Home Brew Thread

[OLLIE 26]

This topic is for those of you on the forum who practice the art of brewing their own beer...

I just started and my first brew is a german lager like a becks. i have a 'brewcraft' brewing kit and shop at brew craft in albany for my supplies.

Glass bottles or plastic bottles?

do you use the yeast that comes with the beer kit's? a big no no

any special ingredients you've thrown in to the fermenter to make something amazing?

start sharing your stories.... :beer:

Edited September 29, 2009 by OLLIE

[bimmer boy 21]

I have been toying with the idea, but realisticly im far too lazy.

Plastic? think about it.. when was the last time you drank a beer out of a plastic bottle? go with glass I reckon.

[Guest Spargo]

when was the last time you drank a beer out of a plastic bottle?

At the cricket

[Grant 4]

Ollie

You are talking my language. I have done a fair bit of it.

In fact after the wedding, there is a syndicate of us going in together to brew in reasonable quanities.

I used plastic 600ml bottles (brown). Old small beer bottles makes it too fizzy (no matter how little sugar you use). Flagons makes it hard to get the fizzyness right (too much margin for error). Plastic is fine, any taste difference between it and glass is only perceived.

Don't use sugar, use malt extract, makes a much better brew. Also buy proper brewers yeast (or if you want to make your brew even better use liquid yeast).

Get a proper fermenter (or at least a heat pad), don't just rely on thinking that you have a room that is "about the right even temperature".

For a hoppy type brew (say a good Pilsner, or American Pale Ale, add finishing hops to your boil (in a muslin cloth) about 5 minutes from the end.

Also, cool the Wort as quickly as you can after the brew. I used to cool it in a tub of ice.

The biggest tip I can give, and this is vital, is to make sure everythnig involved with your brew is sanitised and very very clean. This is one step you can't be too careful with, trust me.

When get our syndicate up and brewing properly (should be within a month or so) come and be a part of it.

Also, you will make bad brews from time to time. If you do (this can happen for a number of reasons) just cut your losses, tip it out and start again.

Good luck, you had better let me sample your brew.

Cheers

Grant

Edited February 27, 2006 by Grant

[Jazzbass 1]

Robert Harris Irish Creme beans always give me a decent brew...

[*sic 1]

under the house went boom..

say goodbye to that batch.

proper fermenters are teh win.

[bravo 34]

I gave up after I stuffed one up. I'm just too lazy. been meaning to start again, but honestly, the bottlestore is much closer and more convenient than the brewers store.

[*sic 1]

I gave up after I stuffed one up. I'm just too lazy. been meaning to start again, but honestly, the bottlestore is much closer and more convenient than the brewers store.

thats the same reasoning as me..

im to impatient.

damn ADD

[conrod 1]

under the house went boom..

say goodbye to that batch.

Tell the truth, that was the "P" lab!...... :drugs:

[*sic 1]

under the house went boom..

say goodbye to that batch.

Tell the truth, that was the "P" lab!...... :drugs:

nah that we never have trouble with, my asian workers are far to skilled.

then if they are caught, they just bail the country.. its a great way to ensure your staff dont stagnate in a position and always offer you top lab service.

+ thru work here i get great discounts on lab equipment

Edited February 27, 2006 by *sic

[318is 0]

I've brewed beer from time to time. Best set-up I had was when I made a styrafome (S?) box big enough for two brew barrels, and had a small wattage light bulb in between them. Was like a huge chilli bin, but you get the temp right by adding holes into the roof until the temp is just right, using the stick on temp guages on the barrels.

Also made booze out of nashi peers. Using the freezing and spinning method to extract the final product. Made fantastic whisky's and other top shelf drinks.

Have been thinking about tyring it again, as I guess technology and and raw products have come along abit for the home brewer.

I used plastic bottle in the end. No difference at all in taste and so much easier.

[Palazzo 442]

Nothing wakes you up quicker than random explosions from the bottles exploding due to too much sugar. Good if you have nervous house guests.

[kiwi535 538]

we have four apple trees,i have thought about apple cider....ooohhh aarrrghhh

[*sic 1]

we have four apple trees,i have thought about apple cider....ooohhh aarrrghhh

win..

do it.

[westy 614]

Some of the best beers Ive tasted have been home brewed,and some of the worst :puke:

Good info,will be trying this when we move to our new house

[Grant 4]

I know I'm digging this thread up from the grave but....

Ollie, how are you going with this?

We brewed our second lot on Saturday, basically took the whole day from scratch. Our first brew is lagering still...but we sampled a bottle and it was ok (a bit weak...but we basically just used a kit, to get back in the flow of it).

Our second brew is aimed at being a hoppy pale ale.

For this we used the following ingredients:

1.5kg's Pale malt

1kg Medium "spray" malt

Some Crystal malt grain (about 300 grams of crushed grain)

50 grams of Golding hops (for the full boil) with a further 25grams used for finishing.

US56 Ale Yeast (pitched when the wort had cooled to 25 degrees)

Irish moss

22 litres of water.

