I made a batch every week for a few years. Sadly, supply couldn't keep up with demand...1st timers should absolutely make their 1st batch with an extract kit and hop pellets if needed. Before long, you will have secondary carboys somewhere in you house. Champagne bottles can take the pressure and makes bottling faster. Be super clean in the process use the sterilizer where you need it. I made some so-so beers to a copy of the Guiness Extra Stout. Those kind of beers are a little more costly to produce, generally making smaller 4 gal. batches. Can easily be scaled to larger sizes though. I see fresh hops in your future.
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Thanks for all the advice guys. I ended up getting a starter equipment kit and I have brewed 3 partial mash batches so far. First two (an amber and a witbeir) are bottle conditioning right now. Tried the amber and it is good - just needs to carbonate more. The third is a 7% imperial stout that I am gunna secondary for a few months. It is in a glass carboy right now. I have read alot about carboy accidents, so I put handles on each of my carboys and I put them in milk crates whenever they have anything in them. Seems to work ok.
I haven't had any infection issues so far but I am very anal about sanitizing.
I have used swing tops for bottling so far (drank a bunch of Hacker Pschorr for empties - it's good beer too - unlike that horrid Grolsh) which isn't too bad. That said the sanitizing of every bottle is a bit of a bother so I can see kegging in my future. We just got a new massive fridge a couple of weeks ago, so the old Woods 17cf all-fridge that was in the kitchen is going to be a kegerator at some point!
I may try the all-grain thing at some point, but so far partial mash extract brewing seems like a good spot for me!Comment
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That's awesome kingdarb. I think partial mash is the best of both worlds. You get most of the convenience of a shorter brew day mixed with the benefits of using real grain. You'll get to all grain soon enough! I may get back into brewing when my youngest gets a little older. Let us know how it turns out. Post pics! Cheers!Comment
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Great! I promise you, it is easy to get hooked. Some like myself go completely off the deep end.
I brew a bit. Check out my web...
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Beefchop : Will do! I should have some of the amber ready to go in a few days. The one that I am really looking forward to is that imperial stout, but that will take time.
lonnie mac : I can easily see how people go off the deepend! I already want to get a kegging system and conical fermenters heh. That is an awesome system that you have by the way!
I need to get some proper beer glasses now. I am thinking that the local restaurant supply store might be the place to check. Any online recommendations?
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Check out Sam Adams. They have an awesome 12 oz. glass that they sell directly. They used to offer the same glass in 20 (or 22?) oz. but I haven't seen them for a while.Originally posted by kingdarb View Post
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I gave up bottles a long time ago, kegging will set you free! try Adventures in Homebrew for used kegs around $40. if you stick with bottles run them through the dishwasher on "Sanitize" with just enough time for them to cool (upside down on a sanitized bottle tree) before you bottle. the dishwasher gets them over the 170F you need to kill everything and saves your back from hanging over the tub .
I started off with extract and all my beers tasted the same, bland and generic. A buddy and i tried all grain and it has made all the difference in the world. If you don't have a mash tun yet get an 8 gallon cooler conversion from your favorite source and try an all grain kit, it will definitely improve your beer. The bag method doesn't allow enough of the grains to convert sugars. If you like to bake the grains can be used in bread to go with whatever's on the smoker!
Enjoy!
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Depends on the glasses you want. I got a case of pint glasses from Bed Bath and Beyond and used my coupon. We have all sorts of logo glasses that we've picked up from breweries and fund raisers at local bars (got a 6 pack of British pint glasses for $0.50 each). Local beer distributors sometimes have glasses that they get as promos and then sell.Originally posted by kingdarb View Post
Craigslist is great for equipment. You never know what's going to be there. You can get some great deals when someone's spouse says no more brewing.
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I'm new here and way late to the conversation. But I'm a serious, award winning Homebrewer. Happy to answer questions or offer advice. Cheers!!Comment
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I did this about 20 years ago, and got out of the habit. Still have all the equipment though. Every year I say I'm going to start up again...Comment
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I homebrewed for a couple years, but haven't brewed in almost two years. Too busy going to the many local breweries and getting what the pros make. I know once I break the ice and brew again, the passion will come back. It certainly goes hand in hand with cooking outside!Comment
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You are getting some great advice from this group! I have home brewed for 20 years. Started out of necessity, well before the mico-brew revolution. I was traveling to England a few times a year for work. Developed a taste for Real Ale and could only buy lagers here in the US. So, studied up, began a fun and enjoyable hobby that continues to be fun - much like smokin good BBQ. In my prime I was brewing 6-8 times a year. Much less now, twice a year with my son (he's 30 and loves the hobby). There are so many good beers out there now, I homebrew just for the fun of it (both the brewing and the drinking;-)
If I could distill the advice from this thread and my experience:
1) Buy The Complete Joy of Homebrewing by Charlie Papazian. Great writer and was around many years ago like me ;-) Its a fun read and starts simple and builds. Charlie is the "Father of Homebrewing" and I like his "have fun" attitude.
