Homebrewing

In My Humble Opinion
1

Tell me about your homebrewing. How long did it take you to get “good” at it, what were your start-up costs, what kinds of stuff do you make? I am currently in the process of researching start-up of a home brewery and would like input. I do have a friend who has quite a bit of experience in home-brewing, and I am picking his brain as well.

Any tips, advice, equipment lists, recipes, etc would be appreciated. FWIW, we are most interested in brewing Mead, but since we have several beer-drinking friends, we would also end up doing beer as gifts (if it turns out decently) for them.

2

I have this kit .

I’ve had only one attempt and it was a complete disaster.

[ul][li]I tried to make a clone of my favorite beer but my local home brewing supply place didn’t have a kind of malt I needed so I had to substitute.[/li][li]Had a hard time cooling the wort (chillers are expensive and I didn’t want to invest that much quite yet).[/li][li]Racked into the primary fermenter (bucket) then when putting in the airlock pushed the damn rubber washer through the lid into the wort. Didn’t have a replacement so I had to rack it BACK to the pot to fish out the washer then BACK to the fermenter.[/li][li]A week later when racking to the SECONDARY fermenter the siphon fell out of the carboy and I ended up with beer and yeast cake all over my kitchen floor.[/li][li]When dry hopping in my secondary fermenter, I let the bag sink too low and the hops got out of the bag.[/ul][/li]
It was only THEN I committed the unforgivable sin and gave up on it. :frowning:

Not for good though. I’m thinking I might have spun my tires a little bit in trying a clone for my first batch. When I move into my new house I’ll most definitely try again.

I know there’s many successful brewers here on the dope and I’m sure they’ll be long shortly with stories that may be a bit more inspirational. :slight_smile:

3

I bottled my first brew last weekend, although have yet to taste it so don’t know how its going to turn out. There are a number of very experienced and helpful brewers on the board who will set you in the right direction.

For me, I think I benefited from brewing from a kit first time out - this is the simplest way of doing it and popular with beginners. A kit is a pre-hopped extract that doesn’t need to be messed about with too much. Its probably not going to be the greatest beer in the world, but just going through the brewing process has set me on the right track - how long things take, sanitisation, siphoning, taking hydrometer readings - All simple stuff but good to get under your belt. My next brew will probably be a bit more sophisticated, where I add hops to the extract myself, use a secondary fermenter etc. See how this one goes.

4

do some searches on brewing, homebrew, beer. I’ve written this before but figured just type it out again. My advice is for the *easiest, cheapest * brewing your first couple times.

-Use a 5 gallon plastic carboy that water comes in. That’s your fermenter
-Go buy a couple of the cheap plastic airlocks and some different sized corks.
-Suggest using a kit beer first. That’s the kind that comes in a can and says just add water. What you do is boil up 2-3 pounds of malt with 1 oz of hops, and mix it in with that canned concentrate. It makes a tasty brew and I still do that sometimes today. Alternatively, you can buy a pretty simple all extract kit from a supply shop.
-2-3 pounds of malt
–some corn sugar (buy it from the brew shop and whatever you do don’t use regular sugar - trust me on this)
-need a hop boiling bag
-big soup pan for boiling the wort
-couple of cold ones for inspiration and maybe some cheap vodka
-bottle capper and bottle caps

Night before or a couple of hours before you start, take a 16 oz or quart sized bottle, sterilize it with boiling water, pour out the boiling water and fill about 2 inches with lukewarm water. Add 1-2 tablespoons of something fermentable like malt, honey or corn sugar, and the yeast, shake it up and put in the airlock (with water or vodka). By the time your wort is ready, the yeast should be foaming. In fact, make sure the yeast is foaming before you start brewing up.

Boil the malt in about a gallon of water for 30 minutes. put 1 oz of hops in the hop bag and boil together. Put the pan in a cold water bath to cool off for 10 minutes.

The fermenter/5 gallon plastic carboy should be about half full of water. Once the wort is cooled down some, pour into a funnel into the fermenter.

follow the directions on the canned extract. Usually, supposed to mix with about a gallon of water and bring to a boil. Cool it in the cold water bath, and dump into the fermenter.

Check the temperature by putting your hand on the fermenter. It should be luke warm. top up the fermenter so that it is about 2-3 inches from the top (not from the opening, but from where the carboy starts to curve in towards the spout. Pour in the yeast that you started earlier. It should be visibly foaming up.

Put in the airlock. You can use boiled water in the airlock or vodka. Leave it in a cool dark place. Suggest putting in a big plastic tub or putting down newspapers in case it over foams. The beer will bubble constantly, then slow down and 5-10 days will stop bubbling. let it sit for another couple of days. Then bottle it up.

Again, this will make pretty tasty beer that is obvious a homebrew. You don’t need to buy a lot of equipment while you’re doing the first couple of batches and figuring it all out. Then you can start getting fancy, collecting equipment and making up some really good brew. Enjoy.

I’m sure Silenus or some of the others will be by soon enough.

