Home Brew

[Patria Povo]

G'Day y'all,

I spent this morning doing some yard work at our church. After some good Texas sweat work, the priest pulled-out some of his personal stash of home brew beer - an Aussie stout! So this got me thinking ....

Can anyone recommend an all-in-one first timer's home brew kit? I think I'm going to have to get into this.

And it would also give me an excuse to be tinkering in the garage with the firearms. :wink:

[drine]

Ratcheer in Texas.
http://www.austinhomebrew.com/
They have very good prices, too. Check out their recipes. Get a basic pilsner or other normal fermenting beer. These work faster and take less time to age so you can try them out quicker. You will be HOOKED, I gurantee. Leave the heavy stuff needing secondary fermentation for later. It is fool proof if you sanitize and keep the fermenter in a dark cool place. Like everything else, the beginner kit is bare bones and you reallly need more items. Bottles can be washed in the dishwasher otherwise get one that attaches to the sink faucet. I did it a lot for a while. Blew the caps off my dopplebock because it needed to be racked to a secondary glass carboy to work off longer(higher alchohol). I haven't made any in several years but have 250 bottles in the basement. Save your NON-SCREW top bottles so you don't have to buy them.
Get the Homebrewers Bible by Charlie Papazian. You won't believe the things you can brew with or add later: peppers, chocolate, pumpkin, mint, coffee, fruit. I made Mead and one Rasberry Kriek Lambic beer, too.

[brewskzilla]

Well... Guy... You came to the right place... If you're looking for something simple and delicious, I would recommend a good India pale ale... especially in the summer. Depending on how well you like the nice, hoppy flavor, you can adjust the dry-hopping time to your tastes... Also, I noticed that alot of the reputable brew stores are now carrying recipes for your favorite beer... I'm thinking of trying to duplicate Smithwick's Irish ale, but I REALLY need to brew a batch of IPA first... I've become somewhat of a local celebrity because of my "creative alternatives" to Sweetwater's IPA recipe... I do everything ALMOST according to the reciipe, but I changed a few things... Mainly the dry-hopping time and the type of hops I use... (a few other things, as well, but you have to keep your trade secrets, now, dont you?)

[hunter_la5]

Good luck! Home brewing is a lot of fun, and a very rewarding hobby. So far, I've made 4 batches (5 gallons or ~45 bottles each) of beer, 2 batches of "wine", 2 batches of hard apple cider, and 1 batch of sake. My home-brewed beer has been quite popular with buddies and at parties, though the other stuff has had more mixed reviews.... :icon_razz:

My kit is fairly simple – 2x 5 gallon plastic buckets, lid with gasket, racking cane, food grade tubing, bottling extension, airlock, hydrometer, and bottle-capper. I think I paid $30-$40 for my setup from the local homebrew shop, though most of it you could make yourself with supplies from the hardware store for much cheaper if you're so inclined.

I would recommend making your first couple batches with pre-measured ingredient kits until you get the hang of the process. Afterwards, you can move on to mixing and matching your own ingredients, and adjusting the proportions and fermentation times to your tastes.

However, the most important thing a new brewer needs to learn is SANITIZATION! Make sure you fully disinfect anything and everything that ever comes into contact with your beer. Just a little bit of bacteria can ruin the whole batch. It can be a bit of a PITA, but it's worth it. One of my buddies ruined 6 weeks worth of work by failing to sanitize the bottles adequately.

[Patria Povo]

Thanks guys! The beer will be on me soon :icon_biggrin:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5119JLJmdCL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

:beer::beer::beer:

[hunter_la5]

Hey Justin, have you had a chance to brew your Aussie Lager yet?

I'm brewing a batch of Irish stout right now. :cheers:

[Patria Povo]

Hey Justin, have you had a chance to brew your Aussie Lager yet?

I'm brewing a batch of Irish stout right now. :cheers:

I still haven't bought a kit yet - got distracted buying a new car for the missus and some new boots for me.

I love stout! I also love this time of year - Sam Adams and Shiner both put out an excellent Oktoberfest beer!

Is stout hard to make?

True story: when my grandmother was in her late 70s the doctor was concerned about her weight loss and prescribed a bottle of stout per night. Same Dr the prescribed 8 year old me pink champagne when I had the mumps. :icon_biggrin:

[hunter_la5]

I love stout! I also love this time of year - Sam Adams and Shiner both put out an excellent Oktoberfest beer!


I had a few Shiner Oktoberfest beers last night. :beer: Very hoppy. :)



Is stout hard to make?


This is the first stout I've tried, but so far it doesn't seem any more difficult than any Ale I've tried.

[jdowney]

I almost bought Shiner Oktoberfest a couple weeks ago, but I've never found an Oktoberfest I like better than Spaten, so I'm not looking at them much any more.

Last week I was in Tucson, so I went to Plaza Liquors, they have an amazing selection of beer, and you can buy single bottles so half the fun is picking out a six pack.

Got a bottle of Dogfish Head IPA for a friend of mine here, he likes IPA's more than I do...

Some scotch ale, Old Chub, which was good and strong, but a bit heavy in taste for Tucson in August :056:

Best one was Eggerberg dopplebock, which was a bit like a mild stout or a porter without the molasses flavor, just kind of sweet. I generally don't like sweet beers much, but that one went down really easy, and by the end I was wanting another.

Not sure I should learn to make beer, it'd be like teaching an ape to grow bananas :eek: