Any DUer's brew your own beer?

My lovely bride got me one of those "micro-brew" kits for this past Father's Day, and I am telling you, if you haven't brewed your own beer, you don't know what your missing. Took me about 5 weeks, and a few tries after I had some bottles burst, but I just made some Ale that will knock your socks off.

One thing that being in the Navy did for me was turn me into a beer and coffee "snob". I haven't consumed one of the major domestics in over 3 years. I think the bride got the kit for me, not only because she knows I love a good beer, but she also was probably sick of me spending outrageous amounts for a six-pack of Old Brown Dog Ale from the Smuttynose Brewery (great beer BTW), but I've managed to make a couple of pretty good ales for less than what I pay at the store.

We need to have a "beer brewers" forum.

MMmmmmmm! Beer!

Quote: "Beer is proof that God loves and cares for us" - Benjamin Franklin.

I don't generally brew during the summer (too hot and kids are usually up late), but as football season and the various holidays approach I should be back in business soon. If you haven't seen it yet, I 'd recommend "Joy of Homebrewing" by Charlie Papazian. Realx and have a homebrew!

It does take some trial and error to get the method down, but once you get it, its SOOOO worth it.

I recommend www.morebeer.com for supplies, if you dont have a local place that sells them.

BTW - what kind did you make?
Want to swap some recipes?

kit did you get, is there a name brand? I'd still love to try it, but maybe my current equipment is bad.

that doesn't require any exessive 10 hour boiling, etc. I hear it's a "cop-out" way of doing it from the one's that "boil and brew", but it works for me.

I think that I didn't sanitize correctly when I was bottling the first batch. Bacteria grew so quickly it caused the bottles to break.

I'm also supposed to be able to make Root Beer and Soda with it, but I haven't tried that yet.

Rootbeer odor/flavor is very hard to get rid of. I have a separate keg for it.

my wife got me this whole rig with the bottles and everything and I couldn't even make one drinkable bottle out of it. Good to hear that you're having fun with it though.

if so don't feel bad. I don't know anyone who got a good brew from Mr Beer, but a lot of people(including me) got their start with one.

Yeah the beer sucked. But the experience I got, plus the "Joy of Brewing", plus help from my local homebrew outlet (Home Sweet Homebrew, Center City Philadelphia) had me brewing some pretty nice Ales eventually.

We just heavily sampled our recent batch of stout.
There are now 8 cases in various stages of fermentation in the basement.

I believe your bottles blew up because of excess CO2.

Got some IPA, A Duvel clone, Porter and a high octane barleywine in the kegs.
My son just moved into a house where he has the space to do it and is asking me about brewkits. Need to start the boy out right.

Not enough fermentation time and too much sugar at bottling will cause bottle breakage.

Be careful it is one of THOSE kinds of hobbies - plenty of ways to spend WAY more money than buying imported and micro brews! Aside from that it is so fun, so cool, so delicious and so easy that anybody can do it, really. Wine is even easier, because of the higher acid and alcohol content - sterility is less of a concern.

I have done it using syrup, dry malt and from scratch with whole malt. I have a friend who even tried roasting his own malt - those are the kinds of directions you can go. Mead is another thing you can try with the same equipment.

I get stuff from a local guy (Brew and Vine in Tucson), but also have ordered from Williamc Brewing in Ca. http://www.williamsbrewing.com/PIN-LOCK_BEER_PLUG_-FIRE..cfm

Have fun!

and discovered I really didn't have the space or the time to do it justice.

But my Crystal Honey Lager was popular.

:toast:

but I always did enjoy it. My biggest problem was not having an area where I could regulate the temperature for the fermentation process as well as I needed to.

I ended up either brewing in the fall/winter where I could keep a room at around 55 degrees (+/- depending on the brew). Living in a small house without a basement makes fermentation pretty tough.

First couple batches came out awful, but I eventually brewed a cherry ale that is, to this day, the best of its kind I have ever had -- if I do say so myself :)

It's pretty darn good. :)

:P

Unfortunately, once their Summer Ale is out of the stores, their cherry wheat will be one of the only beers around that I like. They really should offer their summer ale 9 months out of the year down here... we have two seasons in Florida. 9 months of summer with 3 months of 'Other'. :)

Hell, even our three months of "other" is the same as summer some places in the country. Although, for all that (and despite the fact that we're in the worst part of the year right now), I gotta say, when mid-January rolls around and its 72 degrees out, life is good.

I've got a kit, I should do some research and figure out how it's done.

http://www.amazon.com/Brewmasters-Bible-Gold-Standard-Brewers/dp/0060952164/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/105-1200729-5973239?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1189007696&sr=8-1

I've been using it for years. It takes you as far as you want to go. From working with extracts only to roasting and milling your own grains.

I did make a batch of cider once, from scratch, and boy was it ever good.

Just started a batch last night, and transferred a finished batch into another container to get rid of the lees and yeast and crap at the bottom.

My stepbrother is a big beer connoisseur, and he wants to try beer but he just doesn't have the time right now.

Brew beer straight from the grain! Beats the commercial big guys hands down!