Home Brewing with Kingnat

I realize home brewing isn't some brand new concept... but I've seen it brought up in various best beer threads here and there, and I wanted to start a thread about it.

I've been intrigued by the idea of homebrewing when I first discovered that it was possible to actually brew your own beer... (like 13 years ago). Back then I thought Bud Light in a bottle was pretty much the zenith of the beer drinking experience. Ah.. the good ol' days. *tear*... I don't remember when things started really changing a lot for me, but the first "dark" beer I ever drank that I liked was Michelob Amber Bock. (I fully recognize the irony of this statement.) But for the past 6 years or so I've strongly preferred IPAs, Stouts, etc. I still love me some Natural Light and PBR, so don't start hating on beers that are like water. However these days I'm aiming to make me some strong, flavorful home brew in general.

I thought this thread could serve to answer questions, share recipes, and the like.

I'm currently on my 5th batch of beer (bottling tonight). The first 3 sucked and I'll get into why in a later post.

The only GOOD beer I've made thus far was an IPA... it's not the best beer I've ever had, but had I gone into a store and purchased a 6-pack from some microbrewery for like $8... and it tasted like my homebrew I wouldn't be disappointed. That might not sound like glowing praise, but I don't know if I'll be able to brew a much better beer than that. Although I have some ideas. I'll post the recipe for it later.

My latest beer is a hopped up stout. That I think will come in at about 7% alcohol by volume. I'm pretty pumped about it, but it's going to need to rack (sit in the bottles) for about a month or more I'm guessing... and I'm not very patient with that kind of thing.

Looking forward to the discussion.

http://photos-h.ak.facebook.com/phot...48551_8060.jpg

This is pic of my ingredients for the IPA.

4 lbs of Mountmellick Malt Extract (pre-Hopped Malt Extract); Export Ale extract which has hops extract included
4 lbs of Amber Dry Malt Extract (DME)
1 lb of Crushed Crystal Malt
1 oz Millenium @ 45 mins
1 oz Amarillo @ 30 min
1 oz Willamette 3 min
Water was from the Tap… 2 gallons used in wort, 3 gallons chilled from 8am until 4pm

I didn't intend to used the pre-hopped extract syrup, but extra hops wasn't going to hurt the IPA.

good luck

i think if i were to try this that i'd fuck it up

Alton Brown has an AMAZING episode concerning brewing your own beer, on Food TV, explaining a lot of the beginner stuff, and giving some good pro-tips concerning bottling your own.

I can only reccomend that as, I have never brewed my own. Although I intend to try this winter.

Well now... Looks like I will have to make a trip up to Old Town in the near future! You do have a guest-room right?

I make wine, can I post in here?

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Originally Posted by mrhappy333

I make wine, can I post in here?

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Only if you make your own cheese as well. :lol:

I'm editing the above pic with the ingredients list.

Good luck with the beers!

I had home fermented hard cider once and that was solid as well as homemade wine. Never beer though.

This looks very interesting. I will be following along with a view to doing this myself. Please continue.

I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

I used to homebrew a lot but it's been awhile and I sold all of my equipment. One thing I would recommend is doing a full-wort boil. You would need a brewpot big enough to hold all of your wort (like a 7 gallon canning pot that would sit on two burners) and a wort chiller like this one: http://www.northernbrewer.com/wort-chillers.html

My beer really improved when I went to a full wort boil... you get better hop extraction and the quick cooling provided by the wort chiller precipitates out a lot of solids, giving a clearer product and probably a tastier one.

I've brewed over 20 batches, have about 100 bottles in my basement.

Most of my beer tastes like an $8 (midwest pricing) 6-pack, but it costs the same as natty as is usually higher alcohol %.

Homebrewing an easily drinkable beer is EASY. All the difficulty is in keeping things clean. The only batch I screwed up it's because I left ingredients sitting in my kitchen in the summer for a week. Need to refrigerate the hops :-(

I've never tried the 5 gallon like zook mentioned. Never did all-grain either. Those will pump your beer into the amazing range.

Nat, hopped stout has been done (as you could probably have guessed). When done right it's pretty good, although not exactly my cup of tea.

I made one batch this spring that was just malt extract, and I think 2 oz of columbus hops for balance, and 2 for flavor. The flavor is like a double IPA, but it's not as thick. Pretty delicious.

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Originally Posted by mrhappy333

I make wine, can I post in here?

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Please.

All mine has had an aftertaste. I'm 95% is from not switching secondary fermentors enough to get all the dead yeast off the bottom.

i haven't tried homebrewing, but my fishing buddy does and his beers are excellent
this is his setup
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h2...d/DSC01201.jpg
good luck brewwing

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Originally Posted by flomo

i haven't tried homebrewing, but my fishing buddy does and his beers are excellent
this is his setup
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h2...d/DSC01201.jpg
good luck brewwing

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Nice!!.. Yes, i have several friends who are far more serious than myself, and they all suggest buying a turkey fryer and doing a full boil wort (where you boil your ingredients in a keg with the top cut off, then use a wort chiller (coiled up piece of copper that runs cold water to cool your wort down before you pitch your yeast), and they say it's the bitches tits and what not....

Currently I use my lobster pot (Maine love!!) and do about a 2 gallon boil, and then throw 3 gallons or so of water into my chest freezer for 6+ hours so that part is near freezing... then when mixing the two together I can get it right near what i need to pitch my yeast without killing it. So far I have strategies that make pretty solid beer with fairly minimal investment for equipment, and I'd like to keep it that way for a bit. As I think there are many variables ot control in my current set-up and I don't need to be spending a load of cash without SPECIFIC good reasons.

I did get my stout bottled tonight. So i'm a bit soused at the current time.

Note to swig... I'm well aware that any and all brews I try to put together have been done 1 million times before. Aside from injecting massive amounts of my own semen into a batch, I doubt I'll be able to achieve any unique flavors or recipes, but I'm having fun with what I'm doing. And so far, it's not terrible.

