Home Brew Beer

youngster

Just got finished brewing my first batch of beer at home. Got the Mr. Beer home brewery and followed the steps (almost) perfectly. It is up in my closet fermenting right now cause it is a consistent temp and no sun gets in there. Anyone ever home brew their own beer? How did it turn out?

MayDay10

I havent done it. Always wanted to. I have had friends who have brewed batches. I have always heard the major factor is cleanliness/sterilization. I also bet it takes a bit of practice. My friends have had mixed results. Nothing really seems to be as good as real good craft beers though.

I got home brew classes for Christmas, so this spring I am going to take classes, then get the equipment.

youngster

Yeah, there was a big step for sterilization. I actually reversed the step with the yeast which I noticed after the fact (forgot to stir before I added the yeast). Hoping it turns out ok. It was fun so even if I screwed it up, I had fun doing it.

FrankieG

My dad and one of my best friends do this alot.

My dad recently started. His first batch was complete shit, but they have steadily improved!

My friends has been doing it for almost a year now, and he is big ino experimenting, so he's always putting different things in to flavor it differently.

Yellow Ledbelly

A buddy ani I have been doing mr beer for several months now and we enjoy it a lot. Were planning on stepping it up a bit this spring. A fine hobby to have. Ours have been good so far, no trouble and good beer. We used light brown sugar in bottle conditioning with the cowboy lager last time and will be trying it Wednesday.

FenwayFaithful

brianlux

I've only had home brewed beer twice. The first time was when my buddy and I were around twelve and he made homemade root beer but let it ferment a little. Good stuff! The second time was in college and a roommate of mine in made a small batch of beer and gave me a bottle of it to drink. One 12 oz. bottle and I was absolutely blotto. I think it had mescaline in it or something.

Thoughts_Arrive

My former boss is a big home brewery fan, he tells me it tastes better and is cheaper than the ready made.

conman

my dad did it once... he failed miserably

81

anyone want to invest in 81's beer?

i'd make it, but i'd have to set up a small brewery...this 5 gallon paint bucket method just doesn't do it for me.

SPEEDY MCCREADY

I just find it easier to run to the 7-11 and pick up a 12 pack of Bud Lite.........

81

SPEEDY MCCREADY wrote:

I just find it easier to run to the 7-11 and pick up a 12 pack of Bud Lite.........

:?

drinking bud light is to beer drinking, as the chicago cubs are to baseball fandom.

weekapaug19

been brewing for about a year (extract only), made 1 horrible batch, the rest are pretty good. homebrewtalk.com is your new best friend

FenwayFaithful

81 wrote:

SPEEDY MCCREADY wrote:

I just find it easier to run to the 7-11 and pick up a 12 pack of Bud Lite.........

:?

drinking bud light is to beer drinking, as the chicago cubs are to baseball fandom.

Cliffy6745

Bottled my first batch of American Pale Ale yesterday. Tasted pretty good. Picked up the Sam Calagione brewing book, so thinking about making another batch this weekend. Maybe 60 minute and then try them up against each other.

Horos

Read a book 25 years ago about making homebrew with weed and always wanted to try it. Told myself I'd get around to it one day and now 25 years later I'm still telling myself that. *have another hit*

Cliffy6745

Horos wrote:

Read a book 25 years ago about making homebrew with weed and always wanted to try it. Told myself I'd get around to it one day and now 25 years later I'm still telling myself that. *have another hit*

That's a pretty awesome idea. I am going to have to keep that in mind.

adam42381

From what I've read, it's a waste of time/beer/money. THC is alcohol soluble at around 60%. It would be pretty expensive to brew it just so it tastes like weed since it won't be giving you any of the good side effects of weed.

RW81233

Homebrewing with weed would be very very difficult. Weed is only soluble in fat and alcohol, and it needs stronger alcohol to suck more of the good stuff out. So basically you need to soak the stuff for a month, then boil (without burning) the weed in 151/absinthe/grain and dump it into the secondary. You're gonna need at least 1/4 oz. for a 5 gallon batch. Thus a basic batch is gonna run around 180 bucks minimum (weed+beer+liquor) for around 2 cases of beer, and then you gotta hope you didn't fuck shit up or it'll become a sour. No, I've never thought about making this before .

