Home Brewing Ghetto Style
 

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mmmmmmmm beer.

my friend up here at uconn started brewing in his appartment. If you find a local shop that knows their crap you can pick it up pretty quick. Pretty soon you will be makin all different kinds!!

Yay Mr Beer! Our first kit (my buddy and I) was a five gallon bucket kit. Worked fine, but we never brewed another batch. It sure does stink when brewing it on the stove.

I've always wanted to try my hand at it, seems like a lot of work though.

Not really, maybe 20-30 minutes in the kitchen. It's mostly a waiting game.
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According to a quick google search, that kit is very reasonably priced IMO

Welcome to MR.BEER® - Kits

hm maybe I could actually make a beer I like...

Im not a huge fan of beer either but I am tempted to get one of the kits.

Mr. Beer kit is not that great. Know 2 people that got it for xmas and tried it. The beer really ends up tasting ciderish. Very drinkable beer, however. Now that I think about it, not a bad idea for a first timer that doesn't like beer...its very mild in the end.

I've brewed many many batches of bucket beer. Can be great stuff if you sterilize EVERYTHING. If you dont like beer now, there is nothing that will get you to appreciate it like home brewing. Plus brewing 10%+ beers kicks ass.

I want Abe's brew burner =P

not likely with a mr beer kit. what beer dont you like? do you find that it doesn't taste good because of the smooth, featureless region from your navel to your ass crack?

the taste has just never tickled my fancy (nor the area from my navel to my ass crack)

My girlfriend and I are having a really good laugh at this right now.

You can always brew with a little more class and go with a hearts homebrew wine kit. My friends and I have been doing it for awhile. It's great tasting wine.

I think I will do wine soon. The older I get, the more I start to take a liking to wine.

At that point I will have made all of my own vices except growing tobacco and mushrooms.

I switched from beer to mead years ago. Too many times I ended up with beer that was only as good as I could buy, for a lot more work. Mead, on the other hand, is almost impossible to find, and even if you do, chances are it's old and stale.

Mead is basically fermented honey water. Not as sweet as you might imagine - more like a semi-dry wine. Much stronger, though. The mild stuff I make (7-8 pounds honey for 5 gallons) is still as strong enough to give you a buzz on a single 22 ounce bottle. The full strength stuff (15-18 pounds honey) will knock you on your ass.

oooohhh now this sounds interesting, I could pretend I was Beowulf in the Mead Hall and fight off the terrible Grendel while somewhat inebriated!!

I do all grain brewing (start with crushed grain and hops and end up with beer) - it takes a while and is a bit of work but it's fantastic for the results you get and the amount of control you have over the process. It's pretty freaking enjoyable.

The great thing about brewing is that you can make huge complex beers or small simple beers. And they are often great for the price (ie, you can make 5gals of a decent simple IPA that weighs in ~6-7.5ABV for $20-25 depending the price of hops and grain). Not bad at all.

That said I don't know anyone who saves money brewing, if anything I started buying MORE beer while buying and building MORE brewing equipment. Is pretty sweet to have kegs of your own beer though.

(and as another said Mr. Beer kits aren't too great. They're alright for starting out on but the quality of beer isn't near what you'd get out of a simple extract kit you'd buy from a Homebrew store. For ~$100 you can have a full starter kit that will let you brew most types of ale (lagers are tougher since you need to store them at low temps))

And indeed, making beer is like mac and cheese but with insane sanitation practices. =D

What you guys need to do is start brewing up some ethanol. Shot for me, shot for the car, shot for me...

Make Fuel at Home With Portable DIY Refinery | Autopia from Wired.com

You can ferment nearly anything that has sugar in it.

I knew some people in Georgia who made wine from blueberries instead of grapes. They had a small blueberry orchard. It was strong and not very sweet and was pretty good. Store-bought blueberry and blackberry wines are too sickly sweet.

Those same guys made fig wine once, too.

The guy who owns Maztech, a Mazda repair shop in Tampa is bigtime into the home brewing club in town. He is also a master beer judge or third degree black belt or something. They just had a mead competition in Daytona or somewhere over that way.

