Any recommendations on websites? Books? Kits? (I am willing to put the money into some quality stuff)
I would like to educate myself, and brew a few batches.
I always prefer a good stout dark beer over the thin stuff.
Thanks in advance.
Peace out, Bob
Posted by Erik Gastelum (Member # 5341) on :
The last beer I made was a Honey Wheat. I don't know about any online stuff never looked. I have a very good store down the freeway from me. I'm lucky to get time to do it twice a year. But I make the beer labels with my PC-60, it's th eonly use I found it for
My next beer is going to be a pale ale. All the beers are strong stuff, but quality and not like that bud, coors, miller crap that's just full of sugar and water and makes you fat.
Posted by Jane Diaz (Member # 595) on :
I'm sure Bill will get in on this...he's brewed for years. Pretty good at too, I hear. I don't like beer, although I will do a wine occasionally or a marguarita. He's got a couple of his own recipes. One is named "Diz Potent Ale" Erik, love that Graemlin!!
Posted by Bill Diaz (Member # 2549) on :
Hey Bob, (this is way simple and I don't have much time, but............)
I've been homebrewin' since '89. Basically you should start with 5 gallon batches made from kits. A kit is either a can of syrup or packages of dried malt extract that you boil in water and add hops. After the boiling is completed usually and hour, you reduce the temperature of the wort (pronounced wert)to around 70 degrees and pitch the yeast into a fermenter and wait. There's basically 2 types of beer -- ale and lager. Ale ferments on the top and lager (German for store) ferments on the bottom. I would start with an ale which most stouts are. Each 5 gallon batch yields about 42 (12 oz. bottles).
There are a gazillion web sites dedicated to homebrewing. Do a search. Most have recipes. The color and bitterness of beer is derived from specialty malts and hops. 1 cup of crystal malt per batch for instance will give your beer a red color. Chocolate and roasted malts will turn your beer dark. It is much easier as a homebrewer to make dark beer than light beer. You can make it as rich and alcholic as you want. You will need to get a brew/kit of equipment which usually includes a 5/6 gallon fermenter and spigot (food grade plastic.) Some plastic tubing, bottle capper and caps, hydrometer, bleach and 2 cases of returnable bottles. A 30 gallon trash barrel filled with bleachy water will get the bottles clean and they can be rinsed (no soap) in the dishwasher.
After the batch has fermented, it needs to be syphoned, primed and bottled. The bottles need to be stored until the batch is ready. Beer is not like wine. It has a prime drinking cycle depending on the type of beer and if it goes over that cycle it will not be as good. Most ales are ready to drink in a month and are good until about a year. Lagers need to be fermented slowly at lower temperatures and should be consumed before 6 months.
After a few batches from kits you may want to go all grain which is where I've been. This is where you crush your own grain and make your own mash. This is temperature related to achieve different effects, basically the crushed grain steeps in water and stays at different temperature for specific amounts of time. When the time is right the mash is strained and sparged with 170 degree water which gets ever last bit of fermentable sugary water out. This is then boiled and hops added.
Advanced fermenting is usually done in glass carboys. I do a 2 stage fermentation where I syphon the clear beer from 1 carboy to another. I use the dregs from the first fermenter, which is spent yeast, to start my next batch.
Homebrew is not carbonated, so you need to prime your fermented batch with sugar, honey or dried malt extract right before you bottle. This starts the fermentation process up again inside the bottle and that's where you get your carbonation. I have since moved on to kegging, because I hate washing the bottles. I use 5 gallon Coke kegs and stick them in the basement fridge. There's nothin' like comin' home and drawin' out a schooner of your own home-made beer. Good luck and try to find some folks in your area that are also doing it, because it's a blast to make beer with other brewers and talk shop. Of course when your brewin' you're samplin' so get a DD for the ride home and hang on to your hat.
Posted by Ray Rheaume (Member # 3794) on :
Bob,
C'mon back over this way! There's a few Brewer's Weekends scheduled in April and May where I bounce and I'm sure Mike or Butch, our brewermasters, could give you pointers anytime.
Rapid
Posted by David Wright (Member # 111) on :
I thought we weren't going to discuss religion on this board.
Posted by James Donahue (Member # 3624) on :
This is related, but it's wine or hard cider, not beer.
Redneck wine (or hard cider):
We just moved across the county line, we were in Knox county, and man, the tap water is AWFUL!!! So heavily chlorinated that it's bitter. The water here in Sevier county is better, but I'm skeptical of it too. Especially after what happened to our plants last summer.
So anywayyyy.... We live about 2 miles from one of the best public springs around. Just pull up your vehicle, and there's a pipe stuck in the side of a mountain. (Porterfield Gap Road) The county tests the water several times a year. But the benefit is the TASTE and the health it brings.
What's this got to do with fermentation??? I'm gettin' there. So we get a lot of this water see, and keeping sturdy clean jugs on hand is an issue. So we found that the best jug for us is an empty and well rinsed chlorox jug, with the label torn off. Think about it, they're selling this chemical into millions of households, but they need a sturdy cheap jug to sell it in. These babies have stout threads, and the body can withstand a lot of use.
So onetime, my wife poured some 100% apple juice concentrate into one of the water jugs, mixed it up, and set it down, where it became lost for awhile. When we found it, it was swollen in a bad way. REALLY swollen. But wouldn't you know, those chlorox jug threads held tight.
We let off the pressure, tried it, and bingo! Great hard cider. Tried it with 100% grape juice, and that worked too. We have found that a trick is to SLIGHTLY turn the cap open, to where it lets out some of the (carbon dioxide?) Then let it age some more. This might be abomination to the renowned vinters, but hey, it works well for us. I just had to grin when I first tried it. My wife pleases me more with each passing day. Posted by Monte Jumper (Member # 1106) on :
I've been thinking seriously about doing a batch of home brewfor several years...I have a buddy that has a recipe thats out of this world and he said he'd share it with me.
I have an incredible patch of hops growing on our back fence for several years now .
Maybe this is the year.
Posted by Artisan Signs (Member # 3146) on :
Thanks for all of the replies so far.
Bill, thanks for all of the information. I am thinking of going the keg route, as I don't plan on taking the beer anywhere, ha ha.
By the way Bill, I loved your article in Signcraft a while back on the 30 trucks, 30 layouts. You do some beautiful work. That must have been rewarding.
My neighbor uses the keg system, and he said he doesn't miss washing bottles at all.
I picked up a book "The Joy of Homebrewing", and have been reading it through.
Hey Rapid, what dates are the brewfests?
I'll let you know when the first batch is done, and how it tastes.
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Erik, love that Graemlin!!
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