Any Home Brewers in Here?

[Tony Bones]

Been tinkering w/ making my own beer and am having some success. So far I've made an OK porter, a Belgian Dubel that didn't make it out of secondary fermentation due to a bad strain of yeast, and a nice Hefeweisen that will be bottled next weekend.

Any others out there?

 

[lucasbuck]

FatherTiresius is a big home brewer. Hopefully he'll chime in on the subject.

 

[Kryo]

Made a few batches of ale and a lager back about 4-6 years ago. My homemade 'Red' got a few homebrew awards before I ruined a batch and stopped making beer.

Ive found that flavor 'kits' from a reputable dealer are better than most things on the shelves you can buy. Do a google search for -St. Croix Maple Ale- :thumbs:

My biggest suggestion I can give if you want to make a good beer, espically an ale is to keep the temp where the beer is fermenting below 65 degrees. An ale really prefers to be even lower..... so I did all my brewing during the winter were I could close off a spare bedroom and let it sit around 55 degrees. Serious home brew stores sell temp control units to turn chest freezers into the perfect brewing container. (Sounds farmilliar eh? ) :sign:

Also dont be suprised if your yeast does not 'bloom' as quick as the package or book says it should. Most serious small batch brewers activate their yeast in a gallon jug before adding it to a batch to ensure its all active and hungry.

 

[Tony Bones]

Figured there would be a few folks around.

I'm using liquid yeast, rather than the powder and it seems to work well. Something funny I keep noticing is the differences in color in what I'm brewing compared to store bought stuff. My Hefeweisen is quite a bit darker than what you'd buy at your local store. But, it's also 7%, which is about two percent stronger than the local market's offerings.

I'd like to take another crack at a Belgian, but the failure rate is higher on them than beers w/ lower alcohol contents. My supplies guy told me that once you hit 9% things start getting tougher. Precision really becomes key at that point.

 

[SamClemmons]

Closing in on the 500 gallon mark, four more batches I think. There's really no trick to making good beer other than STERILIZE STERILIZE STERILIZE. Keep it clean and you will get it right. Out of the 90+ batches I've made, I lost (1) one due to infection and that one finished out to the bottling stage but was, quite simply, foul on the palate. The higher alcohol % are a bit tougher but not much. Make sure you have alcohol tolerant yeasties and it will be fine. Definitely use specialty grains if you are using DME as it gives the beer more body and a thicker mouth feel. As far as ferment temperature goes it depends on the yeast you're using and each tube has the best ferment temp listed. Do the Belgian, it's not that tricky.


NA

 

[wpeloqui]

Home brewing is great fun. I brewed from meads to stouts about 10 years ago I was really into it. SamC is right, keeping things clean is the most important aspect. Tilting things in your favor to keep away icky taste producers helps. The number of active yeast and getting the wort cool enough before introducing the yeast is important.

I always began a quart of yeast starter with DME the day before I begin the batch. I had a bunch of chemistry flasks I bought to do it. Talk about geek toy appeal! At the time I lived in Ann Arbor and joined a brewers guild. Some of the leading chemists and brewers belonged to that group. Including some authors that wrote in Zymergy (whatever the brewing mag is called It has been a long time)

Ale yeast can tolerate a warmer temperture than lager yeast. This science was done by every house wife during the middle ages. So don't worry and have a homebrew! The packaged mixes are usually kind of low on materials. I used to make a killer porter by brewing with two kits instead of one. I don't remember the name of the brand.

I visited a brew store / cigar shop in Gig Harbor a couple of days ago. Where do you get your stuff?


Willie

 

[gawntrail]

My home brew consists of reaching into the fridge

It intrigues me, but there's already too much on my plate. I'll just have to keep on 'brewing' with my wallet at the grocery store. I do enjoy a microbrew once in a while. Just like a good burger, there's nothing like something someone else has made with their own hands.

M. Gipson