Any home brewers around? Beer, cheese, wine?

S

speedracer

Banned
I've picked up the beer brewing hobby with a vengeance again since I last gave it up a few years ago. Strictly malt extract due to time considerations. I've got a clone of a local brewery brown bottle conditioning, a Midwestsupplies (MWS good for an acronym?) Liberty Cream ale in my secondary, and a MWS Noble Trappist in my primary.

Got the ingredients for a MWS Belgian Trippel and MWS Hex Nut Brown Ale sitting on standby.

Thinking of trying wine and/or cheese.

Anyone else doin it?
 
I've been brewing for about a year and half now and love it. Recently built a kegerator out of an old chest freezer and switched to kegging rather than bottling...NEVER going back.
My girlfriend and I have been talking about getting in to wine making but other than collecting empty bottles we haven't really gotten far.
 
I've been debating going to kegging.. but then you can't give it away. Is it a pain to sanitize? What's so great about it? Just easier?
 
I think its much easier to clean, sanitize, and takes up much less space (the keg not the -erator). There also seems to much less sediment in a glass, I assume due to the constant pressure. Keep in mind that you can carb a keg the old fashioned way (priming sugar) so essentially you could split your batch and put some in bottles to give away etc...I really cant recommend it enough if you got the funds and resources.
 
[quote name='speedracer']I do have the resources. I'll definitely think about it. Would you still do it with a chest freezer?[/QUOTE]

Most definetly, it was easy as hell, and when it was all said and done I think it cost me about 150-180...way less than buying a commercial one. I can also still use it as a freezer if I need to, or use it as an extra fridge when there are no kegs in it. Invite a friend over, buy a case of beer and it will take a weekend. Here are a couple of links that I followed if you are interested:

http://www.mikebeer.net/chestfreezer.htm

http://knol.google.com/k/how-to-build-a-chest-freezer-kegerator#
 
Just when I thought I was done buying stuff for this hobby, now I'm going to convince my wife I need a second chest freezer when I bought one about a month ago for fermentation. This is going to go well.

Came home to my first airlock blowout today. Live yeast with no action for 3 days. Moderate action on day four and blows out the airlock on day 5. Wort everywhere. That sucked.
 
That's shitty! This hasn't happened to me yet, so knock on wood...
Any recommendations for a good lager recipe? I mostly do all-grain ales, but since I have the space to ferment in the chest I'm looking to brew my first lager soon, might be kind of nice since its about to get hot as hell soon.
 
Ahh! I stand corrected then, Thanks for clearing that up.
22.gif

2.tod.gif
 
I would hesitate to recommend all grain recipes since I use malt extract. HBF has that recipe suggestion forum that looks awesome to us lowly extract brewers.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f54/

I'm gonna do a hefe this weekend in preparation for summer.

Looks like we're the only home brewers. Strange. I figured there would be five of us or so.
 
Good thread! My friends and I just finished drinking our first batch of homebrew, an Octoberfest that was a little bit sweeter than anticipated but still pretty damn good. I love me a good dark amber or lager, but I gotta say I'm a sucker for fruity beers, so I think next week we're going to celebrate the start of spring by starting to brew a strawberry lambic.

We're not brave enough to keg-brew, but maybe one day...
 
[quote name='drktrpr1']Good thread! My friends and I just finished drinking our first batch of homebrew, an Octoberfest that was a little bit sweeter than anticipated but still pretty damn good. I love me a good dark amber or lager, but I gotta say I'm a sucker for fruity beers, so I think next week we're going to celebrate the start of spring by starting to brew a strawberry lambic.

We're not brave enough to keg-brew, but maybe one day...[/QUOTE]
I find "off notes", sweetness/bitter, and other issues to be entirely tolerable when I brewed it myself. :D

jbrun85, what kind of cheeses do you make? I'm really interested in adding cheese making to my skill set. Did you buy a press?
 
I've always wanted to begin brewing, but lack space and don't want to spend $100-150 to start and find I don't like it. I've read up on it and looked into buying a starters kit before.
 
[quote name='jbuck138']I've always wanted to begin brewing, but lack space and don't want to spend $100-150 to start and find I don't like it. I've read up on it and looked into buying a starters kit before.[/QUOTE]

The starter kits aren't really all that bad. I have a friend that has one and he loves it and the beer he gets from it is fine. That said, it doesn't even come close to what you can do with a full set up, especially if you can get in to all-grain brewing, it really opens the door for experimentation.

I agree that the initial investment is a bit much, but after that you can brew 5 gallons (~two cases) of your favorite beer for about $40.00, figure a commercial craft beer would cost you about $80.00 for the same volume.
 
[quote name='Tronny']The starter kits aren't really all that bad. I have a friend that has one and he loves it and the beer he gets from it is fine. That said, it doesn't even come close to what you can do with a full set up, especially if you can get in to all-grain brewing, it really opens the door for experimentation.

I agree that the initial investment is a bit much, but after that you can brew 5 gallons (~two cases) of your favorite beer for about $40.00, figure a commercial craft beer would cost you about $80.00 for the same volume.[/QUOTE]

It also really helps if you get a couple friends to split the start-up costs. My friends and I went four ways, and our initial batch cost us about $25 each. Now we just have one person buy ingredients for a batch ($40-$50 as others have mentioned) and share the spoils, then another buys the next batch, etc. Brewing is much more fun with friends!
 
[quote name='jbuck138']I've always wanted to begin brewing, but lack space and don't want to spend $100-150 to start and find I don't like it. I've read up on it and looked into buying a starters kit before.[/QUOTE]
It's a hobby with a very big ability to suck your wallet dry if you let it. You can make really solid, impress your friends and family beer with $100 in parts. But then you realize that to get to the next level, you need to buy something else. To make it easier, you have to buy something else. A wort chiller with prechiller is around $100-125 and makes a big difference. A fridge/freezer is necessary to do ferment lagers or anything if you live where it's hot (like me).

My first brew I boiled the grains. A massive no-no. I didn't do anything to push oxygen into the process. I had no temp control so my ferments were in the low 80s on an ale that was supposed to max out at 75.

Best beer I've ever had.
[quote name='drktrpr1']It also really helps if you get a couple friends to split the start-up costs. My friends and I went four ways, and our initial batch cost us about $25 each. Now we just have one person buy ingredients for a batch ($40-$50 as others have mentioned) and share the spoils, then another buys the next batch, etc. Brewing is much more fun with friends![/QUOTE]
That's a fantastic idea.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
bread's done
Back
Top