Brew your own beer?
- Thread starter Trailhead00
- Start date
ROTFLMAO
You could say that. LOL I weigh 275 and have a lot of practice drinking mass quantities of big beers.
Try the squid it's very good. Every brew pub I visit I always have wings and squid. It's something I like to rate along with thier beer.
Even with purchasing all the good equiptment I don't think your first batch would cost that much.sue, $49 per six pack?? You must be factoring the equipment he bought, right? In any case, it is a good investment, don't you worry bout that!
Once you have the equiptment it cost around 40 -50 bucks for the ingredients to make a 5 gal batch, which = about 2.5 cases of 12 oz bottles. And your making great beer.
I have a homebrew set-up. It's fun. I use Beercrafters as well; good folks there, but they do not respond to e-mail.
Mr. Beer
Some of you guys are beating up on Mr. Beer, so I figure to come to his defense. I got the kit for Christmas, and I have made five batches with it, and shared nearly half of it with friends and family. Nobody was displeased with any of the results, and everybody liked two or more of the styles very much. I have begun brewing 5-gallon batches, using more standard homebrew methods now, because it's cheaper, and I need more beer! But I think Mr. Beer is a very good first step in learning to brew. Some people may be perfectly satisfied sticking with it.
Some of you guys are beating up on Mr. Beer, so I figure to come to his defense. I got the kit for Christmas, and I have made five batches with it, and shared nearly half of it with friends and family. Nobody was displeased with any of the results, and everybody liked two or more of the styles very much. I have begun brewing 5-gallon batches, using more standard homebrew methods now, because it's cheaper, and I need more beer! But I think Mr. Beer is a very good first step in learning to brew. Some people may be perfectly satisfied sticking with it.
Hey Russ,
Come and join us in the "Beer (again) thread. We've been missing you there. I would certainly be open to trying any beer you make with the Mr.Beer kit.
Come and join us in the "Beer (again) thread. We've been missing you there. I would certainly be open to trying any beer you make with the Mr.Beer kit.
"I went to DogFish Head Brewery " "For the beer " damn good reason as they are fine brewers.
I would give Mr.Beer a try as I might get bored with a 5 gallon batch of the same stuff. Problem is I would only want to brew big beers and according to the research I have read thats like 40 bucks a case to brew :-(
Anyone near Columbus that home brews ? Perhaps we can split batches and keep new batches in the works.
Drinking a Weyerbacher QUAD now and I would love a bunch of that homebrewed :-O
I would give Mr.Beer a try as I might get bored with a 5 gallon batch of the same stuff. Problem is I would only want to brew big beers and according to the research I have read thats like 40 bucks a case to brew :-(
Anyone near Columbus that home brews ? Perhaps we can split batches and keep new batches in the works.
Drinking a Weyerbacher QUAD now and I would love a bunch of that homebrewed :-O
Okay, I'll check it out, but I didn't see anybody talking about homebrew over there.
The way to get around having too much of one style of beer is to brew more
I'll usually try to brew a few weekends in a row so that I can have two or three different types on tap in a month or so. I then augment this with a nice 22 oz'er of something special from the store. If the beer is good enough it won't get boring. I mean some people drink nothing but bud or miller w/o getting bored.Yeah the big beers like barleywines and anything "imperial" can get pretty spendy, but I think $40 is a bit high. Most of my beers end up about $20-25, even the heavier double IPA's. There's a worldwide hop shortage right now, along with a blight in the Yakima valley where most hops are grown, so you can expect inflated prices this year, jacking up the price of a batch. I have an IPA conditioning that cost $23. You can get a more alcoholic beer by simply adding table or beet sugar, which is actually appropriate to some styles like a belgian golden strong ale. And if you're using malt extract like most homebrewers start off doing, it won't be too dry and will be surprisingly "big." Ok, that's it, I'm going big this weekend. Any ideas on what I should brew? Dubbel, trippel, barleywine??
The way to get around having too much of one style of beer is to brew more
That's a big 10-4! The only beer I ever got bored with was domestic light types.
Barleywines are supposed to age quite a bit for the best flavor to develop, right? Like six months or so? Plus you use a huge grain bill, like about $40-50 worth?
Six months at least. To get the good brandy-ish notes it should go for about 12 months. If brewing a barleywine I would brew a smaller ~4 gal batch to keep the price down and just use some table sugar to up the gravity, especially with American barleywines. I made a recipe for one a while ago but haven't gotten around to brewing it yet. I don't think I could wait that long to drink it.
The way to get around having too much of one style of beer is to brew more
Yeah the big beers like barleywines and anything "imperial" can get pretty spendy, but I think $40 is a bit high. Most of my beers end up about $20-25, even the heavier double IPA's. There's a worldwide hop shortage right now, along with a blight in the Yakima valley where most hops are grown, so you can expect inflated prices this year, jacking up the price of a batch. I have an IPA conditioning that cost $23. You can get a more alcoholic beer by simply adding table or beet sugar, which is actually appropriate to some styles like a belgian golden strong ale. And if you're using malt extract like most homebrewers start off doing, it won't be too dry and will be surprisingly "big." Ok, that's it, I'm going big this weekend. Any ideas on what I should brew? Dubbel, trippel, barleywine??