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Originally Posted by mrhappy333

I make wine, can I post in here?

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wine is good... what kind do you make?

Getting Started in Homebrew - THE EQUIPMENT

I'm going to offer a few suggestions for getting started... all of these come from very limited experience, but very recent experience. I'm hopeful that with a decent but recently developed understanding I'll be able to explain things in a relatively straight forward way that easy to understand.

My goal in making beer was finding a way to make beer up to the quality one can get when buying a 6-pack of microbrew (~$8), with a balance of speed, ease, enjoyment, and low cost. As you decrease speed, decrease ease, and increase cost you can always get better beer, but I'm trying to find the happy balance. Feel free to offer suggestions or revisions, but please be clear about how your suggestion affects each of these variables so it's clear for the casual reader.

Equipment -
Much of the equipment you need has the important caveat that you MUST be able to clean it at the micro-organism level. Some, but not all pieces will touch the wort/beer at times when it is at a temperature that makes it susceptible to spoilage. This is the main point of anxiety for the home-brewer.. you work hard and spend money and the whole thing goes to shit. This is one of the issues about which I was most concerned and really paralyzed me with fear and kept me from really diving in. I hope I can alleviate some of you concerns with some tips I've come to realize that helped me get over the hump.

When buying equipment there seem to be two main factors cost and ease. They are most often inversely proportional. Much of the equipment needed can be purchased at various medical supply stores or hardware store, and crafted on your own. This will likely decrease cost, but is not easy if you are totally unfamiliar with where to get these things. A lot of advice suggests "oh, go to this kinda store and pick up this and this and this... it's relatively easy to put it all together". This is probably very true once one has taken all the time and effort needed to figure out proper hose lengths and diameters, values, fasteners, etc. So if you have previously done this, it sounds easy to do it again. But for a first timer, I'm fairly convinced that this is a silly way to go about getting started unless you have someone to hold your hand while you do it.

The alternative is to buy a kit with all essential pieces included and go from there. For the true do it yourself-er this most likely sounds like a turn off, but I think if you're just getting started and want to get your feet wet this is truly the way to go. For <$75 (http://www.northernbrewer.com/starterkits.html) you can get a starter kit with all the essential pieces. If that's more than you want to spend, you'll need to go with the hunt and gather mode... good luck! This set will include everything you need for a good long while. As you have success and increased interest it will be easy to upgrade pieces as you go. (e.g. glass carboys, using a full-boil wort, a turkey fryer, the wort chiller, kegs, keg-arator, etc.) There are kits that can be purchased that are less expensive still, but this basic setup allows for a large range of beers and lots of flexibility.

This set up will brew you 5 gallons of beer (or ~ 2 cases of beer). A few other essentials are empty bottles, a brew pot, a liquid thermometer, a long-handled stainless steel stirring spoon, and ingredients for whatever kind of beer you'd like to make.

The Thermometer - Something cheap like this: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...VL._SS500_.jpg works fine... digital ones are also fine, but you will be using this to measure liquids and you must be able to sterilize it as you will be measuring liquids at potentially unsafe temperatures.

The Pot - The pot for cooking the wort (which is what the beer flavored sugar water is called) can be any canning pot, or lobster pot that should be able to hold 2.5-3 gallons of water. Many will already have a pot of this type available.

The Bottles - The bottles is another thing that slowed me down a lot. I like to drink beer, but I don't usually buy a ton of beer that comes in pop-top bottles. So collecting in excess of 48 bottles that I was confident could be easily cleaned was something that really sabotaged my interest. I've come up with a few suggestions. In terms of collecting bottles, 1) put the word out to all your friends that you need pop-top bottles (rinsed out preferably), 2) have a beer tasting party where everyone brings a six-pack of quality microbrew beer (most of which should be pop-tops), 3) go to the local recycling center and see if you can buy recycled bottles back from them (i'm not sure if this would work but i don't see why it wouldn't, 4) just buy new clean bottles from a brew store. (other suggestions?)

Having really good boxes to put your bottles in is also essential, so don't throw those away. In terms of cleaning, a thorough rinse after a bottle is poured will be sufficient until it's time to bottle your beer. If you can get your hands on large boxes that will hold a case of beer bottles it's even better as you can keep a cover over them. I really wanted to avoid having to scrub the shit out of each bottle that I used, and I'm fairly confident one can avoid all that step if it's well rinsed after drinking, stored in dry place, and *immediately before bottling* is then allowed to soak in cleaning solution (and thereafter rinsed).

The Local Brew Store: If you have a store that carries home brewing products nearby, check out their prices and selection. More on the local brew store in the next post.

I'll close this out for now as it's approaching epic length.

Thanks dude. I have been wanting to do this for years- maybe I will finally go through with it :)

this thread has content and should not be allowed in the commune



great stuff kingnat :D

5 :spade: 's

Ingredients -

I don't have a ton of tips on ingredients as there are recipes all over the interwebs, and places like northernbrewer.com have many all-inclusive kits available that definitely don't make shitty beer.

From my own experience, I can say that having a local shop that sells brewing supplies has made my brewing experience immensely enjoyable. Given that I can run down to the "Natural Living Center" and have my choice of 6 varieties of dry malt extract, and over 16 different grains, tons of hop and yeast varieties is fucking awesome because it allows me to build most any beer I want. If I was ordering ingredients piece-wise out of a catalog only it would be far more frustrating especially when starting out with the first few brews. Although i didn't buy any of them, I think a complete kit like: http://www.northernbrewer.com/docs/kis-html/1041.html is probably a very good decision for the first time brewer that doesn't have a local store they can hit up.

