Homebrew beer

[Punarbhava]

Does anyone here brew their own beer or other alcohol? Got any advice for someone who wants to start doing so?

I ordered How to Brew, but in the meantime I'm searching for advice on the different methods and specifics of the process, and of course different recipes to try out.

I'm gonna be getting this kit I think, after I read a little more.

Any thoughts? Anyone had any homebrew beer they really liked, or have any experience with the process in general?

[LapsedPacifist]

I used to brew a lot until I hit a critical mass of complexity and it wasn't fun anymore...

That's a really nice kit. I always had good luck with plastic, but you have to be very very careful not to scratch it.

You'll need a really big pot. 7 gallons is good, it must be more than 5. Stainless is good. I don't think I had problems with my aluminum kettle.
A digital thermometer is really really nice.
Starsan sanitizer is the bee's knees. I don't know about the stuff in the kit. It is probably similar.
The high pressure bottle washer. Do not leave home without one.
After that, a wort chiller is pretty freaking awesome and you can make your own with one home depot trip.

LP

edit: Starting out you can use a smaller kettle 2.5 gallons or so, brew a concentrated wort, and pour it into your primary full of cold water to cool it. It works okay, but I really thought doing full boils was a really positive change in my brewing. Don't forget the high pressure bottle washer.

additional edit: With extract brewing you can't brew a really complex dark beer (Oatmeal stouts) or a really light beer. Pilsners need to be chilled to ferment. Your best bets will be the gamut of ambery beers. I really liked English Bitters as a home brew beer. Simple, not a lot to go wrong, really drinkable.

[His Divine Shadow]

I "brewed" some sima last week, it's a type of mead, I suppose, it's called mead anyway but it has no honey or stuff. It's mostly lemon juice, brown sugar, water, yeast, water and I add a bottle of beer for taste, you could just add hops too.

It's very very weak stuff usually, mostly a drink kiddies can have of too. This year I made a little less sweet version with more alcohol content, it turned out pretty well.

[Ziggy Stardust]

I brew beers every summer. That kit looks decent. Honestly, if I were you I would look go to local brewpubs or even beer distributors and ask around. You'd be surprised how much information you can get just based on that. I have gotten a lot of good advice on homebrewing from a woman that works at a local beer depot.

And remember, your first batch probably won't be any good. You just gotta keep trying, and experimenting with ratios.

[Punarbhava]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I'm looking forward to trying my hand at this soon. I'll post my results and any questions in this thread.

For my first batch I'm gonna use someone else's recipe for a pale ale, using a kit that comes with all the necessary ingredients. If I can get that to come out good, then I'll start thinking about modifying the recipe, switching things up and making some of the beers I dream of tasting.

I don't know of any local places that do homebrew or cater to people who do, but I'll look around. Any advice is definitely appreciated.

[Phantasee]

PM The Spartan. I don't know how he hasn't seen this thread yet, but he brews his own stuff all the time (or I think he does all the time, given how he goes on about it).

[The Spartan]

For my first batch I'm gonna use someone else's recipe for a pale ale, using a kit that comes with all the necessary ingredients. If I can get that to come out good, then I'll start thinking about modifying the recipe, switching things up and making some of the beers I dream of tasting.

First of all, sanitize. It will make the difference between decent beer and a not decent one. Even between one that's at least drinkable and one that's not drinkable. I make a solution using Idophor for equipment and I use plain old chlorine bleach* (unscented, unanything really) for bottles. I boil caps.

Second. Try to find a local store. Or at least one in the same city that you don't mind making the trip to once every month or every other month. They'll know more than I can possibly convey to you through the intertubes. Just Google your area and "homebrew".

Sanitize.

When you find a local store, tell them what you want to do and they'll probably have a recipe available that will be better than a kit. Some kits are okay, some are not. There's no real way to tell until you try the one you picked. Nature of the beast I'm afraid. First batch I made was awful because I didn't follow the brewstore's direction for the kit that they gave me (they augmented the kit they gave me but I didn't listen and tried to follow the kit, c'est la vie)

Sanitize.

Google for the Good Eats Episode "Amber Waves". It'll probably be up on Youtube in two parts. Alton Brown goes through the whole (well, his) process for sanitizing, brewing and bottling.

Oh, and sanitize.

