Any homebrewers out there?

[Tommy L]

Ive just started homebrewing and I wondered if my regular forum holds any wisdom for me.

[Gary Ledgerwood]

I tried one of those Mr. Beer kits years ago and failed miserably. I find it to be much less work to drag myself to the bar or the grocery store to buy some. Best of luck. Maybe I will find one of yours brews in my grocery store someday.

[AJLynn]

I don't do it myself but I've always been told that if you make mead, you can use it for women.

[WAcky]

It's becoming quite popular in Melbourne. I just spotted my first homebrew dedicated shop. There are micro breweries around that will do runs of your beer if you come up with a recipe that you're happy with which sounds awesome. My grandfather uses the supermarket stuff and its probably the worst shit I've ever tasted. (And wouldn't you know it my Pommy cousin in law loves it) It is a cause for lols tho as about 50% of them just foam everywhere upon opening.

 

I'd love to try it If I had the patience and time.

[Macer]

Yeah I used to do it years ago when I lived in Brisbane.

 

Start simple and build it up as you go. I started with small batches trying different recipes, until I got a base flavour that I liked and tried to improve it from there.

 

Important things are:

Cleanliness of equipment

Maintaining correct temps

Additional filtering is good

Adding more sugar makes for a more alcoholic but less drinkable beer

Longer fermentation in the bottle gives you smoother smaller bubbles

 

Its all trial and error really. Unfortunately any recipes I still have will be in storage back in Oz. If you do a bit of research you can usually find recipes for popular local beers though, might be a good starting point.

 

Good luck. Please update us on your progress!

[Tommy L]

On reflection, the similarities between brewing and rendering are quite astonishing.

 

1: Its creating something when you know what the outcome is desired, but you dont know exactly what its going to be.

2: You know what inputs and settings to tweak and its best if you understand the math / science behind how and why they do what they do.

3: The outcome is a matter of taste.

4: You have to cook it for a while.

5: You learn from your experiences and its best if you log your processes.

6: You do all the work then hit render.....you plan, make and boil the beer, then hit ferment.

[DanGrover]

On reflection, the similarities between brewing and rendering are quite astonishing.

 

1: Its creating something when you know what the outcome is desired, but you dont know exactly what its going to be.

2: You know what inputs and settings to tweak and its best if you understand the math / science behind how and why they do what they do.

3: The outcome is a matter of taste.

4: You have to cook it for a while.

5: You learn from your experiences and its best if you log your processes.

6: You do all the work then hit render.....you plan, make and boil the beer, then hit ferment.

 

On that subject, I saw some benchmarks that suggested that for rendering brewing darker ales, allowing it to ferment in the casket is up to 10% faster than brewing it in the bottle. On the other hand, you already have the bottles (as you'll need them at the end anyway) so it's built in already, so that's one less cost. Apparantly in the next version of the bottles it'll be a lot quicker though.

[AJLynn]

So you're saying the casket has hyperthreading?

 

Funny, I was talking with one of my friends this weekend who used to homebrew, and I've always wanted to try but neither of us have the space - then I found this place in Natick from an article in Beer Advocate that has a supply shop attached to facilities for doing 15-gallon batches and you get the supplies and time on the equipment, label printing and bottling as a package deal. We're going to give it a shot.

 

Anybody else ever gone to a place like that? And moreover, if there are enough of us the Boston area to get together for a "brewfest" we can pay for 5 batches and get the 6th free... anybody?