Posted on 06/01/2012 3:28:50 PM PDT by Red_Devil 232
Its Beer Thirty!
At The First Monthly Homebrewing Thread
That time of day at which drinking a beer becomes necessary and required to proceed with life as we know it in modern society. I am enjoying a homebrewed Nut Brown Ale as I post this thread. It is a very tasty brew that has a nice caramel and slightly nutty flavor, nicely carbonated with a tan head. At 8.3% it can definitely sneak up you! Yesterday I bottled a Porter and I have a Honey Ale in my primary that is fermenting nicely. A Copper Ale is scheduled for brewing next week. Yes, I do like my Beer! I enjoy the brewing process. I love the smell wafting up from the steeping grains then the sweet aroma from the boiling wort and most of all seeing a steady bubbling out of the fermentation airlock. I also really enjoy tasting and drinking the resulting product!
Knews_hound was the originator of the ping list. He sent out a FreepMail in April explaining that he rarely visits FR anymore and he needed someone to take over the list or the Homebrewing Ping list would disappear here on FR. He sent me a FReepmail a week or so ago and turned the ping list over to me. He also said that he would not be posting replies anymore.
This is my first Monthly Homebrewing Thread. It is my intention to keep the Homebrewing ping list alive and growing by posting a hombrewing thread at least once a month focusing on Homebrewing and also occasional pings to other Beer, Wine and Spirit related threads posted on FR.
I consider myself a novice Homebrewer. I have been brewing for just a little more than a year using Malt Extract kits. I don’t have the equipment or the expertise to do an All Grain Brew, yet.
So far my favorite homebrews have been the Ambers, Reds, Browns and Stouts that I have brewed. I do like the Stouts! I have also brewed a couple of Belgian Abby Ales they turned out to be good but they sure took a long time maturing before I could really enjoy them. For me the time waiting for the beer to ferment, mature and condition is the only down side to homebrewing. Enjoying and sharing them is the Big Reward!
If you have never homebrewed there is some good news! Anyone can make a pretty decent beer right from the start. It just takes some basic equipment to get started.
For those FReepers who want to get started brewing up some tasty fresh homemade beer, the Malt Extract Ale Kits are the easiest and best way to get started. All the ingredients you need are included in these kits. Make sure the kit you buy has yeast included, if not you will need to buy some yeast. Most of these kits will make around 5 gallons of beer and run from around $20 to $45+. The novice brewer should start out brewing Ale. The Ales ferment around room temperature and are ready to drink faster than lagers. The Pilsners and Lagers can take some time to mature and extra equipment is needed to keep these styles of beers at steady cool to cold temperatures while they ferment and mature.
You will need some basic equipment, which you probably do not have around the house. Homebrewing supply stores can be found on the web that sell the basic equipment kits you may need. They range from about $65 for a very basic kit and all the way up to about $350+ for all-inclusive Kits.
· You will also need a brewing kettle/pot (sometimes included in the more expensive kits); best results are obtained with one that will hold at least six gallons. But a stockpot holding 3-4 gallons will do to start. Stainless steel is preferred but a large heavy-duty aluminum or porcelain coated canning pot will do and they are much cheaper. Check out Wal-Mart. They do have large Stainless, aluminum and porcelain coated canning pots. If you can afford Stainless do it. But for most of us home brewing is a hobby so stay within your budget. My first couple of homebrews were boiled using a porcelain coated canning pot on my stove. I now use a propane burner that I bought at Lowe’s. I also now have a 5 gallon stainless steel brew kettle.
· Don’t forget bottles – you will need about 50 – 54 12 oz bottles for a typical 5 gallon batch. The supply web sites sell new bottles but the best way to get your bottles is to buy the current beer you are drinking in bottles and save them. Bottles with twist off or screw off tops will not work!