Fermentables -
Malt Extract Syrup - This stuff comes in a can and comes in various flavors. Some of Pre-hopped others are not. I like lots of hops, so I'm never going to be satisfied with JUST the hops in the can, but if that's not a big deal to you, one could just go with the hop'd flavorign of the syrup. Near as I can tell there is a lot of flavor imparted from the syrup.

Dry Malt Extract - I'm not sure how much flavor DME actually adds to a giving beer, but this powder obviously provides a lot of sugar for your yeast to convert into alcohol. There is obviously more flavor from DME vs. plain corn sugar which does nothing except make alcohol and make potentially make your beer taste cheap.

Honey, Brown Sugar, other fermentables - Basically yeast eats sugar and makes the by-product is alcohol (God Bless yeast!). So any sugar can be used.. honey is preferred by many, but it quite expensive. And I'm sure those that have brewed a lot have tried many of these things.

Gah... i started working on this and now I need to work on other things, I'll try to work on this more later.

I'm sure kingnat's posts are good, tl;dr

This is a great book:
http://www.amazon.com/New-Complete-J.../dp/0380763664

I would highly recommend it for anyone interested in getting started. Seriously the hardest part is keeping everything clean. And by hard I mean tedious.

Nat, wasn't trying to rip on your idea. Experimenting is definitely part of it.

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Originally Posted by swiggidy

I'm sure kingnat's posts are good, tl;dr

This is a great book:
http://www.amazon.com/New-Complete-J.../dp/0380763664

I would highly recommend it for anyone interested in getting started. Seriously the hardest part is keeping everything clean. And by hard I mean tedious.

Nat, wasn't trying to rip on your idea. Experimenting is definitely part of it.

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It's cool, man, I was just afraid you were going to go a bit snobby on me. When I first started getting in to this and reading different things (like Joy of Homebrewing which I thoroughly enjoyed, but haven't read in some time) and thinking of different stuff... my first thoughts were. WOW.. I could ferment anything and create some totally original brews!!... and I quickly discovered, no you won't because people have been doing this for thousands of years and the homebrew industry has been around for 30+ years... EVERYTHIGN has been done and you aren't going to make ANYTHING original at this point.

I was kinda bummed when I realized this, but i take a little solace in the notion that any beer anyone makes is going to be unique. Given the water, the timing of everything, subtle differences in the ingredients. It's a 'no two snowflakes'-kinda thing. But I <3 u swig, I remember you had mentioned home-brewing before.. and you and I seem to be cut from the same alcohol-soaked liver.

For the early starters that want to read up.. I HIGHLY recommend:
http://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html

It's basically an online book with very very good content, much of which I may repeat here as I spew out my thoughts and ideas which is molded in part from everything I've read. He gets into some real specific details if you're interested in the chemistry and what not.

Here are the notes I took while brewing my IPA... i had the computer in the kitchen and I was OVERLY anal with getting everything down so i could go back and review in case things got fucked up...

As water was brought to a boil (started 2:15pm), the steeping bag with crushed crystal malt was put in the wort. When it reached a nearly full boil the bag was removed (3:00pm). Extract syrup was warmed and added while stirring (3:10pm). DME Amber was added while stirring as well, almost immediately after the syrup… the wort was then stirred until foaming subsided (3:20). The Millenium hops was immediately added after the foaming subsided (3:20). This will serve as the 45 minute mark. We had a bit of boilover, around 3:24 or so…and may have lost some hops, but got things cleaned up and proceeded. The Amarillo hops was added at the 30 minute mark (3:35). The yeast began re-hydrating at 3:50, and at 4:00, I added a Tablespoon of sugar to proof it. The Willamette hops were added at the 3 min mark. (4:02) The wort was moved to the sink with the coldest tap water and stirred, then placed in the other sink with the ice bath (although there wasn’t much in the way of ice) and it was stirred again. The wort was poured from height of 3 ft into the ice cold water. (SEE YEAST BELOW) Pitching temperature was 77 deg F (4:25). I placed the fermenting vessel, in a recycling bin that was lined with a garbage bag, to help with spills and put it in my closet.

Hydrometer Initial Reading: 1060-1061, from the top of the wort, immediately before pitching the yeast
Taste at Hydrometer Reading: almost undrinkably sharp taste from the hops (WOO-HOO!!); the reading was taken from the top of the wort, the aroma was very hoppy. Though I’ve abused my nose so much with sniffing from the empty hops bags I may have residue in my nasal cavity.

Yeast: Rinsed the large pyrex measuring cup w/ boilingwater, then added boiled water to it to cool in time to pitch the yeast. Pitched the yeast from the can, re-hydrated then added the proofing sugar. Nothing was happening and it was almost time to pitch, so I added a pack of the Coopers yeast that we had purchased fro our first beer. I dumped that, stirred quickly, and up came a strong head of form shortly thereafter. I pitched at 77 deg F.

Cost: $35

I can’t think of anything that I KNOW for certain I messed up except for the boil over where I MAY have lost some of the Millenium Hops. I plan to add a small amount of dry hops to the fermentation vessel after the initial fermentation has ceased in 4-5 days.

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Originally Posted by kingnat

It's cool, man, I was just afraid you were going to go a bit snobby on me.

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Dang.

There is a bar by my house that has 60 beers on draft, with 2 standard (PBR and Miller). 20 are rotated about once a month for seasonals. They have some hoppy stouts, I was a little disappointed. I did learn that I LOVE Imperial Stouts because they're think creamy and delicious.

I think what it might be is Moss hops (not 100% on the name). They almost have a flavor like spices. I made a belgium kit and it's just ok, pretty sure the same hops were in the stout I tried.

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Originally Posted by swiggidy

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Originally Posted by kingnat

It's cool, man, I was just afraid you were going to go a bit snobby on me.

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Dang.