I've been brewing for about a year - made 7 batches so far. My success rate is 4.5/7 (the apricot would have been good if it weren't for the extract). Sanitization is key. Oh, and fuck Mr. Beer, get a kit from midwesternhomebrew.com when they do a groupon, and buy a carboy (secondary fermenter). It's way more fun. I'm drinking a scotch ale I made tonight, and will bottle my first attempt at a pumpkin Saturday morning. 81 has said no to the latter already.

Cliffy6745

RW81233 wrote:

Homebrewing with weed would be very very difficult. Weed is only soluble in fat and alcohol, and it needs stronger alcohol to suck more of the good stuff out. So basically you need to soak the stuff for a month, then boil (without burning) the weed in 151/absinthe/grain and dump it into the secondary. You're gonna need at least 1/4 oz. for a 5 gallon batch. Thus a basic batch is gonna run around 180 bucks minimum (weed+beer+liquor) for around 2 cases of beer, and then you gotta hope you didn't fuck shit up or it'll become a sour. No, I've never thought about making this before .

I've been brewing for about a year - made 7 batches so far. My success rate is 4.5/7 (the apricot would have been good if it weren't for the extract). Sanitization is key. Oh, and fuck Mr. Beer, get a kit from midwesternhomebrew.com when they do a groupon, and buy a carboy (secondary fermenter). It's way more fun. I'm drinking a scotch ale I made tonight, and will bottle my first attempt at a pumpkin Saturday morning. 81 has said no to the latter already.

Makes sense. Sounded like a good idea without much thought

Cliffy6745

Just got a Rogue Brutal IPA kit to do tonight. The second batch we are doing. Going to do a few more kits then try it on our own.

he.who.forgets

I've got a batch of Belgian Tripel fermenting right now. Added some cinnamon, cloves, & and little vanilla extract to try and impart some fall/pumpkin flavors. It was my first time, so I'm not sure what to expect. It was more difficult than I was anticipating (probably b/c we were shitfaced by the time we finished). Keep ya posted on the end result.

Horos

The emergence of marijuana in liquid form shouldn't be surprising. Before its possession was criminalized in the 1930s, marijuana was commonly ingested via liquid tincture alcohol. Today, tinctures - sometimes made instead with glycerin - are increasingly popular in legal marijuana dispensaries.

Still, California marijuana activist Ed Rosenthal doubts that even as weed laws are relaxed nationwide, we'll ever see legal pot brew.

"It's not going to happen because commercialization would get into the realm of alcohol regulations," said Rosenthal, who in 1984 authored and self-published Marijuana Beer: How to Make Your Own Hi-Brew Beer.

Now out of print, a single copy costs more than $100 on Amazon.com. I asked Rosenthal if he would share some tips.

Most recipes, he said, make use of the leaves, not the more potent buds. More industrious homebrewers use kief, the resinous, THC-packed cannabis glands that can be painstakingly sifted from the plant.

The two biggest challenges, Rosenthal said, are off flavors and contamination. If the marijuana is added during the initial wort boil, its water-soluble tars and chlorophyll will be extracted, giving the beer a nasty, plantlike flavor. Added after the boil, it can introduce bacteria and sour the beer.

Rosenthal said the easiest solution is soaking the weed for a couple of hours in cold water, without stirring, to remove those foul-tasting ingredients. The marijuana (about one ounce per gallon) is then added during the initial wort boil.

What's it taste like?

Not long ago, I got my hands on a bottle of homebrewed hemp hooch. Purely in the spirit of journalistic curiosity, you understand.

Dark and murky, it looked like an unfiltered brown ale. It smelled like a resinous dry-hopped ale, but it tasted like a freshly cut lawn. I'd tell you more about it, but I seem to be experiencing a bout of short-term memory loss.

Horos

I'll just assume Ed Rosenthal knows more about pot.

mace1229

Anyone brew apple cider? Just got a bike cider kit on sale and seems incredibly easy. Curious if anyone has tried cider and if it is really that easy.

adam42381

mace1229 said:

Anyone brew apple cider? Just got a bike cider kit on sale and seems incredibly easy. Curious if anyone has tried cider and if it is really that easy.

It’s incredibly easy to do. Buy the cheapest preservative free apple juice you can find. Add yeast of your choice. Many suggest Nottingham or Belle Saison, I’ve had good results with S-04. Wait 4 weeks or so then keg/bottle. Here’s a good article on a berry cider if you’re so inclined. 

http://brulosophy.com/2017/12/14/bru-it-yourself-sparkling-hard-berry-cider/