Food & Drink Home brewing chat

[Pweter]

I brewed through my late uni years and into my early working years. Am happy to engage in conversation, though it should be noted all my brews started with a Coopers/Morgans/something tin of extract which I then added to with differing malts, grains, hops etc.

If you're looking to go hard core where you create your own mash etc, I might only be able to provide minimal input.

 

[yodellinhank]

Been keen to try it, yes.

Share your secrets!

I've only ever done extract brewing, tried making a small batch from grain once and the result was diabolical. Interested in getting back into it because of the $, though it isn't as cheap as it used to be. Opportunist bastards.

Was thinking it'd be good if enough people were interested to have a thread on it were we could bounce ideas, keep this thread for stories like (and I've prob already told):

On honeymoon in Rome my wife and I were searching for a laundromat. We fortuitously stumbled across one that was a block or so away from a bottleshop specialising in craft brews. We had a brief look in there and I noticed a beer that was on my list...

The previous christmas I'd been given a book, 1001 beers to try before you die (2010 edited by Adrian Tierney-Jones) which I'd been working through and many of them were european, so I brought the book with me on our honeymoon. The shop had Southern Tier Brewing (US) "Imperial Pumking", I knew it was on the list so picked it up. I figured there'd be more, so I volunteered to return to the laundromat, and we returned to the hotel to get the laundry and I crash studied the book writing down as many of the beers I'd seen/might find.

Stuck the washin on when I returned and promptly made my way back to the shop. I was specifically after a beer, Einhundert 100 Bitterpils, which claims to have 100 IBUs and still eludes me. The shopkeep gave me an education on IBUs and how they can be misleading and there are so many other factors to consider, and he really seemed to know his stuff. He recommended I try a beer that he thought had the characteristics I was looking for in a brew - Birra del Borgo's "My Antonia". It wasn't on my list but I had to try it (the Ke To Re Porter, a brew containing tobacco was so i picked that up as well).

I raced back to the hotel trying my hardest to carry the washing and the beers, and tried them all (sans the washing) when I got back. Pumking was ok, reminded me of pumpkin pie, an interesting little treat. The tobacco brew I could take or leave, you'd have it to say you've had it and thats about it.

I hold the My Antonia as the best beer I've ever tasted (I used to have an extensive "top 3" list, until that day). I've looked at getting it here, but it costs around $100 for 6 * 750ml plus shipping, so I keep putting it off. Love to give it another go, to see if it is as good as I remember or I was just caught up in occasion.

 

[Pweter]

I've only ever done extract brewing, tried making a small batch from grain once and the result was diabolical. Interested in getting back into it because of the $, though it isn't as cheap as it used to be. Opportunist bastards.

Was thinking it'd be good if enough people were interested to have a thread on it were we could bounce ideas, keep this thread for stories like (and I've prob already told):

My biggest tip is to write down the measurements of everything you put into every brew.

I once made a brew out of a mild ale extract then added to it with dark and light malt, amber and chocolate grain, lactose and dextrose, a couple of packs of random hops and I can't recall what else but I do know the quantities sounded completely out of balance. I was using up the leftover bits and pieces I'd gathered over my last 6 or 7 brews, waste not want not and all that.

I expected it to taste like s**t so I didn't note down what I added and certainly didn't measure quantities. I was just hoping it was drinkable and if so I had my 2.5 cartons for the cost of a tin of extract. The result was the best brew I ever made, and I couldn't go close to replicating it.

One thing I discovered was a home brew stout is nigh on impossible to screw up. Get it bottled in February/March and you then have a superb stout to drink during the cold July/August winter months.

EDIT: Doss - feel free to move this to the home brew thread yodellinhank created

 

[yodellinhank]

Thought I'd create this as an aside to the beer thread. For all talk about recipes, questions and general home brewing chatter...

Anyone here an avid brewer? Who does it from mash/grain? Got any easy extract recipes you want to share? What was your best brew? Whats on the boil at the moment?

 

[yodellinhank]

My biggest tip is to write down the measurements of everything you put into every brew.

I once made a brew out of a mild ale extract then added to it with dark and light malt, amber and chocolate grain, lactose and dextrose, a couple of packs of random hops and I can't recall what else but I do know the quantities sounded completely out of balance. I was using up the leftover bits and pieces I'd gathered over my last 6 or 7 brews, waste not want not and all that.

I expected it to taste like s**t so I didn't note down what I added and certainly didn't measure quantities. I was just hoping it was drinkable and if so I had my 2.5 cartons for the cost of a tin of extract. The result was the best brew I ever made, and I couldn't go close to replicating it.

