Home Brew

[Snake]

Are there any home beer brewers out there? I'm looking for advice on how to get started. thanks in advance for your help. Cheers!

[cbinker]

did you google home brew kits?

[allanoue]

I used to make a batch every 3 weeks for 12 years. My only advice to get started is read "the new complete joy of home brewing" by charlie papazian

I stopped when I decided to loose 40lbs

[chemist]

http://www.howtobrew.com/

John Palmer is a great resource.

You can get started for VERY cheap, probably around $100.

Start with extract brewing and move to all-grain if you so choose. I did all-grain for awhile but do to time constraints moved back to extract brewing.

below are online vendors to get you started on ideas. you will generally pay more for a prefab kit but you can piecemeal the essentials for usually cheaper.

decide what you want to do and what beers you like. high gravity, lagers? ales? etc.

austinhomebrew
williams brewery
midwest supplies


ask any question you may have.

homebrewtalk is a good forum

[allanoue]

Originally Posted by chemist

http://www.howtobrew.com/

John Palmer is a great resource.

You can get started for VERY cheap, probably around $100.

Start with extract brewing and move to all-grain if you so choose. I did all-grain for awhile but do to time constraints moved back to extract brewing.

below are online vendors to get you started on ideas. you will generally pay more for a prefab kit but you can piecemeal the essentials for usually cheaper.

decide what you want to do and what beers you like. high gravity, lagers? ales? etc.

austinhomebrew
williams brewery
midwest supplies


ask any question you may have.

homebrewtalk is a good forum

Did you try kegging? It will give you the time back to do all grain.
You know all grain is the way to go once you have a good feel for it.

[csmith12]

[chemist]

Originally Posted by allanoue

Did you try kegging? It will give you the time back to do all grain.
You know all grain is the way to go once you have a good feel for it.

Yeah, I have a kegging operation and I agree. Can't replicate a good oatmeal stout with extract. I only keg part of the time though as I use my kegerator for fermentation temps and would then switch to cooler temps when I keg. That and i liked sharing my brew so half of it ends up bottled.

Might go back to it when my little one gets a bit older

[ninjamunky85]

I've done a little home brewing, maybe five or six batches. Only did ale's, all from extracts, fermenting them in my basement in a 5gal bucket. Made a pretty good IPA and a nice light honey ale that I did for the summer. I quit after an unsuccessful attempt at a pumpkin ale.

I'd like to get back into it sometime but it's a messy and time consuming endeavor, bottling by hand one at a time sucks. I did learn a good bit about beer though. I'd like to think that I was saving $$$ when I was doing it, but I'm not so sure about that.

[verboten1]

I started with mister beer, then had 2 mister beers, then I went 5 galllon and bottling. Then I got kegs and never looked back.

I would start with a mister beer all over again, but then skip to kegging if I liked it.


It's lots of work.....cleaning. Clean clean clean!

A kit will run you about $50 and you can decide if you like it. I made some decent beers with it!

Read up on homebrewtalk.com


You just missed some really good kit sales, but they will be back, lots of kits for gifts around Christmas.

[Snake]

Thanks to everyone for your advice. I think I'm going to start out with "mister beer" and go from there.
@allanoue is it possible to brew a "light" beer?

[SLOWn60]

Originally Posted by allanoue

I stopped when I decided to loose 40lbs

Lol!

[verboten1]

Originally Posted by Snake

Thanks to everyone for your advice. I think I'm going to start out with "mister beer" and go from there.
@allanoue is it possible to brew a "light" beer?

I've made a couple of different beers that were"light" most anything you make with mister beer will be. Use the deluxe kits to get a better beer. The American blonde came out decent.

I ended up going partial mash for mister beer after a few kits, then actually made a few all grain 2 gallon batches.


It's easy to experiment when it's a small batch like that. Now I have 5 car boys, 9 kegs and a few buckets to store! Lol

[allanoue]

Like Jason said, you can make any kind of beer you want.

When you get good and understand how each ingredient influences your beer you can fine tune your recipes to what you like. Light beers are tricky for new brewers because any mistakes standout more than a strong flavored beer.

The most important thing to know is to be OCD about cleaning and sanitizing everything that comes in contact with your beer.

[toEleven]

Be inspired:America's Smallest Brewery youtube vid

..sorry.

edit: the youtube embed failed miserably.

[allanoue]

Originally Posted by toEleven

Be inspired:

Link to original page on YouTube.

..sorry.

edit: the youtube embed failed miserably.

[YOUTUBE ] D5QzTkdvI54[/YOUTUBE]

[toEleven]

Oh, so that's how it's done. Just the base64 part. Thanks!

[TnNinjaGirl]

I have nothing useful to contribute, except that I will gladly be a taste tester. :-)

[Snake]

Originally Posted by allanoue

[YOUTUBE ] D5QzTkdvI54[/YOUTUBE]

LMAO I fell for it. Thought it was a serious video.

[FrugalNinja250]

The Mr. Beer setup is good for making a small batch of beer, but it's pretty limited on flavors/styles and fairly costly for what you get. I would say to look on craigslist for used equpment, but it seems that where you're at in central LA there's not much going on. You can google home brewing suppliers online for full-size equipment if you decide to go full-scale.

