Quote :

"I currently have a clone of Stone's Ruination IPA fermenting"

yummy

i wanna make some beer!

11/9/2006 9:30:53 AM

I sampled some of my first batch of wine the other day. I'm not really a wine drinker so I can't give a professional opinion. It tasted more like fermented fruit juice than a wine. It wasn't bad, just didn't have a lot of depth. I'm going to let it condition a few more months and see how it turns out. Thinking about starting a new batch this weekend with a different recipe.

12/18/2006 2:45:22 PM

soon....

12/18/2006 7:22:28 PM

man its been quite a while since i have brewed, i am trying to plan my next beer but i cant decide what to make.

ideas:

imperial ipa
belgian imperial ipa
pils-noble type hop, saaz, sterling, etc
pils-american type hop-amarillo simcoe, centennial, etc
imperial stout
ipa like beer fermented with lager yeast

i have been wanting to break in to lagers for a while now.

i am strongly considering doing an extract only partial boil pils for sometype. even though i usually brew all grain this would be a quick and easy way to get the lager ball rolling.

would be awesome to make and imperial ipa and use the second runnings to make a lager. but thats a long brew day.

tww is a blog.

12/19/2006 10:22:37 PM

Bottled my imperial stout last night. We aged it on french and toasted oak chips. The french chips give it a nice vanilla-ish flavor....the flat beer was very tasty before we bottled it.

And now the wait until we can drink it....

12/20/2006 12:42:50 PM

You got enough to share?

12/20/2006 12:46:26 PM

Quote :

"Bottled my imperial stout last night. We aged it on french and toasted oak chips. The french chips give it a nice vanilla-ish flavor....the flat beer was very tasty before we bottled it. And now the wait until we can drink it...."

when you get ready to drink it...let me know...i still have a few bottles of my original imperial stout that i brewed a couple years ago. it one a third place ribbon at the last carboy competition. and was highly regared at the carboy meeting in october.

it was oak aged. toasted oak chiped soaked in either jack daniels or george dickel. i dont have my notebook in front of me right now.

ps i still have my black snad stout on tap... get it while its hot. stout with caramelized brown sugar and vanilla beans.

12/21/2006 1:20:04 AM

Sure, I'll let you know when we're ready to bottle. I was thinking about soaking the oak chips in bourbon first, but decided against that. Maybe I'll try it for a future batch.

I'd love to try some of the black snad stout, it sounds very tasty.

I plan on brewing my first all grain batch after the new year. Probably go with something basic like a pale ale or ESB. Still need to pick up a few 10 gallon gatorade coolers for a mash/lauter tun and hot liquor tun.

12/22/2006 2:07:39 AM

bttt

4/9/2007 12:45:14 PM

4/9/2007 1:10:28 PM

just made a Magic hat #9 clone with apricot extract... it was awesome. There is a great store off of capital that has everything you could want and the guys that work there are experts.

4/9/2007 1:51:12 PM

just made a pretty simple batch of English pale ale this weekend. Should be ready to dry hop in about a week.

also my dad made this device where you can pump the beer straight into a the bottle without losing the carbonation so theres no need for the sugars. Anyone else do that?

I also have a Flanders Red Ale which has been doing its thing for about 7 months and should be done in about 5 or 6. Anyone else try brewing something similar?

4/9/2007 4:45:32 PM

Quote :

""A sugarer," please tell me you aren't adding priming sugar individually to each bottle. please. just add it to the bottling bucket and gentley strir so as not to aerate. this its not only much easier but allows for more uniform carnonation. adding to each bottle leaves the chances of varying carbonation from bottle to bottle."

ehe, good idea. I wasn't in charge, just a helpful hand. I will recommend they do this next time if only for uniformity... Putting sugar in the bottles takes less time than filling them so if you have the manpower it doesn't make it take any longer.

That beer place off Capital is nice, and like right next door to where I work. I love the way it smells inside

[Edited on April 9, 2007 at 4:54 PM. Reason : d]

4/9/2007 4:54:07 PM

i have a pils type lager thats lagering @ 35F right now thats gonna be going on tap sometime between the 20th and 27th of april. i am gonna add my dry hops to the keg (2-3oz of whole leaf saaz or sterling). i think its gonna be quite nice for a first attempt at a lager. if anyone wants to try it let me know.

Quote :

"also my dad made this device where you can pump the beer straight into a the bottle without losing the carbonation so theres no need for the sugars. Anyone else do that?"

are you talking about a counter-pressure bottle filler? i have heard they are kind of a pain to use but work well. i thought about buying/building one but i only fill 6-12 maybe from a kegged batch so i either fill them from the keg very gently or fill bottles with uncarbonated beer from the keg and add a carbonation drop to each bottle and bottle condition as normal.