OK I feel as though I inspired you here so I call dibs on one of your forthcoming big beers, hmmm best beer I ever had was about 3 years ago at Triumph in New Hope, twas a Blonde Doublebock, amazingly complex with multi flavors.
Yeah, where am I going to store something like that for 6-12 months?!!
Okay, I have all the ingredients I need to make a batch this weekend. I might make my first attempt at all-grain. I want to keep it simple. I'm thinking 9 lbs. of Rahr 2-row, a pack of ale yeast, and a moderate dose of Brewer's Gold, an ounce for bittering, and another half ounce for flavoring. Any suggestions?
$49 six-pack? Eh, that's not too bad. I unsuccessfully brewed a batch of cranberry mead (a fermented honey wine) that cost me $2,000.
Having a 5 gallon glass water bottle with a tube on top of it running into a pot of water (to blow off the CO2 during fermentation) is not the most attractive thing to have in your living room, so I kept it in my bedroom closet. Unfortunately while I was away at work one day some of the cranberries got jammed in the blow off tube, the pressure built up, and the 5 gallon water jar filled with the red liquid inside exploded.
That night when I got home from work I noticed something red streaming down the stairs to the first floor. Upon investigation I traced the source of the liquid up the steps, down the hallway, into my bedroom, and finally my bedroom closet. When I opened the closet door it looked like somebody had been shot at point blank range with a 12 gauge shotgun in there. The red cranberry juice stained every square inch of the closet and ruined five suits, my favorite suede jacket, and most of pants and shirts.
Having a 5 gallon glass water bottle with a tube on top of it running into a pot of water (to blow off the CO2 during fermentation) is not the most attractive thing to have in your living room, so I kept it in my bedroom closet. Unfortunately while I was away at work one day some of the cranberries got jammed in the blow off tube, the pressure built up, and the 5 gallon water jar filled with the red liquid inside exploded.
That night when I got home from work I noticed something red streaming down the stairs to the first floor. Upon investigation I traced the source of the liquid up the steps, down the hallway, into my bedroom, and finally my bedroom closet. When I opened the closet door it looked like somebody had been shot at point blank range with a 12 gauge shotgun in there. The red cranberry juice stained every square inch of the closet and ruined five suits, my favorite suede jacket, and most of pants and shirts.
Sounds like a nice mellow pale ale to me. Very drinkable. I usually like to throw in a pound or so of crystal 40 for color and to make it a bit sweeter, I'm not into dry beers so much. I've never used brewers gold but from what I've read it doesn't do much besides bittering. You could always get an oz or so of cascade for flavoring/aroma, depending on availability. I've been using Palisades a lot lately and love it. We tend to go a little crazy with the hops over here in the NW, but I'll be damned if fresh hops doesn't make some awesome brews. I've gotten spoiled since moving out to the willamette valley, with a homebrew shop 2 blocks away and another within a 5 minute bike ride (not to mention the douglas firs and redwoods). Each shop fresh grains and package their own hops straight from the farm. I've spent a small fortune over the last few years shipping fresh hops back to my brother in NJ.
But yeah, if this is your first all grain attempt I'd say a nice pale ale is pretty fool-proof. I've only done partial mash by myself, but pinelands paddler, my brother and I have brewed a few 50 gallon batches.
Thanks! A pound of crystal sounds like a good idea, and I do have a few other things in the fridge for flavoring and finishing hops. 50 gallons!!! Sounds like fun.
The thing I'm really not clear on though, is how my well water will work for the mash. I know I need to shoot for a mash pH in the mid 5's, but I don't understand the chemistry well enough to figure out if I will hit that.
The easiest thing to do is get a digital pH meter, but pH strips are more readily available wherever pool chemicals are sold. You're right on about the pH in the mid 5's, I think 5.2 to 5.5 is ideal.
I don't know much about the pH of well water but I think it's pretty high, maybe in the 8-9 range. To get it down you can throw a gallon of spring water in, then it'll be more susceptible to pH changes. After that you can lower the pH readily by adding either calcium sulfate (gypsum) or preferably calcium chloride (the sulfate adds a bit of harshness). If you need to raise the pH you can add calcium carbonate, or in a real pinch sodium bicarb (bakind soda) but this will add a slightly noticeable salty taste. You probably already knew all this, but it's hard to turn off the chemistry teaching mode outside the classroom sometimes.
Unless you have an acid neutralizer for a water conditioner on your well, your pH is probably pretty acidic.
My well water was very acidic and we had to add a neutralizer in order to pass a water test that we were forced to do for a refi 10 years ago.
The state recommended standard is 6.5 to 8.5, which is very basic. Ours was in the 5 range.
I liked the water more acidic as it gave it a little character.
Do a simple pH test to see where your well is at. It should give you a staring point for your guesswork.
Scott
Thanks for the advice, guys. I'm going to get my pH, hardness, and iron before I do any all grain brewing. Looks like I'm going to put off brewing another week anyway. I have a batch to bottle this weekend.
Anybody planning to go over to the Turnersville place on May 3? I heard they have a big brewing and tasting event every year.
Anybody planning to go over to the Turnersville place on May 3? I heard they have a big brewing and tasting event every year.