Anyone homebrew?

[Mr. Mysterious]

Just wondering if anyone homebrews here?

I picked up a Mr. Beer off of woot.com a few weeks ago and have my first batch fermenting as we speak. I figure if I still find it fun/interesting after 4 rounds then I'll move up to one of the 5 gallon setups.

 

[IndyGunworks]

i dont, and dont really want to do beer... but i have considered tinkering around with making my own wine... can be made in almost unimaginable configurations... my imagination is the limit... well and taste.

 

[henktermaat]

Yeah winemaker now for 5 years

 

[IndyGunworks]

whats the secret? i have 8 or 9 wine bottles saved up ready to start brewing... not really sure where to go from here though

 

[IndyGunworks]

not trying to hijack your thread... ill start a new one to have this conversation in if you would like, but i think i may mix up a few bottles tomorrow if i can get enough info together and feel comforitable enough to do it... and of course i will take pics and post a full range report!

 

[IndianaWoodsman]

Have a friend that makes wine. Wonderful stuff. Has about 100 gallons going all the time. He tried beer but that was less than successful.
Know another guy who is a copper-smith and builds stove-top stills. I have thought of tinkering with that. Some knowledge and skills would be good to have for trading purposes after SHTF.

 

[shawkpilot]

I've been brewing for several years now. Never had any luck with the Mr Beer kits, but the 5 gallon setups have never failed me. I will do the first fermentation in the 6 gallon bucket, then transfer it into a glass carboy. I keep a towel wrapped around the carboy to keep the light off of it. wait until everything settles, and beer looks clear, then transfer to my bottling bucket. I would keg the beer, but my refridgerator is not condusive to drilling for a tap. (I have one of the commercial fridges with the glass doors) Kick ass, by the way!

Don't eat yellow snow, don't drink yellow beer.

 

[haldir]

A buddy made some beer one time. It was okay, but lacked any of the bitterness that I like in my beer.

 

[henktermaat]

whats the secret? i have 8 or 9 wine bottles saved up ready to start brewing... not really sure where to go from here though

The easiest way to go is to start with getting a "wine kit." Basically, all of the supplies can be bought at once. Don't buy new, check craigslist and ebay for someone getting out of winemaking. Here's an example of a wine kit: LINK-> 6 gallon Wine Making Equipment Kit for winemaking - eBay (item 350148648574 end time May-03-09 13:36:39 PDT)

Once you have the supplies, the easiest way (again) to go is to make wine from an ingredient kit. If you like wine, you'll be very happy with the results. It's basically a bag of juice and a few other ingredients.
Example: LINK -> Vintners Reserve Red Wines - Concentrate Wine Juice

If you want to make wine yourself from scratch, I'd make it from a kit a few times first to get a feel for the process.

You can make wine from anything, but it's hardly ever drinkable. I once made some watermelon wine from a recipe I found on the internet - they swore it was tasty. But, it was so nasty

 

[Mr. Mysterious]

I've been brewing for several years now. Never had any luck with the Mr Beer kits, but the 5 gallon setups have never failed me. I will do the first fermentation in the 6 gallon bucket, then transfer it into a glass carboy. I keep a towel wrapped around the carboy to keep the light off of it. wait until everything settles, and beer looks clear, then transfer to my bottling bucket. I would keg the beer, but my refridgerator is not condusive to drilling for a tap. (I have one of the commercial fridges with the glass doors) Kick ass, by the way!

Don't eat yellow snow, don't drink yellow beer.

So here is a question for you...what is the beer supposed to look like when it is fermenting? I'm not opening it up, but it's just kind of cloudy and yuck when I shine a surefire at it. The bottom is full of gunk. I always thought that the yeast would make it a little more active than what it looks like.

 

[henktermaat]

A friend of mine makes beer. Beer is a lot harder so it's easy to not be motivated to keep it up. Also, they all say that it's annoying to have so many of the same kind of beer around, you get sick of it before it's gone.

There is a lot of fun experimentation you can do with beer, but again, there's trial and error involved. If you mess up- then you have a large amount of of nasty beer that you drink by yourself because you can't bear to throw it out - because of the money you spent...

