any homebrewers here?

[irishndfan2 0]

Just starting to get into it and I am not going to lie I may get addicted to brewing haha. So far I have done a joint Pumpkin Ale brew with two of my friends and over Christmas break I intend to brew a blueberry summer ale. My friend who got me into it opened up his first brew last night, an amber ale, and it was pretty damn good. It was pretty wild to me how easy of a process it really is. Anyone else brew?

[corysold 0]

Just starting to get into it and I am not going to lie I may get addicted to brewing haha. So far I have done a joint Pumpkin Ale brew with two of my friends and over Christmas break I intend to brew a blueberry summer ale. My friend who got me into it opened up his first brew last night, an amber ale, and it was pretty damn good. It was pretty wild to me how easy of a process it really is. Anyone else brew?

 

I used to, but not so much any more.

 

One word of caution, never, NEVER, use table sugar as a substitute for the brewing sugar. The carbonation becomes crazy! The first bottle I opened literally foamed completely out except for an inch of beer. I've heard stories of bottles bursting from it.

 

Otherwise good luck, it is pretty easy, fairly cheap once you get the equipment and certainly fun to do.

[Tenacious_ND 0]

ive been brewing 1.5 years. just switch to all grain and got a keg system setup in my garage. i love brewing.. ive got a holiday orange pale ale, a hobgoblin clone, and 2 kona firerock clones sitting in primary and im brewing a dead guy ale clone this weekend. I have a one firerock clone(my fav. beer), an IPA (my recipe) and a pale ale(my recipe) kegged..;D i share a lot of beer with my neighbors. im getting ready for our neighborhood holiday party which is in 3 weeks.

[NYC12 0]

Used to Brew every other weekend and I had two garage bays where the shelves looked like a beverage store. We made everything from IPA's to cyser's and Meads. The real key to a great brew is cleaning everything like crazy. If do not keep everything clean the brew will become contaminated and it will throw the taste off. Clean clean clean..... and never use a wooden spoon or any other porous material.

 

One of the best beers we made was called Monkey Business Ale. It had a purple label with a black and white photo of Bonzo playing golf. It was one of our rush recipes (Based on a kit with some alterations ) it tasted somewhere between a Sam Adams and a Bass but was around 13% alcohol because we added so much rice kicker to it. You were toast after three of these things. The key to the brew was using the right mix of Kent Goldings, Fuggles and Willamette Hops We also used Irish moss as a fining agent to make sure the beers were as clear as possible.

 

Have fun.

[IRISHTONY 0]

Have toyed around with it a few times in the past couple years. Have had some pretty good results and some pretty bad ones. Have had more luck with darker beers for some reason. Also tried a few different fruit based hard ciders.

[irishndfan2 0]

ive been brewing 1.5 years. just switch to all grain and got a keg system setup in my garage. i love brewing.. ive got a holiday orange pale ale, a hobgoblin clone, and 2 kona firerock clones sitting in primary and im brewing a dead guy ale clone this weekend. I have a one firerock clone(my fav. beer), an IPA (my recipe) and a pale ale(my recipe) kegged..;D i share a lot of beer with my neighbors. im getting ready for our neighborhood holiday party which is in 3 weeks.

 

I would love to have a keg system some day

[irishwavend 577]

My father-in-law brews and has gotten very, very good at it. He has a few of those silver pepsi containers that the pepsi plant gave away for free. He uses those as his kegs with a tank of CO2. Anyway, if you have any questions or want particular recipes, I can ask him and pass it along to you. Just hit me up! It was a lot of trial and error for them, but they've got it down, now.

[irishndfan2 0]

My father-in-law brews and has gotten very, very good at it. He has a few of those silver pepsi containers that the pepsi plant gave away for free. He uses those as his kegs with a tank of CO2. Anyway, if you have any questions or want particular recipes, I can ask him and pass it along to you. Just hit me up! It was a lot of trial and error for them, but they've got it down, now.

 

good looks

[Tenacious_ND 0]

the key to great home brew is sanitizing(a given), fermentation temperature, proper yeast pitching rates(always make a starter with liquid yeast) and lastly leaving your beer in primary for 3 weeks... this gives the yeast time to absorb and clean up after themselves...

[NYC12 0]

the key to great home brew is sanitizing(a given), fermentation temperature, proper yeast pitching rates(always make a starter with liquid yeast) and lastly leaving your beer in primary for 3 weeks... this gives the yeast time to absorb and clean up after themselves...

 

I agree... and if you are lagering make sure the temps do not fluctuate too much. Going Higher or lower during the process is not the problem... but if it goes anywhere from 55 to 35, back and forth everyday... you will get mixed results.

 

You know you are brewing too much when you ask the wife to remove the food from your fridge so you can store your hops and so you can grow your own strains of yeast.

