Home Brew

[A_Whelan]

Hey all,

It's summer time (although we've been having shit weather) so my roommates and I wanted to make our own batch of home brew (beer). We are all new to this and I haven't really looked into anything yet so I thought I would throw up a quick post to see who makes their own and if they have a good website they could point us to for a starting kit, or just general supplies you purchase from.

I did do a quick search and found MrBeer.com, seems legit and the name is spot on.

We have a few shops here in town that sell supplies and I'm going to drop in there on Monday and see what they have to offer and talk to someone about it.

So who here makes their own brew (wine or beer) ?

[devon.818]

mr. beer is shit
period. complete shit.

we still have a case of our heffeweizen.
i'll look in the morning. most important part is to KEEP THINGS CLEAN. beer spoils easily due to contaminations. so wash the bottles in dishwasher. wash buckets you will use. bag everything. wash everything. wash all pots before boiling anything.
wash hands before touching anything...feel me?

also do not adgitate the fermenting process. dark cool place, and leave it alone. no fiddling.

i will get you the company we use, also some pics.

[E30_(1st Musk)_]

my uncle made hooch when he was in prison..want me to ask him how he made it?

http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-Beer/

[JJe30]

I've been making my own brew from scratch for about a year now. I did the Mr. Beer kits and they were more costly and only made like 2 gallons per batch. I've got a pretty good system down now and my 5 gallon batches cost me between $35-$45 a batch. Equipment was more spendy but when you can customize your own wort completely it makes for endless choices of brews you can make.

[Mlarsen]

homebrewtalk.com go there. I've been brewing all grain for awhile now.

[whodwho]

mr. beer is shit period. complete shit.

+1

homebrewtalk.com

+1

Forget the Mr Beer crap, go with a simple extract setup and workup to an all grain setup if you end up liking the brewing process. Lot of work but fun once you get in the cycle of drinking previous batches while brewing the next.






My small 5 gallon all-grain setup - Nothing like Brewing in the backyard at sunset!!

[M-technik-3]

If anyone brews in the Mass/CT/RI/VT area I have about 100 flip lid 0.5L bottles with german plastic cases that stack great. Sell the whole lot for $60.

Seals are good and they are brown glass so the beer does not get sun aged.

[Mlarsen]

^ Thats a hell of deal!

Extract is great way to get your foot in the door for home brewing. But, after awhile you notice extract beers never taste as good as they should IMO. All-grain maybe a little more expensive as far as start up fees go but once you get into it the difference is night and day. You can tweak recipes to your liking and actually make beers not make tea.

My dad has become ALOT more obsessed than me when it comes to brewing. He is replicating this guys setup. http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/ Its wild, he is the midst of make the control panel. Perpetual harvest is way to go. We always have rotating tap list. We have a kegerator with 3 taps.

This is the only picture I've got of it (sorry shitty cell)


Old 50's GE fridge we converted with a new refrigerant system. Tap Handles are Brooks con-rods out of the worlds fastest truck.

[Nick325is]

I've been home brewing for almost a year now. I picked up a great set from northern brewer and have added on to it as I needed to. I've been doing just extract brewing but am going to try partial mash for the next batch I make. It's a lot of fun to brew with friends and drink some of the last batch while you are doing it.

[SoEm0]

my uncle made hooch when he was in prison..want me to ask him how he made it?

http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-Beer/

Lol its "pruno". They use fruits and toothpaste.

[Sepp]

I've been brewing for about 5 years...Love it.
Last batch was an amber. dee-liscious.

[pureaudio]

A friend and I bought all the stuff together and we split each batch, if you shop around you can get into it pretty cheaply.

I still do extracts but I'm not into it enough to go all grain yet. My local brewery supply store has been an awesome resource so I'd suggest looking in your area for one. Don't do Mr. Beer, your just going to end up buying all the right stuff anyways so don't waste your time.

[A_Whelan]

Some good looking setups. Mr. Beer did look cheap as hell when I went to the website, didn't look a whole lot before that first post.

There are myself and two friends going in on this so we should have a bit of money pooled together. Probably extracts for the first batch or two, then depending on our equipment try a batch of grain and see how that goes.

Going to a store sometime this week, I'll report back with what I find.

[HiTheNameIsBJ]

I Like Turtles