Homebrew thread - Anyone brew your own beer?

[GoHokiesGo]

Are any of you guys into brewing your own beer and homebrew concoctions?

I just got into it and bought all of the basic equipment a few weeks back. I brewed my first batch a few weeks ago, and then bottled it over the weekend. Need a couple more weeks for it to carbonate and bottle condition, but so far so good!

First batch was an Amber Ale extract kit, and it came out around 4.5% alcohol based on hydrometer measurements. I tried it before bottling and it looks and taste like a beer, just missing the carbonation! Next up will be a Belgian Tripel to try something a bit stronger.

Now that I'm learning how easy it is - I'm finding myself looking at anything liquid and debating on fermenting it. We bought some fresh organic apple cider over the weekend, and I'm already thinking that I'm going to ferment some into hard apple cider.

Anybody else into the homebrew hobby?

[///M Power-Belgium]

Cheers with the "Belgian Tripel"

[Naz24]

Looks awesome. I make my own wine.. been meaning to try beer out as well

[Naz24]

Been doing it for years and it still tastes like vinegar sometimes

[GoHokiesGo]

Originally Posted by ///M Power-Belgium

Cheers with the "Belgian Tripel"

Belgian style beers are actually my favorites and most of my fridge is stocked with them, so naturally it was one of the first I looked up for making on my own!

Originally Posted by Naz24

Looks awesome. I make my own wine.. been meaning to try beer out as well

Wine was actually what I first wanted to learn to make, it's always been a dream to own a winery. It seems like there's so much more waiting time involved before you find out if its a good product though, so beer seemed like it would be simpler to learn to differences and nuances when making it on my own (a few weeks to ferment vs a few months to barrel age wines before tasting your product). I'd definitely love to learn to make wine also though!

[///M Power-Belgium]

Originally Posted by GoHokiesGo

Belgian style beers are actually my favorites and most of my fridge is stocked with them, so naturally it was one of the first I looked up for making on my own!

Yeah....Werever I come I hear Belgian beers are the best beers of the World and think ohhhh...wow and that's it !
But when I go in another country than Belgium and drink a beer ...I think this beer tastes like shit ...

So yeah...At that moment I realize that the Belgians have serious beers skilzz...
Last week I had a conversation with my Japanese company director , he said to me wow your beers are really good ...
I said to him our Belgian beers are actually kinda tradition , so yeah we can make some good stuff

[jgoens]

I've known several people who have turned out some good beer. Three years ago my brother started in his garage and now he owns a brewery, has invested over $100k in equipment and has bottles of his brew in some stores. A hobby that can turn into a career.

[Maynard]

I work with a guy who does this, has several years experience and it turns out very nice. He mostly uses the metal tanks that soda comes in, rather than individual bottles; took too much time and money to get enough bottles. I think he gets them unofficially, from outdoor fairs or amusement park type places (a few bucks to the guys who are closing up at the end of the night, and they don't have to carry them out - but may not be exactly legal).

[GoHokiesGo]

Originally Posted by ///M Power-Belgium

Yeah....Werever I come I hear Belgian beers are the best beers of the World and think ohhhh...wow and that's it !
But when I go in another country than Belgium and drink a beer ...I think this beer tastes like shit ...

So yeah...At that moment I realize that the Belgians have serious beers skilzz...
Last week I had a conversation with my Japanese company director , he said to me wow your beers are really good ...
I said to him our Belgian beers are actually kinda tradition , so yeah we can make some good stuff

Maybe I should clarify a little to not sound too stereotypical- I've enjoyed the dubbels and tripels mostly since I lean towards malty flavors more in my beer, as I'm not a big fan of the hoppy ales that are so popular in the US right now; however, I've had a few belgian bitters that I couldn't finish. Naturally, no trip to Brussels is complete without dropping by Delirium! My beer fridge does have about four Westvleteren's from my last trip, but most of my beers are more browns and porters that are malt heavy.

There's a local micro-brewery here in VA (Adroit Theory) that brews a number of belgian styled beers, but then they'll age the same beer in several different barrels- chardonnay barrels, pinot barrels, rum or bourbon barrels, etc - it's pretty cool to see how the exact same beer can taste drastically different depending on the barrel it was aged in.

Originally Posted by jgoens

I've known several people who have turned out some good beer. Three years ago my brother started in his garage and now he owns a brewery, has invested over $100k in equipment and has bottles of his brew in some stores. A hobby that can turn into a career.

