Home brew... who here does it?

[UNM1136]

The question says it all. We have a bunch of A-type personalities on this board who should enjoy their favorite beers. And wines.

Thanks to President Carter, a household can produce 250 gallons of beer or wine a year for each resident over the age of 21 for consumption. Consumtion, not sales. Distilling is another issue and regulated by the Bureau of All Things Fun and Entertaining.so 12 adults over 21....think a minute

The basic process is pretty simple. Pick a couple of weeks on your calendar. Wash some dishes. Look at a recipe. Measure out ingredients. Cook. Wait.

If you choose a kit, all ingredients and instructions should be included.

If you choose an extraxt brew, you add syrup to water to make your wort. Or dried malt extract to make your wort. Wort is pre-fermented beer. If you want to make all grain beer you will make your own malt extract and run along.

For an extract brewer you can mix ingredients, add adjuncts according to the recipe.

For an all grain brewer, take a couple of hours to expose ground grains to hot water to activate the enzymes required to reduce the sugars the yeast can consume.

Add yeast. Let it ferment. Primary, secondary fermentation the extracted sugar water turns to alcohol and carbon dioxide.

Bottle or keg for consumption.

I started brewing in 1991 when I figured out that as a minor I could not buy beer, but I could buy beer ingredients. My first batch was a gallon of blueberry ale. Who drinks a gallon of good beer at one time?

Like many home brewers I was ready for questions.

My new pastor took a sabbatical from preaching to make beer. I still don't recall using his information to manipulate the market.

We can argue over legalities, but guess what --it is legal....see the texts.

Consult legal about the texts...

[ccmdfd]

Not a brewer myself but tagged for interest.



I tried a few beers here and there throughout college and med school, and most often said “Yuck!” after each.


My first month as an intern, one of my fellow interns invited me over to his apartment where he had home brewed a wheat beer.

Love at first sip!!!







Man what a huge difference there is between good home brewed beer and the mess that most stores sell.

[UNM1136]

Not a brewer myself but tagged for interest.



I tried a few beers here and there throughout college and med school, and most often said “Yuck!” after each.


My first month as an intern, one of my fellow interns invited me over to his apartment where he had home brewed a wheat beer.

Love at first sip!!!


Doc, so, sorry. Wheat is a terrible introduction. So are all Belgians. Those are things to be explored, not forced on you as what is available. Guess my predudices are clear...

A five to seven gallon bucket, a five or seven gallon fermentor makes a batch of beer.

The cool thing is that if you like what you make, you sucseeded. If it was nasty you pour it down the drain and try again.




Man what a huge difference there is between good home brewed beer and the mess that most stores sell.

Doc, you will be surprised at what you can do...

pat

[UNM1136]

pat

Oops, messedmup quote...

[UNM1136]

One of the ideas is that we are all free persons, and making beer is one of those free person things...

Benjamin Franklin claimed that beer was proof that God loved us and wanted us to be happy...

pat

[UNM1136]

If you have a turkey frier, or other outdoor burner you have the start of a wort boiler. You can also use your kitchen stove, but I wouldn't recommend it.

pat

[blues]

The closest I've come to "home brew" is drinking in my house. But I appreciate those that put in the time and effort.

(Though I did make some Everclear, yeast and Kool-Aid concoction in the Wind Rivers back in 1974.)

[David S.]

I haven’t done beer, but I have done hard cider. Super easy, tasty and better than you might expect if you’re only experience is the sweet Angry Orchard crap.

The only “specialized” equipment you need is an airlock and an appropriate rubber stopper sized for the apple juice bottle. I do 5 gallon batches, so I use a wide mouth car boy.

Open a gallon bottle of apple juice. Pour off a couple cups of juice and set aside in a sealed container, or drink.
Add a packet of yeast. Shake well. I’ve had good results with Nottingham or Mangrove Jack cider yeast.
Install the stopper and airlock.
Store in a cool spot. 60-75*F
It’ll bubble like crazy for a few days. Use some sort of catch pan underneath in case it bubbles over.
Once it subsides, pour back the juice you set aside.
In a week or two, you’ll see a sediment “cake” form at the bottom. You want to get rid of it. Transfer to a secondary container, leaving the cake behind. (Don’t worry if some sediment goes along for the ride) Rinse the cake out, then pour your juice back into original container. You MAY choose to do this a second time. I don’t typically.
Taste it.
Add some fruit juice or frozen fruit to flavor if you like.
Let it age in the original container for a month or two if you like.
You have a non carbonated hard cider.
Carbonation requires a significant investment in bottles or keg system. It’s worth it tho.

[UNK]

At the Budweiser tour in St Louis they said during prohibition one of the products Budweiser made was yeast. With directions on the back for making beer.

[Lex Luthier]

Subscribed.
Did my first brewing in college, circa 1987. Have sporadically done a bunch more since, but gave away the long-dormant brewing gear when we moved to MN in '14.

Brewing is mostly careful measurement, and unrelenting cleanliness combined with just a little patience. Unless you make Barleywines, then you need a wine maker's outlook.

[Bratch]

I did a couple brews last year, I was planning to ramp up the brewing significantly when I realized I needed to work through part of my existing stash instead of brewing more. We bought ALOT of beer at a charity auction in mid 2020.

I’ve just done kits but plan to branch into all grain. I may start with one of the all in one electric breweries that have multiple uses.

[olstyn]

Unless you make Barleywines, then you need a wine maker's outlook.

Man, barleywines are delicious, though, and oh boy are they high ABV. Dangerous combo, that.

[ACP230]

Due to medical stuff I missed the dandelion crop this year. So, no
dandelion wine from my grandpa's recipe this spring. We have some
stored up.

Also four gallons of rhubarb wine. That is the wine that tends to get
the most compliments at wine tastings we've had at the house.
The rhubarb crop in the garden is sort of anemic this year. Maybe just
enough for crisp, or pie, but not wine.

Have made a couple of meads and prefer them to most of the
commercial mead I have tried. They all seem thin to me.

Have thought about making beer but not done so, yet.