· SANITIZE! SANITIZE! Sanitization of your equipment is crucial to your successful homebrewing effort. This step cannot be over emphasized. Every piece of equipment that comes in contact with your wort/beer after the boil needs to be thoroughly SANITIZED! I like a product called Star San it is an acid based no rinse sanitizer. It will foam up but don’t fear the foam! One ounce of Star San will make 5 gallons of sanitizer. It is odorless, flavorless, and requires only one to two minutes of contact time. I also like to use a commercial cleaner called PBW (Powdered Brewery Wash, widely used in some commercial breweries) it is not a sanitizer but will clean your equipment after a brew session. Soak your used equipment and beer bottles in it. After a good soak in PBW those pesky labels will just slide off those beer bottles you have been saving. I am sold on this stuff as a cleaner. In a few hours of soaking it will clean some very stubborn stuff off your equipment. After using PBW rinse equipment and bottles well and then sanitize with a sanitizer.
A couple of web sites I have used for equipment and supplies are More Beer and Midwest Supplies There are many others – use your search engine. I have no affiliation with either of these companies. They are just a couple I have used and had great service and no problems. If you have a favorite site you order from please let us know. Northern Brewer is another homebrew supplier but I have not used them.
The MoreBeer web site offers free shipping on most of their items, which is great for ordering all the basic equipment and ingredients. Free shipping applies if you purchase a qualifying $ amount. I have not ordered beer ingredient kits from them.
I use Midwest Supplies to order my ingredient kits (no free shipping here). I use them because they list all the ingredients in their brew kits, which can be very helpful. They also have brewer’s reviews of the kits. There is a lot of good info posted by the brewers/reviewers including if they made any additions or adjustments to the kits. Midwest also offers a 5% discount to active duty military and veterans 24/7/365. They recently upped the discount to 10% for a one-week period prior to and including Memorial Day.
If you want to read up on the homebrewing process a good place to start is to check out John Palmer’s “How To Brew”. This book is free and available on line at How To Brew a good place to start is with the Glossary of Terms used in brewing. The Equipment chapter is another great place to start.
Knews_hound has a web page that is a basic step-by-step introduction (w/pictures) to brewing beer using a Malt Extract Kit. Visit it here Homebrewing 1A
Lets get brewing! Share your experience and expertise or just ask a question. I may not have an answer to all questions but I am sure another more experienced Freeper will.
On one hand, brewing and allowing the brew to mature take variable amounts of time, but there’s a considerable amount of waiting involved. On the other hand, some brewers have so much experience that once a week would probably be appropriate. IOW, I dunno. Do you think it would be a good idea to add to the monthly thread when it seems advisable?
It wasn't very good, tasted like gasoline, but it was 110 proof and only cost $1.50 a quart to produce. It did the job on a budget.
We used a recipe from prohibition days called Minnesota 13.
My buddy had found a book called The Moonshiners Bible at a garage sale.
If I distilled it twice it went up to 160 proof and cost $3.00 a quart to produce.
Each additional distillation after that only brought the proof up 10% each time and doubled the cost so we only made a few quarts of 180 for novelty purposes.
We named ours Ferocious Cirrhosis Total Amnesia Frontal Lobotomy Whiskey.
Made up labels with a little guy with Xs for eyes and a red nose laying in a puddle of his own urine holding up a bottle saying "Smooth!"
Wow did we have fun but my liver winces at the memories or lack thereof.
It even distracted me from watching UFC live. Unprecedented!
I'd vote for one every Friday.
Adding to a monthly thread would not work. First off it would limit exposure of the thread to other FReepers not on the ping list who might be interested in the thread. There is one survival thread that has gone into multiple thousands of posts. Most FReepers don’t know it exists, it is so well buried by other threads. I am leaning toward a weekly like I did with the gardening thread. It would mean more of a chance for a FReeper to stumble upon it and possibly grow the brewing/wine making community.
Yep it is fun to discuss something you enjoy doing with like minded people. when I posted the question I was already leaning toward a weekly Friday thread.
A weekly thread would be great.
That makes a lot of sense.
Monthly, gives me time to plan, cook, ferment and taste the goods before spreading the good word.
Please add me to the ping list.
Added
Ping me too.
Being a minimalist, I’d like to know a simplest beer recipe. Had fun making mead for a while.
You have been added.
weekly might be a bit too much in the long run...however maybe in the beginning you could do it weekly for about the first 3 weeks just to make sure the word is getting out real good. Then slip back into monthly.
I would say keep it a monthly thread to start out and if the interest continues, make it a bi monthly thread and so on and so forth. Better to bump up due to interest than reach too much and have to cut back IMO.
This is one ping list I’d like to be on!
Added!
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