4/9/2007 7:02:57 PM

My first successful batch (a brown ale) just finished bottle conditioning. I'm surprised at how good it is! It was just from a kit, but I'm going to do a full-on ingredient recipe next.

4/9/2007 7:54:43 PM

Wait, homebrewing rewards alcoholism? Did I miss something? How does going through the trouble of finding and preparing ingredients, initial brewing, bottling/kegging, and waiting several weeks (if not months) in any way reward alcoholism? I'd think you'd do nothing of the sort if you had the shakes - an alcoholic would sooner drink a bottle of hairspray than wait several weeks for his beer to brew. That's just silly.

4/10/2007 2:30:13 PM

you drunk

4/10/2007 9:56:44 PM

bttt

9/6/2007 10:57:14 AM

I'm trying to decide whether I want to try this or not, but what sort of space/lighting requirements are there for brewing, if any at all?

9/6/2007 10:58:29 AM

No lighting requirements, and minimal space. I use to brew all-grain batches in a very small apartment.

You only need a stove and about a 1.5 square foot area to stick a fermenting bucket.

[Edited on September 6, 2007 at 11:23 AM. Reason : .]

9/6/2007 11:23:13 AM

how about pricing... what is the initial investment you are looking at?

9/6/2007 11:29:12 AM

American Brewmaster over near Capital Blvd has a starter kit for $49.50.

After that, you'll need a pot to boil about 3-4 gallons on (preferably stainless steel), and then ingredients. Ingredients will probably be around 30 bucks for your first batch.

I got a pot, bottles, caps, ingredients, kit...everything I needed when I was starting out, and it was about 120-130 I think.

http://www.americanbrewmaster.com/catalog/

9/6/2007 11:32:43 AM

currently collecting figs for my next batch

thinking about throwing them in either a hefeweizen or dunkelweizen

9/7/2007 12:58:09 AM

someone brought a fig beer into work today (at American Brewmaster). it was pretty damn tasty. I'd say go ahead and do one! it might clash a bit in a hefe or dunkelweiss...in an american wheat it would be pretty tasty though.

i'm currently building up some Wyeast 2206 (bavarian lager)...going to do a baltic porter. i may do a munich helles first, and then pitch the baltic porter on the cake...we'll see.

9/8/2007 9:58:40 PM

^^

Oh man I wish I still owned my house, my old neighbors had this BIG ass fig tree and were always trying to find something to do with all the figs.

9/8/2007 10:14:51 PM

im brewing right now in my tiny ass apartment on my little stove.

i hope i dont destroy the place.

9/9/2007 11:55:04 AM

FYI
this promo company will make your own custom pint glasses

http://www.4imprint.com/glassware

72 @ 2.59 each 16oz
or
72 @ 3.39 each for 20oz

[Edited on September 17, 2007 at 10:45 AM. Reason : i know thats a lot of glasses but its the min. qty.]

9/17/2007 10:44:46 AM

Yeah, that's a shit ton of glasses.

Brewing my Munich Helles today.

9/17/2007 11:06:22 AM

Just finished bottle conditioning my brown ale at room temp yesterday and put them in the fridge for crash cooling. I tried one and the caramel and chocolate nose and flavor was amazing.

9/18/2007 12:10:51 PM

man i really wish that i could get motivated to brew again.

i think my next beer will be a chocolate cherry coffee stout.

9/18/2007 2:58:56 PM

^What's kinda been stopping me from brewing more often is the heat.

Once the tap water gets nice and cool....cooling my wort down to pitching temps will be much easier with my chiller.

Right now it's taking quite a long time....yesterday it took me over an hour to get my 6 gallons of wort down to 50 F.

9/18/2007 8:23:52 PM

I just bottled my summer/fall mead. Ended up being about 14.5%, has an awesome fragrance, and I'm excited about drinking it in a year or so.

9/18/2007 8:54:28 PM

I was just thinking about this the other day, and have been toying around with the idea of trying this

on a scale of 1-10, how hard is that first initial batch, if you get starter equipment, and a simple recipe?

11/5/2007 2:39:30 PM

doesn't it require a lot of water? i know a guy who isn't brewing right now because of the drought.

11/5/2007 2:40:32 PM

the typical way to cool it is to run cold water though a condenser inside the vat of hot beer. so yes, you can waste a lot of water that way. but if you put a long hose on the end, i guess you have a way to water your yard legally....

11/5/2007 4:36:53 PM

home distilling would be more fun.

11/5/2007 7:04:43 PM

Hmmmm. Let's see. Thread value = 9.75/10

My roommate and my recent brews:

Hickory-smoked partial grain nut brown (1 more week for bottle conditioning to complete; already tastes like a stout).
Gingerbread porter.
Hell's Angel (blond; spoiled, still don't know what went wrong... .
Dry-hopped IPA.