I personally love weizen.

Yeah, seriously! Let me go get that $10,000 worth of change from under my couch.....

Phil, I got that same kit for Christmas. I think the gf already returned it. We are not that patient.

My first batch was with a typical 5-gal bucket kit, all extract, that I got as a X-mas present. The pots I had were not very large, so the boil was more concentrated, and I probably didn't stir the extract well enough, leading to a pronounced carmelized flavor in the final product. But it was drinkable and I had fun making it.

A couple of my grad school buddies convinced me to go to a meeting of the local homebrew club, and I was hooked. From my second batch on I've been doing all grain. A good deal if you're starting out is a turkey fryer kit from Sam's Club, Costco, etc. For $70 it has a big propane burner, a stand, and a stainless pot that's large enough for a 5-gal batch. Make sure you get stainless- most cheap turkey fryer kits come with aluminum pots and that's a no-no. For a mash tun, one of those circular Igloo coolers with a false bottom works great. You can make your own wort chiller with Home Depot parts. Instead of building a shelf/rack system I just use my truck- sparge water tank on the roof, mash tun on the tailgate, collect in the brew kettle on the ground. Point being, with a little DIY and improvisation you can step up to all grain for not much money. I've got less $$$ in my brew setup than I spent on my Megasquirt.

All I remember from the movie version of Beowulf is this line, spoken by one of the king's women:

"Many have travelled far to taste my lord's meat."

Also, beer is nasty. I will turn in my man card if you all insist. This mead stuff on the other hand, sounds quite interesting.

I brew my own Ginger beer .

It rocks.

I've been entertaining the idea of brewing my own. I LOVE beer!

Mead is glorious! There was an Irish inn where I used to live that made it. 3 pint glasses would turn me into a raving lunatic, but it was good. When you're drinking it, you feel like a badass. Maybe that's why I would become belligerent.

Someone do a nice writeup on making homemade mead. That sounds very tantalizing. Only place I've ever had mead was in Poland from someone selling it off the side of the street.

also, grow your own hops. apparently they grow like crazy. set up a trellis in the back yard in full sun and bam!

actually brewing is something i'd seriously consider if I wasn't a car and speaker guy first. and if I didn't have an awesome beer selection half a block away.

That'd be disgusting around here- my neighbors all get their lawn sprayed with chemicals every few weeks.

Wouldn't want to consume anything that's been repeatedly coated with overspray of whatever comes out of a truck with "FUNK" written on the side of it.

Please send it.

http://blogs.radiotown.com/breezy/fi...1/man-card.jpg

Do you also watch the note book?

says the "man" with 23 posts :giggle:

you could make a small greenhouse for your hops, that should keep most of the icky stuff out

I'd like to make wine, but a barrell with french oak starts at 1-G-bar.

C'mon, it's easier and cheaper than that.

All we need to do is get you talking about your potential cooling issues and you whine like a little bitch with a skinned knee.

[QUOTE]Ah common, if posts were my age, I'd be 100 at other places.

We still talking about hops right? My mind started to float else where.

What does "being a car guy" have to do with the joy of home brewing? You do one inside your house, and one in your garage/driveway. They are 2 hobbies that do not at all interfere with each other except that you shouldn't go work on your car after you've had too many home brews.

Home brewing is a relatively cheap hobby compared to all of our car hobbies. ~100 dollars to start will get you brewing 5 gallons of pretty good beer.

lets say I work on my car from 9am until 8pm and then leave the house for party time.

who gonna brew the beer?

Lol, sounds like all your free time is car time. Fair enough =P

So ya, i am a bit interested in this now, so please look at this and tell me if I am misguided in any way.

So the most basic setup would need:
1. The ingredients ... grains, water, maybe yeast ...
2. a large steel pot to boil the mash in
3. a fermentation tank with a check valve of some sort on top
4. a siphon or pump of some sort to draw the beer out
5. storage containers for the finished product (bottles)
6. Then to make sure it comes out well, sterilize the containers with a diluted bleach solution or something.

