Brewing your own beer

[MisterCreosote]

Does anyone here do this? I need another hobby, and this seems like a natural fit.

Anyone have any advice on where to start? Any experiences to share?

Much appreciated.

 

[Fly]

Does anyone here do this? I need another hobby, and this seems like a natural fit.

Anyone have any advice on where to start? Any experiences to share?

Much appreciated.

I did for a couple years, haven't since summer of '06. There are so many great beers available for purchase that it became not worth the trouble.

If you enjoy cooking and chemistry/science then brewing is right up your alley. There's a lot of both involved in the process, especially if you're going to get to the point of creating your own recipes rather than riffing off some pre-packaged kit or what you find online.

There's all kinds of things required to get started: you have to decide if you're going to do extract brewing (the easiest of all, utilizing liquid malt extracted from actual grain; downside is you don't necessarily get the optimum flavors), partial-mash (utilizing extracts along with whole grains, sometimes specialty grains for added colors/flavors) or all-grain (how the pros and best homebrewers do it...requiring more steps in the process and larger kettles to do the boils (mashing, which is basically cooking the grain to extract the sugars) and separating (lautering, which separates the wort (cooked sugar water) from the spent grain).

I started with extract and moved to partial-mash. Never did any all-grain batches, as I gave up before it came time to make that type of investment into the equipment required for all-grain. It would be tough to do all-grain brewing in your kitchen, likely it's a process you'll need to do outside due to the large amount of space needed for the mash and lauter tuns (many people use re-purposed kegs as mash tuns, and large coolers retrofitted a bit as lauter tuns). Then you have to decide if you want to bottle or keg...I just don't drink the same beer that often since I like variety, so I got out of the game. But had I continued I definitely would have gone to kegging as I despised bottling. The main reason is that it's quite a chore to assure all your equipment (bottles, caps, hoses, etc) are all sterilized and sanitized prior to use.

Guess I'm just too lazy...:shrug:

 

[leo1]

I agree with Fly. The few people I know who home brew seem to put a ton of time, effort and money into it. Then whenever I taste their beer, my reaction is usually, something like "eh." I can get something this mediocre at the liquor store. But hey, if you can brew up something you enjoy and you like a challenge, go for it.

 

[User 11148]

I brew my own, using that partial mash method (you use some specialty grains for extra flavor/character, but malt extract for the main chunk of the beer). And bottling's a bit of a pain, if only because you have to do that careful pouring bit so that the yeast in the bottom of the bottle doesn't make it into your glass. So I have one of those homebrew kegging setups with a 5-gallon soft drink keg in my garage (beer) fridge. I am going to splurge soon on a little gun-type bottle filler that will allow me to take carbonated and kegged homebrew and then bottle it for portable (and yeast-free) consumption.

I really enjoy doing it, and my beer's pretty damn good. I have a couple of favorite recipes -- my go-to is a Czech blonde ale, and I'll make a Koelsch if it's summertime -- that my wife and I really enjoy. A 5-gallon batch costs about $30 or so -- I use expensive yeast, but you can harvest some from one batch and use in another -- so that's $15 a case for import-quality beer.

 

[bronko]

You can find Alton Brown's good eats brewing episode online. That's a good fairly good place to get an introduction, although you will read plenty of folks pointing out errors. You can get a lot of smaller size ingredient kits now that produce a 2.5 or 3 gallon batch that you can make without investing in a giant kettle. I like the looks of William's Brewing offerings for beginners. Of course finding a local shop would be best.
This got a lot of folks started back in the 80s:
http://www.beerinfo.com/index.php/pages/kathyireland.html

 

[jlee]

Charlie Papazian's "Complete Joy of Homebrewing" is a good place to start, too.

I did it as a hobby for a couple of years and wasn't concerned about creating anything mind-blowing. Dropped $150 on the initial equipment and about $25 per batch. It was worth it to me -- killed a lazy day or two every month and gave me a great conversation-starter.

I'd suggest, if you go for it, to start with an extract brew and get a feel for the procedure without having to worry about recipes. Sterilization and temperature are important, and it's best to get the processes surrounding those under your thumb before you dive into the many, many flavor possibilities.

Get a friend to help, too, if possible. It's fun.

Bottling is time-consuming, and I preferred spending a little extra money for larger bottles to cut down on the workload. I'd keg only if I got back into it, but bottles' portability is really useful. Also, aging in the bottle is nice. A "meh" beer today could be a much better one in three months.

If you go the bottling route, repurpose some 30-ish oz. craft beer bottles. It's a good size to split with friends for tasting, and the fewer bottles you have, the less time you spend worrying about pouring yeast into a glass.

 

[spikechiquet]

Been brewing for a few years now.
I love it. Have met a lot of cool people and been able to have some good bar conversations because of it.
And it's been stated already, there are many levels and ways to make beer. Start small, see if you like it.
Heck, ask for a kit for your Christmas present or birthday and then not worry about the money aspect.

