Thread: Any brewers in the house?

I was a full mash all grain Home brew enthusiast for many years. I made all sorts from pale ale through to a guiness style receipe, It's something that kinda got left behind when I left England. I really need to start again. It's a very enjoyable hobby, and you get to drink lots and lot's of beer. Which is nice.

I've been making mead's and wine's for almost 10 years now and have never had a fermentation time of more then 6 months.
All thou i did have a batch of sack mead that turned out very acidic tried every thing i could think of, white oak chips, acid reducer's of every kind, various filtering methods and nothing i did seemed to help except aging. Got irritated with it one day and set it off to the side of the basement let it age and hope for the best with expectations of throwing it out, and ended up forgetting about it that was fine and a half years ago. About a month ago while I doing some spring cleaning in the basement Low and Behold i found it, so i figured what the hell I'll open it up give it a sniff and if it doesn't smell bad I would give it a sip and see. Well I'm glad I had forgotten about it and when i found it gave it a shot instead of just throwing it out, It turned out to be one of the mellow and full bodied mead's I have ever had the pleasure of tasting. And you know that whole 5 1/2 years it sat there i had been wondering where the hell that carboy went lol.
I've also had some great luck with some Maple based "Mead".
I would also like to recommend the book A Sip Through Time. I don't know the authors name off hand sorry. It's a great book lots of historical info and old recipes.

As many have stated, the Complete Joy of Home Brewing is a great book. The book's over used slogan of relax, is true. 19 years ago this month I brewed my first batch from a kit. After I added the yeast, i got nervous when fermentation didn't start within 4 hours, added bread yeast. That was one nasty beer. Just take your time, clean and sterolize well, and the end result should be great!

-Moe

aBrewer here also. I have made mostly extract types. I like to use dry extract as it seems to give a more repeatable recipe. I also make gluten free beer as my wife requires it (celiac disease, you may wan tto read about it as it is very common in those of european descent). I use mainly sorghum and tapiocca for the luten free recipes.

My advice would be to make a quick fermenting quick finishing beer for your first batch. One that works quicly is the Jeepers Creepers light beer o rthe Winky Dink Marzen in the Papazian books. They are cheap, very drinkable, and you can have them done in about 3 weeks. Many times ours get into a glass far earlier than they should.

The one thing that kegging will do is it will let you force carbonate and then the beer can be ready quicker. You can naturally carbonate in a keg just like in the bottle, but you still have to get it out of the keg under pressure.

It is a fun hobby and can be rewarding. Look up to see if you have a Homebrew club in your area, you m ay be able to get a brewer to let you watch a batch and get some help. You can then convert them to using straights in the process.

It's a fun, easy hobby.

There are many forums on the subject. One is:
Realbeer.com Beer Community - Powered by vBulletin

And for making mead or wine, check out:
WinePress.US Wine Making and Grape Growing Forum (Powered by Invision Power Board)

You are going to love Home brewing. Started a little while ago and have made some great brews! I made one that is Choco Razz. It t is chocolate and raspberry beer awesome. Also IPA's are great a good recipe book is Clone brews. The best recopies you will find are on the internet. Good luck. I am looking to get into brewing mead.

I have a weekend not jam packed full of chores or client work so am probably going to go to the local homebrew store and buy a kit to get started finally.

This place is local and sells a kit that is everything but the water. I figure that'll be a good way to get started then I can add to my kit as I go.
Home Brew Mart Starter Kit #3

Add another homebrewer. I have not brewed in a few years now but will be getting back into it very soon. Srapcan you mentioned brewing GF beer. My wife has Celiacs and I was thinking about trying a brew for her (and me, of course) to try. Any suggestions on where to start or some info to look at.
Good luck to all the homebrewers out there. This is as addictive RAD!!

Cheers,
Tom

Whelp I went and did it. The back of my PT Cruiser is loaded up with brew supplies and my first ingredients package. Going for a German Amber for my first batch. Probably brew it up tomorrow after I spend the night going back over my brewer's books and working up the courage, lol.

It is illegal in Alabama to home brew for some reason but they also did just very recently pass a bill to allow gourmet beer of 16% abv. I wish I lived near someone that homebrewed though because I would sure love to be the guinepig :P