Who here makes beer and/or wine?
 

I just bought a ton of equipment to give it a shoot.

Any tips or sites I should check out before attempting my first batch?

I drink a new beer every day. I'm not kidding.

Today is this one

http://blogs.eveningsun.com/troublebrewing/samsmit.jpg

Good luck with the beer/wine making ..bumperoo for you

I've made beer in the past. Strong, belgian style beer.

I wonder what you bought though since there's a difference in equipment for making beer or wine :)

My tips:

1. READ a lot
2. look up brewing recipes that have been proven to work
3. do the MATH correctly
4. work precise. If the recipe calls for the brew to be kept at a certain temp for a certain time, try to make sure it does that.

5. be CLEAN when working. It's easy to ruin your brew. It won't make you sick but it'll fuck your brew up.

6. MAKE NOTES. Document EVERYTHING. If you succeed, you want to succeed again next time. If you went wrong, you can figure where and why it went wrong from your notes. I can't stretch this enough.

I'd be dead if I done that! :1orglaugh

That looks tasty! :)

I make my own beer its easy with the right equiptment.

Start with extract brewing then move up to all grain.

check out homebrewforums for good tips.

start with an ale for easy top fermentation.
lagers are a pain in the ass without perfect refridgeration and take much longer

Thank you man :thumbsup

Got both, I've got all the stuff for Beer, Tubs, Thermometers, Alcohol testers, and god knows what else. Plus 4 dimijons (or however you spell it) And all the stuff need to make both.

Thanks for the tips I will definately keep that in mind :thumbsup

Thanks for the tips :thumbsup

I'm heading down to the brew-it store tomorrow to check out what they have got. hopefully I can find a nice pale or red ale to try out.

So, avoid lager until you get more experienced at doing it?

I own 50% of a Belgium Brewery, does that classify me?

I started homebrewing in the early 90's. I worked as a Brewmaster for about 6 months then the pub brewery went under due to bad management. Got out of the brewing business because I could not make enough $$$ as a brewmaster. I loved the job but the pay just did not cover my lifestyle.

Check out this book it is a must read if your serious about making your own. http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Homeb.../dp/0060531053

also I recommend starting out using malt extract for your first few batches of beer then move on to the all grain goodness. Read the book and you will understand what I am talking about.

I guess! lol

i only drink... not making...

Thanks Jimbo :thumbsup

I make Ol' Milwaukee's Best.
I drink a good brand of beer and then piss it out

:1orglaugh

I'd like to make some nice beer, drink the nice beer, then piss out the nice beer. Rinse, sterilize and repeat.

Instead of Buy beer, drink beer, piss it out, rinse and repeat

yes, a lager is a more advanced process.
requiring you to drop and hold temps for a certain amount of time.
diactyl rests, etc.

plus bottle conditioning can take months

My first brew was an Amber =Ale, using cascade and kent golding hops.
It came out perfect.
Time from brew day to drinking was 6 weeks

Here are some pics from a random brew day.

First you need to start off with enough product to make about 5 gallons which is 48 bottles or 2 cases.

And this will do it for a nice blonde ale with an almost pilsner taste



http://shawinternet.com/shok/beer/1.jpg

Here is the mash tun and grain, basically a converted cooler.
It's where the grain and hot water mix to release the enzymes.


http://shawinternet.com/shok/beer/2.JPG

http://shawinternet.com/shok/beer/3.JPG

next I heat up the water to around 170 degrees.
I mix it with the grain and stir it really well until the whole thing hits 152-154 degrees.
When it does, I close it up and let it sit for an hour.
This is how the exact the sugars from the grains.
Too cold and it wont extract, too hot and you will get off tastes.


http://shawinternet.com/shok/beer/4.JPG



http://shawinternet.com/shok/beer/5.JPG




http://shawinternet.com/shok/beer/6.JPG

After an hour I start to extract the "wort".

It's basically pure sugar at this point, but notice I got the color right on it looks like.


http://shawinternet.com/shok/beer/7.JPG

http://shawinternet.com/shok/beer/8.JPG

http://shawinternet.com/shok/beer/9.JPG

http://shawinternet.com/shok/beer/10.JPG

I have done it in the past.
I just rather make Soda now.

next I start the wort boiling and add hops.

I'm adding cascade and saaz hops for this recipe.
I like saaz hops for the bitter and cascades for the aroma.
So I will boil the saaz hops a full 60 minutes and add the cascade hops in around the last 15 minutes of the boil.


http://shawinternet.com/shok/beer/11.JPG


http://shawinternet.com/shok/beer/12.JPG

after the boil is done, I start cooling the wort by adding cold water then I put it in the fermenting bucket.

Then I put it in the bathtub to bring the temp. down to about 68 degrees.
When it gets to the right temp. I add yeast to start the process.


http://shawinternet.com/shok/beer/13.JPG

http://shawinternet.com/shok/beer/14.JPG

here it is the next day, lid on with airlock bubbling away as the yeast eats the sugar and creates the alcohol.

Takes about a week then I will move it to a secondary fermenter to clarify for 2 weeks.


http://shawinternet.com/shok/beer/15.JPG

So after fermentation is done, altogether about 3 weeks, I bottle the beer and add some sugar to each bottle.

This will eat residual yeast in the beer and create a natural carbonation. This finishes in about 2 to 3 weeks and your beer is good to go.



Here is the finished product.
It was very clear, hard to tell because the glass was fogged and cold.
Color was perfect and the taste was a cross between almost an amber ale taste and a pilsner urequell. Very eastern european taste with the saaz hops.



http://shawinternet.com/shok/beer/16.jpg

http://shawinternet.com/shok/beer/17.jpg

Homemade beer sounds like a good time.

There are many sites for this im looking at some of the affiliate programs

Tried it a cuople times and it never really turned out right,also too much trouble and mess for me

Thanks for the tutorial Shok!

That looks like a very nice glass of beer right there :)

Should be going down to the brew/wine store tomorrow to see what they have got, the guy down there will probably give me a few pointers aswell.

I'll post some results when I make the first batch :thumbsup

I'm really not good at it, kind of a shame since I love beer. We made a Guinness clone it was good but very low alcohol content. We used raw ingredients, pimp hops, vialed yeast.. .

A Guiness clone? now that sounds nice! :)

Aerating the yeast in some feeder and make it grow(not always necessary)
http://www.nembrionic.com/bier/1.jpg

Grinding the malt(obviously grinding isn't the correct word but I don't know the
correct English term for it :P )
http://www.nembrionic.com/bier/2.jpg

End result of the "grinding". This malt mill is one that works with 2 plates
that grind against each other. You're better of with rollers.
You need to squash/crush the kernel/grain, not cut it up. The chaf will make a
nice natural filterbed. But for this type of mill, it's not bad.
http://www.nembrionic.com/bier/3.jpg

Measuring temperature during the boiling process.
http://www.nembrionic.com/bier/4.jpg

Hops(kept them in a boiling net, makes it easier to scoop out
http://www.nembrionic.com/bier/5.jpg

Spices
http://www.nembrionic.com/bier/6.jpg

Measuring the pH-levels and add lactic acid if necessary(depends on your waterquality for example)
http://www.nembrionic.com/bier/7.jpg

Draining/filtering the hot wort-to-be. It has rested at several temps along the way
http://www.nembrionic.com/bier/7-5.jpg

I used the chaf as a natural filterbed. Thats why I gently scoop big bowls
of the mixture as not to disturb the filter bed at the bottom of the sieve.
http://www.nembrionic.com/bier/8.jpg

The clear "wort"
http://www.nembrionic.com/bier/9.jpg

The boiling of the hops (and later on the spices)
http://www.nembrionic.com/bier/10.jpg

The COOLING of the wort. The trick is to cool the hot wort as quickly as possible.
Pref in 15-20 minutes tops. This reduces the chance of your beer getting infected
by having a good warm temp for germs/fungi
http://www.nembrionic.com/bier/11.jpg

Aerating the wort with the yeast in it.
http://www.nembrionic.com/bier/12.jpg

The actual yeasting. As you can see it looks disgusting and sometimes smells disgusting too. The goo on top does serve as a natural protector against infection. This process will last for a few days.
http://www.nembrionic.com/bier/13.jpg

That looks amazing -- and thanks for sharing :) Quite excellent!!!!

I've done the homebrew thing and you can make exceptional beer yourself :thumbsup

i'd rather just drink it lol

Never tried to make it!

liquid yeast seems to make better beers for me.

Great postings, Shok! Going to try to make some beer soon! If I can make it taste like urequell, I will be very happy!! :)

i've made a lot of wine over the years and the ONE thing i can tell you is READ THE INSTRUCTIONS and FOLLOW THEM EXACTLY - EXACTLY.

if you do that you'll be fine.

I usually just buy a kit with everything that is needed. Have one each for beer, hard cider, and wine