Extra stuff that would be nice to have but not necessary:
1. Second fermentation container for settling
2. hydrometer to measure alcohol content
3. a nice dedicated boiler setup

So if i want to get into this, here is what I am thinking:
1. 5 gallon stainless stock pot for boiling
2. 6 gallon glass carboy for fermenting
3. 5 gallon empty water jug for settling
4. Simple tube bubbling into a glass of water for the check valve
5. Not sure what to use for racking/transfering fluid and bottling though though.

akaryrye, I'd add a food-grade thermometer to the "must have" list, but it sounds like you're on the right track. Also, you won't be dealing with much in the way of grains- principally, you will be using malt extract, which comes in both dried and liquid forms. Some recipes will call for the use of small quantities of grains for steeping during the boil, but this is purely a flavoring adjunct- the fermentables will be coming from the malt extract.

Everyone who is just starting out must read The Complete Joy of Home Brewing. Consider this the "Maximum Boost" of beer-making. It starts out covering the nuts-and-bolts basics, talks a bit about history, and then the second half is all recipes. You can buy the book from damn near any homebrew supply store.

Sounds like a good basic setup. Agree that a thermometer is pretty important. In an extract brew it's mostly so you know the boil is cooled enough (<80°F) before you pitch the yeast. Later when you get into all-grain you'll need it for fairly accurate heating of strike water, monitoring mash temps, etc.

Don't use bleach for anything related to beer brewing. Actually, you're not really "sterilizing," more like "sanitizing." But bleach will screw up the flavor and be detrimental to robust yeast action if you don't thoroughly rinse it out, which in large part defeats your sanitizing efforts. You want to use Iodophor. Any homebrew shop will sell it. It's diluted in water (capful to a gallon of water, something like that) and then you sanitize your equipment by soaking in the diluted solution for 15-20 min. Then you just dump the solution, and do not rinse. The trace amount of iodophor left behind will not significantly affect the flavor of the final product and will not harm the yeast. For sanitizing a fermenter, you just fill it up with the solution towards the end of your boil, and by the time the wort has cooled enough it will be good to go.

Along the lines of sanitization, I fill the airlocks on my fermenters with cheap vodka. Funk can grow in water, but I haven't ever seen anything grow in vodka.

I'd recommend a secondary fermenter, since it will allow you to get the brew off the trub that settles out after the first week, leading to a cleaner flavor in the final product. Use another glass carboy for your secondary. You've got the sizes right: 6-gal for your primary so there's headspace for all the activity, and 5-gal is fine for secondary. Resist the urge to use the 5-gal jugs you stole from your office water cooler ;) because plastic is bad. Again, this has more to do with sanitizing in the future. After you finish using a fermenter, you'll want to thoroughly clean it out, and carboy brushes can scratch plastic pretty easily. These scratches give a foothold for contaminating bacteria & fungi to stick in. Smooth glass is a much easier surface to keep clean & sanitary than scratched plastic.

As for racking to a secondary, homebrew shops sell little siphon starters, but they are hot-or-miss IMO. Frankly, I've found these sub-optimal because they tend to let air bubbles in during the siphoning. It's not a big deal for your first batch, but later on as you become more picky, it will bother you. When transferring beer that's already fermented, you want to minimize the addition of oxygen, and those little siphon pumps can aerate it like a damn aquarium stone. O2 facilitates respiration of contaminating organisms, and over time it will degrade many of the beer's flavor component chemical compounds, primarily those derived from the hops. I just use a piece of plain tubing. Suck start the siphon. Anybody reading a Miata forum knows how to do that. :giggle: Just use a second short piece of tubing attached to the main siphon hose for the suck-start, so you don't put your mouth on the end of the tube that will touch the beer. Once the liquid starts to head down the tube, quickly remove the mouth adapter piece, and it will stay sanitary. Keep the end of the siphon hose submerged during liquid transfer to minimize aeration.

Holy hell that was verbose. Read the book Joe mentioned. As you can see, there's a lot to discuss, but none of it is really complicated. Look up your local homebrew club and go to a brew-in if you want to watch the process in action. Beer guys are eager to demonstrate the process and recruit noobs, who will brew more beer for them to drink.