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Dude, don't sweat it, I'm glad you didn't mean anything by it, I didn't figure you would... I just want everything to be happy and well-buzzed in this thread. I'm not sure where I want to go in this thread... I think the starter equipment and ingredients is 90% of the battle. I just finished up talking with a graduate student at my school, who is going to buy some bulk Dry Malt Extract with me and another guy. We're picking up a 50 lb. tub of Light DME, for $3.20 /lb (shipping included) which is about $1 less than the local store buying a pound at a time.

It is his opinion that wet malt extract (the syrupy stuff from the can); is about 85% sugar and the DME is 100% sugars, and that we can make a 4% abv with around 5 lbs of DME. So my next beer will be no syrup, ALL DME with ~2 lbs of grains for flavor. I'm not really sure how much (if any) sugar extraction I'm getting from my grains, but I'm pretty sure it adds significantly to the taste.

I was a bit concerned about using ONLY light DME while still wanting to make darker more flavorful beers, and my guy says using only light DME with chocolate malt grain and the like should get things plenty dark (~ porter range at least). Any thoughts on this?

I still have a few weeks before hitting this up as I'm making a hard cider tonight. I'm a little nervous about it, as I read lots of stuff about the "proper" type of cider to use... my brewing buddy and I are trying to go dirt cheap... with some Sam Club's Cider that is both pastuerized AND has perservatives. I've read this is not a good idea, but it's so crazy cheap we HAD to give it a go. We're going to add yeast nutrient, when we pitch our yeast, and pass it through a filter to increase the oxygen in the cider (which is important for good yeast growth).

The plan is to put it in our bottling bucket, for primary fermentaiton, then transfer to the regular bucket for ~ 10day-2weeks. Then bottle with priming sugar, for a carbonated hard cider.

Stumbled into this thread from a link in flomo's. I'm a bit of a homebrew enthusiast myself.

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Originally Posted by kingnat

I'm not really sure how much (if any) sugar extraction I'm getting from my grains, but I'm pretty sure it adds significantly to the taste.

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You definitely get better sugars using extracts as compared to mashing your own, but more grain gives better head :shock: and body. And the guys you're splitting the dme with are right, you definitely get 100% malt with the dme, and only 85% with lme, however lmes are accordingly cheaper. Also lmes have gone through less processing and imo are less removed from the original barley, not that I have any reason to believe that it helps or hurts a beer.

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Originally Posted by kingnat

I was a bit concerned about using ONLY light DME while still wanting to make darker more flavorful beers, and my guy says using only light DME with chocolate malt grain and the like should get things plenty dark (~ porter range at least). Any thoughts on this?

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Of course I have thoughts on this. :) There are plenty of great beers you can go with light, extra light, or pilsener lme and still have opportunity to make great dark beers because your steeping grains like roasted barley, crystal malts, chocolate malt, and black patent contribute almost exclusively to the flavor depth and/or darkness. I'd say if you are going to bulk up on any dme, it should be a light one because it's most versatile. I don't fault you for buying in bulk to cut costs, if you look around for recipes you will find plenty of variety. You could do stouts with light extract provided you steep that black patent and crystals like a mf. Don't over grain it, just make sure it get as much "value" out of your grains by either not using a tight bag, or just dumping them in direct and dealing with the aftermath using a strainer (total mess) before you boil. I have made a stout with light dme this past summer and it is totally fine, probably my 2nd favt stout I've made. I have been doing homebrews about once every 2-3 months on average for the past 3 years.

As for the cider project, sounds cool - I look forward to hearing how it goes.

One last echo of swig's plug for Papazian's book, it is after all the bible. The style guide and first 1/3rd of the book alone is worth its cost, not to mention all of the grain and equipment advice in the advanced section, and oh yea the entertainment value of reading the cock ale recipe, and all actual realistic beer recipes I've found to be top notch. It's the best value for any beer equipment purchase I've made yet hands down.

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Originally Posted by kingnat

Though I’ve abused my nose so much with sniffing from the empty hops bags I may have residue in my nasal cavity.

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lol I missed this. You know you are into it when this happens. My wife calls me crazy for getting high on that goat food. (assuming pellets, all i've ever used).

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Originally Posted by FlyingSaucy

You know you are into it when you smoke hops in your bong.

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fyp

100% agree on Papazian. Plus he makes sure you never forget to relax and have a homebrew!

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Originally Posted by FlyingSaucy

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kingnat

I was a bit concerned about using ONLY light DME while still wanting to make darker more flavorful beers, and my guy says using only light DME with chocolate malt grain and the like should get things plenty dark (~ porter range at least). Any thoughts on this?

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Of course I have thoughts on this. :) There are plenty of great beers you can go with light, extra light, or pilsener lme and still have opportunity to make great dark beers because your steeping grains like roasted barley, crystal malts, chocolate malt, and black patent contribute almost exclusively to the flavor depth and/or darkness. I'd say if you are going to bulk up on any dme, it should be a light one because it's most versatile. I don't fault you for buying in bulk to cut costs, if you look around for recipes you will find plenty of variety. You could do stouts with light extract provided you steep that black patent and crystals like a mf. Don't over grain it, just make sure it get as much "value" out of your grains by either not using a tight bag, or just dumping them in direct and dealing with the aftermath using a strainer (total mess) before you boil. I have made a stout with light dme this past summer and it is totally fine, probably my 2nd favt stout I've made. I have been doing homebrews about once every 2-3 months on average for the past 3 years.

As for the cider project, sounds cool - I look forward to hearing how it goes.

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Awesome man! Thanks for the info... it worries me a bit taking advice from a sole source, but your comments really calms the worries of my anxious liver.

I've been sampling some of the hoppy stout that I bottled 2 weeks ago, I first tried it after 1 week.. and there is a remarkable improvement in the dryness and bitterness. I realize I should let it sit for more like 1-2 months.. but I'm weak. Some day I hope to have enough beers going that I can wait substantially on each one.. but for now I totally love it.

