Do you brew your own beer?

I tried once with my brother in law and it ended in complete disaster-totally undrinkable. since then I've decided to let brewmasters brew and consumers consume

 

I did it a long time ago and had a lot of fun. The beer wasn't half bad either!

 

I tried. Failed miserably. Will never ever try again.

A friend tried for a while...I named his beer Chewbacca. Kind of chewy, hairy and smelly, but packed a punch!

 

3 friends do it. So far 3 good sources of beer. They say it costs about what it costs to buy a case.

 

When I lived in Calif, a buddy and I brewed together for 5-6 years. We did 10 gallon batches about every two weeks. WE used a food grade garbage can for preparing, then into two 5-gallon carboys, then back to the garbage can to blend the two for bottling. Worked like a gem. We'd sell half to friends for whatever our costs were, so we basically ended up with free beer! We didn't care about the labor since it was all for fun.

A lot of fun if you have someone to share the adventure with. Good reason to get together and shoot the #$%^, toss back a couple, etc. We would always bottle several 750ml bottles to take on our mountaineering trips to do the summit toast. The ice ax I made has a built in bottle opener just for that reason. When you pop a beer at 12-14k feet, you sure lose a bunch to it bubbling out. LOL!

In reference to the Chewbacca beer....we were doing one batch and the dog got....ahhhh...too close, so we ended up calling it the Hair of the Dog...I'm not saying anymore than that. Good thing we brewed for flavor first and high alcohol second...would kill off any nasties. LOL!

Tips:
Warning, your wife will go ballistic the first time you boil over on the stove top! What a mess.
Clean, clean, clean and clean again. It doesn't take much to get the nasties growing in a batch and killing it.
Follow recipes for styles of beer you like. If you like ales, try ales first.
After you get the hang of several recipes and you are liking what the results are, start experimenting. Try different hops, malt, yeast, etc based on their charateristics. If you are willing to do trial and error, you can come up with something unique to your tastes.
Makes great holiday gifts for your beer buddies.


I've gotten away from the beer making. Time to start home winemaking. Maybe this Winter I'll get my first batch going.

 

It's really pretty simple, and fun. Do it in order to make a beer that suits your tastes.

Since you're in Austin, go check out www.austinhomebrew.com. Stop by and talke to them. Tell them what you already like, and they can send you home with everything you need. Give it a try!

 

I've always wanted to brew my own beer but thought it would become obsessive, almost like another car or child. Maybe in the future.

 

I've done many batches prior to the birth of my children (so last batch was about 8 years ago).

The only real drag is making sure everything is sanitized as the fermentation process can be impacted by contamination. This includes the bottles, carboy(s), fermentation tanks, etc.

Recommend that you start with an Ale - they are much easier as they are "top fermenting" (pitch the yeast right into the fermentation vessel) and will take about 2-3 weeks at room temperature. That's important, since Lagers require strict temperature control, which is much harder if you don't have the proper environment or equipment. Since Lager yeast flocculates at the bottom of the vessel, you generally have to "activate" the yeast in liquid (usually the "wort" - the beer mixture prior to fermentation), or buy it in liquid form. Again, it must be kept at cold temperatures, so it's more of a pain in the ass!

It's quite easy and a boat load of fun...especially if you have multiple batches already finished - drink a few while you brew!

Happy brewing!