Homebrewing?

Hmm.

Thanks Chris!

tastes like shit but drunk i am

You really need a nice cool dark spot for fermentation and conditioning though. 17-20 C for ALes 15-17 for Largers for fermentation. 15C or there about for conditioning. You don't want anything to happen too fast.

sure.

mind? mind?? what sort of fule would mind??? ;)

also can you make your own marmite out of what's left?

My late elder uncle used to make homwbrews at Xmas (he's dead now for fifteen years).

No, homebrews, as far as I know, weren't anywhere near the real causes of their death, though.

Their homebrews tasted always great. As far as I remember. Then again, I was only a child then.

Classic: the smell of the gas that escapes from the air lock when it bubbles through.

dave225 OTM.

That said, peoples need hobbies, so good luck all!

I should think using filtered/bottled water would be the best, since tap water is liable to have all sorts of junk in it to cause trouble and poss. nasty aftertastes. Cf why I dislike everything brewed by Sierra Nevada. I've tried and tried and tried and finally had to just fess up that the Chico water they use tastes like shit.

If anybody could point me to some good US sites that sell good starter gear (not like the weird barrel & recipe kits Chris points to) I'm seriously thinking of foisting some on the parents. They have a huge basement/garage at the manse in TN which we've repeatedly discussed turning part of into a beer lab.

My brother in law brews--he's a scientist and super-exact about things and keeps logs and the like, so it turns out well. He takes a lot of care with his brewing, and generally his beer is really good stuff. I love the smell during fermentation. Possibly because I went to school in Milwaukee.

He used to bottle it, but now he brews in kegs, which is a bit easier. The thing about bottling homebrew, though, is the necessity of amassing a sufficient quantity of beer bottles. This of course involved drinking a good bit of beer for this purpose.

Overall, though, it seems like it takes a lot of dedication, which I couldn't imagine having.

Culturing yeast from a bottle conditioned beer is a very good wayof getting good quality yeast.

so i'm brewing an IPA right now - Cascade, Columbus + Mosaic hops - i brewed late Sunday nite. took this picture today:

http://i61.tinypic.com/2rcok2h.jpg

(nb i only took the lid off to do a gravity reading + take a picture. i'm leaving it tightly on otherwise)

it smells super funky + yeasty. i'm a little nervous since it's my first homebrew.

right on! it should smell funky & yeasty imo. i've brewed a couple of times with the help of a knowledgeable friend. it's fun, though mostly for drinking other beers while you endlessly clean a bunch of bottles and brewing equipment. in the end though it's pretty great to taste your own homemade beer, even if it doesn't match the quality of others you've had.

cool, thx for the vote of confidence. i keep reminding myself that dumb alcoholics have been brewing beer since the dawn of man so surely there's some room for error here :P

We just bottled a wild ale with a live strain that's been in the secondary fermenter for 16 months. Slightly terrified of it, it's supposed to start at a minimum of 12%

Also, that's a lot of time invested if it sucks

my mom is brewing a wild ale atm w/ brett. apparently it's supposed to ferment for like 10 months! while she's waiting for it to finish up she's brewing a berliner weisse. we decided to do all wild ale brewing at her house and all normal stuff in my apt to keep the equipment from getting cross infected.

once u go sour u literally can't go back i guess

cool, good luck with it Mordy

Got a kit for xmas, will be starting my first soon too.

It's normal to fret about your first batch but it'll almost certainly be fine. Like you say it's hardy stuff. Brew it then forget about it for a couple of weeks before doing your gravity reading.

Don't you take a gravity reading right when it's made (cooled to yeast-pitching temp) and again when it's completely done fermenting? It's the difference that tells the alcohol level.

yeah sure you do your original gravity reading when you brew. I then check after 2 or 3 weeks, then again after another few days. If it's steady, I bottle. I don't bother with secondary.

I am the worst at doing gravity readings, so abv is always a surprise

ha i should say i am the worst at REMEMBERING to do gravity readings

send some of the sours if they turn out well mordy!

a buddy of mine got an oak barrel for christmas, and we recently brewed up a trippel to throw in the thing. i'll try to post results when the time comes (i figure we want it in there for at least a few months)

Yeah totally! I plan to share all successful brews w ilx :)

Last time I brewed (mead with apple and currant juice) I was too lazy to take the first reading. Regret it now of course. The batch I made previous (mead with figs) ended up at about 17% abv.