5

As for chillers, you don’t really need one but WOW! does it ever speed up the cool down period. They’re easy to make too. All you need is a $5 pipe bender and 20’ of copper tube. Ok in my case it took 2 pieces of 20’ copper tube (slight miscalculation on the shape of the damn thing :slight_smile: )

Beer brewing is relatively easy. I find that the sweeter beers (Oatmeal Stouts and Pumpkin Ales) turn out better but that could just be my biases mucking about with my taste buds.

6

I’ve made Mead several times and it’s always turned out well. I needed a 5 gallon glass carboy, a pea-trap thing that lets out the co2 while keeping out the regular air, about 15 lbs of honey, some water, champagne yeast, and some assorted flavorings. After it turned out, I made a return trip for bottles to rack it off so I could save it. Curiously, I’ve found that the last batch has matured beautifully at three years of age. All my books, and pratical experience dictated that one year was about the limit on most meads.
For those interested I attempted to make a “port” style mead. I used dark wild honey, blackberry and vanilla extracts, the roasted hops used to make a stout,(for flavoring) and brandy. I ended up with an pretty potent smooth sweet mead that now has lost it’s “burn” and is simply delicious. I’m going to save the rest of the bottles left and open one every year or so to see how it changes.

7

The thing about mead is that it takes so long to mature properly. But it is cheap and easy to make, and requires a minimum of equipment. You are on the right track. Pick the brains of your home-brewing friends, and find out where they get their equipment. Then go there and pick the brains of everybody you can find.

Kits are probably the easiest way to get started. Don’t cheap out and buy the least expensive…aim for mid-level. Once you’ve made a batch or two, you can up-grade.

A hint for mead: Find a local Starbucks or the like and see if you can scrounge their empty syrup bottles. These make excellent mead bottles, and you don’t have to have a capper to reseal them.

Most of my meads have been of the lighter types, with lots of fruit (melomels) or spices (metheglins) added. The favorite seems to be “Karen’s Downfall,” which is a light sparkling ginger mead. That one has won many awards. But the best mead I ever tasted was a 19 year old raisin mead done with sherry yeast. Sheer heaven.

As for the questions in the OP: I’ve been brewing since 1976. The first few batches were sheer dreck, but once I found a decent homebrew store, things got better quickly. I have brewed hundreds of batches in my career, and have won awards in sanctioned competition in every category recognized by the AHA.

8

Fascinating! I never thought about the starbucks bottles…hmmm…

The mead I referred to in my above post was dubbed “Dance Macabre” since it was sinfully potent and pours out black from the hops. In tasting I’ve noticed it’s an immediate love or hate reaction, no one seems to be ambiguous on it. I’m tempted to make a new version of it but I’m not able to get the same honey. It was raw dark honey from a defunct apiary left to rot.

For my next batch I’m tempted to infuse clove and cinnamon into it. A sort of Wassil style cider mead … :smiley:

9

Assuming your friend is still active, volunteer to be his kitchen monkey next time he brews a batch. Observe and assist at the initial brewing and also at the bottling. You’ll learn an awful lot more than you would reading books like when to be really nervous about a boilover, tricks for moving 2 gallons of hot sugary stew around without giving yourself a 2nd degree burn and whether you’re really interested in doing it yourself.

Please don’t take the above as a negative - I used to brew all the time before kids. It is a lot of kitchen work and heavy lifting though, which turns a lot of people off.

10

Thank you all so much for the response. I am looking at getting the second kit on this page. It seems to be a good deal. I do have a very close friend who does brew his own beer and has for quite a while, so I have his help, too.

I have been doing a lot of research, this is something my husband and I have wanted to do for a while, and probably won’t get started on til xmas (I plan on asking for the kit as one of my xmas gifts!). My friend had considered making mead and bought a book on mead (with loads of recipes) that he gave me, since he just never got around to it. Since we live very close to several mennonite and amish communities, I know I can get the honey raw and pretty cheaply – that’s a bonus.

Since we don’t drink a lot of commercial wine/beer, I am currently trying to find a good source for bottles. The homebrew store that I will probably get the kit from sells bottles, but they’re kind of pricey.

What is everyone’s opinion about corking vs capping?

11

Dang, the problem with posting at work is I get distracted, and by the time I hit “Submit Reply” there are more replies!

muldoonthief, actually, I made the offer yesterday when I picked up the book on mead from him. I am a cook, so the cooking/handling hot syrup/lifting is not an issue, it’s any little quirks that I may be able to pick up that would be helpful that I am interested in.

silenus, that is so cool that you have been doing it so long. I have noticed that a lot of the recipes that I have found call for around a year or more process, which is fine – but I also am looking for some quicker recipes, since ya know, we actually like to drink the stuff :smiley: I do want to do a few “quick batches” before I start doing the more mature/sophisticated ones, but I do want to do some of those as well. I am curious if this is “just a hobby” for you or if it is more?

12

I used to brew quite a few years ago, with supplies and recipes from a local brewing supply store. I hadn’t brewed a batch in probably 10 years until just recently.

