Thread: Home Brew

Originally Posted by tbert33

If anyone can recommend a good kit for me to try than that would be appreciated.

Trust me, get rid of kits! I would not suggest you the "all grain" method (it is however the best) but you should probably try using malt and some special grains, then of course some good hops. And, trust me, this will give you a better beer and you can control many aspects of brewing.

Got a recipe for one that my father had, have no idea how old it is but when I was a kid we brewed it a few times. called for it to be made in a 10 gallon stone jar we only had a 5 gallon so it would knock you on your butt if you drank a couple glasses. We also made them from kits that turned out ok. I have friends in KC that are big into making mead, and man do they make the mead. Just don't drink pomegranate mead it's a natural lacative if you drink too much. Used to get a catalog called wilsons or something like that to buy all the beer supplies, bottles, cappers and stuff. Good luck with your mr.beer.

Tonight I am having my beer: it is a Bitter Ale Vintage 2011. To those who are interested to know how I brew it, it is an all grain beer (of course!) and I used three types of malt (blonde malt, amber malt and heavy toasted malt), two types of hop (Nugget and Fuggle) and my yeast, I mean a culture of yeast I am nurturing since many years and I use for this style for beer. Of course, water, Umbrian spring water. (that is the one I have here in my region)
A toast to you all, gentlemen! Cheers and keep on brewing! (and shaving with fine razors, of course!)

I can't believe I forgot about this thread!

I have a very nice IPA that's aging in the bottles right now (about 6wks old) but it will be about 3 weeks before I can get back home to enjoy it

There is also a very nice American Pale Ale that is only three weeks old.

I envy you your homebrew and hope to be joining in with one soon!

RDWHAHB

IPA and APA, sounds great, in particular IPA! I guess we should revive this thread and try to exchange opinions, recipes and techniques. And, who knows, one day we will brew the "Razor Beer"
I will probably brew my new beer next month. Not sure what recipe I will make (it however is an all grain) and still thinking about it.

Been AGB for about a year now. I love the control I have over the final product. This method is much more conducive to experimentation. Your idea of a "razor brew" is intriguing, perhaps we should try to define what a razor brew is, come up with a good recipe and have a go at producing one. I'll think on that and maybe start another thread if need be to solicit ideas.

Guys, if you had to design the perfect straight razor beer, what would be some characteristics?

Very hoppy? Malty? Light and refreshing or heavy and filling?

Home brewers want to know!

In my opinion, a razor beer should be "cutting like a finely honed razor", that is dry and crisp, with a moderate hop quantity and maybe hints of spices and orange zests. As for the style, I would probably go for a Belgian Ale.
Now the problem with brewing a dry beer is the yeast, and most of the beer yeast is not that good to process maltodextrin. We can however work on it!
Homebrewers unite!

In my opinion, a razor beer should be "cutting like a finely honed razor", that is dry and crisp, with a moderate hop quantity and maybe hints of spices and orange zests.

I can see that further research will be necessary to define the "Razor Beer". If it's not too much of a hardship, I think we should sample as many styles and varieties of beer as possible in order to pick out the characteristics we feel should be included. I'll volunteer myself for this since I wouldn't want to burden anyone else

Also, as far as the yeast goes, there are many exmples of yeast availible commercially here: White Labs as well as here: Beer Home Brewing

Plus, I've just gotten into yeast harvesting and propogation and would like to try my hand at cultivating some wild yeast so maybe this will give me the jump start I need to get that project going.

Thanks for the reply Razorguy, keep those suggestions coming folks!

For a "razor beer", I'm thinking more along the lines of a smooth Scottish Ale.

I have been brewing for five years. I've kept to the extract kits and (more recently) the partial mash kits for beer although I have done my own recipe for blueberry mead that turned out pretty well. Right now I have a Dunkelbock and a Pumpkin Ale ready to be bottled and a batch of Vanilla Porter about half gone.