The Home Brewers Home Brewing Thread

[Trail]

All about home brewing!

Some helpful links

The complete "How to Brew" book by John Palmer online. It is the older version, but still has very good information for anyone wanting to know how to home brew beer. Definitely a great place to start.
http://www.howtobrew.com/

Cheapest way to get up and running with all grain brewing. It is easy to do a Brew In A Bag (BIAB)!
http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/forum/ ... php?t=4650

If you would like any other links put up here let me know and i can put them up!

[DogsBollocks]

Hey man, have a look on the Beer thread. There's heap of great discussion, tips etc on home brews there, as well as good hint's on some nice one's to try.

[Trail]

I just read the last three pages of this beer thread... and it was just people talking about what beers they buy and drink...

beer-t68720-240.html?hilit=home%20brew

I will read some more, but I thought it might be nice to have an actual brewers thread rather than having to dredge through the "beer drinking" thread.

[Lynskey]

Nah good call Trail. I'm a complete beer brewing n00b. How much commitment/cost/equipment does it take to set up a good batch? How long does it take?

[foesfly66]

All about the home brew here. Cheap, satisfying to drink "your own", albeit from a brew kit. Thinking about making my own mash this year too.

Any tips are much appreciated.....

[Slim]

I'll do the independant quality checks on your final product

[nzmja]

I'll do the independant quality checks on your final product

I will also assist in QC. My forte.

[ratrod]

You may(not) have read this, but...

Cleanliness is next to godliness and beer comes in a close second.
Clean clean and clean.
And then rinse. Sometimes a homebrew has a sulphur like after taste.
This is mostly due to the common sterilising agent (sodium
metabisulphate) not being rinsed out. I have cleaning gear that gets used only on home brew, call me pedantic because I am when it comes to home brew.
Don't use regular old sugar, use a brewing sugar or better yet the
liquid stuff, can't remember what it's called. Or better yet two cans
of malt extract. i.e. two homebrew cans. With the two cans method use
only one of the yeasts. You can buy better yeast as extra. Don't use honey, it's too hard to get the ratio right and it's fucking hippy beer.
From a kit I boil two cans for a wee while (1/2 hour maybe) and
add extra hop pellets Let it simmer a bit more then add some more hops and let it cool.
Then put in primary fermentor.
Try and keep a constant temperature. If it gets cold the yeast goes to
sleep and the brew will take longer to ferment 10 days instead of 5/6.
If it gets too warm the yeast dies and game over. It will taste better
if you keep it at it's lowest temp so brew time 7-8 days. You'll need
a hydrometer test alcohol content before bottling.

Secondary fermentation in the bottle is where the bubbles come from.
Make sure your bottles and caps are well clean. I clean the bottles after the next step.
Normally you can tell if the brew is going to be nice by tasting the flat beer here.
DON'T add the sugar to the bottle as per instructions. Use brewing
sugar here but dissolve equivalent amount in a small quantity hot water. Let it cool,
I chuck it in the freezer. Once cool stir into the primary fermentation vessel the leave it for a few hours for the sediment to settle. This means the sugar is mixed in more evenly and more consistant beer at the end. Less chance of the caps blowing off too.
I tend to do this first thing in the morning add around 10 or 11am and bottle around 6pm.

Using a bottom filling nozzle gently fill the bottles and cap
immediately. If you're using crown tops take heed. The cappers that
need a hammer break older bottles. The hand held lever ones are better
but can slip on the lip just below the top and damage the cap, use a
new cap. I clean more caps than bottles because of this. The best
cappers are the table mounted ones, but pricey.
Safe to drink after 3 weeks, but best after longer.

Lagers are best brewed in the cold months, ales and stouts in warmer.
Which makes sense because lagers are best drunk in summer and ales in
winter. Well I reckon.

Black Rock make good kits, as do Macs. My best Macs brew was two cans of golden ale, a couple of grams of Riwaka alpha hops added as above and an ~8 day primary brew. It was an atempt to make a Sassy Red clone but turned out better.

If you want a clear glass of beer use a jug and gently (particularly towards the end) poor a whole bottle or two in. Don't poor in the last 5 or 10mm. This has all the yeasty sediment. Then poor into a glass.

Keep a record of what you do and when, because you'll forget. If the beer has a partiicular nasty flavour it can be eliminated by changing something really simple.

I've probably got way more tips but I can't remember right now.

[WH]

Good thread idea... I'm just starting (i.e. first thing tomorrow) to make feijoa wine, got a monster feijoa tree outside and after giving away 50kg+ to mates and colleagues in the last couple of weeks I've decided to borrow a mate's wine kit and do an experimental batch. If it goes well, next year we'll get into it properly and make it by the vat...

[Trail]

ya, I was discussing making apple cider, what with there being lots of apples around at the moment. I might put a cider brew down if I get time to go pick some of the apples....

[DogsBollocks]

I just read the last three pages of this beer thread... and it was just people talking about what beers they buy and drink...

beer-t68720-240.html?hilit=home%20brew

I will read some more, but I thought it might be nice to have an actual brewers thread rather than having to dredge through the "beer drinking" thread.

No worries, anything involving beer is good, just wasn't sure you were after a dedicated thread.

Fill your boots

And like Raty say's "cleanliness is next to godliness"

[E Dogg Capizzle]

Good thread idea... I'm just starting (i.e. first thing tomorrow) to make feijoa wine, got a monster feijoa tree outside and after giving away 50kg+ to mates and colleagues in the last couple of weeks I've decided to borrow a mate's wine kit and do an experimental batch. If it goes well, next year we'll get into it properly and make it by the vat...

Our neighbour used to make this, it was horrible.

[DogsBollocks]

Good thread idea... I'm just starting (i.e. first thing tomorrow) to make feijoa wine, got a monster feijoa tree outside and after giving away 50kg+ to mates and colleagues in the last couple of weeks I've decided to borrow a mate's wine kit and do an experimental batch. If it goes well, next year we'll get into it properly and make it by the vat...

Our neighbour used to make this, it was horrible.

Shouldn't you be on the "I just blew out my dog" thread

[avantibill]

I tried home brewing beer from 1996 -99 then 2001 -02 Coopers was consistent and reliable.
tasted great too. Tried John Bull twice, looked great ie good head of froth an clear, but tasted like vinegar (not blaming the product, but I think Coopers was more forgiving) I enjoyed brewing, but very time consuming, especially the disinfecting the bottles (very important)

There is nothing more satisfying than enjoying your own brew and sharing it with some mates that you had created premium brew at very low budget price (unless you take into account your labour costs)

[ratrod]

I hate cleaning bottles, though this method looks pretty good.