Home brew

[hannaugh]

Does anyone here brew?  I was just wondering.  If so, what are you making?

My husband and I are gearing up for fall and winter (aka "Party Season") by brewing about 200 bottles of beer and hard cider.  He is really into this stuff, he built a fermentation chamber in our garage and everything.  I'm more of the "brewer's assistant" because it's his hobby rather than mine, but I must say he's making some pretty good stuff. 

 

[dmraco]

I do.  Working on a Mangy Moose (AKA Wyoming) brew now.  I keg it in old 5 gallon soda containers for carbonation.

Almost as satisfying as making a guitar.... ccasion14:

 

[riverbluff]

I do as well.  Still waiting to get in the house and have my stuff delivered from Germany.  As soon as I get my brewing equipment, I'll be brewing up a Holiday Ale and a Black Dog ale.  Two of my personal favorites.  I may try another bourbon barrel ale.  I tried a friends and it was excellent.  My first attempt at it never mellowed enough to really enjoy.

Bill

 

[hannaugh]

I do.  Working on a Mangy Moose (AKA Wyoming) brew now.  I keg it in old 5 gallon soda containers for carbonation.

Almost as satisfying as making a guitar.... ccasion14:

What style of beer is that?  I wish we could make ours in a keg, but we're not quite there yet, and we do give a lot of our bottles away to friends.  Do you use C02 or corn sugar to carbonate? 

I do as well.  Still waiting to get in the house and have my stuff delivered from Germany.  As soon as I get my brewing equipment, I'll be brewing up a Holiday Ale and a Black Dog ale.  Two of my personal favorites.  I may try another bourbon barrel ale.  I tried a friends and it was excellent.  My first attempt at it never mellowed enough to really enjoy.

What kind of holiday ale do you make?  And on the bourbon barrel thing - we recently had some Anderson Valley oatmeal stout that was aged in Wild Turkey barrels, and now Cable (my husband) wants to make some stout and throw some bourbon barrel wood chips in our next stout batch to see what happens. 

I want to do something along the lines of Old Rasputin, but I think that takes a lot longer to age than most beers. 

 

[DangerousR6]

I do as well.  Still waiting to get in the house and have my stuff delivered from Germany.  As soon as I get my brewing equipment, I'll be brewing up a Holiday Ale and a Black Dog ale.  Two of my personal favorites.  I may try another bourbon barrel ale.  I tried a friends and it was excellent.  My first attempt at it never mellowed enough to really enjoy.

Bill

I'm sure Bart(aka Black Dog) will want some of that Black Dog ale... :icon_biggrin:

 

[Updown]

Not my own home brew. Local brew thou.

BUT ... a great drop 

........ and a great name  :icon_biggrin:

 

[dmraco]

Hannaugh, it is ale.  I use CO2 to carbonate :doh:

It is very easy.  After the beer is done fermenting, i put the beer in the container, I hook up a co2 bottle and jack up the pressure to about 45 psi.  I let it go for about 5 days giving it a shake every day.  I then hook it up to my tap system.  The containers are for sale every where.  I got mine on eBay for $20. Search under 5 gallon Cornelius.    I had to go to a local supply house to get the adapters for it to work.  Cost me about $10.

I can post some pics

 

[hannaugh]

Sure, post pics!  I think when we have adequate refrigeration we'll probably get a keg.  It sounds like too much fun.

 

[mayfly]

I used to brew a long time ago - we even got a bunch of supplies as a wedding present.

I stopped because:
1 - You can buy better stuff these days than what I was making
2 - We didn't drink that much.
3 - We had kids and I had to seriously cut my hobbies down to what I really cared about.  In addition to brewing beer, I also ditched motorcycles. 

Kept music and making musical gear though.  :headbang:

 

[hannaugh]

Strangely enough, we don't drink all that much either.  Between us we drink maybe 6 beers a week on average.  But then my aunt comes over every other week and she has a few, and we take it to parties and give bottles away to friends, and we use it up faster than you'd think.  The cider goes a lot faster than the beer, but the stout was pretty popular too. 