All of these have been excellent beers. Definitely a little on the flat side, but tasty, tasty, tasty none-the-less. I am gradually increasing my corn sugar as I do batches, trying to find the balance between a 5 gal. batch and close-to-commercially-produced beer carbonation. We boil it down in water and add it before bottling.

Also, we bottle (which isn't so much of a pain in the ass at this point...we've got it down to a fine science. Washing and drying the bottles takes the longest time in this part of the process).

You want glass carboys or kegs in which to ferment.

Cost is worth it.

The "hobby" only rewards alcoholism once the beer is ready to be drank (and even then I find that I can only consume two or three at a time, due to heaviness, strength of taste, etc.).

Buy growlers, they cut down on the "intensive" bottling process (although they're harder to fill unless they're translucent).

Definitely get into it if you think it would be fun.

Obligatory PluG:
http://www.americanbrewmaster.com

11/5/2007 11:15:41 PM

Kegged my milk stout a week ago...pretty tasty stuff. I've also got a Munich Helles lagering that I'll keg in 2 weeks.

I've got a Peach Berliner Weisse conditioning right now to get the acidity up....should be ready in 2 months or so.

Brewed a smoked porter over the weekend.

Probably going to brew this weekend. Going to ferment a beer with 100% Brettanomyces.

Quote :

"on a scale of 1-10, how hard is that first initial batch, if you get starter equipment, and a simple recipe?"

probably about a 3. incredibly easy.

Quote :

" All of these have been excellent beers. Definitely a little on the flat side, but tasty, tasty, tasty none-the-less. I am gradually increasing my corn sugar as I do batches, trying to find the balance between a 5 gal. batch and close-to-commercially-produced beer carbonation. We boil it down in water and add it before bottling."

Just curious, do you refrigerate your batches right after you bottle? I found that 3/4 cup of corn sugar quite sufficient for a 5 gallon batch. I used to stick my bottles in a warm location on top of my fridge, and they were fully carbonated in a week or two.

Nice called on the American Brewmaster plug. Great store, great people that work there.

11/7/2007 4:09:21 PM

No, I don't refrigerate, but when I get another fridge, I will start. I hear lagering is the way to go for smoothness and for bringing out subtle tastes.

We keep our bottles in a cabinet in the kitchen (room temperature, dark).

11/7/2007 7:43:05 PM

[Edited on November 7, 2007 at 10:25 PM. Reason : ']

11/7/2007 10:25:29 PM

i've wanted to do this for a long time, maybe soon

11/8/2007 4:01:28 AM

My friend and I just started brewing last month. Our first batch was supposed to be kind of a porter, but it tastes almost kind of thin. We just finished bottling a pale ale, and I'm pretty stoked about it because the fresh beer tastes like it has a lot more body to it. We used distilled water for our first batch, but just straight-up Raleigh tap water for the second.

^^^^We also got all of our shit (the fitty some-odd bucks starter kit) from American Brewmaster out on Capital, they've been very helpful. Probably go get a carboy from them next.

11/8/2007 6:05:29 PM

not sure if you figured it out or not, but avoid using distilled water, as minerals are important

11/8/2007 7:32:35 PM

Quote :

"not sure if you figured it out or not, but avoid using distilled water, as minerals are important"

Not totally true. When malt extract is made, it will contain the minerals that were used when the extract company made the wort to concentrate. So if you add distilled water to that, you will end up with the same water profile that was used to make the extract.

However, sometimes that's not enough for certain beers. For instance, if you're making a dark beer (such as a porter or stout), and using light extract with specialty grains, you won't have nearly enough minerals to bring the wort/beer to the desired water profile and pH. In that case, I would probably add a small amount of chalk (calcium carbonate) or sodium bicarbonate.

11/8/2007 9:46:28 PM

I just use water crystals to harden up the water some.

11/8/2007 10:43:37 PM

Sampled my Berliner Weisse today. Sourness is coming along pretty nicely so far. Will develop more over the next 2 months. Also added peaches to the fermenter.

11/9/2007 10:13:22 PM

brewed a Christmas Stout last Sunday, added some nutmeg and Irish moss for a little spice, I really hope it turns out good as me and the guys at brew master kinda concocted this ourselves and no one really knows what the end result shall be

11/24/2007 6:03:23 PM

^ As far as I know Irish moss is a fining agent, not a spice and why did you just add it now? It's usually added at boil out, gelatin would have been a better bet after fermentation.

11/25/2007 6:01:26 PM

^i ment that was all added during boil, i just got around to posting it on here i will be bottling it anyday now, just gotta find the time to do it

11/26/2007 1:08:25 PM

back in it.

11/30/2007 3:13:12 AM