Posted on 12/05/2008 9:10:10 AM PST by djf
OK.
I have a bunch of empty Grolsch bottles and have been thinking about doing some moon shining of sorts.
Any Freepers ever home-brew? Beer? Hard cider?
Curious about experiences and recommendations, and since Freepers are the smartest people in the world, figured it needed a thread!
Do not ~ever~ make or drink banana wine.
[you’ve been warned]....:))
Years ago we made wine. Super easy. We tried everything..blackberries, elderberries, grapes. The best was the rhubarb, thick and sweet like a fruit brandy.
I experimented with beer brewing years ago and enjoyed it.
I found this book helpful:
The Complete Joy of Homebrewing by Charles Papazian
http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Homebrewing-Third-Harperresource-Book/dp/0060531053
I’d recommend picking up a copy and finding a good homebrew store from which to buy equipment and malt extract. You might want to start with buying malt extract, rather than trying to brew from grain, because mashing the grain requires additional equipment and expertise.
The number 1 rule in home brewing is cleanliness. If you don’t religiously clean everything with hot water and bleach/iodine, you will ruin the taste of your beer.
Rule number 2 is to be kind to your glass carboys (where you ferment the beer). Don’t put a carboy filled with hot liquid anywhere near cold water (huge rookie mistake, which I made twice).
Rule number 3 is to ask the folks who run the homebrew store for advice. They tend to love the hobby and freely give out advice.
You can find lots of recipes on the Internet and the Papazian book has some good ones as well. It’s a fun hobby and you can make a decent ale with very little training.
LOL!
That’s what I’m wondering. A regular bottle would go off like a hand grenade.
A Grolsch bottle would go off like a neutron bomb!
I double the requested yeast amount, prime in warm water with a spoonful of sugar. . . .
Figure it will overpower anything bad . . . kind of natures own bactericide.
What is your recomentation for on-line brewing supplies -— used to go to a shop in Houston by Rice, but won’t make it this year.
FReeper Advise -
Shoot On Sight, Shoot First, Shoot To Kill, Keep Shooting.
I recommend the Papazian book also. It’s the bible of the field.
I don’t have one—I haven’t brewed my own in years. I don’t have the space for it.
I bought some fresh cider (produce section of the grocery store.) The label said "flash pasteurized". I just put a water seal on it and stuck it in the closet with the water heater for a couple of weeks.
Ended up with a sparkling, semi-dry apple drink....like apple champagne.
I’ve home-brewed...
I’d recommend a wheat-beer, of course I’m partial to them! ;)
Yes, this is the right way to do it, but make sure you use warm and not hot water. Hot water will kill the little yeasties.
What you're doing with the sugar and warm water is bringing the yeast out of suspended animation and giving it nutrients (the sugar) to feed and reproduce in a friendly environment (the warm water). That, in turn gives you a larger quantity of good critters (the yeast) to put into the malt after its done brewing. Your yeast is competing for resources with bad critters (random bacteria in the air and on your equipment) in the malt, so it's important to have as many ready to go as you can. Essentially what happens is that yeast produce good things like alcohol and good flavors and the bad critters produce bad flavors, so you want to give the good critters as much of a head start as possible in the competition for the limited food resource (the malt).
Keep in mind that after the first few days most of the malt will have been processed by the yeast and they will start dying off, so you have a limited window for them to do their work.
is it legal to make your own hard liquor for personal/family consumption too?
I also have lots of Grolsch bottles. They are great for brewing beer because all you need is fresh rubber seals for the ceramic caps (and beer of course) if the current ones are too old.
You can get rubber seal replacements from your online or local home brew shop.
In fact I think you are allowed something like 5 gallons per person per year.
With the incoming administration, that may not be enough...time to have some kids, I guess...
What is a water seal?
The key to producing any sort of booze is to keep everything clean.....you can ferment and or distill anything with simple sugar in it.....Wine and Beer have been made for 5000 years, its no big deal. The hardest part is just doing it....
Last time I investigated the matter (2 yrs ago), home (untaxed) distillation of spiritous liquor was legal ONLY in New Zealand.
Now, that's good. ;-)
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