Posted on 03/27/2009 3:22:53 PM PDT by JoeProBono
If 10 guys gather in a garage on a Sunday afternoon, it’s a good bet that beer will be involved.
What made the gathering March 9 at Mark Sheftick’s home in west Springfield unusual is they weren’t there just to drink beer. The guys were there to make it.
Like the car enthusiast who just can’t help but tinker under the hood, these home-brewers have figured out what goes into a good beer, and now they’re concocting their own. They’re equal parts chemist, chef and regular ol’ beer lover.
Homemade alcoholic beverages make many people think of moonshining. But those expecting to see a still would be disappointed at the equipment that was spread out on Sheftick’s driveway. There was some coiled copper tubing, used as a cooling apparatus, but most of the other tools of the trade could be found in many homes: turkey-frying burners, paint buckets, Rubbermaid coolers, thermometers and stainless steel pots.
Home-brewing became easier in most states in 1979, when President Jimmy Carter signed a bill lifting some federal restrictions that had been left over from Prohibition (it’s up to individual states to decide whether to allow home-brewing). Sheftick, a forensic diagrammer for the Illinois State Police, doesn’t have to worry about revenuers smashing up his works and hauling him off to the pokey.
Just remember (because of your meds), you are brewing for friends. And no more than a beer every other day or so. Or a half a beer. Or none at all. Like apple juice.
Bookmarking
Looks good! I can practically smell it from here!
I’ve always preferred the stronger, skunkier Euro beers like the Grolsch anyways. Stuff that you can drink at almost room temp.
So homebrew works for me!
Was that last night that you had the 3 shots of conr whiskey?
I remember your terrific beer at freeper parties in Seattle.
Still at it?
Veto, the poster formerly known as poised woman
BTW
That pic is Obamaish looking
I am getting ready to rack my extract with grains ESB into secondary tonight, bottling next weekend. Saving my pennies for a corny keg rig, bottling is such PITA.
Congrats on the new nick!
"From FReeper bert:
That made an impression upon me and I thank you. It's probably 2-3 years old.
I just noticed my webpage hit count is 9,987. Holey moley! I'm close to 10,000 so I'm going to ping a few of the finest.
wow, 10,000 hits. Thanks FReepers.
I used to make beer, but there are so many microbreweries in my area now that I don’t need to anymore. When I had to drive 70 miles to purchase a decent brown ale, home brew was a necessity.
Thank you.
I found the reference. I was impressed with your profile page and noted the posted pic looks like Hussein, the arab genes are there
I’ve mentally developed the design of a production home beer maker that will deliver a large quantity of quality product with some consistency.
The basic set up is about the size, and uses the same fixtures, as a side by side washer and dryer combo. The process begins by putting bottled water into the washer side, then adding concentrated hopped wort and yeast, possibly along with additional fermenting sugars. By using pre-made wort, there are far more possible good recipes and variations. The CO2 is vented through the dryer vent, and to heck with what Al Gore thinks.
The washer provides the right fermentation for either Ales or Lagers, then the green beer is pumped to the conditioning tank in the dryer side to age and become bright beer. The fermentation tank goes through a rinse cycle while this is being done. Then the bright beer is pumped back to the washer side for additional aging. The conditioning tank in the dryer side is washed out during this process, then the aged beer is pumped back to the dryer side while being filtered. The beer is almost ready.
The dryer side then has a keg of beer in it, and is portable, so can be detached, then plugged in to refrigerate the keg. A tap is installed on the top to dispense the draft, and a CO2 cylinder can be used to both augment the carbonation and help pump the beer out instead of just using air.
In the time it takes to drain the keg, the washer side may be making the next batch. And as needed, the dryer side can cool a commercial keg as well.
Ideally, I suppose, the CO2 produced in the process could be pumped into a greenhouse, but what would you do with a bunch of veggies? Make salsa?
the only way you could make it worth your while is to go in with other guys. group beer making. Then you don’t have to drink all of it yourself. naturally you should chip in proportionally to how much you drink.
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