School Me on Home-Brewing

A friend of mine used to home brew and loved it. The beer was great and changed every week aswell as being rather potent. It's an easy process from what I saw, good luck and enjoy.

 

Did it for years- decades. Make sure you do not skip the step where you have to calculate the difference in the brix value, or your bottles could explode. This is the step that confirms sugars have been converted to ethyl alcohol.

Oh, you will learn a few myths:
1) light beer means less "strong"- MYTH
2) light beer means low alcohol- MYTH
3) a good beer must not be bitter- MYTH
4) dark beers are "stronger" such as in alcohol content-MYTH

Hopefully, your beers will never come out tasting like busch/bud/Ballentine/Black Label (the "B" beers....LOL) Oh., almost forgot- despite the hullaballoo, include the overrated Guiness.........flat/syruppy crud.

Also, you eventually develop a taste that will wean you away from the mass production carbonated water American beers.....sorry.

 

forget bottles. use the five gallon soda kegs. you'll usuallly brew in that size batch. check your local area there are many brew clubs. find a bar that specialises in good beer there might be some brewers there. there is a great deal of info available. it's a great hobby.

 

Yup...

But really too much info to be covered here, but there are mountains of info on the net. As with most topics the best place to start is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brewing

Other than that... remember to CLEAN EVERYTHING.

 

It's a learning process and requires a bit of work to get it right. My friends and I have done about 7 brews and only 2 good batches out of them. Our last few haven't come out right. We're working to figure it out. I think I've narrowed it down though.

 

if you're looking to save money on beer that won't happen.it will always be cheaper to buy it than make it. that said you can't put a price on the feeling of brewing something so good you can stop drinking it. another tip is to document every step. copious notes help in developing your skills and quality.

 

I'm guessing completely and assuming your already have everything, but if you're doing it by yourself ~$75+. It just depends.

Range for ingrediants $36-$50. Then factor in bottled water, ice, propane (unless you'll do it on the stove), bleach when you run out, bottles if you go that route.

 

+1 googleplex on CLEANING.

I've done quite a few batches, but only "kits". I'd recommend starting that way, so that you at least get a feel for the basics of the process. It will also, if you don't already, know the differences in what goes in to beer types, and give you ideas for what you'd like to add/subtract when creating your own recipes. Also, for me at least, this was a far less daunting task than books like "How to Brew" made it seem. I didn't really feel like being a chemist, I was just a novice that wanted better beer, and the good feeling of knowing I did it. The kits will still taste multiple times better than mass produced crap. Once my kids are both walking, I'll likely start putting together my own ingredients. Kits, if you already have all other supplies, should run you roughly 50 to 70 cents per bottle, not including water, your time, etc.

The fun part is drinking OTHER beer to get bottles to start with. Make sure you have AT LEAST 4 dozen available, and none of them twist tops. Twist tops allow air in to your beer, which won't allow proper priming sugar consumption and carbonation. Bottles MUST also be brown. Clear, and to a lesser extent, green, will allow light to penetrate, and foul the taste. Those are headaches you don't need when you're excited to try a new brew that you've been sitting on for a month while it ferments.

Other stuff:

Brew pot that'll hold a couple of gallons (or more)
Two or more 5 gallon food grade buckets (many available on line specifically for brewing with spigots, air lock, and so on)
Siphon tube (transferring from first bucket to second)
4+ dozen brown, non twist bottles
Caps (often included in "kit")
Capper
Bottle brush
Some type of agent to sterize equipment
A couple of big spoons you don't mind tasting like beer (stirring your wort)
A cool, dry place that's always about 65 degrees F

Clean everything, oh, and did I mention, CLEAN EVERYTHING!!!!?

 

Bottled water? Why? And what kind of bottled water? There are a few kinds of water.

The only water you need is plain tap water. And, do not pass it through a water softener if your house is rigged up to one. Hopefully, your local tap water will be HARD water. If not, you should plan on adding calcium sulfate to make up for tap water that is not hard, Florida (except for the panhandle) has very hard water. Easy to check- call your local water plant and ask them for a report on the water quality including calcium content in ppm. Anything above 100ppm is hard........look here:

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:1hrwlY_sM60J:www.goodwaterco.com/watereducation/hardWaterMap.htm+hard+water+map&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&source=www.google.com

hehe......a few decades of brewing...........

Oh, above poster said you cant brew cheaper than buying-Yeah, if youre comparing to Bud Light. You have to compare aples to aples. Home brew usually compared with premium brands costing $5-8$ per 6 pack. I brew for 0.50 per 12 oz bottle.......

 

Reverse Osmosis water is ideal, because it has removed impurities from tap water (there is A LOT of disgusting stuff in there) that will alter the outcome of your brew. Flouride, chlorine, trace elements of pretrochemicals and pharmaceuticals, not to mention the heavy metal content. Filtered from tap is OK, but just passing through a carbon element will NOT remove everything. Also, do NOT use distilled, as the water is "dead". I'd also advise against "spring" water, as it will have minerals in it that will affect taste/outcome.

What beer, pray tell, is premium and only $5 per 6 pack? Those are mutually exclusive my friend!

 

Chad pointed it out above. But I've never read or heard any home brewer recommend tap water.

And I agree, premium beer is $7+ (it can go up to $20/6pack).

 

Even Budweiser and similar swill is priced at over $6 per 6 pack where I live. You CAN'T tell me you cannot produce a better product at home for a lower price?

Oh - and to pippo: Shame on you for disparaging Guinness! The real stuff served in the UK makes a wonderful meal!

 

Even more to my point- the fact that good beer is way over my estimates makes my point even starker- it is way cheaper to make your own beer- get it??? Looks like all I was doing was being on the conservative side not to exagerate my point, sheesh.

On the water.....you know, I grew up with old Italian ladies from Italy all around our house. Where am I going? Well, it would never fail whenever we were cooking/baking something - an argument would always ensue on the RIGHT way to do it. Andf these are people that grew up there in the thick of things. debates will never go away., and yes, there are those who will argue to the death on what kind of water to utilize.

Even the biggest polluter west of the Mississippi River (this from an associate that worked under the EPA)- Coors- advertizes they use "natural" cool water from "nature" for their (cheap) beer. Now are you gonna tell me that supposed ground/stream water is close to RO? Cmon, get real.

Calcium Sulfate IS for real. and ifn your water does not have it, either via tap or added, your beer will lack that character. Yes, one can make without, but thats what youll get.

 

LOL. OK, man. But you drink it.

 

Right, lots of petrochemicals in there. And those "trace element" impurities, what are they? Do you know? If so, are they elements that may even be good for your body? Im sure you must now what youre talking about. And dont forget about all the heavy metals. What ppm are they? If too low for ppm, maybe ppb? Cadmium? Chromium? Molybdenum? Hmmmmmmmm

We eat arsenic and mercury every day, folks. Whats the fuss about some in beer?

Oh, Chlorine evaporates when bringing your beer malt to a low boil.

 

I've also done it for years - probably 20. I take a far less calculated approach, preferring to wing it a little. Don't get me wrong, I measure OG and I am specific about temps and cleaning, but beyond that - meh.

The worst part of all of it is sanitizing the bottles. I also tend to do ales - a little easier in terms of monitoring temperature. I like the idea of the kegs - would definitely be better than the constant filling, capping, storing of all the bottles.