[Tenacious_ND 0]

I agree... and if you are lagering make sure the temps do not fluctuate too much. Going Higher or lower during the process is not the problem... but if it goes anywhere from 55 to 35, back and forth everyday... you will get mixed results.

 

You know you are brewing too much when you ask the wife to remove the food from your fridge so you can store your hops and so you can grow your own strains of yeast.

 

hahaha.... i have 12 lbs of hops in my kegerator freezer, 3 55 lb sacks of grain (munich, vienna and two row)up in my office with about 15lbs of specialty grains.. ive never tried to grow my own yeast but i do wash my yeast cakes and store in the fridge. Ive been brewing like a fiend since august..

 

got a wyeast 1332 starter spinning away on a stir plate in the kitchen for the dead guy clone im brewing this weekend...

[irishwavend 577]

the key to great home brew is sanitizing(a given), fermentation temperature, proper yeast pitching rates(always make a starter with liquid yeast) and lastly leaving your beer in primary for 3 weeks... this gives the yeast time to absorb and clean up after themselves...

 

I thirdly agree. The F-i-L emphasizes this, especially sanitation. They've f'ed up more brews by screwing up the water. You really need to boil off all the crap that naturally comes in water, too.

 

Also, don't dry hop. That's a bullshit tactic.

[irishndfan2 0]

I thirdly agree. The F-i-L emphasizes this, especially sanitation. They've f'ed up more brews by screwing up the water. You really need to boil off all the crap that naturally comes in water, too.

 

Also, don't dry hop. That's a bullshit tactic.

 

what exactly does dry hop mean?

[Tenacious_ND 0]

I thirdly agree. The F-i-L emphasizes this, especially sanitation. They've f'ed up more brews by screwing up the water. You really need to boil off all the crap that naturally comes in water, too.

 

Also, don't dry hop. That's a bullshit tactic.

 

i use my local tap water, i adjust it with salts/gypsum/cacl and add crushed campden to it to remove chloramine(which will not boil off) if you use tap water you should check with your local government for a water report or send your water off for a full report. removing chloramines is very important.

 

 

dry hop isnt a bullshit tactic.. it adds aroma and taste. i dry hop most of my pale ales and ipa's. the key is moderation unless its a really big beer, i dry hopped the shit out of my 8.5% abv IPA it came out nice.

 

 

dry hopping is when you add hops to the beer after it is done fermenting

[Rocketsan 773]

Home brew cider and licorice stout. Been flirting with trying to do an alcoholic root beer style ale without much luck. Also trying to do a ginger beer.

[irishndfan2 0]

How substitutable are malts? For example this recipe i found asks for an American Vienna Malt and i found an Franco belgens vienna malt. I understand that these malts are used for speficic beers, but how substutitable is that example?

[Tenacious_ND 0]

How substitutable are malts? For example this recipe i found asks for an American Vienna Malt and i found an Franco belgens vienna malt. I understand that these malts are used for speficic beers, but how substutitable is that example?

 

that is fine.. its just a different brand name from france. its still Vienna Malt.

 

my 2-row is Canadian.

[irishndfan2 0]

that is fine.. its just a different brand name from france. its still Vienna Malt.

 

my 2-row is Canadian.

 

ok thanks, also the recipe calls for adding an ounce of centenial hops @ FWH. Now I did some research on what FWH means but I'm still not exactly sure what that means? Also the recipe called for an All-grain, im using an extract. Does FWH only apply to all-grain?

 

I appreciate all of the replies, I really want to learn alot about homebrewing, its very intriguing to me.

[Tenacious_ND 0]

ok thanks, also the recipe calls for adding an ounce of centenial hops @ FWH. Now I did some research on what FWH means but I'm still not exactly sure what that means? Also the recipe called for an All-grain, im using an extract. Does FWH only apply to all-grain?

 

I appreciate all of the replies, I really want to learn alot about homebrewing, its very intriguing to me.

 

 

first wort hop means the hops go into the brew kettle when you collect your first mash runnings, they steep while you sparge and collect your subsequent runnings. this is all before the boil takes place.

 

you said you had to get vienna malt? are you doing a partial mash? because vienna malt is a base malt and it needs to be mashed not steeped.?

 

what is your recipe?

 

 

oh BTW.. ive learned a lot from this site...http://www.homebrewtalk.com/ best homebrewing forum out there.

 

also check out john palmers how to brew online book.. very helpful. http://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html

Edited November 19, 2010 by Tenacious_ND

[irishndfan2 0]

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f75/blueberry-summer-ale-197271/

 

What exactly is the process of mashing? I've only done one brew before and it was with a guy who knows what hes doing so I vaguely have an understanding of the process.