One thing I discovered was a home brew stout is nigh on impossible to screw up. Get it bottled in February/March and you then have a superb stout to drink during the cold July/August winter months.

Funny you should mention it...

I'm a trade qualified baker, and when I went through trade school at William Angliss the third year subject was pretty much just "Make an artisan loaf of bread." They'd told us about different specialty styles and one that stuck out to me was the guiness loaves. I wanted to make a "beer bread" of my own and took to experimenting at home for a bit. One of the ideas I was toying with was to make a beer using beer malt extract, so I came up with some stupid recipe that didn't do what I wanted and had the most part of a can of a toohey's beer I'd never brewed (bought it because it was the cheapest to waste on a bread that wouldn't do what I wanted).

Figuring I could brew a beer with the remainder, I thought I'd add a heap more malt to bump up the flavor and alcohol to compensate for the loss of extract. You know, bang in whatever is left lying around without too much of a care for measuring and the like. Boiled it up with some pride of ringwood (haha) hops that were only going to go stale(r?) otherwise, and voila - the best/second best beer I ever brewed (it was best for body & mouthfeel, but I rate the Porter I forgot about because it was right at the back and left for a few months slightly better on taste).

Nothing gold can stay.

 

[Pweter]

Funny you should mention it...

I'm a trade qualified baker, and when I went through trade school at William Angliss the third year subject was pretty much just "Make an artisan loaf of bread." They'd told us about different specialty styles and one that stuck out to me was the guiness loaves. I wanted to make a "beer bread" of my own and took to experimenting at home for a bit. One of the ideas I was toying with was to make a beer using beer malt extract, so I came up with some stupid recipe that didn't do what I wanted and had the most part of a can of a toohey's beer I'd never brewed (bought it because it was the cheapest to waste on a bread that wouldn't do what I wanted).

Figuring I could brew a beer with the remainder, I thought I'd add a heap more malt to bump up the flavor and alcohol to compensate for the loss of extract. You know, bang in whatever is left lying around without too much of a care for measuring and the like. Boiled it up with some pride of ringwood (haha) hops that were only going to go stale(r?) otherwise, and voila - the best/second best beer I ever brewed (it was best for body & mouthfeel, but I rate the Porter I forgot about because it was right at the back and left for a few months slightly better on taste).

Nothing gold can stay.

Every brew I made I'd keep between 3 and 6 of them (depending on whether they were any good) to let them age in the bottle for a bit longer.

I found an ordinary beer can become ok with an additional 2 or 3 months in the bottle, but there's no saving a s**t beer, get the s**t ones out when your mates are around and everyone is already hammered to get rid of them.

I found dark beers improved for up to around 9 months then plateaued, red/amber beers plateaued at about 6 months, gold beers plateaued at about 4 months. I never left any for so long that they started to turn, if they plateaued in taste they got drank soon thereafter. Note durations could be a little warped as it's been about 10 years since I last brewed, but it was a great hobby I want to get back into once the kids don't take up so much of my time.

 

[yodellinhank]

I'm looking to start up again with extract myself. I've tried to make a set up as cheap as I can as its the reason I'm going back to my home brew roots. My brother in law works for one of those drinking water companies that top up water coolers etc and he keeps us supplied. Ever since he started I've thought it'd be great to give it another go using the water he provides which doesn't carry so much unpleasant taste as the tap water I used to always use.

With that in mind I'm thinking of doing a pale ale extract brew with galaxy hops, and maybe another bittering hop (chinook, cascade, any recommendations?) The beers I most like as sessionals are IPAs, American pale ales, Fat Yak and the like

I was tossing up the method I should take. The whole idea was to try to make it better than the average home brew I used to make, and I thought I'd rack the beer to help assist with this. I've got a mate who does grain brews for a kegerator and his beers come up pretty much like anything you'd pay money for. However, I always feel guilt about spending money so even after 10+ years of wanting one I've never splashed out on a keg system - I'll be bottling again.

I want to add the sugar in bulk rather than piss about putting sugar in every bottle, so was thinking I'd just dissolve it all in a second fermenter and add the beer to that before bottling. Then I got to thinking about racking to clear my beer up, and was wondering if i could do them both at the same time?

I'm concerned about the racking process exposing my beer to air, and thought kick starting a secondary ferment may help with this. But it will also mean trial and error with regards to the level of sugar/time spent in secondary ferment and the carbonation level I can achieve by doing this. I don't want the bottles exploding on me because I've upped the sugar to compensate for the time not in the bottle, and I don't want the beer to be flat. I also wonder if adding the sugar during racking is going to be counter-productive to the racking process itself...

Any thoughts?