Has anyone ever..?

[AlumniClub]

Has anyone ever made their own beer? Lets see how you did it.

GB2

[keith]

Mel Smith, aka 'flounce' at theBubbler, wrote the following in his Member page journal:

Hi Keith

I thought you sold home brewing kits. Maybe I just saw them for sale on this site and assumed it was you.

Anyway...

The brewing is going great. My first batch turned out excellent I purchased:

• ‘Ale Pail kit’ from the Baraboo coffee company for around $65 (You can find them on-line at around $50). It contains a couple buckets, tubes, Hydrometer, Bottle capper, and most of the equipment you need to get started.

• And I purchased a Brewer’s Best India Pale Ale ingredients kit for $29.95. This contains the yeast, Malt extract, grains, hops, and directions you need to make your first 5 gallon batch.

• In addition, you need a large cooker. Stay away from aluminum, but I think enamel is O.K. and Stainless steel is preferred. I had a 5 gallon stainless milk pail but have now spent $50 for a 34 quart stainless turkey cooker from Sams Club in Madison. This works great because I can cook in the garage.

Beer stinks when being cooked with the hops. I discovered this at 2:30 A.M. when my wife was trying to sleep. She was not pleased with my new hobby!

• You also need about 53 returnable beer bottles. LeinenKugel’s are great. You’ll want to buy two cases plus a 6 pack and begin working on emptying them. Sam Adams will also work. Anything that requires a bottle opener and not screw off can be recapped. The 16 oz. Grolsch bottles with the wire snap tops are great too, but unless you know someone who can stand that skunky stuff, you’d have to drink about 7 or 8 (4-packs) at $8 or $9 a pack.

I may have told you more than you ever wanted to know, but if you do want to talk further, I would be more than happy to reply. I’m in an e-mail triangle with a couple of home brewers from the Boscobel area who are giving me guidance and two of my co-workers are home brewers.

Getting started is a little expensive, but there are ways to substantially cut the cost to nearly $7 per case and enjoy a much wider variety of beer than the light pilsners that dominate the American beer industry.

