My buddy from school homebrews oatmeal stout, its delicious.
Jam, me and him started making red wine as well, I’ll have to bring some over soon its AMAZING!!
i want to make an american strong ale similar to a hop rod rye soon… god im in love with that shit
My first attempt at brewing was a lager. It sucked. Shoulda tried an ale instead.
i brewed up an american ale.
let it ferment for a couple days more than i should have.
tested the alcohol content and it measured just over 18%.
it is delicious.
not questioning but are you sure you read your Hydrometer correctly… 18% is alot… My last batch came out to 6% but I added to much Primer sugar and it has a way to much Carbonation… oh well heady beer for me
It’s definitely not 18%. Most ale yeast can’t even live past 15%…
The time in the fermenter has no affect on the alcohol content. Once the yeast “eat” all the sugar that they can metabolize, they’re done making alcohol.
Check out homebrewtalk.com if you guys get a chance - great forums with a lot of knowledgeable people
o dip! just put in an order for an belgan white, ie a hogarden clone… should be delicious for when summer finally arrives!
I picked up a Mr Beer kit at Rite Aid for 75% off (after christmas special, so it was 10 bucks). Just bottled the first batch on Friday (West Coast Pale Ale), it tasted ok, but I’ll give it three weeks in the bottle to carbonate and condition and I am hopeful that it’ll be decent enough to drink. I just started a second batch fermenting with the Mr. beer - a belgian white recipe. Used some real yeast this time though, and it’s fermenting like crazy right now. I’ll probably pick up a real kit soon… the smell of freshly boiled wort is addicting and two gallon recipes are not cost effective.
^^i know! so addicting, it stinks like weed!
i bought my kit on ebay, came to around $125 for everything including a glass carboy and caps and all the tubing/syphon/buckets ect
Brought this thread back for one reason, got new toys…Wort Chiller. For anyone that is still brewing, you NEED one of these. How I did this for a year without one is beyond me. It cools down a 2 gallon partial boil from a rolling boil, to 70 degrees in 15 min. Which means once your done with the wort boiling, you can chill it and put yeast and be done in 20 mins, instead of waiting 2 hours for the stuff to cool. It makes better beer because it doesn’t allow harmfull bacteria to form, and it keeps the oxygen out of it.
I got this off of ebay for 35 shipped. Its a 25 foot coil. Do it!!
Any beer fans here watch Beer Wars this past Sunday? If you’re interested in home brews this is right up your alley. It was a one-time showing this past Sunday, I’m not sure when it will be available next for viewing…but in the meantime check the link out to the homepage and you’ll find a link to a CNN video summing the movie up. Good stuff.
While I haven’t home brewed, many good friends of mine do and I’m an avid taster:) This past Saturday one of the guys hosted a beer tasting at Empire Grill on Hertel. He somehow convinced them to let him bring in a few coolers of beer and, well, we drank and got a nice history lesson on beer! I learned a lot that night about brewing, got a lot of respect for those that brew their own:tup:
Now, time to go crack open a Three Philosophers:)
EDIT: found the trailer for Beer Wars
you guys should take pictures of your setups, I’d like to see them. I have visions of awesome laboratories with bunsen burners and flasks and hoses and colorful bubbles… like a meth lab.
The basic setup isn’t too interesting to look at. But I will admit, that now its starting to look like a science project.
Bringing this back. I’ve been looking into picking up the supplies to start brewing and the WTB thread in the classifieds sparked my enthusiasm to get going.
Is it best to just go out and buy one of the starter kits, or piece one together? Not really looking to start with the Mr. Beer type.
What are some of the pieces you feel are absoultely necessary for making some good brew? Even if it is really just something you prefer, and not really 100% necessary…what is it?
The list I have so far is as follows:
airlock
boiling pot
fermenter
siphon
racking cane
bottle filler
thermometer
bottling bucket w/ spigot
hydrometer
sanitizer
I’ve been reading around homebrewtalk.com quite a bit and I’m excited to finally give it a go. Thanks for any info.
man i just sold my homebrew kit a few months ago…
your best bet, and what i used is the homebrew kit on ebay, its like $130 shipped and includes everything you need but a brew pot and bottles
Why did you decide to sell so soon? Just lose interest/time?
moved to a new apt with a small kitchen and no dishwasher 
i’ll homebrew again someday
I started with this and like $400 worth of other stuff. I went big to begin, and have been going bigger and bigger since.
I priced it out, seemed cheapest just to get the True Brew equipment kit.
We started last summer and are on our third batch. We made a porter for starters which is excellent, though I’ve been told it’s not quite heavy enough. I then did a pumpkin ale, and our red is just finishing conditioning.
It also seems cheapest to start with the ingredient kits like True Brew’s and modify from there.
How much does a full home kit run for to start making it? I have a lot of room in my new apartment so this seems pretty interesting.
Would love to give it a shot without spending a fortune on something I may be too lazy to use more than once.