Tasted + gravity tested my IPA today. Strong grapefruit notes, bitter + dank. Very tasty I thought. Gravity is reading 1.02. I think it's supposed to get down to 1.01 before I bottle so probably a few days away.

Anyone doing this? I spent last year brewing from extract tins, planning to take the step up to all-grain at some point this year. I am kegging. Most recently made a couple ciders out of an extract packet recently which were pretty underwhelming, think I’ll stick to the beer.

What’s your set-up? And if you don’t homebrew as a hobby, why not?

Almost 8 yrs since my last post and I still haven't brewed anything, besides a "Mr Beer" kit I found at a thrift store (stout, turned out OK). I have a second kit I found at a different thrift store that I still haven't used. As with the aforementioned one, I will buy some new yeast for backup, and proof the yeast that comes with the kit before pitching to make sure it's still viable.

Based on the last experience, I really need to get a pump to transfer from the carboy to the bottles, siphoning was a mess.

Actually both kit's brand is Brooklyn Brewshop, not Mr Beer.

i got started with one of those my wife gifted me around a decade ago. They're a great little intro to all grain brewing... and seeing if you really want to bother.

I basically scaled up to 5 gallons and that's it. I got an autosiphon/pump deal but that's my only luxury. Kegs look like too much messing around.

I've just made this recipe 4 or 5 times in a row since it's good and simple and i am a basic pale ale drinker. Always find little ways to improve the process.

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/28546/sierra-nevada-pale-ale-clone

Weird about needing a pump, must be an American thing? Our fermenters all have a little tap at the bottom, we choose not to fight gravity. As pictured

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcReVhYddGkCS_L7q3zMLySO1gYYZ5XdEsYyGA&usqp=CAU

Thanks for the recipe! An all grain set up is probably going to be a middle of the year thing after I save some disposable cash. How long did it take you to master the basics of grain, assuming you went from extract brewing?

The little Brookyln kit was my intro to brewing. I'd say I'm still "mastering", most years I'm only doing 4 or 5 batches. This year I tried to do the spigot thing and made a total mess. Maybe if i used a bottling wand on the end? Pouring right out of it was just all foamy and crap. Bottling was going well til I got it in my head to improve it!

Our fermenters all have a little tap at the bottom, we choose not to fight gravity. As pictured

Wouldn't that transfer all the dead yeast sludge into the bottles? [insert joke about British beer here]

And forgot to mention that the kit was the first grain brewing experience, had used extract all the previous times.

And definitely get the wand. I use one and it's smooth sailing once I get the siphon going (and assuming I don't ruin the siphon by letting the other end get above the liquid in the bucket).

Ahhh see your problem is bottling., I keg, have no patience to sanitise and pour into 50 individual containers. Pouring out of a cold tap into a schooner glass is just too attractive. Definitely recommend kegging if you have $400 aud lying around

DO you have to keep the keg cold once you've started pouring from it? I thought beer went bad in kegs if not used in a day or two.

I’m not sure, I have a seperate fridge set up with taps coming out of it (kegerator). They’re the bees knees

I'm afraid a setup like that would make me drink even more beer than I already do.

Yeah, it’s something I am very intentional about setting strong boundaries. Though I do worry, I’m only a year into homebrewing and I constantly have 40l of cheep beer readily on tap in my house. Hoping my boundaries stay strong throughout the journey

haven’t brewed in maybe 6 years but the most helpful piece of advice I ever got was in a rejection letter from a brewer. I was politely served in the fact that just because you’ve brewed/attempted to homebrew 12 different styles over 2 years doesn’t mean you know anything. Take one of those styles and figure it out.

ha nice.

A few years ago i did some red wine kits with the gear i already have, just to have a drink supply that would age well. Even put it in beer bottles. Opinion seems split online over whether that's a good idea. But nothing's turned to vinegar yet.

I don't think beer on tap in my kitchen would do me so well either. Particularly with more time at home again now cuz covid. Maybe if I left it down in the basement tho...