Getting back into homebrewing on a small scale

[al2n]

Had a talk with a friend about homebrewing a couple weeks ago and the bug has bitten me again. I used to do it, but ran into space issues and later sold my gear to a friend.

Just won an auction for a small homebrew system called the Beer Machine. I have heard mixed reviews on them, but most of that has to do with the ingredient kits they sell. I will get stuff from the local shop and go that route.

Will only be making 2.5 gallon batches at a time over the traditional 5 gallons due to space and the fact that I do not drink that much beer.

Now to find a good red ale recipe....

[N2RJ]

I was confused for a minute there... I thought you meant ham radio homebrewing.

Then I was disappointed to realize it was beer.

Oh well, drink a pint for me, will ya?

[al2i]

That sounds great Mike. I need to try that sometime myself.

A friend of mine used to always pour some of his beer into his dog's dish. That dog had a great attitude and thought people were great. If only people were so considerate to each other, then they would like each other more. That is my deeply unstable thought for today. Thanks.

[KF5ER]

A few years ago a friend gave me a recipe for Muscadine wine.
I picked up three gallons of the grapes in the woods near the house.
Followed the directions, squished, fermented, strained, fermented again added
sugar as needed.

Absolutely the most foul tasting drink I ever tried. One swallow did it, threw it away.

A brewer I'm not.

[al2n]

The most important part is to keep a clean work area. It only takes a little contamination of wild yeast to ruin a whole batch of brew.

I used to make some wine as well. It can be pretty foul at first, but give it some age and it will usually mellow out unless some wild yeast got into the mix and then there is no telling what it will taste like.

Did you use bakers yeast or did you buy some wine yeast when you tried your hand at it?

[KF5ER]

The most important part is to keep a clean work area. It only takes a little contamination of wild yeast to ruin a whole batch of brew.

I used to make some wine as well. It can be pretty foul at first, but give it some age and it will usually mellow out unless some wild yeast got into the mix and then there is no telling what it will taste like.

Did you use bakers yeast or did you buy some wine yeast when you tried your hand at it?

The recipe didn't call for any yeast, just grapes and about 10# sugar.
I never tried the wine he made with the recipe, might have tasted just as bad, or maybe he
aged it some.

[al2n]

The most important part is to keep a clean work area. It only takes a little contamination of wild yeast to ruin a whole batch of brew.

I used to make some wine as well. It can be pretty foul at first, but give it some age and it will usually mellow out unless some wild yeast got into the mix and then there is no telling what it will taste like.

Did you use bakers yeast or did you buy some wine yeast when you tried your hand at it?

The recipe didn't call for any yeast, just grapes and about 10# sugar.
I never tried the wine he made with the recipe, might have tasted just as bad, or maybe he
aged it some.

Ah, the old fashioned way.

That is playing the yeast lottery. You may get some good ones that give a nice tasting beverage or you may end up with the nasty ones that live for the purpose of killing taste buds.

If you try again, look into buying a wine yeast. Cost is about a dollar if you can find it locally.

Making beer is pretty easy. If you can boil water you can make beer. Wine is a bit harder, but the basics are the same.

[K8YS]

I am an amateur home vinter, I make mead (honey wine) as well as berry wines, cherry, choke cherry, rasberry.

Wine is not that hard to make! Berry wines take a couple weeks and mead takes a couple months, but the wait is well worth the effort.

[N9FE]

mmmmmm cherry wine

[al2i]

I make a wicked mountain grog with tea, tang, and Everclear. If someone complains about it, I simply add more Everclear. Works every time. ;)

[K8YS]

I make a wicked mountain grog with tea, tang, and Everclear. If someone complains about it, I simply add more Everclear. Works every time. ;)

I make a nice "cherry brandy" using Everclear and a brandy kit. The kit is two bottles of stuff, flavoring etc, added to the everclear or a gin or vodka to make the brandy.

I used to keep a pint of everclear on my work bench, it was great for cleaning electronics parts and to help make it thru a long day.

[KU4MY]

Hey Mike....... free samples or STFU! :twisted:

[N9FE]

Hey Mike....... free samples or STFU! :twisted: what he said

[rot]

Homebrewing is da bomb!
I still have alot of stuff and ran into cleaning problems.
I shut myself down. Cleanliness is the name of the game.
Still have alot of equiptment.
Used to make a beetchin NutBrown Ale at around 8%. To die for.
10 gal brew kettle...all the bottling stuff.
I'm dreamin of gravity feed transfer lines,cool down coils,stainless fermentors, and steam cleaning.
Maybe even grain steeping.
Man nothing beats a wort cooking!
Enjoy,
Zymurgy,NC
rot



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[n4aud]

I've not brewed anything in over a year. I started with malt extract kits and getting waitress friends to save non-screw top bottles. I bought a bunch of bottles with the Grolsch style spring tops, but finally went to "corny kegs" and never looked back. The kegs are a LOT less work, which was good because by then I had graduated to whole grain brewing, which is also a lot of work. I converted a cooler into a mash tun, made a wort cooler and used a reloading scale to weigh hops. I converted a manual grain mill by attaching a drill to it. I've got some hops in the freezer, have some grain on hand and some malt extract. I should use it up, I guess.
You can get corny kegs pretty cheap and CO2 is cheap as well. It's great to have your own homebrewed beer on tap! It's a great hobby but it can turn into a lot of work.