 

[Fly]

Ditto on Charlie Papazian's two howebrewing books. They're the bible for the hobby.

Also look into homebrewing clubs in your area. MOST are filled with good folks (some are uber-nerdish) who can be valuable resources. Check with your local homebrew supply retailer for some recommendations.

You can check check out some homebrewing forums on some of the big beer sites for assistance as well (RateBeer, Beer Advocate but I'm partial to The Beer Spot...much smaller group of folks but there are some big-time pros (GABF medal winners) who hang out there and can offer great advice into the entire process, plus the site as a whole is WAY more low-key and more flexible as to other discussions other than beer).

 

[Tom Petty]

when my uncle retired as an electrical engineer, he needed something to eat up his time. he chose home brewing. made his own yeast ... yada, yada, yada. and to be honest, about 80 percent of his stuff is better than any ale i can buy in a store.

it is a terribly time-consuming hobby, tho. i know that one "batch" a week eats up nearly a day of his time.

if you're serious and he's still online - he moved away to a warmer climate - i can see if he'd like to contribute.

 

[Buck]

Dabbled a bit in my youth, 1989-90.

I'd like to try distilling my own liquor.

 

[Glenn Stout]

If you can make soup, you can make beer. Partial mash gives a stunningly good product with much less that the effort required for a full mash - figure an hour - two hours for your initial boil, maybe another twenty minutes when you re-rack, then about 45 minutes to botttle a bit over two cases. You can equal the taste of most microbrews at about 75 cents to a dollar a bottle.

 

[Fly]

If you can make soup, you can make beer. Partial mash gives a stunningly good product with much less that the effort required for a full mash - figure an hour - two hours for your initial boil, maybe another twenty minutes when you re-rack, then about 45 minutes to botttle a bit over two cases. You can equal the taste of most microbrews at about 75 cents to a dollar a bottle.

I don't dispute the actual brew/bottling time but I considered the santization process pre-bottling to be an utter and complete pain in the ass.

Even doing partial-mash (and my last was a big-ass barleywine that had a pretty large grain bill in addition to a huge amount of LME, DME and honey to boot), many of the beers tend to have the same basic background flavors. If I got back into it, it would be all-grain or nothing. My two cents...

 

[Versatile]

One important factor: You will like your beer more than anyone else does. That's probably a good thing because who cares what other people think. But don't be the jackass bragging about how great your home brew is to all your friends and telling them, "This milk stout kicks Lancaster's ass!" It doesn't. And if you're not making it with full mash and top, expensive technology, don't bother entering contests.

This is your daily reminder that you aren't special.

 

[Versatile]

One important factor: You will like your beer more than anyone else does. That's probably a good thing because who cares what other people think. But don't be the jackass bragging about how great your home brew is to all your friends and telling them, "This milk stout kicks Lancaster's ass!" It doesn't. And if you're not making it with full mash and top, expensive technology, don't bother entering contests.

This is your daily reminder that you aren't special.

Not a big fan of contests. Or sharing, for that matter.

I just want to be able to have fun for a few hours and then put the resulting beer in my belly.

That's the right attitude.

 

[User 11148]

Don't scrimp on yeast. If whatever it is you want to make calls for a special yeast, then use that yeast, otherwise you're not going to get the proper taste.

Good yeast is expensive -- about $7 a shot for the White Labs varieties -- but if you're consistently making recipes calling for the same yeast, you can harvest from one batch for use in another. If you do it right, harvested yeast will keep for a good while.

 

[Buck]

Is scrimping one of those fetishes that involves toes?

 

[MUTigers]

I've been brewing my own beer for several years now and really enjoy the hobby. I do whole grain brewing now, but it took awhile before I got the confidence to go that route. Partial mash is a great way to begin. Like many have pointed out, use the best yeast possible and use the specific yeast the recipe calls for.

One note: Sanitation cannot be stressed enough. Dont ruin your investment in time and money by not taking the time to properly sanitize your equipment and bottles. Anything that touches the wort post-boil should be sanitized.

Once you start brewing, you won't regret it. Start with a basic recipe or two to get the hang of it (the first time you encounter a foaming hot break, it can be a little disconcerting). Think of it like cooking, at first you follow a recipe and as you gain experience, you start tweaking to suit your personal taste. Grain bills, aroma and bitterness hops, and amounts of priming sugar (for carbonation levels) can be adjusted and it won't take you long for your intuition to guide you. There's plenty of help available on the internet to get you pointed in the right direction. Even my efforts that didn't work out so well resulted in no worse than an acceptable beer. When you get it right, it's terrific.

Charlie's books are great reference guides and I think John Palmer's "How to Brew" is available as a free download these days. Go for it! It's a lot of fun.

 

[User 1019]

I'm reading the Palmer book now. I also just bought the "Dummies" book. I'm a big fan of those books and am really looking forward to it. My town also has a home brew club. I requested to join their facebook page so I can find more resources.

I'm really looking forward to this when I get home.