Any beer brewers here?

[Veganpunk]

Just got a kit, and this weekend we're gonna brew some beer! Anyone on here ever messed with it before?

[whalen]

all the time! Keep every thing clean and sanitized. If you you use great ingredients and clinical methods, You can make any beer you want., and make it better. Good luck!

[N0mad]

I would like to learn the ways of the Brewmaster.

[Veganpunk]

Yea, in the booklet every other word was SANITIZE SANITIZE SANITIZE!!! We have a plastic bucket that came with the kit, but I heard they don't last for more then two batches at the most so you have to upgrade to a glass carboy. Do you have a certain site you order your ingredients from?

[amdusias]

My brother brews beer every few weeks. He has a 5 gallon bucket I think he's been using for quite a while. He uses that and then uses the glass carboy as a secondary frementor. He has made some really potant beer!! I think he avereges around 13% alcohol but his beer is always sweet, not sickly sweet but sweeter than beer you would buy bottled.

[truthwolf1]

I tried two batches last winter of lager. Both came out way too bitter but almost okay to drink. Was not going to suffer and dumped both batches.

Gonna try one more time with less hops simmering time. Like 2 minutes and see what happens.

[RobsanX]

I thought about doing it, and I bought a book on it. I decided that I don't really have the patience for it, so I never started.

[ratcheer]

I brewed back in the 80's. I did it until I got really good at it, then I gave it up. Too much hassle!

Tim

[truthwolf1]

I brewed back in the 80's. I did it until I got really good at it, then I gave it up. Too much hassle!

Tim

If my batch would of tasted good without the odd extreme bitterness I would of continued with summer ale. It is a lot of work for a lot of failure.

[whalen]

It is real easy to make beer, It is much harder to make a great beer, you have to learn to brew, it is an art, and it demands discipline and adhering to methods of sanitizing and measuring specific gravities, then making adjustments to compensate for inevitable variations..

[whalen]

@VP the bucket will last forever, look here for supplies: www.austinhomebrew.com

[whalen]

Check out the Star San sanitizer, it is worth it's weight in gold and makes brewing a pleasure. Use it and the beer comes out perfect, use bleach and it is a pain in the ass. This stuff is wonderful, the best tip I can give you, good luck.http://www.austinhomebrew.com/produc...roducts_id=513

[myuserid]

My Father in Law started brewing a couple years ago and he's gotten really good at it.

I keep saying I'm going to try it, but I just keep letting him make it and i drink it.

[Mr. Snuffleupagus]

I used to have 4 five gallon batches in rotation at all times. I drink a lot of beer and was trying to just drink my own. I used a dishwasher for almost all my sanitizing. I could fit bottles, the carboy, the plastic first fermentation bucket, and even my kegs in it (not all at once). You have to take the top shelf out for the big stuff and the dishwasher needs to get to 140F or more. My batches took 4 weeks to be ready to drink. I did not force carbonate any of them. Once I stopped bottling and started using kegs it got a lot less labor intensive. I just used a little bike pump size CO2 thing with a tap to get the beer out of the keg and keep air out of the system. My beer was awesome! Too good in fact. It was all really strong. I made a lot of brown ales, stouts, and porters. It was great. Best thing was when I would strap a keg to the inside of my van and go camping (yeah that's how I "camp"). I stopped for a couple reasons, but still have all my gear and will probably do it again. It's a lot of fun, and you can get much better results than what is available in stores.