[kf0rt]

I tried homebrewing once at one of those U-Brew-It places. This was 8-10 years ago. You'd pay about $90 and they had everything, including recipes. Get five guys in on it and the sixth was free (they could handle six in a session). Bunch of guys at work went in on it. You'd spend about an hour and a half brewing and come back about two weeks (?) later for an hour of bottling. The bottles weren't included in the price but they made sure everything was clean.

The stuff we made was all real good -- traded some cases in the parking lot after the bottling. As I recall, we each ended up with about 8 gallons.

Those places were springing up around here like Starbucks for awhile, but I think they've all gone out of business. The big thing now is restaurants that brew their own.

[K8YS]

I'm about to start two new batches of wine, one is going to be my favorite mead, and a cherry wine.

Just finished bottling 17 bottles of choke cherry wine.

[kf6rdn]

Had a talk with a friend about homebrewing a couple weeks ago and the bug has bitten me again. I used to do it, but ran into space issues and later sold my gear to a friend.

Just won an auction for a small homebrew system called the Beer Machine. I have heard mixed reviews on them, but most of that has to do with the ingredient kits they sell. I will get stuff from the local shop and go that route.

Will only be making 2.5 gallon batches at a time over the traditional 5 gallons due to space and the fact that I do not drink that much beer.

Now to find a good red ale recipe....

I had one of those. It's ok, you're not really "brewing" beer, you're basically fermenting a pre done mix. It's ok if you're not that picky (I'm not)

For the price they are cheaply made though, weird design, the thing's split in the center, so seal has to be 100% or it leaks. It failed on mine after about 5 batches.

[HUGH]

The most important part is to keep a clean work area. It only takes a little contamination of wild yeast to ruin a whole batch of brew.

I used to make some wine as well. It can be pretty foul at first, but give it some age and it will usually mellow out unless some wild yeast got into the mix and then there is no telling what it will taste like.

Did you use bakers yeast or did you buy some wine yeast when you tried your hand at it?

I agree, be patient if it looks and smells awful and refuses to clear. Rack it off if the sludge is too thick like mud and filter if you feel it needs it. I have kept some of mine for 18 months before bottling. The best was parsnip after 3 years.

Mead was good too, not sweet as you might imagine. Used quite a bit of lemon juice to keep it acidic.

[kk7ue]

You can get corny kegs pretty cheap and CO2 is cheap as well.

If I remember my chemistry right, doesnt yeast as a byproduct of fermentation make its own cO2? How do you mean cheap? As in you are selling yours off cheap? Or the carbon credits :roll: ?

At least in ethanol class we were taught that fermenting yeast makes three things; it pees ethanol, farts cO2 & makes heat. Of course this is only fuel grade ethanol. Not enough steps to finish it off into everclear here :naughty: :pray:

http://www.cascadegrain.com

[n4aud]

Yes, yeast produces CO2 during fermentation BUT you don't want active fermentation in a beer bottle or keg because THAT will produce an explosion! You can add a small amount of fermentable sugar when you bottle beer and carbonate it naturally, but it's somewhat difficult to control and it's easier to buy a tank of CO2 and force carbonate your beer (or soda pop). There are formulas that homebrewers who use kegs (I do) use that let you calculate CO2 pressure based on temperature, because you don't want to over-carbonate your brew (causes excessive foaming) or under-carbonate it (flat). Some English pubs that brew their own naturally carbonate their beer, but generally any beer you pay for is force carbonated with compressed CO2.

When I first go into homebrewing, one of my friends was also trying it out. I would add sugar to a 5 gallon batch of beer when I bottled it to cause natural carbonation, but my pal tried adding a small amount of sugar to each bottle which is a very poor way to do it because a small error in the amount of sugar made a big difference. We were at work and his wife called, and you could hear the bottles exploding out on their enclosed porch.

Champagne is naturally carbonated, and that's the reason for the thick bottles and wired-on corks. Put champagne in an ordinary wine bottle and it will explode if the cork doesn't come out first.

[HUGH]

Sodium Metabisulphite tablets are commonly used to stop wine fermenting but I also put the demijohns in a cool, dark place. These tablets are good for preserving Autumn apples as well, I put one on each layer of newspaper-wrapped apples and that keeps for 6 months.

[n4aud]

I've got some tablets marked "Campden Tablets" that will kill fermentation. Probably the same thing.

[K8YS]

yeast eats sugar and the end result is CO2 and alcohol. Those little yeasties will keep eating sugar until there is no more sugar and the result is a bunch of dead yeast that settles to the bottom of the fermentation vessel (carboy) and these are called "lees".

At this point you have a wine if you used a fruit base. You can now distill your wine and the result will be cognac.

The campden tablets kill the remaining yeast and prevents refermentations after the wine is bottled. Crush one tablet per gallon.

It is not a pretty sight to have a bottle of wine turn into a grenade :) now you have shattered glass and sticky mess all over the place.

I just finished another 26 bottles of cherry wine. It is a bit too dry for me but my wife thinks it is one of my best.

[n2ize]

The key to making good wine is to first find a very attractive young lady who is willing to stomp on your grapes.