Posted on 06/01/2012 3:28:50 PM PDT by Red_Devil 232
Its Beer Thirty!
At The First Monthly Homebrewing Thread
That time of day at which drinking a beer becomes necessary and required to proceed with life as we know it in modern society. I am enjoying a homebrewed Nut Brown Ale as I post this thread. It is a very tasty brew that has a nice caramel and slightly nutty flavor, nicely carbonated with a tan head. At 8.3% it can definitely sneak up you! Yesterday I bottled a Porter and I have a Honey Ale in my primary that is fermenting nicely. A Copper Ale is scheduled for brewing next week. Yes, I do like my Beer! I enjoy the brewing process. I love the smell wafting up from the steeping grains then the sweet aroma from the boiling wort and most of all seeing a steady bubbling out of the fermentation airlock. I also really enjoy tasting and drinking the resulting product!
Knews_hound was the originator of the ping list. He sent out a FreepMail in April explaining that he rarely visits FR anymore and he needed someone to take over the list or the Homebrewing Ping list would disappear here on FR. He sent me a FReepmail a week or so ago and turned the ping list over to me. He also said that he would not be posting replies anymore.
This is my first Monthly Homebrewing Thread. It is my intention to keep the Homebrewing ping list alive and growing by posting a hombrewing thread at least once a month focusing on Homebrewing and also occasional pings to other Beer, Wine and Spirit related threads posted on FR.
I consider myself a novice Homebrewer. I have been brewing for just a little more than a year using Malt Extract kits. I don’t have the equipment or the expertise to do an All Grain Brew, yet.
So far my favorite homebrews have been the Ambers, Reds, Browns and Stouts that I have brewed. I do like the Stouts! I have also brewed a couple of Belgian Abby Ales they turned out to be good but they sure took a long time maturing before I could really enjoy them. For me the time waiting for the beer to ferment, mature and condition is the only down side to homebrewing. Enjoying and sharing them is the Big Reward!
If you have never homebrewed there is some good news! Anyone can make a pretty decent beer right from the start. It just takes some basic equipment to get started.
For those FReepers who want to get started brewing up some tasty fresh homemade beer, the Malt Extract Ale Kits are the easiest and best way to get started. All the ingredients you need are included in these kits. Make sure the kit you buy has yeast included, if not you will need to buy some yeast. Most of these kits will make around 5 gallons of beer and run from around $20 to $45+. The novice brewer should start out brewing Ale. The Ales ferment around room temperature and are ready to drink faster than lagers. The Pilsners and Lagers can take some time to mature and extra equipment is needed to keep these styles of beers at steady cool to cold temperatures while they ferment and mature.
You will need some basic equipment, which you probably do not have around the house. Homebrewing supply stores can be found on the web that sell the basic equipment kits you may need. They range from about $65 for a very basic kit and all the way up to about $350+ for all-inclusive Kits.
· You will also need a brewing kettle/pot (sometimes included in the more expensive kits); best results are obtained with one that will hold at least six gallons. But a stockpot holding 3-4 gallons will do to start. Stainless steel is preferred but a large heavy-duty aluminum or porcelain coated canning pot will do and they are much cheaper. Check out Wal-Mart. They do have large Stainless, aluminum and porcelain coated canning pots. If you can afford Stainless do it. But for most of us home brewing is a hobby so stay within your budget. My first couple of homebrews were boiled using a porcelain coated canning pot on my stove. I now use a propane burner that I bought at Lowe’s. I also now have a 5 gallon stainless steel brew kettle.
· Don’t forget bottles – you will need about 50 – 54 12 oz bottles for a typical 5 gallon batch. The supply web sites sell new bottles but the best way to get your bottles is to buy the current beer you are drinking in bottles and save them. Bottles with twist off or screw off tops will not work!
· SANITIZE! SANITIZE! Sanitization of your equipment is crucial to your successful homebrewing effort. This step cannot be over emphasized. Every piece of equipment that comes in contact with your wort/beer after the boil needs to be thoroughly SANITIZED! I like a product called Star San it is an acid based no rinse sanitizer. It will foam up but don’t fear the foam! One ounce of Star San will make 5 gallons of sanitizer. It is odorless, flavorless, and requires only one to two minutes of contact time. I also like to use a commercial cleaner called PBW (Powdered Brewery Wash, widely used in some commercial breweries) it is not a sanitizer but will clean your equipment after a brew session. Soak your used equipment and beer bottles in it. After a good soak in PBW those pesky labels will just slide off those beer bottles you have been saving. I am sold on this stuff as a cleaner. In a few hours of soaking it will clean some very stubborn stuff off your equipment. After using PBW rinse equipment and bottles well and then sanitize with a sanitizer.
A couple of web sites I have used for equipment and supplies are More Beer and Midwest Supplies There are many others – use your search engine. I have no affiliation with either of these companies. They are just a couple I have used and had great service and no problems. If you have a favorite site you order from please let us know. Northern Brewer is another homebrew supplier but I have not used them.
The MoreBeer web site offers free shipping on most of their items, which is great for ordering all the basic equipment and ingredients. Free shipping applies if you purchase a qualifying $ amount. I have not ordered beer ingredient kits from them.
I use Midwest Supplies to order my ingredient kits (no free shipping here). I use them because they list all the ingredients in their brew kits, which can be very helpful. They also have brewer’s reviews of the kits. There is a lot of good info posted by the brewers/reviewers including if they made any additions or adjustments to the kits. Midwest also offers a 5% discount to active duty military and veterans 24/7/365. They recently upped the discount to 10% for a one-week period prior to and including Memorial Day.
