Hey dudes. Me and a buddy have been home brewing for the past couple years. Lots of positives, some failures. Just wondered if any one else on here made their own badass brews. We use a catering urn that does 20 litres but we never get close to that. Usually about 14l so the boil efficiency isn't great. We've a sparging tank and a homemade immersion chiller. On Thursday we plan to do a banana and clove wheat beer and then a chocolate porter with a hint of ginger. Willing to swap any recipes and top tips if anyone is interested.
I've been homebrewing for 4 years now, and if you go back 19 years before that, I brewed when lived in Portland and Seattle for a few years. I have a larger setup, brew 40-45 liters at a time. This year, my hops crop is a little more robust, so I'll be able to do a lot more wet hopping to give it a nice fresher flavor. Most of my recipes involve optimizing my American Pale Ale and IPA recipes, the former of which is simple but very good. Also have a nice amber recipe. The other ones I've tried recently - Dunkelweisen and Belgian pale ale were good, but probably not swap worthy.
Interesting, I home brew wine and meads, not beer, to much of a PITA to mess with for me 5 gallons a time, funny thing is my drinking is tapering off..getting tired of it tbh
You grow your own hops? Wow, that'd be great. What variety? Everything we use is freeze dried vac packed. When you say wet hopping, I'm not too sure what you mean? We boil them in the kettle, if we are double hopping an ipa we dump them in the fv, I thought that was called dry hopping.
I grow cascade and centennial. Have about 5 plants, 3 of which grew about 20 feet this year up to my bedroom window. unfortunately, it's not possible to get your hands on the high end hops (simcoe, galaxy..) since they are grown by just a couple of proprietary farms. Wet-hopping is getting freshly cut hops, right off the vine, then you dump a load into the pot after flame out (actually below 180 degrees) to get a real, fresher hop taste. only thing about growing your own hops, they are like a crazy weed. you have to cut the new shoots that pop out of the ground at least once a week. in the right climate, they can actually grow 6-10 inches per day.
I've never done wine. One of the guys that works for me started brewing wine last year. takes more patience and little more money per batch, but he enjoys it.
That sounds lovely. I visited a brewery a few months back, the hop room smelled incredible. We're too far north to get the growth. Sucks. Now I want to try that.
I used to brew, and I'll get back to it again someday. All my brewing kettles and equipment (good-quality stuff) is still in Seattle. I like dark beers, so I brewed mostly stouts. My brewing bud and I once made a Cuban coffee stout with a 30+ pound grain bill and an entire liter of freshly-brewed Cuban coffee. It came in at over 10% ABV; problem was it had too many fermentables and I when I thought flocculation had plateaued, I bottled it. Bad...should've pony-kegged all 5 gallons. I had several bottles explode. But I drank the last of it over ten years after bottling, and it was still going strong. In fact, it could've stood another three-five years to mellow. I didn't test the last bottle, but I do believe it ended up around 12-13% ABV after aging. Best beer I've ever tasted, if I do say so myself.
If you want to get into brewing quick and easy, get a Mister Beer outfit. It comes with canned malt extracts and recipes; one is for a pale, or Imperial Pale. The trick is: use twice the malt in the recipe. It ends up around 10+% ABV, and one of the tastiest Pales you'll ever have.
pretty cheap kits, easy to use, but you get what you pay for. not a fan even as a starter. I'd recommend just getting a cheap kettle, wash some bottles and buy the carboy. even if you start small at 2.5 gallons, it's pretty easy to do. at least now there are a ton of videos to show you step by step. 25 years ago, you had to find someone who knew how to show you how to do it. luckily it wasn't that hard to find someone in Portland back then.
Actually, you get something that works well for years. I know lots of homebrewers who use the Mr. Beer for test recipes or one-offs. It's hard and expensive going to kettles and grain, and then doing it right so you don't end up with contaminated beer, much less beer that is at all drinkable. There's a lot to be said for a small, inexpensive setup to get used to the concepts, until you're ready to remember to keep a bunch of equipment sterile, not to mention all the cooking steps and beyond.
Cant find the beer thread sooo Im just going to post here that Im drinking some random beer called "Victory HopDevil Indian Pale Ale"
If you like IPA's, try the Big Sky IPA by Big Sky Brewing out of Montana... Not an IPA fan myself, but a friend brought me back a 6 pack of these from a trip to Montana back in the spring. They were pretty good... for an IPA.
That's not random. Pretty popular beer in the northeast (Philly I believe). I prefer my IPAs a little less hoppy and a little more flavor. 90 minute ipa by Dogfish Head does this better than anyone.
Not a huge fan of IPA's though Saranac wasnt bad. Two things Id recommend to beer lovers.... 1) The aforementioned Mr Beer kit is not a bad thing at all. Got one as a gift about a decade ago and it came out no different then bud or coors that you would pay just as much for if you were buying a case. Wasnt spectacular but it was a good experience. Showed up to a party with the mini keg they give you and had some fun with it. 2) If you or anyone else is a beer lover: http://www.beermonthclub.com/?from_ppc=1&gclid=CIu6-vCqvsACFa_m7AodbysAUw I got a 3 month subscription as a gift about a year ago. Still have a few left and its a great way to try new beers without paying for an entire pack. They usually ship you 3 bottles of 4 types of beers or 4 bottles of 3 types of beers. The ones I dont like I let any guests who come over try