Any Homebrewers here?

Been brewing off and on for 15 years now. I started out like most brewing extracts and eventually moved on to all grain so my cost is a bit cheaper for each batch but because of the increased cost in equipment it took quite a bit longer to break even. But when you consider that I brewed 80 gallons last year, you can see that it didn’t take that long to break even.

Here are a couple of pics of my kegerator setup,

Its a fun hobby, thats for sure.

I’m mainly just a homedrinker.

That’s a fun hobby too.

The local homebrew shop sells malt extract in bulk. It’s a hell of a lot cheaper than buying it packaged. Just bring the container and fill 'er up.

Alas, I can’t remember the exact price, but it was quite economical.

If you really want to save money, don’t use extract. All-grain beers are more complicated to make and require extra equipment, but once you get the techniques down you probably won’t regret it. Plus, it tastes better. When I was brewing I could crank out a 7-gallon batch in about 4 hours.

I’ve been thinking about getting into homebrewing since I started getting into beer in general. This thread inspired me to actually start the process. I’ve read through most of “How to Brew” and checked out some starter equipment on the net.

I’ve already ordered the following:

-1.5 kg of Munton & Fison medium malt extract (12 - 24 °EBC)
-100 g of Challenger hops pellets (6.7% AA)
-140 g of Wyeast American Ale Activator yeast

I’m planning on brewing a first batch of about 10 liters. Is this a reasonable combination of ingredients? I’m not really sure about the mixing ratio. When converting some of the guidelines in “How to Brew” to the metric system it seems that about 120 grams of malt extract would be appropriate for 10 liters of beer. What of the hops and yeast amounts?

Last night when I got home from work, a large box was by the door. My wife ordered a starter kit for my birthday, and even let me open it early. I am now reading Joy of Home Brewing and plan on starting my first ever batch this or next weekend. My wife is awesome.

All this talk of home brewing has gotten me into the mood (for some brewing), so I just ordered up a two-gallon fermenting bucket at two one-gallon cubitainers from Northern Brewer. I hate bottling, so hopefully the cubitainers will work as advertised and give me a nice, cask-style option for dispensing small batches.

I don’t want to do a big batch right now. Just a few small ones to experiment with, while I work on my recipe for my neighbor’s wedding beer. Which, of course, would have to be bottled.

Right now I think I’ll look at some recipes for chocolate stout. Add some cherries, and maybe I can get something like a liquid Black Forest cake. Maybe add a vanilla bean or two to the fermenter… Mmm.

I tried some of my first time homebrew this weekend after a week of bottle conditioning. The flavor isn’t much awesome, and it’s a little bitter for my tastes, but hell, it tastes like a decent beer. It’s even better than a lot of beers that I’ve bought over the years. Thanks to the aforementioned book, I know what to correct next time.

Does anyone have suggestions on wort cooling? I had a really hard time getting it down fast enough, and that may have deteriorated some of the flavor. I have an idea that I want to run by some folks with a little experience: Rather than spend $150 on a copper contraption that will require all sorts of fittings and whatnot, I was thinking of using the bottling bucket as my cooler. On its way to the fermenter, I would run the beer through an extra long hose that has been coiled inside the bottling bucket and out the nozzle hole. The bottling bucket would be filled with ice and the hole would be sealed with a rag. Thoughts?

That sounds like a very bad idea, Cat Master - mainly because the hot wort (and water as well) tends to leach plasticizers, cross-linkers, and various chemicals from plastic. One of the main reasons you have to cool the wort in the kettle itself is to keep from leaching flavors from the fermenter. Not to mention that you’d have to clean the hose as well. One of the reasons I don’t like immersion coolers is that you have to clean it. I usually just put a lid on the kettle, put it in a bathtub, and run cold water through with the drain open. If you carefully swirl the cool water, you can cool down the wort in an hour or so, and as long as the kettle is lidded, you don’t have to worry about oxidizing your hops at the high temperature. If you had the inclination to put ice in your bathtub, I bet it would go even faster. Hell, throw a kegger after you’re done with the leftover ice.

The off flavors you might be tasting might just be from yeast byproducts that haven’t settled down yet. You can solve that by doing a secondary fermentation, though that requires a glass carboy. It’s much easier to simply wait a month or two and let it age. The benefit aging brings, of course, depends on the style of beer - generally the stronger the brew, the more it needs to age.

Interesting. I could only ever find instructions that involved pouring the wort directly into the cold water, and no one actually said why. The tub idea would be perfect, though. Thanks for the help.

It shouldn’t cost you too much to buy a Wort Chiller Carl. I think mine cost $40 and obviously came with all the fittings. If you’re the handy type you could probably make it even cheaper. There are all kinds of plans for these things out there on homebrewing forums.

I just sampled my beer after a week of bottle conditioning. I’ve got some similar off flavors - consensus of folks I’ve talked to is what Morkilus said: it’s young, let it age.

Mork: Why is it you don’t like wort chillers? Are they just that big a pita to clean?

Wort Chiller cons:
[ul]
[li]Costs money[/li][li]Have to sanitize before, clean it after[/li][li]Can only chill as many batches at once as you have chillers[/li][li]You have to have it open to the oxygen[/ul]Wort Chiller pros:[/li][ul]
[*]Takes like 10 minutes less to cool, not counting cleaning[/ul]I can chill three batches at once in my tub, and it really doesn’t take that much longer if you keep the water swirling and trickling in new. Keep the lid on and you won’t have to worry about contamination or getting oxygen in, which messes up your hops.

I started my second batch. I’m trying a Kolsch this time. Here is my recipe:

1/4 lbs Carafoam malt - steeped for 20 minutes
4 lbs Pilsner malt extract syrup
2 lbs light wheat malt syrup
1 oz Hallertau hop pellets (bittering)
1 tsp Irish Moss
1/2 oz Argentine Cascade hop pellets (finishing)
Nottingham ale yeast

This batch went much more smoothly and I was able to cool it quickly in the bathtub. I also put the hops in cheesecloth to make it less of a pain to manage. I’m hoping the higher quality hops and today’s disaster-free brewing will result in a beer with much more character than the last. The first batch actually tastes pretty good after 3-4 weeks of bottle conditioning, but it doesn’t really stand out.

woot.com today (April 6)

Mr. Beer Home Beer Kit Premium Edition
$19.99 + $5 shipping

My mate has the gear and inclination, I have the garage space and desire to test, the wife has the sensitive pregnant lady nose and veto :(

But beer smells goooood.

That’s ridiculous. Buy one of these bad boys and go to the back yard.

If I knew what it was, and what it did, I would consider it!