I had gotten rid of all of my supplies over the years, so I got a kit from Williams Brewing which included all of the necessary hardware (except the brewing pot itself) and an ingredient kit. I got their IPA kit and just brewed it a few weeks ago. We are going caming this weekend, so we opened a couple bottles last night to see if they were ready to go. THe color, nose, and flavor are all good, though I would have preferred a bit ore hoppiness in an IPA. But overall, it was a very good start.

A few more batches from kits, just to get the “process” down again, and I plan to start building my own recipes, and getting into all-grain brewing.

I think the key is to find a good local supply store, where you can go to find knowledge and advice when you need it.

Good luck!

13

Uh, no. We used chocolate malt.

14

“Quick, good mead” is pretty much a contradiction in terms. It will take even a light mead 3 months in the secondary to clear to the point you want to bottle, and another 6 months of aging on top of that before it’s fit to drink.

If you add a 6 gal glass carboy to that kit, you’ll have a good starting point.

Some key things with mead: Never, ever boil your must. Never! Boiling drives off all of those lovely aromatics you want in the final brew. If you are adding fruit, spices or whatever, steep them in a muslin bag for as long as necessary, keeping the liquid below 200°.

Corking is generally a waste of time, although I have done it on occasion. A good bench capper is what you need for 99% of what you will be brewing.

Bottles: Another great source for bottles is your local country club, or any restaurant that has a regular “Champagne Brunch.” The “shampagne” they serve is the cheap stuff, and the bottles have a lip that will accept a crown cap. Have the manager instruct the staff to replace the empties in the cases, and go pick them up Sunday afternoon.

15

Slight hijack here but…
silenus, you are roughly in my neck of the woods and I have been thinking of getting into home brewing myself. Could you recommend a good home brewing store in the LA area? I wouldn’t even know how to tell a good one from a bad one…or even find one really.

16

Actually, I have been thinking anything less than a year was “quick” perhaps sometime you could email me one of the more simple recipes you have? Not asking for proprietary recipe, just something you would recommend for a beginner.

I will definitely look into that, my friend does say there is another good home brew shop in Nashville, so I will prolly do some price comparisons and check into all of it.

Even if the recipe calls to boil it? All of the recipes I have found so far call for boiling the must. Which I thought was in fact to destroy all those natural bacteria/yeasties/etc. Obviously, I am still in the research stage and you have done this for years, so I will definitely listen to the advice. I know that once I do get started, I will have to find what works for me, so I will experiment. By the way – what’s your take on well water? I am inclined to think I will end up going with bottled, but my friend who does his own brewing just uses distilled tap water.

Thanks. This is what I was thinking, but Ken says that corking is way easier, so I wondered about others’ takes on it. Again, something I will have to decide for myself once I do get started.

Do you use different yeasts for different batches or do you prefer a particular yeast?

Wow! Considering where we are (just outside of Nashville) there are a crapload of country clubs, I will most definitely ask around. Thanks for all the great advice!

17

What part of LA? The best shops are in Woodland Hills (Home Beer/Wine/Cheese Shop - Home to the Maltose Falcons, who are a bunch of stuck-up snobs with delusions of adequacy), but the shop is good, and Orange County (Home to the Barley Bandits, who are a kewl bunch of brewers). Even better are a couple in Northern San Diego County. Give me a rough location, and I’ll try to send you to a good one.

18

Litoris - You hit sterilization temperature at 180°. If you hold the must there for 15 minutes, you will have killed anything that got in the pot. But remember, honey is too pure for germs to live in. About the only thing that can survive in honey is botulism spores, which is why you don’t feed honey to infants. But 180° will kill off those as well, so never boil your must! It also helps to pitch a metric crapload of yeast. Always make a starter clture of your yeast a day or so ahead of brewing. I use a 1 liter Erlenmeyer flask with an airlock on it. Add 500 ml water, yeast, nutrient and 1/4 cup malt extract. Let set in a warm place 24 hours, pitch. As for water…it depends on what you are brewing. For mead, well water is fine. For beer, it will depend on the style you are trying for. Ales tend to need harder water than lagers to hit the flavor profile right. I’ll see if I can dig up my recipe book and find something for you.

19

I live in Hollywood/Westhollywood, but go into the Valley (Sherman Oaks/North Hollywood/Studio City area mostly) a lot. I have no problem traveling east or south, but would rather not go much west of Beverly Hills if I can help it. (I work in Century city otherwise I would ask to stay east of La Cienega Blvd. all together.)

Thanks!

20

Well, places I know are pretty good:

Culver City Home Brewing

Steinfillers in Long Beach.
Mead recipes:

Vivian Creek Mead
for 3 gallons

8 lbs. light clover honey
2 tsp. acid blend
2 tsp. yeast nutrient
4 lbs. frozen red raspberries
Pasteur Champagne yeast

Yuri’s Cyser
for 3 gallons

5 lbs. honey
3 lbs. honey/cinnamon spread
2 tsp. acid blend
2 tsp. yeast nutrient
2 gallons apple juice
Pasteur Champagne yeast

Tracy’s Navel
for 5 gallons

10 lbs. orange honey
2 oz. dried orange peel
3 cloves
2 tsp. yeast nutrient
1 bottle Noirot Orange Brandy Extract
Pasteur Champagne yeast