a back log of strong beers that were "aging". Basically I make a lighter batch then reuse the yeast for a stronger one. I told myself I couldn't make any more until I worked my way through all of these quadruples and dopplebocks...
Wow! I had never heard of reusing yeast, (and yet it seems kinda obvious now that I think about it...) Just googled it... Fascinating! :)
You don't have to get fancy "washing" yeast for reuse, just put the new batch on the old yeast cake or save some trub from the first batch in the fridge if you can't turn around that quickly. It helps to save a little money. One advantage of doing half-size batches and reusing the yeast to make a stronger brews is that I rarely have to make starters.
Quote from: jabe on September 25, 2023, 09:44:12 PM
You don't have to get fancy "washing" yeast for reuse, just put the new batch on the old yeast cake or save some trub from the first batch in the fridge if you can't turn around that quickly. It helps to save a little money. One advantage of doing half-size batches and reusing the yeast to make a stronger brews is that I rarely have to make starters.
Oh really? I have just been using the dry yeast that comes with the kits... we're still at that stage here.
Perhaps I can look into trying nicer yeast, and then hopefully re-use it :)
Starter batches and yeast harvesting is a game changer, expecially getting a batch to get started quicker.