The Cider has been sitting in the primary fermenter for about 10 days now.. and it's never really had the type of extremely active fermentation that I saw with my other beers, but I think it's getting the job done. I'm going to be transferring it to secondary fermentation (which I have yet to do)... and let it sit for another couple of weeks. Fortuitously, I stumbled across a 5-gallon carboy in teh basement of the physics building last week. So I'm going to sanitize that and perform 2nd-ary in there, so that I can really give it a chance to sit for awhile and clear up more before bottling.

This way I can also keep the two buckets that came with my starter kit, up and working on another batch when the bulk ingredients come in. I'm in discussions with my neighbor whether to try a lager or a porter. I'm definitely going to be backing off of my relatively high alcohol content (stout is 7.1% abv), in order to cut costs a bit. Giving the on-set of winter I'd rather go darker.

If anybody has any questions.. fire away. NO SUCH THING AS DUMB QUESTIONS!!! Anybody jumping on this?

make an awesome nut brown and send me a bottle or 24?

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Originally Posted by bode

make an awesome nut brown and send me a bottle or 24?

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Go crazy (from: http://www.byo.com/recipe/1057.html)

TableRock Nut Brown Ale
(5 gallon/19 liter, extract with grains)
OG = 1.054 FG = 1.015 IBUs = 18 Alcohol 5.3% by volume

Ingredients
6 lbs. (2.7 kg) Briess light extract syrup
1 lb. (0.45 kg) dextrin malt
0.5 lb. (0.23 kg) Carastan malt
6 oz. (168 g) brown malt
4 oz. (112 g) crystal malt (120 °L)
2 oz. (56 g) black patent malt
2 oz. (56 g) chocolate malt
5.8 AAU Willamette hops (bittering hop)
(1.0 oz. (28 g) of 5.8% alpha acid)
1 tsp. Irish moss
White Labs WLP001 (California Ale) or Wyeast 1056 (American Ale) yeast
O.75 cup of corn sugar (for priming)

Step by Step
Steep the six crushed grains in 3 gallons (11.4 liters) of water at 150 ºF (66 °C) for 30 minutes. Remove the grains from the wort, add malt syrup and bring to a boil. Add Willamette (bittering) hops, Irish moss and boil for 60 minutes.
When done boiling, add wort to 2 gallons (7.6 liters) cool water in a sanitary fermenter, and top off with cool water to 5.5 gallons (20.9 liters). Cool the wort to 80 ºF (27 °C), heavily aerate the beer and pitch your yeast. Allow the beer to cool over the next few hours to 68-70 ºF (20-21 °C) and hold at these cooler temperatures until the yeast has fermented completely. Bottle your beer, age for two to three weeks and enjoy!

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Originally Posted by kingnat

Fortuitously, I stumbled across a 5-gallon carboy in teh basement of the physics building last week. So I'm going to sanitize that and perform 2nd-ary in there, so that I can really give it a chance to sit for awhile and clear up more before bottling.

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Make sure it was not used to transport large quantities of caustic substances. Also watch out for scratches; they are the equivalent of countries that are harboror s of terrorist bacteria. Or something.

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Originally Posted by kingnat

I'm in discussions with my neighbor whether to try a lager or a porter.

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Not to butt in your neighborly discussions, in my experience I've never been satisfied with my lager attempts, I think you really need real lager yeast and really need to have a good system for keeping it chill for a long time.

I've never made a real lager (fermented at ~50F) but I used lager yeast at ale temperatures (often called a steam beer) with great results.

im sure i could google this, but i want you guys to feel important. what does it mean to "pitch" your yeast?

the lager homebrews that i've tasted have been terrible

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Originally Posted by bode

im sure i could google this, but i want you guys to feel important. what does it mean to "pitch" your yeast?

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Good question.. there is seemingly a "brewer-insider" word for everything you use or do with your homebrew ingredients... it's a bit ridiculous, but once your in, your in.

"Pitching" yeast, simply refers to putting your yeast into the chilled "wort" (which is the sugar water that you had previously cooked and the yeast will eat to make alcohol). You have to put the yeast into chilled wort because anything over 105 deg F will likely kill the yeast.

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Originally Posted by zook

I've never made a real lager (fermented at ~50F) but I used lager yeast at ale temperatures (often called a steam beer) with great results.

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Great input guys... this is probably what we'll end up doing, my closet has industrial tile on top of concrete (yes i live in a shithole). But during the Maine winters it's regularly around 60 deg... so while that isn't perfect it, we thought we'd give it a go. We'll definitely use a lager yeast of some type.

There is nothing that makes me happier then thinking about drinking lots of yummy beer...

King,

what's the temp. requirements to homebrew? I know it has to ferment in a specific range of temps- Can you enlighten me?

Ideal is like 65-70 F iirc. It doesn't matter a lot, it matters more that the temperature is stable. So if you have a basement or something you're good.

I brewed one and stored it in an apartment closet and it didn't turn out as great (drinkable, just not amazing).

Ales 65-75 F yea. Lagers though would have to be at least below 40 F. Heading to the local home brew shop today, wish me luck.

kingnat that nutbrown recipe you have up there looks awesome. Not sure what Carastan malt is. Will check if they have it in stock. God I hope i don't blow too much money today.

Bump this shit...

The Hard Cider was a total failure. Apparently the websites were correct about not having preservatives... who knew.

I'm still waiting for my bulk ingredients to show up... thankfully i didn't pay the guy up front, so it's not that big of a deal.

I managed to get a stout down right before leaving on winter break. I really need to get it bottled by tomorrow, it's been sitting for 3 weeks now. I went on the cheap alcohol-wise...

3.3 lb tin of dark liquid extract
1.4 lbs of roasted barley malt
1.7 lbs of chocolate barley malt
I think we used Amarillo (8% alpha) for bitterness and williamette (4%) for finishing hops.