PM The Spartan. I don't know how he hasn't seen this thread yet, but he brews his own stuff all the time (or I think he does all the time, given how he goes on about it).

I have no idea how I missed it. And yes I brew quite a bit. I just had a very nice Maibock that even the women at the block party I was at wanted even though it's a very strong, malty beer.

*Edit: Chlorine mixed with water of course...

[The_Saint]

Good chance when your first batch or two doesn't turn out too well it's either too much or too little sugar... you won't really know until you've made more (c'est la vie to paraphrase The Spartan)

Quick and dirty bottle washer is a cordless drill and a cheap bottle brush or three.

Home made light beers and pales are easy and easy to make badly, lagers and stouts are slightly harder but somehow harder to make as bad (or at least that's what I found),

If you manage to find a home brew shop or any location where more than one regular makes home brew ask them their cleaning methods... use the most comprehensive method that you can still understand. (To continue from The Spartan this step is basically the most important)

Distilling is also fun. Distilling rum with your own molasses is very fun.

[The_Saint]

Retrieved this from local home brew store website:
How to be an unsuccessful brewer!

1. Ignore trivial things like hygiene and sterilisation. This is great for producing exotic tastes and smells. It also introduces the surprise element into your beers. You will not have any free loaders coming around and drinking your beer.

2. Use lots of household sugar in your beer because it is so much cheaper than malt and gives you that wonderful cidery flavour. Ignore the advice that yeast does a much quicker and cleaner job with dextrose. Avoid using malt extract so you maintain that watery thin texture to your beer.

3. Use out of date tins with left over bread yeast to get that sweet syrupy taste combined with a mellow metal taint. Excellent with Chinese food.

4. Bottle your beer when the bubbling stops. Never ever use the hydrometer!!! This might take 6 weeks or more. Forget advice on minimising the airspace as that white waxy film on the top of beer adds to the musty cardboardy character you develop from all that oxygen.

5. Store your bottles in the garden shed. The heat from the tin shed gives the beer the added bitterness or bite that gets you in the back of the throat. Excellent for quenching the thirst after mowing the lawn.

6. Forget that the lack of bubbling may be caused by a bad seal on your barrel or a cold brew room. Assume that the brew has not worked because there was no bubbling and throw it out. Yeast can ferment your beer in your garage in Winter even when your car won't start. Relish the thought that exploding bottles will give you the opportunity to clean the garage floor come Summer.

7. Forget that the bottles need to be kept warm for 2-3 weeks. If your beer is flat in the bottle, open them and put another teaspoon of sugar in each bottle. Besides, the extra sugar will make it more alcoholic and the extra carbonation will only blow up some of the bottles. The danger element in opening the rest of the bottles over the sink will be worth it for the cup of fizzy beer left in the bottle.

8. Assume master brewer status after two batches and ignore all instructions from your home brew shop, what would they know!!!!

[His Divine Shadow]

Distilling is also fun. Distilling rum with your own molasses is very fun.

Illegal as all fuck in many places though. Such as Finland, still commonly practiced though.

Also here's how I made that "mead" or sima, it's gonna end up with less than 1% ABV so it's more of a fizzy drink than a true brew.

You need:
1. Two 500g bags of brown sugar (farinsocker) (I used only 1.5 bags this year)
2. Dry yeast, 1 packet.
3. 6 liters of water, boil about half
4. Juice of 4 lemons
5. 1 bottle of beer, light beer works better
6. Big bucket with sealable plastic lid to put it all in. Sterilize it first.

Instructions
Put sugar in bucket, pour in boiling water and stir, when it's dissolved pour in cold water an juice from the lemons. When the water is finger-warm, put in the yeast and bottle of beer (I use a 33cl bottle). Put the lid on and let it sit somewhere out of the way for 1-2 days.

This is a picture of what it looked like when I made some 2 years ago, DON'T DO THIS! Just squeeze out the juice and save yourself grief, it'll become far too bitter if you do this.


Anyway all ready to be put away:


After 1-2 days it's bottling time, just bottle it and add 4-5 raisins per bottle and a pinch of sugar. I use plastic bottles and don't screw on the lids that hard, and since it only has to sit a few days, prssure enough to cause explosions has never had a chance to occur.



I let it sit on the bench for a day, then 3-4 days in the fridge. After that it should be done.