who brews their own? Thinking bout giving this a whirl. Most advice appreciated, please throw some smart *** remarks in just to stay on Q. Thanks paddock. Amazon has a beginner's package, may look into that unless I hear any different
Beer......
- Thread starter BlueBleedingMarine
- Start date
I'm planning on brewing some of my own this summer as well. I will not ask any questions about it here though. I will continue to read sites that are dedicated to home brewing and learn from people that have experience I can learn from.
As far as Paddock advice goes, you should call an architect.
As far as Paddock advice goes, you should call an architect.
I brewed my own once from Mr. Beer kit. Sucked ***.
Rather try and grow weed.
Rather try and grow weed.
Growing weed is easier than brewing beer. Growing weed or brewing beer, best bet is to read about all the mistakes people have made doing either. Don't do those things.
I started homebrewing in November and it has become quite an obsession. I'm about 4 batches in and have 2 more batches planned and ready to go. There is a ton of information you can look up on the internet about homebrewing. Some better than others. A few things I would consider:
- Decide how much space you have for brewing and storing your fermenter and beer for conditioning. Most recipes and accessories you can buy are set up to make 5 gallons. I don't have a ton of space so I make one and 2 gallon recipes.
- An earlier poster noted a bad experience with Mr. Beer. Their basic recipes aren't the best tasting (but not horrible either if you follow the instructions), but their Little Brown Keg fermenter is great for one or two gallon batches.
- When purchasing supplies or recipe kits, Amazon Prime is your friend. Most equipment is fairly affordable wherever you can but it, but some websites kill you with shipping charges.
- You can purchase homebrewing supplies and recipe kits in Lexington at Liquor Barn, Lexington Beerworks, or Bottom of the Barrel (in Woodhill Shopping center).
- You can turn homebrewing into a scientific process by taking gravity readings and measuring IBU's but I never worry about that stuff. I just let everything ferment for 3 weeks and bottle condition for 4 weeks.
- It's really good to be patient. 7 weeks can be a long time to crack open a beer from a batch, but your beers generally taste better and you have a better experience if you wait and let your beer age a little.
- Sanitize everything with Star San. Also, don't worry about the foam that it creates and don't worry about it getting into your beer. It won't have any effect on the taste of your beer.
I knew a guy that had a family business making wine. He also made beer on the side. Whenever I talked to him about either he would always emphasize that the most important thing was cleanliness. Not just eyeball clean, but microbial clean. Take care of that and the other things will take care of themselves since it's a pretty natural process.
Don't understand why anyone would bother with brewing their own. Just go to a bar or a liquor store. Hundreds to choose from that will likely be better than anything that you make yourself. It seems like a lot of hassle, mess, and expense for an inferior product.
Ha, me too. That was the only thing I personally registered for when I got married, what a piece of **** kit that was. I brewed two batches, the second literally made me sick.
I've been a homebrewer since 2007. The first consideration you have to make is what do you want to brew? Ale's are easier to brew and finish quicker while a good Lager requires more work and time as well as a cooler fermentation environment. You should really stick to a good ale as it will be easy to brew and is almost fool-proof (also , a word of advice, avoid aiming too high for your first 3 or 4 batches - better to master a beginner level beer like an ale before trying to brew your own stout or porter). The second consideration is equipment. I started with your typical $100 "homebrew kit", and that should be just fine. You will need to buy bottles though to bottle your beer which will cost you some money up front ( a 5 gallon batch typically yields about 45-50 12oz. bottles), but as long as you get some sanitizer and a good bottle brush you can reuse them. Also, you have to have bottles WITHOUT the easy twist off cap rings. So you can't use old Bud, Bud Light, Miller Lite, etc. bottles. Another piece of advice is to avoid buying too much additional equipment too soon. Everything you really need to brew a nice 5 gallon batch is in that homebrewing kit. I take that back, if you are going to invest in something, invest in a nice steel pot to do your boil in. The better the pot, the better the beer.
Speaking of sanitizer, that is your best friend. SANITIZE, SANITIZE, SANITIZE! Sanitize everything. This is no joke. If you want to produce good beer with no funky aftertaste or smells, you have to avoid the introduction of wild yeasts into the brew and the way to avoid this is sanitizing everything. Use a good quality sanitizer like starsan or something similar.
Also, a very good recommendation would to be to buy "The Joy of Homebrewing" book. It is a literal owners manual of homebrewing and is basically required reading if you wish to be an adequate homebrewer.
The most frustrating part of beer brewing (other than the waiting period for fermentation and waiting for bottles to carbonate) is cooling your wort (wort is what beer is before you add the yeast and fermentation begins). When you finish your boil, the wort is around 170 degrees or so and must be QUICKLY chilled down to yeast pitching temperature (around 70 degrees). The problem is that the longer you wait for your wort to cool down, the higher the risk of contamination by wild yeast that will yield a skunky beer. There are several methods and techniques for wort chilling and you'll just have to experiment with trial and error to find out the way that works best for you, but it is, by far and away, the most frustrating part of the beer brewing process in my humble opinion and can lead to some angry brewer moments when the wort is taking too long to cool down despite everything you've done.
In the end however, if you've done everything correctly, you'll end up with a ton of high quality beer that you've brewed for a fraction of the price and will have the pride of enjoying something you created from start to finish.
Speaking of sanitizer, that is your best friend. SANITIZE, SANITIZE, SANITIZE! Sanitize everything. This is no joke. If you want to produce good beer with no funky aftertaste or smells, you have to avoid the introduction of wild yeasts into the brew and the way to avoid this is sanitizing everything. Use a good quality sanitizer like starsan or something similar.
Also, a very good recommendation would to be to buy "The Joy of Homebrewing" book. It is a literal owners manual of homebrewing and is basically required reading if you wish to be an adequate homebrewer.
The most frustrating part of beer brewing (other than the waiting period for fermentation and waiting for bottles to carbonate) is cooling your wort (wort is what beer is before you add the yeast and fermentation begins). When you finish your boil, the wort is around 170 degrees or so and must be QUICKLY chilled down to yeast pitching temperature (around 70 degrees). The problem is that the longer you wait for your wort to cool down, the higher the risk of contamination by wild yeast that will yield a skunky beer. There are several methods and techniques for wort chilling and you'll just have to experiment with trial and error to find out the way that works best for you, but it is, by far and away, the most frustrating part of the beer brewing process in my humble opinion and can lead to some angry brewer moments when the wort is taking too long to cool down despite everything you've done.
In the end however, if you've done everything correctly, you'll end up with a ton of high quality beer that you've brewed for a fraction of the price and will have the pride of enjoying something you created from start to finish.
I've done two batches and will be doing another one once I move in a few weeks.
I'd highly recommend visiting Northern Brewer to get started. Buy one of the 1 gallon kits to make sure it's your thing and then go from there. They have great customer service and some really good clones of popular beers.
I'd highly recommend visiting Northern Brewer to get started. Buy one of the 1 gallon kits to make sure it's your thing and then go from there. They have great customer service and some really good clones of popular beers.
hahaha there's a sucker born every minute.
Me upon starting my "blonde ale"
"Honey, I'm going to learn from this Mr. Beer kit and open up my own brewery"
couple of months later
"This **** tastes awful"
Mr Beer kit goes in its box and has been resting on the closet shelf for the last 2 years.
Sounds familiar, although mine has been sitting for almost 10 years now. I'm much better at buying beer than brewing it.