The simplest full-scale (5.5 gallons/batch) setup would be a fermentation bucket, glass (preferably) or plastic 6 gallon carboy, racking cane, some airlocks, tubing, and odds and ends. I use these guys a lot because they're in town: https://www.homebrewhq.com/

You can buy kits with extract and hops already done, you just boil the water, put it and the kit contents in the bucket, seal it up and off you go. Extract brewing is more complex because of the equipment requirements and greater opportunities to frack things up, but the results can be and often are more rewarding.

Then there's other brewing. With the basic equipment you can ferment lots of things such as honey to make mead and grape juice to make wine. Using other fruits such as apples to make ciders and more exotic stuff is within reach as well.

http://www.amazon.com/Brew-Ware-Adap...wing+equipment

is a book about the equipment side itself, how to build your own and where to look for it. It goes into basic principles of brewing so that you understand why different aspects of the equipment is that way, and how you can adapt other stuff to the same purpose. I found this book really helpful.

[verboten1]

Just did 2 one gallon batches!

One cascade pale, the other a second running with a different hops I had laying around. Centennial I think.

[Snake]

Great set-up you have there.

[SLOWn60]

Originally Posted by verboten1

Just did 2 one gallon batches!

One cascade pale, the other a second running with a different hops I had laying around. Centennial I think.

I'm confused
In another post you're travelling like you stole Santas sled and won't be home for another million miles yet here you've just finished a 2 gallon brew!

[verboten1]

It's in the closet fermenting while I'm away! I had 3 days off, Christmas Eve, Christmas, and Boxing Day, now it's back to work for a couple!

[MrAtom]

I tried making homemade vodka in high school because I didn't like having 21+ year old friends. Does that count?

[Snake]

Originally Posted by MrAtom

I tried making homemade vodka in high school because I didn't like having 21+ year old friends. Does that count?

I think it does count. How did the vodka come out?

[MrAtom]

Originally Posted by Snake

I think it does count. How did the vodka come out?

Black and strange looking. I didn't drink it. It smelled like booze though.

[allanoue]

Originally Posted by MrAtom

Black and strange looking. I didn't drink it. It smelled like booze though.

It only counts if someone drinks it

[Snake]

Originally Posted by MrAtom

Black and strange looking. I didn't drink it. It smelled like booze though.

I don't think I would have drank it either.

[verboten1]

Originally Posted by MrAtom

Black and strange looking. I didn't drink it. It smelled like booze though.

You must distill! Lol

[allanoue]

Originally Posted by Snake

I don't think I would have drank it either.

[SLOWn60]

Originally Posted by MrAtom

Black and strange looking. I didn't drink it. It smelled like booze though.

HA! What kind of a student were you?!?

...obviously a smart one

Curious; you did distill it? In other words; was it blackish after distilling?

[MrAtom]

I didn't just mash up the potatoes and let them sit lol. I made a crude distillery from instructions I saw online. It didn't work though, apparently.

[SLOWn60]

Originally Posted by MrAtom

I didn't just mash up the potatoes and let them sit lol. I made a crude distillery from instructions I saw online. It didn't work though, apparently.

Pulling your leg!

However;
Guy
Undergrad
Beer (tell me there wasn't a brewski or three in the process! )
"Reading the instructions"
What could go wrong?!?

[MrAtom]

I know what I did wrong. Turns out, you need to add an enzyme to convert potato starch to sugar. Then, you ferment the sugar. All I did was make a rotting mess of black potatoey yeasty crap. I'm trying it again, only I'm making hard apple juice.

[CaliGrrl]

Well, it's true you can't brew with starch until you convert it to sugar. That's what the malting time does!

I need to get back to brewing. And look up my historical brewing book. There are more interesting bitters than hops....

[allanoue]

Originally Posted by CaliGrrl

Well, it's true you can't brew with starch until you convert it to sugar. That's what the malting time does!

I need to get back to brewing. And look up my historical brewing book. There are more interesting bitters than hops....

http://www.popsci.com/science/articl...a-related-hops

[CaliGrrl]

Wasn't quite what I'd meant, but yeah, on that line. You can brew beer that is good for your health and digestion....

[MrAtom]

My Apple cider was good and I got a nice buzz, but my stomach felt horrible. I was in a lot of pain. I almost called poison control thinking I'd made methanol instead of ethanol. My dad said that it was insanely unlikely and to go throw up and see how I feel in a few minutes. I felt better. We both think that, since I used an old bag of sugar, it likely contained some bad bugs that, like the yeast, were given a good environment to multiply in. This time, I boiled my sugar in a kettle before adding it to the juice. I'm making two jugs of the stuff. So far, it smells good. Can't wait for it to be done. If I like this little prison hooch experiment, I'll probably invest in some proper equipment and make some decent wine.

[CaliGrrl]

Wine's a little trickier than beer, or even mead, but still shouldn't be too complicated.

[ninjabrewer]

Used to home-brew a bit, actually it is how I got part of my name, NinjaBrewer. Haven't brewed any since I left VA, and moved to HI. Now in AL, it just became legal here. One reason I currently don't have a way to control fermentation temps. Working on trying to find a fridge to modify.

nb