The final brew had a Original Gravity of 1039, and we will bottle at a Specific Gravity of 1006 (giving us a 4.3% alcohol).

It smells bloody good, so hopefully the end result is as good. Making it from scratch, should make a good brew.

Cheers

Grant

[OLLIE 26]

I Bottled my first brew in mid march and sampled it at the start of May. It's still lagering a bit but is a pretty full lager and easy to drink. (a tad fruity)

My brewers notes are in the shed and it's pissing with rain, but will post up the ingredients later for this german lager.

Now I spent 2 hours on saturday sanitising my bottles and bottling my second brew which had been down for 2 weeks. This one i cant wait to taste. It's a leffe blonde beer with 1 kg of malt and 500g of dextrose and some finishing hops. will sample a bottle in a month then 2 months then 3.

I bought a sediment reducer today it's a little platic fitting that goes on the inside of the tap it basically stops sediment from into the 'tap' and into the bottles.

Next Up is a pilsner.

So i'm going well. any tips?

My tip is: buy a little sediment reducer and take the shower head off your shower and use the hose with warm/hot water to clean and sanitise your bottles in the shower/bath/shub. I use glass quartz bottles because they are easier and less of them to clean and capping them is fun. i bought some metallic blue crowns off trademe.

happy brewing :beer:

p.s this is a pic of a tap and the sediment reducer beside it.

Edited May 22, 2006 by OLLIE

[Grant 4]

We have a sediment reducer that is basically a copper tube sealed at one end. The other end is attached to the inside of our tap with some plastic hosing (but can be removed for cleaning). The copper tube is drilled with 100's of holes. Also we complete the boil with a fine gauze bag to filter our the grain malts, and the hops.

Also the Irish Moss aids in a clear brew at the end.

My hint to you is get better at ales before trying too much with lagers/pilsners. Lagers require a much more regimented fermenting process, therefore they are harder to get right. Our first brew back was a lager, mainly because we got the kit free with some of the equipment we bought.

Once we are satisfied with a good brew, we will then take it to a brew pub and get the head brewer to critique it for us.

[OLLIE 26]

cheers g-unit all sound advice, i've taken it on board and will do an ale next up before i do the pilsner. i really need a heating pad if i am going to be more precise with my brewing because the garage doesn't retain a consistent temp let alone the right temp.

[OLLIE 26]

Digging this up again ....

I got back into brewing about 3 months ago. I decided to go nice and simple aiming to output a large quantity of beer for summer.

1st we decided to brew a coopers draught - off the shelf at foodtown. I'd been told that it's a nice easy drinking beer and hard to f**k up. We drank a few draughts in Vietnam and they were pretty good, if they can do it then so can I.

Cleaning and Sterilising all the equipment thoroughly was my main focus this time, also keeping the fermenter below 20 degrees and leaving it fermenting for a longer period. This time I'm taking proper hydrometer readings also to make sure we don't bottle it too young.

Anyway long story short, tried a bottle of it last week and it put a huge smile on my face, tastes better than export, macs, db or any of those off the supermarket shelf. It was easy and i'll definitely do it again.

As soon as we'd bottle the coopers we put down a muntons lager to ferment, once again straight from the kit, no mucking around. We bottled it 4 weeks later using plastic bottles. It's still carbonating but i tried one on sunday and it was great, a bit cloudy still so will let them sit for a few more weeks before chilling and drinking.

Next is a mexican Cerveza which we'll be putting down this week sometime, should be ready to drink just in time for christmas. After that is a medium ale something like a monteiths original or a speights distinction.

[Apex 693]

Coopers Draft rocks my face, The Sparkling version is superior but regular draft is still quite bloody nice. You can buy it in “tall boy†bottles at the supermarket. I scored dozens of them from Duffy and Flins for 3.20ea on special.

Home brew red wine is where it’s at, bang for your buck.

[Grant 4]

Nice work Ollie. I like beer (I am just finishing a Sam Adams as I type this)

[*Glenn* 854]

Havent done it for a while. But at my old house, in the garage I had a sealed, insulated cupboard. And I did all my brewing at 22 degrees using a tropical fish tank heater which has an adjustable temperature setting. I used the Coopers larger brew and it always turned out awesome. Its alot of fun with excellent results. I didnt like the plastic bottles. I recycled glass beer bottles and had a capping tool. Still got all my gear... must get back into it. I used to make my own wines too...still & sparkling. My passionfruit champagne was awesome as well.

[pjay 8]

Have 3 crates of Ginger beer sitting for a couple weeks at the moment. Never tried "normal" beer yet. Always ginger. Dad was the king of home brew, used to brew it in my bedroom when I was a kid. I remember the vat bubbling by my yellow Ferrari bed.

[|ncary 0]

Brewing my own beer is definitely on the cards for next year during Uni, should save some money over bloody jugs of Tui from the foundry.

How strong (flavour and %age) can you make home brew beer?

I love big flavour beers.