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Anyone ever tried homebrewing?

  • #21
I haven't seen a single URL you mean to tell me with out world theirs no URL on how to brew any kind of alcohol. I think I'm going to brew something now...
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  • #24
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]Beer = bleh! Now I've got a good dandylion wine recipe. Made a one gallon batch of it the spring/summer of '84. I need to dig it out of the pantry and see if it's still good or if I now have dandylion vinegar
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. Tested it about 3 years ago and it put me on my butt after a small (8oz. honest!) glass full.

Don't you need a 'mother' culture to make vinegar?


[b said:
Quote[/b] ]I saw that alrton brown dude show how to do it step by step. it seemed pretty easy to me.

He even had a bubble counter!

I love Alton Brown! I watch his show Good Eats whenever i can. That's also where i heard about making vinegar with a 'mother'
 
  • #25
Here is the link to the Good Eats recipe mentioned above. Home Brew Beer If you can catch the actual TV program I highly recommend watching it. There is a ton of great advice and tips that Im sure will help you out.

Good luck
Steve
 
  • #26
Bruce. I thought the shelf life of home brew was only a few months. Thats what my father told me anyways. He used to homebrew and gave me all his things to brew with. I need to get another glass carboy though. I broke the one he sent me.

I have the flip top bottles that all you need to do is replace the rubber seals every so often. Dad used them and they work great. Of course you have to buy the beer that comes in them first and then reuse the bottles. They were a german type pilsner. YUCK I like a wiesen myself. Dad likes the bitters. I like the bannan clove flavored wheat beers. OOOOhhhhhh taste the yeasty goodness.

I do have one recomendation though!

BREW OUTSIDE IN THE GRASS
First it stinks when your cooking it. Second if you boil it over the sides you will have a mess and it is easy to do. Use a propane fish fryer to brew it and carfully regulate the fire. I remember brewing the first batch with my dad and while we were cooking it we were singing toil toil boil and bubble. LOL The stuff really stinks while your brewing it. Thank goodness it taste better when it is done.

Keep us posted. I hope to be able to afford the time and supply money come the first of the year. My interest is rekindled.

There is a forum on brewing too I found. I don;t have the addy right off hand, but it is called brewboards.
 
  • #27
I found this on one of my other boards. I thought it was interesting and pertained to the subject.
137 Y/O Brew
 
  • #28
If you want easy and good try visiting www.mrbeer.com. Easy affordable good beer. I bought one for my brother in law a few years ago and he still uses it.
 
  • #29
I like the smell of boiling beer and my wife & daugter do too.  It smells sweet and the hops add a nice zing.

As Josh's article says, complex, high alcohol beers age better.  A co-worker, who's into beer the way some people are into wine, buys some beers for aging at home and I think some are >15 years old now.

Many microbrews would improve with aging, but the breweries need the cash flow of immediate sales.  Ommegang, my favorite brewery when I'm willing to drop $5 for a beer, ages some bottles in a cave every year and then sells them for ~3x the price.  I've never tasted it because I'd rather buy three bottles and keep them in my basement.  By the way, those beers run about 8-10% alcohol and are bottled in wine-size bottles.  So each packs the alcohol of ~5 American beers.

My basement isn't a perfect aging spot, but never goes above the low 70s or below the mid 40s.  And my beer is in dark bottles stored in cardboard boxes with only a little light coming in through a couple windows.  But if some unauthorized bacteria or yeast make it into a bottle, the beer can go wrong over time.  A former roommate excelled at brewing that way.  Some bottles were bad from the beginning and others just took some time to go wrong.  You can sometimes see they're bad because a light colored ring often forms on the bottle at the top of the beer.
 
  • #30
Ok, well, I ordered an intermediate kit so I can do two stage fermentation, with an Oatmeal Stout kit as well...ahhh i cant wait
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  • #31
Hops look weird...

Ever see that fruit of the loom comercial with one of the fruit people wearing a big green leady pincone suit thing? Is he supposed to be a hop?
 
  • #32
Green grapes, maybe? Hopefully, this underwear detour is short-lived.
 
  • #33
You know.. this is OT sorta.. but who is Tony Sinclaire anyway?

"I'm Tony Sinclaire.. (insert snooty laugh).. and THAT'S how you tanqueray....
 
  • #34
i think hes a british actor, though i may be way off.

I've seen juniper berries (the flavoring for gin) being sold as brewing adjuncts for beer. Personally, i think thats freaking nasty. Gin tastes like a christmas tree, why would you want that in your beer?
 
  • #35
Spruce beer is pretty good. Some homebrewers I knew in Maine would collect the new spring growth from red or black spruce and use it instead of hops. Supposedly that was commonly done at one time. It's an interesting taste, but not something you'd make more than a batch of a year. The critical thing was to avoid white spruce, which smells kind of halfway between cat pee and skunk. Someone made that mistake and it was an icky batch of beer.
 
  • #36
Yeah, Spruce beer was popular (gonna go with "poplar" for the awful pun factor, but oh well) in North America sometime in the 1800's or something, when importing hops was not easy enough and wild ones were hard to come by- something tells me it was during the American Civil War

Never had the stuff, but it sounds very "unique", and I'm sure I would tatse it if given the chance...

How bout them Rauch(sp??)Biers from Germany, the ones that taste like a big ol bottle of liquid smoke?? Definitely interesting, but difficult to choke down- it tastes kinda like the way ones clothes smell after standing next to a fire- not my fave flavour to be sure
 
  • #37
I'm into more...traditional flavors myself, i.e. oatmeal. I like some of the newer flavored beers like Purple Haze and Sam Adams Cherry Wheat, but i'd take a strong dark beer over them if given the chance.
 
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