Posted on 04/17/2009 4:29:41 PM PDT by IrishPennant
Happy Friday!!!! Beer lover here. Not a connoisseur, but a little above a warm PBR you might say. I have been thinking for sometime about brewing my own. I have the room, time and enjoy a good hobby as much as the next Joe...and I figure since I can change the head gaskets in my car, recharge the A/C in the old truck and know my way around the kitchen pretty well, I can do this.
I was looking around the web and there are kits and forum sites, etc, but I figured asking for some general advice in a place where I love and trust my FRiends would be fun.
Any FReepers out there brewing your own and want to tell a rookie where to start. I understand the kit avenue is not real good, and supplies and hops and such can all be picked up locally (I'm just outside Memphis in Northern Mississippi).
I did read that Ales were the easiest to make but I do like a good stout beer...From time to time I travel to Germany, just outside Frankfurt for work. The locals are drinking mostly from local breweries and kid me about the amount of great stuff int he beers...claim each beer is the equivelent of eating a loaf of bread. Regardless, I cannot remember the brewer, but the beer was great.
Except for the carbonation, which I am still having trouble getting right, my Coopers Stout turned out wonderful.
If there is a local brewhouse you frequent that has a particular IPA you like, ask 'em what's in it (i.e. hops) and go for it at home.
Get brewing!
Fuggle? Fug you to pal!
/sarc Got a good recipe for bud lite? /endsarc
He probably tests them all before he mails them, you still want one?
The more you make beer, the easier it gets. I buy recipes and enhance. Last year I made a coffee stout that was so good. Flying fish put out the same product and I thought they stole my recipe.
When I cook food I don’t ever refer to recipes. I know what I want.
Right now I have another coffee stout fermenting, but I found Vanilla corn syrup in Aldi’s and I added that. it’s on its second fermentation. It has been gurgling up a storm.
I plan on aging it a few months. This will get better with time.
I’m a home-brewer, can I be of assistance? Actually, there’s already some great advice on this thread so far. The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing is really a great first step, next would be to seek out a local brew-supply store and pick their brains.
Neither of these things are necessary but it will likely prepare you to make great batches from the start. In there is any one piece of advice I can give you is the be a madman about sanitation. Sanitation and preparation are the keys to make great beer, if you get those two things down you’ll be surprised just how good your beer will turn out.
Not to mention that you'll probably make a sticky mess of the place sometime or other - everyone does eventually.
Assuming she does, the best suggestions I can make is:
(1) Get lots of bottles - most recipes you'll find in the basic books are for five gallon batches; that's a little more than two cases. You're probably gonna want more than one batch going at a time once you get the hang of it. You'll have people advising you to use soda kegs and such instead. Pay them no mind - suffering for your art is good for you, at least at first.
(2) You say you like stouts - good, they're probably the easiest thing to make starting out - but don't be afraid to branch out into other styles once you've made a couple of batches. The first dunkelweizen (dark wheat ale) I ever tried was the one I made - it's one of my favorites now.
(3) Homebrewing is very susceptible to economies of scale and the principle of Many Hands Make Light Work, so get your neighbors interested in it, too.
(4) See Tagline - zymurgy is as much art as science, and art doesn't always turn out like you think it should. Everyone screws the pooch once in a while - just learn your lesson and persevere.
An excellent excuse, IMHO!
RDWHAHB
Relax, don’t worry, have a homebrew.
Truer words have never been spoken.
Patience is important. The temptation is to sample the beer to early and then drink the whole batch quickly before it gets time to mature. A 5-gallon batch is only about 2 cases and you will be wanting to share with friends and family ( that’s why my buddy and I make up to 20-gal. batches).
It’s wise to start your second batch soon after the first. Life all comes together when your drinking one of your own homebrews while making a fresh batch.
About drinking while brewing; I agree, there is plenty of time to drink later. If we drink while brewing, it’s very little and later in the process, then maybe a couple after while cleaning the equipment.
“I think what I am reading is it is a very LOVED hobby”
There’s your first brewing mistake right there, pal....brewing isn’t a hobby — it’s LIFE!
All kidding aside, you’ll find that people brew for a lot of reasons. One great thing about brewing is making a great beer can be as simple as baking bread, but if you get into the underlying complexities of brewing you will never run out of things to keep yourself occupied. Beer geeks may focus on the equipment side (like me) or the biology/chemistry side (like my buddy).
Also, check your area for a homebrew club. You’ll find lots of support there.
I am brewing a nice American Pale Ale as soon as it gets light enough to see what I am doing.
Mmmmmmmm
Beer.
The cause of and solution to most of files problems. - Homer Simpson.
Cheers,
knewshound
I have an excellent IPA recipe, want it?
It is a clone of the Lagunitas IPA. One of the best IMHO.....
Cheers,
knewshound
Sure!
You do all grain, right?
I havent tried brewing yet, but yes I would probably go with the traditional method
Bump
My favorite method is to buy a bunch of bottles, about 18 will do, go to the store and buy up 18 bottles of Sam Adams, then pour the Sam into the 18 bottles I bought, call my friends up and have them over for a beer. I then ask them if they want to invest in home brew supplies so I can keep making the stuff. Works every time./Just Kidding.
Really, the internet will give you lots of info and you will know when you get the good advice it is apparent, just don't take the first article you read on faith! Read a bunch. You have to know that you will not get great results the first time, but the more you do it the better you get. I have a friend that makes a great ale, although I am like you and prefer a stout. He is the one that told me about the internet and the info available and I am thinking about giving it a try myself but when you have a buddy who is already doing it, you tend to think,"Why bother?":)
You should coil most of it around a 3# coffee can to increase the cooling path and surface in the kettle. All but about the last 3 feet on each end (depending on the depth of your brew kettle. Should have about a 1’ overhang on each end to keep drips out of the kettle.
And you can eliminate some of the sanitizing hassle by putting the coil (without water hoses being connected) into the brew kettle for the last 15 minutes or so. Might as well let all that nice boiling hot liquid do the work for you...
Quick-connect garden hose fittings and garden hose work well to bring the water to that very hot pot full of boiling stuff. And to take the warm water to wherever you need it.
“relax, don’t worry, have a homebrew”
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