Have a wonderful week,

Mel

P.S. I read this quote on the internet, "Brewing beer is neither complicated nor expensive, it is up to each brewer to make it as complicated and expensive as his wife will allow"!

~~~~~~~~~~~

Thanks for that entry, flounce! Hope you'll keep us posted as you brew more batches of beer!

Regards,
Keith

p.s.: flounce's member page is at: http://www.thebubbler.com/member/flounce.html

[keith]

Originally Posted by keith

....I may have told you more than you ever wanted to know, but if you do want to talk further, I would be more than happy to reply. I’m in an e-mail triangle with a couple of home brewers from the Boscobel area who are giving me guidance and two of my co-workers are home brewers......

Mel

P.S. I read this quote on the internet, "Brewing beer is neither complicated nor expensive, it is up to each brewer to make it as complicated and expensive as his wife will allow"! .......
p.s.: flounce's member page is at: http://www.thebubbler.com/member/flounce.html

Three things:

1) Great description!
2) Bring your buddies in the e-mail triangle to theBubbler!
3) love the P.S.!

Regards,
Keith

[flounce]

Thank you Keith for posting my letter from last year. I am in my second year of home brewing now.

Some of the best beer the world will never know was cooked in my garage, incubated in the darkness of my guest bathroom, bottled at my kitchen sink, krausened in my basement pump room, and shared among a few close friends.

Each batch of home brew is unique, and the very last bottles of my great brews are jealously hoarded. Big Head Irish Red, Slap Your Mama Pale Ale, and Breakfast for One Oatmeal Stout are nothing but empty bottles waiting to be filled again and pleasant memories of the great beers I have known.

It is always a surprise when I open the first bottle of a new batch of home brew, especially when I made up my own recipe. The Cranberry-honey Ale I made before Christmas had an unpleasant bite when I tried it in January and so it was forgotten beneath cases of tastier California common, Krolsch, and something I simply called #10. However, last night as I was looking for a couple of beers to take upstairs after work, I happened on the forgotten case of Cranberry-honey Ale.

Do you know something close to magic happened since I last visited this brew? The bite left and a spritzy ambiance rose to prominence. My Cranberry-honey ale earned its spot in my home brew hall of fame. Of over half a dozen brews in the pump room, this is the one to ration!

Not everyone will find even my best home brew appealing, especially if your taste is for the major name brands: light, filtered, pilsners, which dominate the American beer industry. Imported beer and micro-breweries offer a wider world of beer and ale enjoyed by many home brewers. Consider a Shiner Bock, New Glarus Staghorn, Widmer Brothers Wheat, Gray’s Oatmeal Stout (to die for!), Sierra Nevada pale ale, Sand Creek Woody... the list is nearly endless. These are the types of fun beers I like to make, taste, and enjoy.

[JuJu]

I would love to try to do it!

[keith]

Finally joining you with a batch...

Hope we can compare a couple brews one day!

Love the descriptions ~ if the beers are half as good as the prose, I'd be in heaven!

Regards,
Keith

[cakocinski]

I've finally gotten a chance to start reading Charlie Papazian's joys of Homebrewing, it is the best guide for getting started in Homebrewing...

I've been reading it mostly because I'm trying to develop my own recipes...up until now I use recipes that have been tried before...which is a great way to start...but I want to learn more.

So for anyone interested in getting started with this hobby this is the great book to read...

The Joys of Home Brewing by Charlie Papazian

[flounce]

I’m still brewing.

This summer I have taken the next step in home brewing… all grain.

It takes a little longer, is a little more work, but it is loads of fun! I belong to a home brew club now. It’s just beginning and we call ourselves the Dells United Frequent Fermenters or D.U.F.F. for short. Ha! Ha!

We are having a home brew competition on the 22 of this month at the German fest in Lyndon Station from 10 am to 2 pm. I’m entering an American Pilsner and an American Pale Ale at least, and if my Robust Porter finishes, I may offer that one as well depending how it turns out.

I’m also experimenting with wine and have been busy all summer picking blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, and now grapes. Wine is a long term project compared to beer and adds another dimension to the hobby.

[cakocinski]

Originally Posted by flounce

I’m still brewing.

This summer I have taken the next step in home brewing… all grain.

It takes a little longer, is a little more work, but it is loads of fun!

Wow, I've been interested in All Grain brewing, and I'm sure that's where my hobby is headed...of course it's been a busy summer for me, and I've let the hobby go to the wayside....in fact, I'm sad to say that my last two batches flopped....my friends and I were doing pretty good for awhile, people really liked what we were doing, and now...Well, I'm not sure what we are doing wrong...either way, I think it's time for me to get back into my hobby with full force...and start from the beginning....we've been putting together ingredients based on recipes...but until we get it right again, I think we are going to pick up a kit..."Re-Teach" ourselves the craft...Maybe figure out exactly what we are doing wrong the last few times...

It's still fun though...and "research" is the best part...

[flounce]

I brewed for two or three years before I had my first batch go sour, that happened this summer and then I had a second one go bad!

I took one of the bad samples to the brew club meeting last month and they all agreed that something went wrong. Then at the meeting last night, one of the people that tasted my bad batch last month came in to say the exact same thing happened to him with his last brew. I suspect the air is filled with bad yeast during the summer and the fruit flies have been numerous. One brewer I know will not even brew during the summer because it is such a busy time and any spilled sugars can draw ants, so maybe it’s not such a bad plan to do your brewing during other seasons than summer.

The last two brews I did, I became fanatical about sterilization and exposures to air and light and they have turned out good.

I’ll put together a post about all grain brewing in the coming days or weeks.

[cakocinski]

Originally Posted by flounce

I’ll put together a post about all grain brewing in the coming days or weeks.

Yeah please do! I'd also love to know what kind of equipment you are using...

I have to agree, Summer is quite busy...I was concerned I had lost interest in Brewing, and then I realized it's just a busy time of year...and in the Winter I got nothing better to do except brew...plus in the winter it's easier to cool your wort in the snow...can't do that in the summer...ha

[keith]

Originally Posted by flounce

I’m still brewing.

This summer I have taken the next step in home brewing… all grain.

It takes a little longer, is a little more work, but it is loads of fun! I belong to a home brew club now. It’s just beginning and we call ourselves the Dells United Frequent Fermenters or D.U.F.F. for short. Ha! Ha!

We are having a home brew competition on the 22 of this month at the German fest in Lyndon Station from 10 am to 2 pm. I’m entering an American Pilsner and an American Pale Ale at least, and if my Robust Porter finishes, I may offer that one as well depending how it turns out.

I’m also experimenting with wine and have been busy all summer picking blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, and now grapes. Wine is a long term project compared to beer and adds another dimension to the hobby.

Your descriptions continue to fascinate and illuminate!

I'm finally on theBubbler just "for fun" tonight (instead of checking this and that and testing features included in the updates, etc.) and I wish I would have seen your post a month ago. Lyndon Station OktoberFest! That's an event I would like to try! How did it go? Give me a heads up next year, will you?

Christian was telling me about summer bummers in brewing. Good to hear that you got past your first bad batches and did some good Summer stuff.

Love the D*U*F*F name!

Thanks for sharing the info you've shared.

Regards,
Keith