A few of my friends brew pretty seriously, and the couple that helped me get started is actually doing the same thing right now! They've expanded their equipment heavily, and have leased a location to open a small micro-brewery to begin selling as a business. That's pretty awesome though that your brother turned a hobby into something that makes money too.

Originally Posted by Maynard

I work with a guy who does this, has several years experience and it turns out very nice. He mostly uses the metal tanks that soda comes in, rather than individual bottles; took too much time and money to get enough bottles. I think he gets them unofficially, from outdoor fairs or amusement park type places (a few bucks to the guys who are closing up at the end of the night, and they don't have to carry them out - but may not be exactly legal).

I debated on going straight to kegging the beers, but then I'd only have one keg to start with. With the bottles I figured I could try out a few different brews at the same time without having to finish one first. Although cleaning the bottles that I recycled was a total PITA, getting the labels and adhesive totally clean was a chore. The local homebrew store sells plain bottles for $16 per case, so I'm thinking I'll go that route from the start next batch!

[PINeely]

I've got a carboy of mead going right now, should be ready soon. My first few attempts at beer were...pretty bad. But I've improved quite a bit and gotten the aseptic technique down pat.

[jgoens]

Originally Posted by GoHokiesGo

A few of my friends brew pretty seriously, and the couple that helped me get started is actually doing the same thing right now! They've expanded their equipment heavily, and have leased a location to open a small micro-brewery to begin selling as a business. That's pretty awesome though that your brother turned a hobby into something that makes money too.

I debated on going straight to kegging the beers, but then I'd only have one keg to start with. With the bottles I figured I could try out a few different brews at the same time without having to finish one first. Although cleaning the bottles that I recycled was a total PITA, getting the labels and adhesive totally clean was a chore. The local homebrew store sells plain bottles for $16 per case, so I'm thinking I'll go that route from the start next batch!

This is his website:

http://hopdogma.com/

If anyone wants tips I bet he would share them with you. He has won medals in beer competitions and travels around the country visiting other breweries.

[Lups]

Once.

We made a traditional Finnish sahti, which in ways reminds one of beer.

We drank it too, which for some reason then made sense.

Aftermath was horrible and extremely painful and all of us have spent serious time hiding the story from our spouses and only our children will know this cautionary tale of a very bad toilet queue and how much strength it took for us all to live through it.

I shit you not (shit was involved, a lot) this epically bad idea resulted in us hoping for death.

[Myrder]

Brew once a month probably, going to step that up.

Anyway save yourself the headache of bottling and get a kegging set up. It's super easy and you never end up with a flat or over carbonated bottle. Ever again. Once you have a carbonation process go wrong you will really start seeing kegging as the only option.

Cheers to Brewing!

[GoHokiesGo]

Originally Posted by Myrder

Brew once a month probably, going to step that up.

Anyway save yourself the headache of bottling and get a kegging set up. It's super easy and you never end up with a flat or over carbonated bottle. Ever again. Once you have a carbonation process go wrong you will really start seeing kegging as the only option.

Cheers to Brewing!

So once you switch to kegging, do you just have like 5 kegs in your house? I was willing to dive right into kegging, but only one initially to start with. My fear was that I'd have to finish the current keg before I could try other brew; whereas with bottles I could make as much as I wanted, store it, age it, or bring to friends, etc.

Do you just force carbonate in the keg and then bottle, or do you actually store your beer there and not use bottles at all?

[Myrder]

Originally Posted by GoHokiesGo

So once you switch to kegging, do you just have like 5 kegs in your house? I was willing to dive right into kegging, but only one initially to start with. My fear was that I'd have to finish the current keg before I could try other brew; whereas with bottles I could make as much as I wanted, store it, age it, or bring to friends, etc.

Do you just force carbonate in the keg and then bottle, or do you actually store your beer there and not use bottles at all?

Currently I have two kegs that I can use to store home brew.

You can store beer in a keg for a few months or more depending on the style of beer. Once you purge all the air you store the keg at room temp under 30psi, this ensures no bacteria grows. A stout could stay room temp under pressure fine for 6 months, its essentially a giant bottle.

Now, this isn't idea, but you can also fill some bottles from your keg once carbonated and cap them. They should also last a long time in the fridge.

OR last option, keg 90% of the beer and bottle 10% with those bottling tabs that are sugar and carbonate it reasonably well.

Cheers