Home Brewing: Anyone Tried It?

[LarryG]

Has anyone here ever fooled with home brewing? Beer, I mean? If so ... how'd that work out for ya?

For some years now I've toyed with giving it a try, but so far it has remained one of those things that I never seem to get around to.

The thing I've always wondered is if it'd turn out to be a lot like woodworking: it'd eat up all your spare time, all your spare cash, and you'd end up with something about half as good as what you can buy for about half as much money.

Discuss, please.

[Knottscott]

I've made several good batches and a couple for the drain. Do a little research and get your feet wet. You will need some basic equipment, but once you know what it is you can be creative to cut costs. We always used malt extracts...never went as far as to mash our own grain. We did try to get fresh hops when possible as opposed to extracts. We also preferred liquid yeasts over powders. Light beers are more sensitive to off flavors than heavier beers.

Cheers!

[bigsteel15]

Up here we have U-Brew storefronts that offer the equipment at their facilities.
You go in, pick your beer, mix it and cook it yourself, put in storage for the required time and then bottle it when it's ready.
When I did this, I was living in an apartment and already making my own wine.
The beer was pretty good and relatively cheap.
We shared a batch of 12 dozen with a friend.
Based on the home-brew I tasted back in the early 80s, I decided this was the way to go. We didn't have the professional support back then though.
I think though that if you have the room and get the right equipment, you will find it very satisfying making your own. A lot of the equipment is also used for wine making and that IMHO can produce a higher quality home-made product than beer. If you're into wine.

[pbrew]

Home Brew

I made many batches when I was in my 20's. They all turned out excellent - There was also a place here in Miami that sold all the supplies. They even had kits with the CO2 so you could set up your own Kegs. I always felt the bottled ones turned out best. Improved my cooking skiils too.

[jnesmith]

Did it once. Turned out pretty ****ed good. Never did it again. Gave all the equipment to a friend.

[Tom Miller]

I've had a grand total of one home brew beer, years ago, made by the husband of my wife's college-era friend. Not too good. He had a little "problem" with the yeast that became apparent upon uncapping. (Think Mt. Vesuvius.)

There's a local DIY brew pub that caters to small groups (Vine Street Brewing(?) in St. Paul, for you locals). I've never been, but the ads I've seen make it look like they'll hold your hand, if needed, or let you run your own show. Seems like a good way to start, if you have any such opportunities.

I've been trying the triple fermentation Belgian beers lately -- not sure I'd be improving on any of those any time soon. (Darned Monks over there with their six century head start! ) But at $10 per 750 ml. I might need to start!

Regards,
Tom

[Lustreking]

Has anyone here ever fooled with home brewing? Beer, I mean? If so ... how'd that work out for ya?

Yes! It's been a while, but now that I've reclaimed some space in my basement, I'm going to start again soon. I'm in the process of building a fermentation chiller so that I can brew throughout the summer... maybe even lager in the winter.

For some years now I've toyed with giving it a try, but so far it has remained one of those things that I never seem to get around to.

Do it. If you enjoy good beer and making things, then it's a lot of fun.

The thing I've always wondered is if it'd turn out to be a lot like woodworking: it'd eat up all your spare time, all your spare cash, and you'd end up with something about half as good as what you can buy for about half as much money.

It doesn't take up too much time... basically, while it's fermenting (1-3 weeks or so) you don't do anything. I brewed beer in my apartment in college

The part that takes the most effort, is sanitation. You have to make sure that everything is perfectly clean and sanitary before it comes in contact with your wort (beer before it's fermented).

All your spare cash? No and yes. Brewing is like woodworking. You can get started cheaply and produce very nice results with a few tools (I've seen starter kits for around $50 or $60). As you continue, you can buy (or better yet, build) more tools to make the job easier, and produce better results, like the fermentation chiller I'm building.

The results: It usually costs me around $40 to brew a batch, which produces around 2 cases. I would say that it's twice as good as you can buy, for the same amount of money. However, if you're happy with a $10 case of "beer", then homebrewing is probably not for you.

Any questions, don't hesitate to ask

-Steve

[Brian G]

Larry, I don't have personal experience, but my brother is way deep into home brewing as a hobby. He's served as President of a Homebrewer's club in Madison, WI. He can wax philosophical about hops, yeast, mash, wort, pilsners, lagers, dunkels, and so on like we could idle aways hours discussing all the merits and demerits of various tools or material for projects in woodworking.

All I know is that I've never had a bad beer that he's made, and he's made lots of batches. I'm helping him out a little by trying to grow some hops in the backyard. It's an experiment.

Starter kits are pretty cheap, so the initial investment is low. Like woodworking, the costs seem to depend on how deep in you want to get.

[lrogers]

One of my friends brews his own and I get to sample! It is amazing how many different types there are. One of the first projects to come out of the RED NECK WORKSHOP was a bottle drying rack. It held 147 (I think that was how many)bottles. I also made him some wooden cases for storing his beer. As a result, I get to sample all his creations. His red ales and Guiness stout clones are my favorites. His PORT-A-POTTY porter is bad either!

[Tom Slick]

I have brewed quite a bit of beer and helped a friend that was a brewmaster at a local microbrew.
buy a good kit, not a "mr beer" or anything like that, only use liquid yeast, and don't brew anything that all of the ingredients you need are in the same can (just add hot water kit).

it is alot like woodworking the better you get, the more tools you need. you'll have a minimum $300 invested by the time you are ready to make consistantly good beer.

light beer is harder to brew then dark beer. a porter or stout seems to be easier to make "good" then anything really light.

check out http://www.williamsbrewing.com they are a great mailorder company and will sell you quality stuff.