The biggest fist-pump associated with this beer is that a few weeks prior, I had purchased a 5 lb bottle of honey at Sam's Club because we use it a LOT... and at the time, I thought, huh... I should be using this in beer (it's like $10 for 5 lbs so very cheap). Well, during the brewing process, I had completely forgot about it. But as we're nearly finished with everything I happend to open the cabinet that held the honey, and I was like YES!!!!!!!!!!! DUMP DUMP DUMP... so also

2.5 lbs of honey

Will that give it more dry character?

Can't wait to get it down so I start drinking it ASAP

i have made mead before...it is the shit....not that store bought garbage....this was made outa orange blossom honey from zoks homebrewing..in willimantic ct...i only have 1 bottle left....must make more...........ever have any knat?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by triumphant cracker

i have made mead before...it is the shit....not that store bought garbage....this was made outa orange blossom honey from zoks homebrewing..in willimantic ct...i only have 1 bottle left....must make more...........ever have any knat?

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YES!.. I fucking love mead. How long did it take before you were drinking it?

I haven't made it myslef but my local guy who brews gave me several bottles. win.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kingnat

.. so also

2.5 lbs of honey

Will that give it more dry character?

---

Your stout sounds awesome. Good experimentation on that. I doubt the added honey would dry it up, if anything you'll be getting a sweeter stout due to the unfermentables. If that's a word.

No activity on the brewing front from me, so please everyone let me brew vicariously and post your experiences.

Last Friday made a coffee stout, 2 lbs of roasted barley grains, 2 lbs of chocolate malt grains, 5 lbs of DME, and 1/2 lb of fresh ground coffee beans.

maybe a bit too much coffee, but fug it... i like coffee.

well I just started my first ever brew attempt thanks to kingnat and swiggidy inspiring me...
thought id share some pics with you...
I chose the Scottish 60 since it seemed easy to make, and only took 4 weeks until it was done and I have friends coming in a few weeks so Im hoping it would be ready by the time they get here
http://www.northernbrewer.com/docs/kis-html/1761.html

the ingredients...
http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/316...edientshq1.jpg

here is the pot where im "steeping" the specialty grains
http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/405...dteabagmu0.jpg

and now here it is fermenting... which honestly I do not know how long this will take... im also really clueless where to go after this... haha
http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/8787/fermentingcf0.jpg

THIS IS AWESOME!!! GL to you sir! Feel free to bug me on IRC or PM about the process anytime.. or post questions here.

In term of fermentation... hopefully you will see some "action" bubbles and such within 24 hours .... the most active part of this will occur over 3 days or so, and afterwards it will continue but slow down dramatically. I usually let mine sit for two weeks, but anything around 7 days is likely to be quite good. What did the recipe your kit came with suggest? I'd just go with that to be sure.

Coffee stout came out delicious, lots of coffee aroma but not as much coffee taste as I would've expected.

Made a Pale Ale right afterwards that should still probably sit in the bottles for a few more weeks, but tastes great as is... hard not to drink it.

We just put done a Cream ale on Friday night that should come out around 6% abv... (5lb DME, nearly 4 lbs cracked grains, and 1.5 lb honey)...

I think i'm going to moving toward all grain brewing quite soon. I've caught wind of a pretty simple way to pull it off, using just a couple of jugs and giving one of them a false bottom. We can essentially cut our costs in half by doing this and create tastier brews at the same time. Not sure when this might start up, but it would be awesome. I'm also going to work at recycling the yeast from this batch as there is no need to be buying new everytime.

Wems! How'd your beer turn out?

HHHmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm beer!

im back in town near the end of apirl. whatll you have ready by then?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by andy-akb

im back in town near the end of apirl. whatll you have ready by then?

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I'll have the coffee stout, the pale ale (will hold on to a few bottles) and the cream ale will be set... who knows maybe moar. I'll also have the new grill in place by then... looking forward to hanging out man.

Bottled the cream ale last night AND brewed a Nut Brown... we may have used too many dark specialty grains though. So it may be a nutty Porter... oh well..

We should do a swap, nat. We're doing homebrew here and should be bottling within a week.

We should do a swap, nat. We're doing homebrew here and should be bottling within a week.

you guys could both swap with me in return for a very thorough critique!

Hey can you go into more detail about your process? Maybe post pics? Everyone has their own idiosyncrasies and I wonder if I could improve on some stuff. Like, does everyone strain hops out before pitching?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FlyingSaucy

Hey can you go into more detail about your process? Maybe post pics? Everyone has their own idiosyncrasies and I wonder if I could improve on some stuff. Like, does everyone strain hops out before pitching?

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I do strain out hops, but I also dry hop most batches after the active fermentation subsides in the primary fermentor.

I recently tried to make a Brown Ale with a bit of Roasted Barley for a unique bite, but I'm pretty sure we WAYYY overdid the Barley (3/4 of pound instead of 1/4)... so it's going to be borderline disgusting, but w/e... have a homebrew mirite??

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kingnat

I realize home brewing isn't some brand new concept... but I've seen it brought up in various best beer threads here and there, and I wanted to start a thread about it.

I've been intrigued by the idea of homebrewing when I first discovered that it was possible to actually brew your own beer... (like 13 years ago). Back then I thought Bud Light in a bottle was pretty much the zenith of the beer drinking experience. Ah.. the good ol' days. *tear*... I don't remember when things started really changing a lot for me, but the first "dark" beer I ever drank that I liked was Michelob Amber Bock. (I fully recognize the irony of this statement.) But for the past 6 years or so I've strongly preferred IPAs, Stouts, etc. I still love me some Natural Light and PBR, so don't start hating on beers that are like water. However these days I'm aiming to make me some strong, flavorful home brew in general.

I thought this thread could serve to answer questions, share recipes, and the like.

