Any home brewers on this forum?

[PythonWallace]

For Christmas last year my little brother bought me a Mr. Beer home brew kit that came with the ingredients needed to make a 2 gallon batch of pale ale from extract. I don't like pale ales, but I had always thought it would be cool to brew my own beer, so I used it as an opportunity to start reading about the science of home brewing, and of beer making in general.

I made the pale ale from the kit while reading everything I could find, and started working on a recipe for a chocolate oatmeal stout. Since then I've built three 5gal. fermenters and one 6gal. fermenter, bought two 5gal. cornelius kegs, a 10 lb CO2 tank with a regulator, and a ton of other equipment. I currently have a 5gal. batch of Czech pilsner lagering from a recipe I came up with and named Hardly Pilsner (due to the addition of some Crystal malt specialty grains, which make it darker than traditional pilsners should be). I have a 6gal. batch of an Irish red ale conditioning in a secondary fermenter. Then I have an imperial-ish, hoppy brown ale that's currently fermenting in the 2 1/2gal. fermenter that will get bottled.

I've tried all of them, and every one of them, save for the imperial chocolate stout, are just great beers. I'm still surprised at how simple it all is once you know the chemistry and how everything works with everything else, and what the ingredients will add to the finished beer. It's also really cheap when you compare the cost of 5 gallons of premium beer to the cost of store bought beers of the same style.

My main goal is to adjust my European pilsner recipe, batch by batch, until I have the perfect beer. After that I can keep it on tap in my condo at all times, along with a second keg of different ales and lagers, just to keep the hobby interesting, and to continue learning and experimenting. I'm working on a 2-keg kegorator that will use multiple piezo- thermo-electric cooling units with a Herpstat thermostat in cooling mode and on/off mode, and bar style taps. I can't wait until it's finished and I have both kegs filled and chilled on gas.

So, does anyone else brew their own beer at home?

[zeke]

WOW, you went all out! I got the Mr.Beer too for X-mas this past year and so did my brother in law.. My brew was the west coast pale ale, and it came out BAD!!! tasted like old warm left out in the sun with some cig butts in it keystone light beer.. ( I dont drink that crap ) needless to say I dumbed my whole brew... As for my brother in laws brew he liked it, I think it tasted like plastic and bad too.. I have looked into makin my own set up but i dont have the dark storage space in this already small house..

Your brews sound good, I'd love to taste them... My fiance and I love beer, we went to a micro brew fest at hunter mtn in NY, soooo many good beers and the ones that were th best tasting were little brewerys.. well good luck with the brews. and if ya start to bottle and sell them let me know where I can get a Sixer..


Cheers

[Brunoheart]

My husband brews his own, but in limited batches when he has time. He also started with a Mr Beer kit and has since purchased two 5 gallon bucket fermentors and a five gallon glass fermentor. In addition to beer, he has also made Gingerale and is currently working a Mead which I am sure will knock some people on their butts when it's ready. He, like you, has been reading everything he can, visiting brew stores, has contemplated his own recipes (although has not yet tried them) and is now intermittently obsessed with beer making!! The funny part is I don't drink beer at all and he never liked beer much, but now tries beers from different local brewers and has a beer with dinner almost evey night. Maybe I can get him on here sometime to chat beer with you!

[Mitch21]

Jake, those brews sounds delicious! If you end up over producing, I'd surely buy some off ya!

My dad's been getting into making wine. His brother has been doing it for a long time but my dad has just recently taken an interest in it. It's not the same thing as beer but whatever...

[dc4teg]

being underage i cant... but in the family history i have family members that made moonsine

[PythonWallace]

Hey Mitch, I'll be sure to bottle some when they are ready to transfer to the kegs, and put a few bombers to the side for you to try. If I ever have too much beer I'll let you know. What kind of beer do you usually drink?

Right now I'm wanting to make a lot of different styles of beer, just so I have a good grasp of what different ingredients and methods add to the finished brew. The speed bump I'm at now is trying to come up with a Weiss recipe that isn't sweet and that doesn't have a lot of esters. A lot of people would probably tell me to just not use wheat if I don't like sweet, estery beer, but I like the idea of adding some of the characteristics of wheat to a traditional brown ale or porter. I think I know what I have to do, but I don't want to be wrong and up up with 5 gallons of Hacker Pshorr.

[NotaMallard]

My dad is very into homebrewing. I actually buy my CO2 for euthanasia of rodents at the same store he buys his brewing stuff.

[Mitch21]

Hey Mitch, I'll be sure to bottle some when they are ready to transfer to the kegs, and put a few bombers to the side for you to try. If I ever have too much beer I'll let you know. What kind of beer do you usually drink?

What do I usually drink....? Man.... I definitely consider myself a beer connoisseur; however, I don't think I'm close to your level of beer-lovingness (unfortunately).

I drink and typically enjoy almost all beers. I love darks, I love wheaty beer, love ales, lagers, sweet beer, bitter beer... It's all good in my book. It's just that some beers go better with certain foods or moods. Having said that, my current favorite beer is Two Brother's Ebel Weiss and the best part is that the brewery is in WARRENVILLE!

[Seru1]

I tried home brewing once, didn't have much luck. It all went off like grenades in my basement.


I was trying to do my own idea, make an imperial rice ale. Didn't work for whatever reason.


But I do love to drink beer. There's a bar called the J clyde down here in the ham. Best craft beer you can drink. great food to. I always drink a ton of good beer.

But my favorite is great divide samurai