 

[AutoBat]

I still have some beer in my fridge from a New Years party I hosted...

 

[bbl4ck]

I do as well.  Still waiting to get in the house and have my stuff delivered from Germany.  As soon as I get my brewing equipment, I'll be brewing up a Holiday Ale and a Black Dog ale.  Two of my personal favorites.  I may try another bourbon barrel ale.  I tried a friends and it was excellent.  My first attempt at it never mellowed enough to really enjoy.

Bill

I'm sure Bart(aka Black Dog) will want some of that Black Dog ale... :icon_biggrin:

Aye, I will indeed take some of that Black Dog ale...
I used to brew and really enjoyed it a lot.  I gave up because the brewing season in Arizona is too short unless you have a controlled environment, which I don't have.
Even though there is better brew to be purchased, it is still a lot of fun!
:rock-on:

 

[crash]

I've been homebrewing for about 15 years now.  Luckily, I live right by one of the biggest homebrew store in the country, http://www.northernbrewer.com/?gclid=CJKDs8i4xLkCFVFp7AodBwUA9A.  Kegging is definitely the way to go.  Cleaning the bottles and capping them is very tedious.  Even though I rarely drink anymore, I still make it for parties, softball, holidays, etc. 

So far, I have done a clone of most of the more popular beers, of those I liked the Newcastle clone the best.  My favorite original recipe kit from Northern Brewer was "The number 8".  Two of those and you won't be driving anywhere for a while.

I'll have to try carbonating at 45 psi.  The highest I've gone up to was about 25 for a few days.

 

[hannaugh]

Oooooh, they have some cool sounding kits.  We'll have to check that stuff out after we've done all the ones from MoreBeer.  We live pretty close to their Riverside location, so that's where we get most of our stuff. 

 

[mayfly]

I applaud all of you in your brewing enthusiasm.

My current 'problem' is that I work about a 5 min WALK from a microbrewery:

http://broadheadbeer.com/

This Monday I organized a party for my team.  I got a wood fired pizza truck and a keg of beer to show up in the parking lot for it.  I work in a dangerous neighborhood.  ccasion14:

 

[hannaugh]

I want your "problems".  :laughing7: 

The only issue I would have if that were the case here is that microbrews are significantly more expensive than our home brew.  We have a Yard House restaurant by our house, which has like 100 beers on tap, but it's $6-$10 per pint.  :-\

 

[Cagey]

The only issue I would have if that were the case here is that microbrews are significantly more expensive than our home brew.  We have a Yard House restaurant by our house, which has like 100 beers on tap, but it's $6-$10 per pint.  :-\

We have a similar problem here. Nice microbrewery just up the street with a lot of variety, but the beer is so expensive you don't dare spend any time in the place. All the gear for the process is on display, which is pretty interesting, but once you've seen it you're done. So, you stop in once to check it all out, have one or two beers and that's the last time you do it. I don't expect the place to last long.

 

[riverbluff]

I do as well.  Still waiting to get in the house and have my stuff delivered from Germany.  As soon as I get my brewing equipment, I'll be brewing up a Holiday Ale and a Black Dog ale.  Two of my personal favorites.  I may try another bourbon barrel ale.  I tried a friends and it was excellent.  My first attempt at it never mellowed enough to really enjoy.

Bill

I'm sure Bart(aka Black Dog) will want some of that Black Dog ale... :icon_biggrin:

Aye, I will indeed take some of that Black Dog ale...
I used to brew and really enjoyed it a lot.  I gave up because the brewing season in Arizona is too short unless you have a controlled environment, which I don't have.
Even though there is better brew to be purchased, it is still a lot of fun!
:rock-on:

Where at in AZ?  We have just recently moved to Tucson.  Get to move into the house next Friday.