If you want to read up on the homebrewing process a good place to start is to check out John Palmer’s “How To Brew”. This book is free and available on line at How To Brew a good place to start is with the Glossary of Terms used in brewing. The Equipment chapter is another great place to start.
Knews_hound has a web page that is a basic step-by-step introduction (w/pictures) to brewing beer using a Malt Extract Kit. Visit it here Homebrewing 1A
Lets get brewing! Share your experience and expertise or just ask a question. I may not have an answer to all questions but I am sure another more experienced Freeper will.
The Porter I just bottled started with an OG of 1.104 and finished up at 9.5% I am afraid it may turn out to sweet. I have never brewed a beer with that high of a gravity before and did not know where the FG should have gone. It ended up at 1.040.
Actually, our house has heat registers with covers big enough to swallow up a lot of objects. Bottle caps are no problem. I really have to watch the waste baskets, too, because they play basketball w/their toys. Who knows how many cat toys disappeared via solid waste services?
I had some genuine moonshine once .... a mountain guy named Sly made it. The second I took a sip and it hit my tongue, it was instant intoxication. I kid you not.
Aye, still doing the extracts both liquid and dry. We have been getting more creative with selecting malts, hops, and even yeast strains. We have done some research on brewing fully from grains, and it seems like it is a lot more work, with a lot more variables. We may try it someday though. I met an old guy at the brewer supply store who actually did the whole process by actually allowing the grains to germinate and cracking them and all. I am writing some software to track batches, and calculate specifics such as alcohol, color, and bitterness based on ingredients you add to the recipes and if your recipe fits the range of characteristics for the style, it even tells you which yeast strains are good for each style for a couple different manufacturers from their web data. If it ends up being awesome enough, might make it available free on FR.
Watched all 11 parts. Many thanks!
What the heck is that?
It looks like a thermometer but it is all "wrong." 
mmmmm, smells good!
This is actually working!
Careful of the goo at the bottom.
WOW!
Thirty seven... thirty eight... thirty nine...
Ahhhhhhh...
Ping list please!
.
89-93 k-bay then El Toro before I PCSed
Sure miss pyramid rock surfing and officers beach spearing lobsters
Excellent pictures, thanks.
you have been sdded
welcome... even old Bocephus showed up at his funeral
Heh! I just about gave up the Homebrew thing due to the dreary task of rounding up the bottles, cleaning them and finally sanitizing before bottling. A sufficient pain-in-the-ass to meander back to the professional brewers, until I went to the 5 gallon soda kegs!
Mrs. Brewingfrog said, “Honey, we can modify a keg cooler with a three faucet tower and have homebrew and pro kegs all at the same time!” Zymurgy has been most pleasureable since...
Life is good!
Kegging is definitely the way to go! Bottling is a chore.
It is Looking like the first monthly Homebrewing Thread has been a success and I have a question for all of you. Do you think there would be enough interest and participation in the thread if it were posted more than once a month?
Make it a weekly thread?
Make it a bi-weekly thread?
Or leave it as a once a month thread?
The ping list grew by 20 FReepers just yesterday through requests on the thread and by FReepMail
Your feedback would be appreciated.
Myself, I haven’t brewed in a while...recently tried some of the new (to me)Kentucky beer barrel bourbon ale...i may go ahead and attempt some of that lately because it’s so hard to find...read somewhere China is buying it uo kijke fiends!
Apparenly, it is just their regular pale ale aged in whisky barrels for 6-8 weeks...should be able to duplicate that with some oak chips soaked in Jack!
posted this thread to my own homebrew blog...sorry, cannot “pimp” that here...
;)
Just Plain Dick
aka: Gunny G
*****
Semper Watching!
Checked out your Homebrew blog. I agree with keeping it simple. I doubt I will advance from the Extract kits to All Grain brewing. Just to much involved for me to enjoy brewing. I like the beers I have been able to brew from the kits.
Thanks for the link on the blog.
If you do brew that beer barrel bourbon ale let us know how it come out.
Red_Devil 232
I wouldn’t mind seeing it on a weekly basis. I think there is enough information to share and as time goes on more who take up the hobby experiences, mistakes, successes and tips can be shared. I would like to see wine included in the discussion.
For some reason, they don't trust my brewing math. They seem to think that I'm off a couple decimal points when calculating alcohol percentages........ ;) They enjoy a glass or two, then complain that their "nips are lumb" and they can't walk straight.
Kinda' makes me proud ☺
Years ago I worked with some good ol’ boys. Being a young man I bragged how I could handle any kind of drink. Boy was I wrong! They brought some shine in the next day and after ONE sip my a$$ was kicked.
I have a Cranberry Mead technically a Melomel that I started last November and bottled a few weeks ago it should be ready by Thanksgiving. I hope it turns out to be good, a year is a long wait. It is in the middle range for alcohol % at 13%.
As you know I used to post the Weekly Gardening thread I would probably treat a weekly Homebrewing thread like I did the gardening thread - get the the thread started and let the posters take the topic discussion in the direction they want it to go. I am not much of a wine drinker so I have no experience in the wine making process, although I am right in the middle of the maturing process of a Cranberry Mead I made.
Screw HG and his gay lovers.
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