I'm currently on my 5th batch of beer (bottling tonight). The first 3 sucked and I'll get into why in a later post.

The only GOOD beer I've made thus far was an IPA... it's not the best beer I've ever had, but had I gone into a store and purchased a 6-pack from some microbrewery for like $8... and it tasted like my homebrew I wouldn't be disappointed. That might not sound like glowing praise, but I don't know if I'll be able to brew a much better beer than that. Although I have some ideas. I'll post the recipe for it later.

My latest beer is a hopped up stout. That I think will come in at about 7% alcohol by volume. I'm pretty pumped about it, but it's going to need to rack (sit in the bottles) for about a month or more I'm guessing... and I'm not very patient with that kind of thing.

Looking forward to the discussion.

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hiiiii

nice site thanks for share ...

i love it

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kingnat

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FlyingSaucy

Hey can you go into more detail about your process? Maybe post pics? Everyone has their own idiosyncrasies and I wonder if I could improve on some stuff. Like, does everyone strain hops out before pitching?

---

I do strain out hops, but I also dry hop most batches after the active fermentation subsides in the primary fermentor.

I recently tried to make a Brown Ale with a bit of Roasted Barley for a unique bite, but I'm pretty sure we WAYYY overdid the Barley (3/4 of pound instead of 1/4)... so it's going to be borderline disgusting, but w/e... have a homebrew mirite??

---

DRinking this beer is like getting your tongue licked by an anaconda... soo mach roasted barley.. it's borderline unpleasant, but at least there is alcohol.

Made an IPA last night... nomnomnom... anybody else hitting this shit up?...

I've missed this thread! Cool!
I have made numerous beer and wine kits, including an icewine kit thats was really good.

I would love to someday make a batch of mead but I have to go find a honey farm in the country and get some...dont want it pasteurized.

Enjoying a batch of Oatmeal stout......its as black as sin.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Vinland

I would love to someday make a batch of mead but I have to go find a honey farm in the country and get some...dont want it pasteurized.

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I'd love to make some mead, but from what I've heard it really should sit for a long, long time... and I currently don't have the patience.

Bottled the IPA last night, and have a friend coming to visit this weekend and the goal is to sample somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 different beers. GL us!

I've been home brewing for a couple of years now. Good to see some FTR's doing it as well.

Check out these forums for some in-depth homebrew answers
(I still can't post links, so just add the W's and the dot com to the red text)

brewboard
I learned most of what I know from this site. Lots of very experienced brewers on here.

thebrewingnetwork
This forum is a little smaller than the other one, but they have several weekly 'brewcasts' that you can listen to. Very informative and entertaining.

northernbrewer is another great forum.

I started out doing extract kits and then started steeping grains which lead to doing partial mashes which lead to doing all-grain.

I've got a converted keg with the top cut off to boil in so I can do the full wort boils like Zook was talking about (it will definitely make better beers). I still can't post pics either but I will once I get past the 10 posts thing.

After a while I got tired of bottling and picked up a small fridge that I converted into a kegerator so now I have 1-2 beers on tap in the living room all the time. :dance:

I've got a nice Alt beer on tap right now and I just brewed up what is supposed to be a clone of an Oskar Blues 'Dale's Pale Ale'.

One of my favorite beers to brew, especially in the summer, is a nice HeffeWiessen (similar to a Wienstephaner or Hoegaarden)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by StevenCJames

I've got a nice Alt beer on tap right now and I just brewed up what is supposed to be a clone of an Oskar Blues 'Dale's Pale Ale'.

One of my favorite beers to brew, especially in the summer, is a nice HeffeWiessen (similar to a Wienstephaner or Hoegaarden)

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What is Alt beer?

Welcome to the brewhouse!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kingnat

What is Alt beer?

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Wears a trench coat. Listens to The Pixies.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BennyLaRue

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kingnat

What is Alt beer?

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Wears a trench coat. Listens to The Pixies.

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Nice! Maybe I should go for an Emo beer... very dark color, but at the same time tastes like a pale ale... the bittering of the ale comes, not from hops, but rather from human blood... and tears... lots and lots of tears...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kingnat

Maybe I should go for an Emo beer... very dark color, but at the same time tastes like skim milk...

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FYP.

Alt means 'old' in German. It's a dark beer with ale yeast but you lager it like a ...lager.

I don't do lagers because I don't have and good way to keep the temps that low. I have an icecube cooler that I put the carboy in during fermentation and I put ice packs in it to keep the temp down.

I was able to keep the temp around 50ºF for the first two weeks, and then got it down to the mid 40's for another two weeks after that.

Kingnat,

Well I did it! Made the first batch , an amber ale, came out good! One question, I noticed some bottles have more or less carbonation in them? has this ever happened to you or anyone who homebrews here?

next batch will be a belgian ale :)

What makes the carbonation in a drink after you're done brewing it?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by a500lbgorilla

What makes the carbonation in a drink after you're done brewing it?

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Sugar, you add it after the fermentation is done, and just before you bottle it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jdubs

Kingnat,

Well I did it! Made the first batch , an amber ale, came out good! One question, I noticed some bottles have more or less carbonation in them? has this ever happened to you or anyone who homebrews here?

next batch will be a belgian ale :)

---

Congrats on the first batch, the more you do the more addicting it is. Personally I need to invite friends over every now and then to help me finish my backlog of beers because I make more than I'm capable of drinking. My version of philanthropy, win-win.

Regarding carbonation issues....
Books will tell you that over carbonation is either one of two things: 1. bacteria. 2. Over-priming. I think the problem you describe is neither, since some bottles are over, some are under.

My best guess is that you've got to make sure your priming sugars or malts are mixed really well and evenly in with the wort before bottling. You can't violently stir (since you don't want to introduce a lot of oxygen) but you still have to make sure all parts of the wort have gotten its fair share. I like to stir in a circular motion then sort of lift it up and push it down while it swirls to get a good even distribution before establishing your siphon. I stir for a good 60 seconds as I slowly mix in the sugars.