This thread has made me want to brew another batch of beer. Its been a couple years for me (got sick of bottling) but I think i'm ready to pick it up again.

If there is interest i'll make a how-to thread. I made one on honda-tech years ago but cannot find it anymore.

Edit: just found it http://www.honda-tech.com/showthread.php?t=1858144

Agreed that bottling is a pain in the arse.

Just before I left CA, I bought a Tap-a-Draft system, though I haven't yet brewed a batch to put into it.

The system consists of a number of six liter plastic bottles (like big soda bottles) and a dispensing tap that uses disposable CO2 cartridges similar to those used in BB guns and such. It's designed to give you most of the convenience benefits of kegging, but without the need for a dedicated fridge, a proper gas system, etc.

Three six-liter bottles will just about hold a 5 gallon batch. Before transfer, you prime the batch just like you would when bottling, but using slightly less DME / sugar. You then cap the bottles (with plastic screw caps) and let the beer carbonate. When it comes time to serve, the whole dispensing setup (the head, with one attached horizontal bottle) is designed to sit on a shelf in the fridge.

The whole thing looks pretty nifty, and the reviews are mostly positive. It's also pretty inexpensive. No first-hand experience with it yet, I really need to get off my ass and make a batch here sometime soon...

I'm into this idea. I've always wanted to get into kegging but it is so expensive and such a large space is needed (a fridge as you said).

I also played with the idea of mini-kegging until I actually purchased some different beers in mini-kegs...they are such a crap shoot.

I want to enter the sam adams brew contest this year :)

now you guys got me interested in trying it out. at least to hold me off till i redo my kitchen, i have unused space i can use

Mead is simple. You boil water, add honey, turn off heat. (you don't want to boil the honey too much, it drives off the subtler flavors, but you have to kill the nasty germs). Add to more water (boiled and then cooled) in a 5 gallon carboy (large glass bottle). Add some minor stuff like citric acid, yeast, and a clarifier (makes it clearer). Add airlock, and let it sit for about a week. Pour off into another carboy (called racking) to get it off the dead yeast, which can impart unpleasant flavors. Bottle after a few months. Mead is best when it's fairly fresh (it goes skunky easily), but I've had bottle that sat for over a year.

You can also add all sorts of fruit or other flavoring - I use ginger, because it offsets the sweetness. Fresh blueberries or blackberries makes for a good mead, but it a bit too much like drinking soda for my tastes. I like it room temp, but it's good chilled as well. Makes a great summer drink with the ginger.

7-8 pounds of honey makes a light, refreshing mead. Good for anytime you'd drink beer or wine. 15-18 pounds of honey makes a strong, brandy like drink that will melt your brain. Good for anytime you'd drink whiskey or scotch.

One great thing about homebrew: yeast is high in B vitamins. Makes for a much less severe hangover. Commercial beer is filtered, so you get none of the yeast. It does, however, give some people tremendously horrible farts (think black clouds of death) if consumed to excess.

Dude, how much does 7lbs of honey cost? Seems expensive...

My opinion on the yeast is, while its good for you, it smells and tastes like...yeast. This yeasty flavor/odor is very off putting for people that have not tried or do not like home brew.

Ideally I want to filter then force carbonate eventually. Need a kegging setup for this though :(

Around here, honey is expensive, but not as bad as you might think. First off, you don't get it in those little bear shaped bottles at the store. You have to buy in bulk.

Since I live fairly near the Finger Lakes region (wine growers), there are lots of roadside stands. Stop and explain you want to buy in bulk (best to have your own bucket or large jars) and most will give you a decent price. I think last year was around $2-3 a pound. Yeah, 25 bucks for honey is a lot, but it makes a full batch. That's between 3 and 5 gallons of mead. Or, about 25 large (22oz.) bottles. A buck a bottle for anything is pretty good.

Yes, yeast can impart bad flavors. Hence the racking. Also, using clarifier makes most of it settle out. Careful pouring when drinking leaves most of the rest in the bottle. I rarely have problems with it, unless some dipshit shook up the bottle.

