Any home brewers?

[buellbradski]

So in the winter months i started brewing beer and my first keg is ready. Just tapped it , a moose drool clone!!! So good. Just woundering if anyone else brews. I just do extract kits. Next in line is a ryePA and june 9th me n a buch of freinds are throwing a brew your own party so far we got 35 gallons of beer for. Just another addiction!

Any kit recomendations?
How bad do you have the addiction?

And if your in upstate new york your welcome to join the byo party!

 

[tseldon]

i dont know of any good recommendations for homebrew kits as i dont home brew, but if you have any questions about brewing i will do my best to give you some advice or point you in the right direction. i brew on a mass scale for a brewery out here in chicago

 

[buelljek]

Brew my own wine and biodiesel. Lol
Wine= 3 1/3 cups sugar melted into 4 cups water, your choice of concentrate juice none acidic, one packet of yeast, put all into milk jug fill to top with water and place ballon on top. 6 weeks Boom! Great wine.
Bio,
20% methanol, usually 6.75 grams lye per liter, mix with used veg oil and let set for a day. Wash with water, or magnesol evaporate water Boom! Biodiesel.
Omyeah and my methanol still can dual as an ethanol still. moonshine if u will. Not tried it yet. My luck I'd probably make rot gut or the African rat flu!?!?

 

[flaya564]

Awesome! I may try this. Buelljek, what are you thought about adding fruit or using fruit for the wine. My ex, use to make wine from her cherry trees, wasn't the best but did the job.

Why a balloon? Wouldn't you want the gases to escape?

 

[uly luigi]

a water lock works better, a stopper with a hose running into a jar of water, mile high distilling has professional grade stuff, I'm more in to distilling than brewing, the excess CO2 will kill the yeast early, but you also don't want outside oxy to get to the wort

 

[theoctopus]

My undergrad was in Food Chemistry, so we spent a lot of time studying fermentation/distillation/associated microbiology and chemistry. I was a big brewer before that in culinary school, but as soon as I entered the program, I was surrounded by people (students and faculty) who were so good that it didn't make sense for me to even fuck around with it. Our pilot plant had hundreds of thousands of dollars of brewing/fermentation kit, so the alcoholic beverages were always flowing.

Now that most of those friends work in microbreweries and vineyards far away from me, I've been thinking of getting back into brewing beer.

 

[jlightning]

I also started brewing this winter, I have had some guiness clones that were pretty good, just cant get the excact taste. There is also a widmer bro. Hef clone from extract thats not to bad. I agree though had to find some hobby to do when you can't ride.

 

[netty2424]

Wine= 3 1/3 cups sugar melted into 4 cups water, your choice of concentrate juice none acidic, one packet of yeast, put all into milk jug fill to top with water and place ballon on top. 6 weeks Boom! Great wine.

That's the prison recipe!

 

[theoctopus]

Has to be in a toilet for prison-style wine.

 

[buelljek]

Ballon is easier than water trap IMO, made a Ron of the stuff during college. The longer it sets the stringer it gets! If his is prison wine than I like prison wine. I compare it rather close to Boon"s Farm with more kick! it cost about $1.50 to make a gallon .

 

[okey]

I have been brewing beer for around 20 years. I haven't purchased mass produced beer for a very long time unless i am going to a party and need the convenience of grabbing a carton on the run. I use our local coopers beer kits and a food grade pail which makes 23 litres of great quality beer within a week. I bottle using coopers drops (a glucose drop) into a long neck (750ml) and after 2 weeks it's good to go. Do many different styles from pale ales to bocks , cervezas ,lagers and draughts. I used to get really involved in creating yeast cultures and using different hops but found it became a chore and not worth the hassle . The coopers kits are great and really make a consistantly rewarding beer. On the plus side i am saving money to get myself a new vstrom 650a for everyday riding and keeping the Buell for a Sunday ride through the twisties.

 

[Guell]

I brew, download beersmith, its an awesome program for the homebrewer. I have a 7% robust porter thats bottled and nicely aged now and i have 5 gal of an imperial black rye ipa, and i will be brewing another 5 gallons next weekend. That will be a dead guy clone. After that I will be doing probably an ipa, maybe a double.

Yes its an addiction

 

[buellbradski]

I love ipa's the hoppier the better i have a magazine with plans to build a hop filter. its a regular water fiter with a screen fill the outside of the screen with hops ,run it off the keg lines to the tap. Havent built it yet but im thinkin of doing this with a seira navada clone from northern brewer. I have to say the caribo slobber is the best brown ale ive had yet, I highly recomend it.caribou slobber

 

[BuellyBagger]

Im not brewing myself but i bought my dad a hame brew kit for x-mas. He's retired @ 55 (cop for 26 years military for 28) so he needed something to occupy his time i figured. Just tasted his first batch last weekend. Its not too bad (kinda tastes like cheep mexican beer). He plans on researching some better flavor recipes for the next batch. Thinkin maybe somethin like killian's red, ne suggestions?

 

[Guell]

Yes, patience! Let the beer ferment in the primary for 3-4 weeks and bottle condition for 3 weeks. Did he do an ale or a lager? Lagers are much more complicated and require much colder conditions.

I would do something simple with steeping grains if he is doing extract batches

 

[buellbradski]

^pateince and i like to let it ferment in a primary for 3 weeks move to a secondary (gets rid of a lot of the junk) then let set in secondary for a week to settle then run it through a cloth to filter anything else when putting it in a keg or if bottling we have a carbouy with a spout just up from the bottom keep debree out. Also keep beer in a steady temp with little light i like around 60 .

 

[Guell]

Sounds good, I would be careful with the cloth strainer, I wouldn't want to oxidize the beer. Lots of people no longer secondary their beer if they arnt putting fruit or oak in it. It clears fine and just rack off the trub. as said, keep it in the mid 60's, anything above 72 can create funky flavors

My porter was a big hit last night, def as good as commercial examples.

 

[brumbear]

I made apple wine first time this fall came out like jet fuel so I took 2 gallons redneck distilled em and made some real nice apple Brandy.

 

[50dro]

I grew up making wine with my (very Italian) family from grapes. It made for a lot of irreplaceable memories. Over the years it has become difficult to find a proper place to do all that work so we haven't done so in a while.

Just this year though I've decided to try to make some from juice on my own so with some input from some friends and family I'm currently working on a batch of Merlot. The juice was imported from Italy. I'll know in a month or so how good it it!