Other thing to keep in mind is it helps to dissolve your sugars in water, boil, and let cool (keep covered) before you prime. Putting it in as a liquid is good because it will distribute easier and more evenly in the wort (no clumps of sugar involved), and boiling is good because if there are any stray airborne bacteria on the crystals you take care of any problem they might introduce.

I'm sure there are other techniques but this is a primitive but effective way to deal with the issue. Happy brewing

Quote:

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Originally Posted by StevenCJames

Alt means 'old' in German. It's a dark beer with ale yeast but you lager it like a ...lager.

I don't do lagers because I don't have and good way to keep the temps that low. I have an icecube cooler that I put the carboy in during fermentation and I put ice packs in it to keep the temp down.

I was able to keep the temp around 50ºF for the first two weeks, and then got it down to the mid 40's for another two weeks after that.

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Bumping this old one.

I've only tried to lager once trying a similar ice pack method. Kept the temp around 50 + or - 5 the whole time and it turned out not very smooth like i was hoping. Even had an unusual bite that was tollerable but not super pleasant. There might have been some yeast shock from the temp changes.

I've found that lagering when you can't get the temperature low enough or consistently low enough turns out not so nice. Most lager yeast is really designed for 32-40 F degree temps. After talking to enough homebrewers I've learned you really need a dedicated fridge if you're going to be successful with a lager.

I'm sticking to ales. I generally like them better anyway except I'm a sucker for a really good pilsener every now and then.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FlyingSaucy

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jdubs

Kingnat,

Well I did it! Made the first batch , an amber ale, came out good! One question, I noticed some bottles have more or less carbonation in them? has this ever happened to you or anyone who homebrews here?

next batch will be a belgian ale :)

---

Congrats on the first batch, the more you do the more addicting it is. Personally I need to invite friends over every now and then to help me finish my backlog of beers because I make more than I'm capable of drinking. My version of philanthropy, win-win.

Regarding carbonation issues....
Books will tell you that over carbonation is either one of two things: 1. bacteria. 2. Over-priming. I think the problem you describe is neither, since some bottles are over, some are under.

My best guess is that you've got to make sure your priming sugars or malts are mixed really well and evenly in with the wort before bottling. You can't violently stir (since you don't want to introduce a lot of oxygen) but you still have to make sure all parts of the wort have gotten its fair share. I like to stir in a circular motion then sort of lift it up and push it down while it swirls to get a good even distribution before establishing your siphon. I stir for a good 60 seconds as I slowly mix in the sugars.

Other thing to keep in mind is it helps to dissolve your sugars in water, boil, and let cool (keep covered) before you prime. Putting it in as a liquid is good because it will distribute easier and more evenly in the wort (no clumps of sugar involved), and boiling is good because if there are any stray airborne bacteria on the crystals you take care of any problem they might introduce.

I'm sure there are other techniques but this is a primitive but effective way to deal with the issue. Happy brewing

---

thanks. I actually did dissolve the sugar in boiling water, per the instructions, but maybe i didn't stir it thoroughly enough I am guessing? Hopefully the issue won't happen again. And yes, can't wait to make the next batch :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jdubs

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FlyingSaucy

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jdubs

Kingnat,

Well I did it! Made the first batch , an amber ale, came out good! One question, I noticed some bottles have more or less carbonation in them? has this ever happened to you or anyone who homebrews here?

next batch will be a belgian ale :)

---

Congrats on the first batch, the more you do the more addicting it is. Personally I need to invite friends over every now and then to help me finish my backlog of beers because I make more than I'm capable of drinking. My version of philanthropy, win-win.

Regarding carbonation issues....
Books will tell you that over carbonation is either one of two things: 1. bacteria. 2. Over-priming. I think the problem you describe is neither, since some bottles are over, some are under.

My best guess is that you've got to make sure your priming sugars or malts are mixed really well and evenly in with the wort before bottling. You can't violently stir (since you don't want to introduce a lot of oxygen) but you still have to make sure all parts of the wort have gotten its fair share. I like to stir in a circular motion then sort of lift it up and push it down while it swirls to get a good even distribution before establishing your siphon. I stir for a good 60 seconds as I slowly mix in the sugars.

Other thing to keep in mind is it helps to dissolve your sugars in water, boil, and let cool (keep covered) before you prime. Putting it in as a liquid is good because it will distribute easier and more evenly in the wort (no clumps of sugar involved), and boiling is good because if there are any stray airborne bacteria on the crystals you take care of any problem they might introduce.

I'm sure there are other techniques but this is a primitive but effective way to deal with the issue. Happy brewing

---

thanks. I actually did dissolve the sugar in boiling water, per the instructions, but maybe i didn't stir it thoroughly enough I am guessing? Hopefully the issue won't happen again. And yes, can't wait to make the next batch :)

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Alright.. finding people posting in the Home-brew thread (even from several weeks earlier) makes me happy too. If you want to stir it up, make damn sure you sanitize that spoon AND be gentle. Oxygen is NOT our friend at this point. Just a quick check... I'm assuming you are using pop-top bottle caps only. I had a neighbor who used twist offs, and roughly half of them didn't seal properly and were totally flat.

I don't stir and do mix the appropriate amount of sugar with boiling water and put that in the bottom of my bottling bucket. Then as I syphon off the beer (it's not really wort at his point is it Saucy?) I make sure I have enough hose to wrap at least a little bit around the bottom of the bucket, such that it automatically creates a swirling action. Does that make sense?

Another side note on carbonation... I used cane sugar during bottling a couple of times. Wow. DO NOT WANT. GL!

BUMP. I left all my brewing supplies in Maine when I moved to NoDak back in August. I'm 'bout to turn this shit up again.

Who's wit me?:drunk: