# Any homebrewers?



## aeviaanah (Jun 30, 2012)

Starting a new hobby today. I purchased a Brooklyn brew shop 1 gallon kit. It came with ingredients and almost everything needed to brew a batch of "Everyday IPA"

Its an entry level product to the hobby but it will get me learning about how to home brew. I have wort cooling down right now...it should be a few minutes before going into primary fermenting jar. Ill let you guys know how it turns out.


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## fool4fish1226 (Jul 1, 2012)

Make beer and wine lots of fun, but just a little warning it's not cheaper then buying it. I like to make wine out of anything I can find made a really good mango wine once. Let us know how your first batch turns out.

:beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer:


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## aeviaanah (Jul 1, 2012)

fool4fish1226 said:


> Make beer and wine lots of fun, but just a little warning it's not cheaper then buying it. I like to make wine out of anything I can find made a really good mango wine once. Let us know how your first batch turns out.
> 
> :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer:


I got a ton of fruit growing in the backyard. Oranges, lemons, peach, apricot, green grape, purple grape, grapefruit, apples, neighbor has a plum tree that hangs over as well. 

Im at about 50 bux for just under a 12 pack of beer, of course most of that is startup cost. Just the ingredients for 1 gal of beer is about 15 bucks. I bet if I were doing 5 gallon batches I could come out ahead!


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## fool4fish1226 (Jul 2, 2012)

5 - gallon batches makes it a little closer on the price but once you figure in your time and effort #-o . Just cleaning bottles takes a lot of time. I still love to do it and have had producted some good product. Have fun with it and keep us up to date with your progress.


Here a link to were I get alot of my stuff: https://www.monsterbrew.com/index.cfm


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## Hanr3 (Jul 7, 2012)

Welcome HomeBrewer....

Who cares what it costs, If I brewed beer to save money I wouldn't be brewing beer. 

I brew 5 gallon batches, cost for Brewers Best kits is between $25-$35 per kit, 5 gallon batch. 5 gallons is about 2 1/2 cases of bottled beer. Screw botteling, too much work. I went straight to kegging my beer. I bought two Corny Kegs (old soda kegs), Perlick Taps, confiscated my sons old college dorm refridgerator, and bought a used 5 pound CO2 tank off ebay. Been collecting beer taps over the years. Heck, I remodeled the basement and made my man cave. One corner is dedicated to Brewing Beer. Bought an old apartment sized refreidgerator, bought the wife a new stove, and built a kitchen cabinet. One corner of the man cave has a full kitchen for brewing beer. Rest of the room has a wood burner, old wooden kitchen table for hobbies, crafts, corner for the old mission style living room furniture (yep bought the wife new furniture for upstairs), and the last corner has my pool table and 50 gallon fish tank. The man cave is 24'x30' room. :mrgreen: 

I have something in the primary fermentor at the moment, been too long for me too remember what it is and I dont feel like walking to the basement to look right now. I'll kegging it once I finish replacing the rear shackle and hangers on Ford Ranger.


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## aeviaanah (Jul 8, 2012)

fool4fish1226 said:


> 5 - gallon batches makes it a little closer on the price but once you figure in your time and effort #-o . Just cleaning bottles takes a lot of time. I still love to do it and have had producted some good product. Have fun with it and keep us up to date with your progress.
> 
> 
> Here a link to were I get alot of my stuff: https://www.monsterbrew.com/index.cfm


The IPA is starting to smell like an ipa. Brew temps are 74 deg. Ive been looking at kegging my own beer to skip the whole bottling process. This first batch will be bottled in recycled Grolsch bottles. 
Yea your right! You need to enjoy brewing itself. Like Hanr3 says who cares what it costs..


Hanr3 said:


> Welcome HomeBrewer....
> 
> Who cares what it costs, If I brewed beer to save money I wouldn't be brewing beer.
> 
> ...


Cant remember what it is? Must be some good stuff eh? Im looking at building a stainless conical fermenter and brew pot. There is so much to fabricate, buy, learn and brew it isnt even funny. Ill be building a keezer as well. How many kegs can you fit in your kegerator? Looking to build one that can house at least 3-4


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## Kit_B (Jul 9, 2012)

Glad to see another forum where homebrewing makes an appearance.
I brew pretty often & post on a few different forums, fairly regularly.

Midwest Supplies & American Homebrewers Association


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## kycolonel138th (Jul 9, 2012)

:USA1: I started with MR.Beer 25 years ago. Now make my own :beer: :lol:


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## Hanr3 (Jul 9, 2012)

lol
Can't remember cause I don't remember the fancy names they give the kits. It is a winter holiday ale, dark, 7-8% Alcohol content by volume. Not too bad the last time I brewed it. I just dont remember the name.

I had to add a 2x4 frame to teh front to fit 2 korny kegs in it, move the "freezer" section out of the way, and remove teh inside door shelves. Best bet is a used refridgerator, preferable with the freezer on top, or side. 

There are several beer brewing forumns you should check out. Also look for a local club. If your really hard core about it, you could compete and go to the national competitions. 

Lager beers can be tricky and you need to control the fermenting temperature pretty closely. I stick to the ales for the time being.


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## FishinsMyLife (Jul 9, 2012)

I used to make some homemade wine, damn at the headaches that sweet stuff would give me :lol:


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## BigTerp (Jul 10, 2012)

Been homebrewing for about 2 years now. I typically brew 2 5-gallon batches a month. There is a TON of information to help you become a better brewer at www.homebrewtalk.com. I started with extract and after about 4 batches switched to all-grain. While the process takes significantly longer (~4 hours) you can control ALOT more factors when brewing all-grain than with extract. I don't think it necessarily makes better beer, but you can adjust your recipes much more precisely with all-grain to achieve the flavor, body, etc. you are trying to. While I don't brew my own beer to save money, it is definitely cheaper than buying commercial. For example, my buddy and I have been regularly brewing a Dogfish Head 60 minute clone that we have perfected to the point that IMO is as good if not better than the real thing. I can get about 50 bottles out of a 5.5 gallon batch at a total cost of around $40. At amost $10 a six pack commercially thats less than half price. Another helpfull tool that I've found indispensable is the brewing software Beersmith.


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## aeviaanah (Jul 10, 2012)

Kit_B said:


> Glad to see another forum where homebrewing makes an appearance.
> I brew pretty often & post on a few different forums, fairly regularly.
> 
> Midwest Supplies & American Homebrewers Association


Yea I figure Id spread the news! Anyone who is thinking about it should really give it a try. Its been alot of fun for me. 


kycolonel138th said:


> :USA1: I started with MR.Beer 25 years ago. Now make my own :beer: :lol:


Sweet, let us know what your working with...



Hanr3 said:


> lol
> Can't remember cause I don't remember the fancy names they give the kits. It is a winter holiday ale, dark, 7-8% Alcohol content by volume. Not too bad the last time I brewed it. I just dont remember the name.
> 
> I had to add a 2x4 frame to teh front to fit 2 korny kegs in it, move the "freezer" section out of the way, and remove teh inside door shelves. Best bet is a used refridgerator, preferable with the freezer on top, or side.
> ...


Im currently a member over at Homebrewtalk.com been learning alot lately. Now Im at the point were I need to make some stuff and dish out some money. This IPA is ready for bottling here this weekend.


FishinsMyLife said:


> I used to make some homemade wine, damn at the headaches that sweet stuff would give me :lol:


The first homeade wine Ive ever made was the only wine Ive ever liked. Of course I didnt know what I was doing and probably had plenty of unfermented sugar. 


BigTerp said:


> Been homebrewing for about 2 years now. I typically brew 2 5-gallon batches a month. There is a TON of information to help you become a better brewer at https://www.homebrewtalk.com. I started with extract and after about 4 batches switched to all-grain. While the process takes significantly longer (~4 hours) you can control ALOT more factors when brewing all-grain than with extract. I don't think it necessarily makes better beer, but you can adjust your recipes much more precisely with all-grain to achieve the flavor, body, etc. you are trying to. While I don't brew my own beer to save money, it is definitely cheaper than buying commercial. For example, my buddy and I have been regularly brewing a Dogfish Head 60 minute clone that we have perfected to the point that IMO is as good if not better than the real thing. I can get about 50 bottles out of a 5.5 gallon batch at a total cost of around $40. At amost $10 a six pack commercially thats less than half price. Another helpfull tool that I've found indispensable is the brewing software Beersmith.


Ive been signed up over at homebrewtalk.com for a few weeks now. I sure am learning alot. I started with all grain first but I helped a buddy do partial grain about a year ago. I think I like all grain better. I agree with you, you can tweak alot more as your adding a few steps etc. Tell me a little about beersmith will ya?


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## Kit_B (Jul 11, 2012)

Beersmith rocks!
You can input your brewing system details, then configure recipes & the program will anticipate your resulting efficiencies, temperature steps, IBUs, color & more.
I can't believe I ever brewed great beer without it.


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## BigTerp (Jul 11, 2012)

Kit_B said:


> Beersmith rocks!
> You can input your brewing system details, then configure recipes & the program will anticipate your resulting efficiencies, temperature steps, IBUs, color & more.
> I can't believe I ever brewed great beer without it.



This pretty much sums up Beersmith. Once you get your sytem dialed in (boil off, mash tun dead space, etc.) it really helps to take the guess work out of brewing. I would say Beersmith, or any similar brewing software, is almost a requirement when brewing all grain. I like that my recipes are saved and I can add notes as well. I brewed a pale ale back in February that turned out awesome. I was able to replicate the recipe a few weeks ago. Without Beersmith I wouldn't have known exactly what mineral additions to add, what exact temp. to mash at, etc. IIRC it runs about $25 and allows you to download the software to 2 seperate computers. One of the best $25 I've spent on brewing for sure!!


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## BigTerp (Aug 30, 2012)

Figured you guys would enjoy this pic. This is a 20 gallon batch of a caramel amber. My buddy and I usually brew 2-3 10 gallon batches a month using a keggle as a boil pot and splitting the batch. He recently decided to upgrade to a 20 gallon HLT, 30 gallon boil pot and huge Coleman extreme cooler mash tun. So now we each end up with 10 gallons of beer instead of 5 after each brew day. We've used it twice so far and it is awesome!!

Thats me trying to look amazed. I'm 6'8" 250lbs. Gives you an idea of the pot size.


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## fool4fish1226 (Aug 31, 2012)

Sweet and nice rottie :beer:


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## BigTerp (Sep 5, 2012)

fool4fish1226 said:


> Sweet and nice rottie :beer:



Thanks. We have 2. A 10 year old male and 5 year old female. I took the male out on the Potomac river in my old 12' jon one day. NEVER AGAIN!!!!


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## Hanr3 (Sep 8, 2012)

The Holiday Ale turned out great.
Next weekend I'll be brewing up a Pumpkin Spice Ale for our annual bash in October.

Last year we drank over 5 gallons of my home brew during the annual bash. This year I'll have 10 gallons on tap.


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## BigTerp (Sep 10, 2012)

Sounds good Hanr3. My buddy and I made 20 gallons of a pumpkin ale about 2 weeks ago. Still need to give it another 2 weeks in primary before bottling. Can't wait to try it. His garage smelled like thanksgiving while we were brewing it.


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## Hanr3 (Sep 10, 2012)

Nice!


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## kycolonel138th (Sep 11, 2012)

:USA1: I started with a MR.BEER. It got me hooked. After 20 years I can make 5 gal. of dark for less. And it taste lots better, 10% alcohol. I think Moon Shine is next after all I am from the hills of Ky. :lol:


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## Hanr3 (Sep 11, 2012)

Sounds like a plan. 

However home brewing liquor is illegal due to teh hazards of the brew process. Beer, wine, and mead are legal to brew.


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## BigTerp (Sep 12, 2012)

kycolonel138th said:


> :USA1: I started with a MR.BEER. It got me hooked. After 20 years I can make 5 gal. of dark for less. And it taste lots better, 10% alcohol. I think Moon Shine is next after all I am from the hills of Ky. :lol:



It's definitely addicting. I usually save money each batch vs. buying from the store, but I honestly don't pay attention to that anymore. I'm more focused on making good beer that when I drink it say to myself "I can't believe I made beer that good".


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## Jim (Sep 12, 2012)




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## HBT Chris (Sep 12, 2012)

I guess you could say that...lol 

Actually my dad use to do it all the time when I was a kid. All I really remember was just how bad the fermenting stunk up the house!


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## Hanr3 (Sep 12, 2012)

HBT Chris said:


> I guess you could say that...lol
> 
> Actually my dad use to do it all the time when I was a kid. All I really remember was just how bad the fermenting stunk up the house!



Negatory big dog HBT Chris. That odor is the sweet, sweet smell of beer being made. :mrgreen: 
I could think of a ton of other odors less inviting. :beer:


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## aeviaanah (Sep 12, 2012)

Drinking a home brewed hefeweizen right now. Just bottled an apricot/peach american wheat beer. That one sat on apricot and peach puree in secondary for two weeks. Curious as to how it will turn out. Getting my mashtun prepared for my first lager, I may be brewing this weekend


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## Hanr3 (Sep 12, 2012)

Nice.

I think I'll be brewing a Pumpkin Spice this weekend. The wife is out of town and my to do list is rather short.
Friday- Company picnic after work. Free food, beer, and a band. :beer: 
Saturday- replace both front wheel bearings, radiator flush, oil change in the morning- then DJ a wedding that afternoon/night,
Sunday- Family breakfast, Dig the trenches for our patio foundation 40' long x 15" wide, and 15" deep, laundry, and brew up a batch of beer.

Pretty easy weekend for me.


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## aeviaanah (Sep 13, 2012)

Hanr3 said:


> Nice.
> 
> I think I'll be brewing a Pumpkin Spice this weekend. The wife is out of town and my to do list is rather short.
> Friday- Company picnic after work. Free food, beer, and a band. :beer:
> ...


Sounds like my weekend. I need to put in solenoid pack for the jeep... Went out on me. I'll also be trying to brew a batch and possibly taking the boat out. 


Anyone want to setup a home brew trade?


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## aeviaanah (Oct 14, 2012)

What you guys think of this recipe I made? Its my first design and is supposed to be an american pale ale. I may split batch into two with two separate yeasts
https://hopville.com/recipe/1654528


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## gmoney (Oct 23, 2012)

Hey guys, been a while since I've been on here. 

I've been making beer for a year now. Just started a new batch on the weekend. I bought some kit on sale with the water and sugar already added so you basically add the yeast and you're good to go. Hopefully it turns out. Up in Canada beer is expensive so it saves a ton of money to make it. a 24 here is $43.75, so making 66 bottles for ~$25 isn't a bad deal at all.


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## aeviaanah (Nov 17, 2012)

Wow Canada beer is expensive!

You guys should check out hopville.com it's a free recipe calculator. You add specific ingredients it'll tell u color, ibu, Og/fg, abv etc. very helpful to those ready to break away from the kits.


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## wilded (Nov 17, 2012)

Cranberry wine and Red Ale


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## Austin92 (Dec 5, 2012)

Never been brave enough to attempt beer....but make shine from time to time.....can brew with the best of em


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## BigTerp (Mar 4, 2014)

Hate to see this thread get buried. Any new homebrewers on here? What have you guys been brewing? I took quite the hiatus from brewing pretty much all summer and through the fall. Spent 99% of my free time getting my boat finished up and ready for waterfowl season. Recently my buddy and I have been brewing 20 gallon batches (that we split) about every 2-3 weeks. Here is my current stockpile of bottled beer. Have another 10 gallons fermenting and another 20 gallons on deck to brew this weekend.


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## bigwave (Mar 6, 2014)

Hey Terp, what would you recommend for a first time brew kit? I want to try to make some red ale or the like?


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## BigTerp (Mar 6, 2014)

[url=https://www.tinboats.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=343950#p343950 said:


> bigwave » 21 minutes ago[/url]"]Hey Terp, what would you recommend for a first time brew kit? I want to try to make some red ale or the like?



Hey man. You can make it as simple or as complicated as you want. I'd reccommend this starter kit:

https://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/brewing/beer-equipment-starter-kits/essential-brewing-starter-kit.html

In addition to the kit the only other things you'd absolutely need would be a brew pot (I'd reccommend an 8 gallon aluminum so you can do full boils), a propane burner, a way to cool your wort after boiling (I made a 50ft copper immersion chiller for about $30) and bottles. I'd suggest you start with extract kits to get a feel for the brew process. Then you can step up to all-grain if you choose (which is even cheaper). Seems like a lot, but after the initial investement you can make craft beers for at least 1/2 the cost of buying at your local liquor store. And it's pretty cool to be able to brew, bottle and eventually drink your own beer

This is a great forum to help get your head wrapped around things as well.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/

You can get ALOT more involved in the process (like I do), but with the above you can make great beer. The main things to focus on are sanitation, quickly cooling your wort after the boil and proper fermentation temperatures. Let me know if you have any questions, I'd be more than happy to help!!!


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