 

[shawkpilot]

While the beer is fermenting, it really does look cloudy. The sediment at the bottom is normal. When I do my first fermentation, my airlock goes crazy for 2 days, then it slows. once the bubbles stop, I transfer it to my secondary fermenter. Then the transferring will mix the yeast a little, and it will bubble in the airlock some more. Once it quits again, just let it set. The crap will all settle to the bottom slowly. You can actually see the sediment line as it sinks. Once the beer looks clear, siphon the beer out, trying to avoid sucking the yeast up (that's the stuff on the bottom). Mix in you priming sugar, and bottle. I normally will let the bottles sit 1-2 weeks to allow the beer to carbonate. Then just chill and enjoy.

Keeping your equipment clean is probably the biggest reason beers fail. make sure that you use sanitizer on all of your bottles, mixing spoons, buckets, etc....

If you get around Lawrenceburg, stop by and we'll toss a few back.

 

[Mr. Mysterious]

If you get around Lawrenceburg, stop by and we'll toss a few back.

I'd really love to. This is all new to me, but even with the Mr. Beer "training" wheels it was incredibly interesting.

I have four of the Mr. Beer kits that I will use and if I still find it as interesting I would like to move to the more complicated options like actually making my own wort.

I hope that this turns into something that I actually do for a hobby since I have a big closet that would be perfect to store everything in and keep it out of sight of the wife.

I was careful with the whole sanitation thing while I was working. From what I read it's pretty easy to "infect" your beer if you are not careful. It sounds like it won't kill you but it's not fun to open the fruits of your labor and have a big stinkin' bottle of skunk.

 

[gunrunner0320]

Never had any luck with beer but wine is another thing, my grandpa showed me how to make dandilion wine and grape wine. from scratch. no concentrates, its a little work but its fun . I am the only one of his grand kids that he showed how and I am proud of that fact, hes been gone now since 1999 and my dads brother's and sister's gave me his clay crock. gallon jugs, paper bags and balloons are some of what i use.

 

[slacker]

I made my first batch about 2 months ago and it actually came out great. It was a north rim wheat beer made with a kit from this site.

Beer Making Kits, Wine Making Kits and Supplies

I am not sure what my next batch will be. probably something on the lighter side for hot summer afternoons

 

[theweakerbrother]

Mr. Beer is a great intro into homebrew. You'll make something, you'll drink it and if you did it right, it will be drinkable. If you like what you did, you'll then probably want to go to the 5 gallon method and you can pass on your Mr. Beer to another soul to get him or her into homebrew. I love it, I just don't do it as much as I'd like.

 

[lawrra]

My cousin brews his own and it is very good. Around thanksgiving last year, he had a squash beer (dark, thick, a little spice, not too bitter) that was amazing. He has also brewed pumpkin beer (with a little pumpkin pie spice and fresh pumpkin from his garden). He's been doing it for a few years now, and comes out with an enjoyable beer every time. I can't wait for the holidays

 

[SirRealism]

Beer is a lot harder so it's easy to not be motivated to keep it up.

Keeping your equipment clean is probably the biggest reason beers fail. make sure that you use sanitizer on all of your bottles, mixing spoons, buckets, etc...

Amen x 10 !! Sanitize, sanitize, sanitize. I've made a few bad batches, and it's disheartening. It's no fun pouring out 5 cases of beer if a rogue bacteria goes to town.

I'm planning on dusting off the equipment and get brewing again. It's been too long. And there's nothing better than hearing that gurgling coming from the closet first thing in the morning.

 

[ahighland]

I've done a few batches. Haven't brewed in a a while because I've just been too busy. I need to brew again soon.

While it ferments it will look kinda gross, but it all settles out once fermentation stops. Patience is the hardest part of brewing for me.

 

[Timjoebillybob]

Haven't done beer yet, but been brewing wine off and on for a few years. Gonna try beer hopefully soon. But don't buy bottles for brewing check your local liquor store and see if they can get returnables, when I checked for my brother in law a case of new bottles was something like $12 or so, and I could get the returnables pre-filled for 18 or 20, or check with the local bars and see if you can buy a couple of cases of empties from them.