Getting into microbrewing!

I helped a friend do it once (made bout 50 gallons in a weekend) and it was honestly quite fun. Like cooking, but better. So I pulled the trigger and bought some equipment to start doing it myself. I only have two 5 gallon carboys, but that should be okay to start. I know some folks who owns bars so i can collect some pop top bottles. Once i know what the hell i am doing, ill convince my wife that i need to get the equipment to do the all-grain brewing.


Anyone else brew their own?

---

First Rally: 2010 First RallyX: 2004 (a bunch)
Driver (0), Co-Driver (7)
Organizer (3), Volunteer (3)
Cars Built (2.5), Engines Blown (2) Cages Built (0) # of rotations (3.5)
Last Updated, Apr 9, 2023

A couple of friends have/do. With the amount I consume, I SHOULD brew my own.

If you're a member of this site, I'm pretty sure you're required to use this:

---

Andrew Steere
Lyndeborough, NH
KB1PJY

I make a little home brew now and then!


my stuff 209 by corrie_beebe, on Flickr

Mostly mead but beer is fun to make also!

Ferment time is quick with beer so you can be drinking a cold bottle in a month!

Mead on the other hand takes about a year before its any good.

Hard cider is real easy to make. The ladies seem to like it better than beer!

We've got two hives in garage and picking up bees next month. Plan is to start brewing mead come fall if all goes well.

---

Grant Hughes

Sound like the way to go, just dont knock the hive over and piss off the bees!

Cool thing about mead is its easy to make 10 to 18% alc.

I have some prickly pear mead that is high test and WOW... Drink carefully!

i plan to get experimental once i am more comfortable with what i am doing. thankfully, its cheap to make and people always want to drink so i can do through things quick. I really hope to start in the "all grain" regions of brewing within a couple years.

Hard ciders are great, but Idaho isnt know for its apple orchards... Mead however, sounds interesting to make.

---

First Rally: 2010 First RallyX: 2004 (a bunch)
Driver (0), Co-Driver (7)
Organizer (3), Volunteer (3)
Cars Built (2.5), Engines Blown (2) Cages Built (0) # of rotations (3.5)
Last Updated, Apr 9, 2023

You can make cider with apple juice from the store. Just make sure its 100% juice with no added stuff like corn syrup! Thats how I did it! Super easy!

I think the most important thing to keep in mind while brewing is to make sure all your equipment is clean and then sanitized! I always use bleach being its cheap and easy! Other than that, you really cant go wrong as long as you keep your yeasty friends living in their proper temps!

there are soo many beers i want to try... i see myself buying about 10 more carboys! Can never have enough beer.

---

First Rally: 2010 First RallyX: 2004 (a bunch)
Driver (0), Co-Driver (7)
Organizer (3), Volunteer (3)
Cars Built (2.5), Engines Blown (2) Cages Built (0) # of rotations (3.5)
Last Updated, Apr 9, 2023

Chris,

do you secondary ferment at all?

---

First Rally: 2010 First RallyX: 2004 (a bunch)
Driver (0), Co-Driver (7)
Organizer (3), Volunteer (3)
Cars Built (2.5), Engines Blown (2) Cages Built (0) # of rotations (3.5)
Last Updated, Apr 9, 2023

Keep an eye on craigslist for the little corny keg, or soda kegs. Set up your own carbonation system. You will thank yourself long term. Bottling is time consuming, requires saving bottles, takes longer to be ready, and each bottle tastes different when put behind a different colored glass.

http://boise.craigslist.org/app/2927849194.html

I've been using the MR kits. So i have 2 , 2.5 gallon fermentors (rather small) makes about 1 case per batch. Its nice in that you can make a lot of different beers, if one doesn't turn out well you didn't make that many bad beers. sucks when you make a tasty one that you only have 1 case.

The mr beer system is very easy and lets you brew from a kit, while some people do full grain brewing. I'm somewhere in the middle using malt extracts, but i do my own hop boils and grain steeping.

bottling by hand ... does kinda suck. I haven't noticed a lot of 'beer to beer' differences, almost none for the most part. I bottle carbonate so sometimes one bottle is a little flat, and one might be overly carbonated, that's mostly due to not being careful when adding the carbing sugar though.

Seems that Rally, IT/computer, and Beer has a good overlap

Quote
Gravity Fed
Chris,

do you secondary ferment at all?

I guess you can say that!

I have had fermentation start and stop at all sorts of different times in the process of making adult beverages!

The more you start tweaking things and adding things later in the process, fermentation can start up! A lot depends on the yeast you use! Only time it really becomes an issue is when lets say a corked bottle that has been sitting in the closet for a while and the temps go up a bit. Then the pressure builds up and in the middle of the night you hear this loud POP! No good! Makes a mess!
Make sure if you dont want fermentation to happen that you kill the yeast!

i believe i will be using airlocks, so hopefully i do not have explosions in the carboys! Should be fun to experiment with really. Worst case, beer is never hard to get rid of if i have too much of it.

---

First Rally: 2010 First RallyX: 2004 (a bunch)
Driver (0), Co-Driver (7)
Organizer (3), Volunteer (3)
Cars Built (2.5), Engines Blown (2) Cages Built (0) # of rotations (3.5)
Last Updated, Apr 9, 2023