[Red_Devil 232]

Ping

[Renfield]

Not homemade, but I’m enjoying a nice Whitehaven (New Zealand) Pinot Noir right at the moment. Very good value for $18, drinks like a much more expensive Pinot. :<)

By the way, I tried Sierra Nevada’s new Hoptimum at The Beer Trappe yesterday; very good, worth a taste if it’s available in your area.

[hosepipe]

Yeah make your own beer/wine and grow your own tobacco..
You know... as an ornamental plant... (sniff!)...

[BrewingFrog]

Mmmm! It’s a hot afternoon and perfect for a cold Pils!

[Renfield]

p.s. Just got back from Wiltshire in Britain. We visited Stonehenge, Avebury, West Kennett Long Barrow, Glastonbury, and LOTS of country pubs. I liked the cider even better than the beer.....many brands available, including small local makers. It's worth a trip back just to drink the cider.

The best beer I had there was Palmer's Best Bitter...which I hadn't heard of before. Wadworth had the lion's share of the local market, but Palmer's was much better!

[Arrowhead1952]

The Mustang grapes here are bare this year. Crop is sparse to say the least. I was hoping to pick several gallons and make wine again this year.

[Jayster]

I am growing 8 varieties of Hops this year.

I did not purchase hops rhizomes but instead got plants early this year with fully formed roots.

Highly highly recommend Great Lake Hops for the purchase.

As of now......I have lots and lots of hop cones forming on the plants and they are growing crazy. This is the FIRST year of the plants.

I got them from their Ebay store but also found their Facebook site.

https://www.facebook.com/GreatLakesHops

[gunnyg]

This is the Best Thing That Ever Happened To Beer...According 2 Gunny G !!!!!

http://gunnyg.wordpress.com/2012/08/03/95194/

Semper Beer !!!!!
*****

[Bigg Red]

Can anyone give me advice. I am considering making banana beer. (Not banana bread beer. I have seen that reference during a search. Sounds bad.)

[Sawdring]

Five reasons not to brew your own beer:

Spaten Premium
Franziskaner Weissbeir
Moose Drool
ESB
Brau Brother's Moo Joos

[Manic_Episode]

Update on my hopslam adventure:

So my honey brew refused to ferment I think due to cheap costco chinese honey which is rumored to contain antibiotics which I surmise killed my yeast.

After adding yeast several times with no success 2 weeks ago out of desperation I added a massive amount of bread yeast, at least 10 times the average amount.

It seems to be doing the trick but the flavor is not as good, but at least I won't have to dump it down the drain.

I think I'm done with this recipe for awhile.

Next up will be a nice reliable IPA.

[wyowolf]

Just finished bottling my first ever brew. Summer Wheat Ale. Now wait two weeks and see :). I tried some and it actually tasted like beer.. though flat.

Next round will be in a 5 gal batch with a keg. Bottling was kind of a pain...

[AnalogReigns]

I'm having a new appreciation for Wernesgruener (from Aldi), the BEST 5.99 (!!!) six pack out there. A TRUE north German pilsner, very comparable to Bitberger or Koenig.

[pennyfarmer]

Cherry wine? One of my favorites. We currently have a white cherry wine and a red cherry wine in primary. Tomorrow we are doing 2 6 gallon batches of cherry mead, one sweet and one dry.

I think I have picked almost a hundred lbs of cherries this year, all of them wild. For the wines we did a 5 gallon bucket of cherries which is about 30 lbs each. For our mead we are only using about 15 lbs per batch. We don’t really have much of a recipe but here is the basics for what we do.

Cherry Wine
30 lbs cherries
10 lbs table sugar
1 tsp pectic enzyme
1 tsp acid blend
5-6 camden tablets

wash and sort cherries and put them in a pot with a little bit of water, heat them slowly and mash them with a potato masher. Put the other ingredients into the carboy. When the cherries are good and smashed we cool the cherries and dump them all into the carboy and then top with water to the desired level. We usually pitch the next day.

That is our grand recipe. :)