2) I would start with partial mashing. Extract only seems to have a "twang" that I don't like. Starting with partial mash, you get to experiment with different malts and grains. And, never use hopped extract. Always use fresh - you have more control and can make your own flavor profile.
3) Liquid yeast. One of the main things to make home brewed beer taste better. Don't mess with the dry stuff.
4) Try to boil the full amount of wort (liquid) - that means a pot able to hold 8+ gallons. The turkey deep fry set ups they sell especially around Thanksgiving work well. You get your short propane burner and a huge pot.
5) Like many have said, go to kegging. For the first few batches you could bottle, but I found that bottling was a lot of work and took up lots of space. Get a few 5 gal ss soda pop kegs, clean them out well, replace the rubber gaskets, a small CO2 tank and regulator. It does cost a bit up front but the time savings and (in my opinion) taste difference is great. Plus, you can always bottle a few from the keg to bring to friends or a party.
6) Clean, Sanitize, Clean again, Sanitize again etc....You will find that home brewing is 50% formulating the recipe, 25% doing the actual brew and 25% waiting for the beer to age.... AND 100% in washing, cleaning and sanitizing. Nothing worse that spending all that time and hope - and having a bad batch due to wild yeast or bacteria. Remember, after the boil and cool down, before fermentation takes off - you have 6+ gallons of sweet, nourishing liquid - the favorite food of all kinds of things!!! Thats why you pitch (throw in) as big a batch of yeast as you can. Overwhelm the other team ;-)
7) If you are still brewing after the above, and have the time - go for full mash. You will need another large pot and more time. But, you are now truly brewing your own beer. You have full and complete control over the grains, how to mash for different flavor/sweetness profiles, hops, etc. It's all you now.
8) As many have said, Northern Brewers and Williams Brewers are my favorite places to order things. But, check our local. When I started there were few few HB shops. Many things, even grains needed to be mail ordered. I am surprised (and pleased) by the number (and quality!) of many local home brew shops. Some also sell beer, or hydroponic supplies, but at least you can look and compare and in many cases they will have a grain mill so you can grind your own grains.
9) Like the art of smoking, there are "forgiveness" levels in homebrewing. Pale Ales, Ambers and Porters are like pork shoulder/butt - very forgiving. Alt beers, Hefeweizens and Belgium beers are like ribs. Take more work, but most can handle it. Crisp German lagers, complex Barleywines and Specialty beers (hot pepper, fruit etc.) are the briskets of the homebrew world. Do it well and do it right - sublime. Make one mistake - well, still drinkable but your likely won't bring it to many parties ;-)
9) Last, join a local homebrew club. Nothing better than getting together once a month, bring in some of you work and sample others. You will pick up great tips and insights.
Finally, Relax, Don't worry, Have a Homebrew Once you read Papazians book this line will mean much more to you!Comment
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Good stuff! My only quibble is your comment about dry yeast! I much prefer it. And have had fantastic results. But for authentic German Lagers I prefer White Labs liquid yeast. And I always make a starter..... -
Point well taken. When I started brewing years ago, there were not many dry yeasts around. The ones that were, well they were not very good. From what I hear from other brewers, dry yeasts today work pretty well.
I am just used to liquid and don't mind making the starter the night before.
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I did it for a couple of years in the mid 90s--made a couple of pretty good beers (a hefeweizen and a raspberry mead stand out in my memory) and a few more decent beers. Too much work--it's all about sanitizing. Scrub, scrub, scrub. You can buy better beer for less money and zero effort. I now concentrate on BBQ (and recently bread) where my product exceeds most everything I can buy. I'm thinking $150 to $200 should get you set up fairly well if you want to start--a couple hundred more easily if you get hooked. Buy a couple of books and READ THEM. The best one for me was by Dave Miller, Papazian was more "casual" (but his raspberry mead was GREAT!). There may be better reads now.
It was fun for a while, but I lost interest. It is definitely doable though and you'll learn a lot.Comment
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Resurrecting an old thread. My guess would be that anyone into creating their own quality BBQ is also someone who would be into creating their own beer. Or pickles. Or bread. Or furniture. I could go on and on. Like BBQ you can take it as far $$$$ as you want. I BBQ on a Weber kettle, a WSM, and a RecTec (thanks Amazing Ribs drawing). I make pretty good stuff- 3rd place ribs and pork in a local contest last weekend as part of a team- but I realize that some make better. My beer setup is pretty similar- I mash in a converted cooler and ferment in a converted freezer. I'm pretty competitive - several BOS- but not every batch is what I envisioned. The one "high end" piece I have is a custom built kegerator/bar. Like BBQ ingredients matter a lot in most styles of beer.
For books, I'd recommend John Palmer.
Bottom line- have fun and don't take yourself too seriouslyComment
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I started out brewing beer years ago and managed to make some pretty good beers. Then I got to where I just wasn't drinking as much beer anymore. Luckily, virtually all the same gear that you need for beer can be used to make homemade wine. I have now gotten into that and enjoy it. I managed to find a cheap Chardonnay kit that my wife really likes so as long as I keep her supplied, I can get away with buying more BBQ/Smoking supplies.Comment
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