Kegging setup will run you about $150 last I looked. Plus kegs, which are cheap ~10 buck a piece. I have one, but don't use it for the mead (too easy to ruin a whole batch).

The question is not "How much does 7lb of honey cost?"

The question is "How much does 5 gallons of Mead cost?"


However, 5 lbs of honey costs $20, and 12 lbs of honey costs $33.80.

Other sources:
Raw Honey and Unheated Raw Honey
Bulk Honey - Miller's Honey
Bee Pure Honey - Made in Wisconsin
Let me Google that for you.

I see, so it looks like mead takes about the same investment per batch as beer.

What kind of yeast do you use for mead? Yeast makes a huge difference in flavor in beer. Specifically I prefer wet yeast over dry.


Edit: nice throwing the let me google that for you at the end there...almost didn't notice it. I think I asked more rhetorically though lol.

I use the cheapest yeast there is: champagne yeast in those little foil packets (NOT bread yeast) and get about 10 at a time. I think they were something like 60 cents a piece.

Bear yeasts tend to make a much sweeter mead, which I don't like.

Let me Google that for you as well.

Anyone ever brew with mayple syrup? I had a coworker that made syrup, and he gave me 3 liters of it to brew a maple mead. It's still sitting on the bar, almost 5 years later.

BTW, I used to mail bottles (usually wine bottles) of mead all over the country for people to try. That was before 9/11, when they made all the stupid-ass laws about what you could ship. Nowdays, I'm afraid to try. Might get nailed with a hefty fine or jail or something.

Fine, let it be known that no one is aloud to ask any questions of any kind for the sake of discussion.:fawk:

As for shipping beer/whatever; it is legal to ship beer for use in competitions. As long as it can be proven that you aren't mailing beer to a minor (I think that is the only concern). I've mailed lots of bottles of beer.

Meg and I bought a turkey frier to cook the malt extract outside. Smells great to us.

Hahaha! Ok, the LMGTFY thing is really getting out of hand! :D

I know, look what you started. People are even using it out of context now.

Trying a few beers out tonight. Would have bought a better selection, but unfortunately i got to bevmo a little too late and had to settle for one of the few liquor stores here that carry a good selection of specialty beer. I am getting into the barleywine first, since ive never had it and i dunno if I am going to make it past the first bottle :beer:

From left to right: Stone "Old Guardian" Barleywine 11.3%, Moylan's "Kilt Lifter" Scottish Ale 8%, Stone IPA 6.9%, and finally some ouzo which I bought on a whim.

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My idiot cat:

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My bottle opener:

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Edit: Almost forgot ... this was in my fridge from last night and it inspired me. Me an my girl agreed that it was one of the best beers we have ever had:

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Holy crap, i just finished the Old guardian 11.3% shit and i would say i am drunk from just 22 ounces. Damn good beer, amazingly ... The flavor is strong and slightly bitter, but not overly bitter. It also has a slight sweetness when you first drink it. It is no Pabst blue ribbon for sure, but definitely drinkable. Far stronger in alcohol content than what I would want to brew though ... but then again it is tempting to go that route.

Overall impression: This barleywine is strong as hell, has a lot of flavor, and tastes really good.

I really need to get into this when I get back to alaska, we already have the large cookware.

just a followup on my beer tasting night:

The barleywine was the best of the three in the first picture. It was pretty well balanced in its flavor and didn't have any strange off flavors.

The Kilt lifter was next, and me and my girlfriend shared it. We both agreed that it had a strange chocolate taste and was too sweet. No bueno ... not our style at all.

The IPA was pretty good, but IPA by nature has a lot of hops and therefore a lot of bitterness. It tastes good in small doses but i really dont think i could drink much more than a 12 oz portion due to the intense bitterness. Again, not really our style.

Ultimately, both my girlfriend and I preferred the Sierra Nevada ESB over the three we tried last night. Slightly bitter and not too strong or weak. Dont really know how to evaluate the flavor or anything, its just good beer and I look forward to sharing the last two with my girlfriend tonight.