Related to 4Eye's Real Ale tasting thread here: http://th3core.com/talk/water-coolerextra/my-beer-and-cider-thread/
I've recently started brewing my own beer. Baby steps for me so I'm brewing mostly from kits like Coopers and Muntons for now. So far I've found that brewing is easier than I thought, it's fun, I get to drink up both the stuff I like and the rejects = good hobby that.
Currently fermenting: Muntons Yorkshire bitter, a German style wheat beer and a Belgian Dubbel.
I'm finding the hardest part, is waiting for the beer to age enough. I hate waiting.
Has anyone else brewed beer, cider or mead?
I brewed some stout when I was 17 - seemed to go OK, bottled it and left it long enough etc ... but it was awful.
I ended up just leaving the bottles in the cupboard for about 18 months, before trying them again in times of extreme need (ran out or bought beer) - oddly, it was perfectly fine then,
Decided that having to wait 18months was too long - and learning to do it properly too much hassle.
In the days when bottled Guinness was still bottle conditioned, my mate collected the sediment from all the bottles we drank in the pub and used it as part of his own home made stout process - it was far better than mine.
Not done it for years, but planning some strawberry gin after discussions with neighbours.
They do the sloe variety. I think it Ok, but I am on to a winner :)
I have been brewing since the days I couldn't afford to buy beer.
I brew using my home built all grain set up, grow my own hops and have two temperature controlled fridges for fermentation/serving. I have just collected/built the kit over the years, but most of what I brew these days is better (and much cheaper) than what I can buy.
I agree waiting is the hardest part, but if you can get a good few on the go you have a nice rolling supply.
Now, I can see a tasting coming on.....
Quote from: thesaintv12 on October 06, 2011, 03:34:21 PM
I have been brewing since the days I couldn't afford to buy beer.
I brew using my home built all grain set up, grow my own hops and have two temperature controlled fridges for fermentation/serving. I have just collected/built the kit over the years, but most of what I brew these days is better (and much cheaper) than what I can buy.
I agree waiting is the hardest part, but if you can get a good few on the go you have a nice rolling supply.
I'm working on The Pipeline. My goal is not having to buy beer - except for Research Purposes and Science. ;)
Sounds like you have quite a setup. I have no doubts what you brew is better than what you can buy.
I think I might give cider another go this year, we were tantilisingly close to getting it right before ending up with 4 gallons of vinegar :(
Strawberry gin sounds good. We make litres of sloe gin and somehow seem to get through it, blackberry vodka's not bad either. Never thought of strawberries. Hmm. We have a raspberry glut at the moment, I wonder......
Raspberry vodka might be drinkable. Gin is nasty stuff.
Beats having to distill shoepolish using stale bread, I guess.
I want to learn how to make a really good ginger ale beer. It's difficult to find ginger ale that is any good.
> ginger ale beer
Not sure if this is exactly what you're after, but I made it and it was pretty good: http://www.channel4.com/4food/recipes/chefs/hugh-fearnley-whittingstall/ginger-beer-recipe
I've also done hawthorn blossom wine, elderflower wine, and others in a similar vein - all very drinkable but induced crushing headaches the morning after so I've given up ;)
Ginger Beer is the bomb. Especially over shaved ice with rum.
I only made beer once - open fermentation/too much sugar... all our green bottles exploded into a billion slivers, and the brown ones were so dangerous to open we wore welder facemasks and hockey gear just to open them...
(https://th3core.com/chat/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.seroundtable.com%2Farchives%2Fgoogle-bomb-squad.jpg&hash=964483c74c3d147cad54285ee10dc249d1a1d507)
...the beer was alright though:)
Quotewe wore welder facemasks and hockey gear just to open them
I suspect that beer sales would increase if all beers needed to be opened that way - it really hits the 'macho' angle nicely :)
Somewhere along the line we decided to add a little more sugar to the fermentation process (in order to get a stronger proof beer) and I guess the green bottles we used just couldn't take the pressure. They started blowing up all by themselves. And if you bumped one they would blow up. Basically, if you did anything to them they blew up and sent glass shrapnel across the room.
We ended up storing them in my buddy's guest's room bathtub and drawing straws to go get them:)