We got any home brewers, wine makers, distillers, etc. around here? I just got into home brewing my own ales recently and I was wondering if anyone else is into it. I plan on getting into making other adult beverages as my fruit trees and bushes mature. Being a newb to all this I'd be interested to hear other people's experiences...
I have done it on and off for years, but I have a female relative that is the real brains behind it. She like to make wine.
Some time in the future I'd like to get into winemaking. The homestead we bought has a stand of muscadine I might be able to do something with. What kind of brewing have you been doing? I literally started a month ago using a couple of Brewer's Best kits (I've got some American Cream Ale conditioning in bottles and a fermenter full of German Oktoberfest I brewed last week). Now that I've figured out the basics I'm going to move on to making my own ale recipes. I'm not sure if I'm going to step up to all-grain brewing. I still have a lot to learn and I don't have the equipment for that (yet).
Wow. I was hoping you'd pop in, Crownline. What exactly have you been making? Are you doing the all-grain thing with beer or brewing from extracts? Distilling spirits really has me intrigued. I recently bought a book on home distilling and it looks easier than I thought it would be.
LOL Especially when the ales and beers you like are hard to come by. Right now I'm on the quest to make a good cream ale. I vaguely remember liking some Gennessee I had decades ago but I can't find it around here and the cream ale a local micro brewery makes is good but the "cream" flavor is a bit on the weak side. It's like they were kind of timid brewing that style - close but not quite...
I’ve been doing mostly all grain lately but only so I can control the mash temp and get the body I want. I’ve done my share of extract beers and they are damn fine. Don’t let anyone look down their nose at you for extract brewing. If you want to get into all grain, for about $20, download a software called beer smith. It has a water profile tool where you enter data from your water report. You can then add assorted brewing salts to get your water right where you want it. For instance, I brew a pale ale I call zythos. A 10 gallon batch requires 16 gallons of water. I add 4 grams of calcium chloride, and 6 grams of Epsom salts. That puts all of my important catagories in range and brings the hoppyness forward. If you want to try it is for 5 gallons; 10# 2 row 3/4# crystal 15 Mash @ 148 degrees for 75 to 90 min. Batch sparging is fine 1/2 ounce magnum for 60 minutes 2 ounces zythos for 10 minutes 2 ounces zythos for 1 minute Us-05 for the yeast. 2 ounces of zythos in secondary for a week. It’s a light beer so if your residual water hardness is high, you will have to do something about it. John palmers book “how to brew” has a nomograph that will give you an idea where you stand. As far as distilling, there are conversations being had in the halls of congress to allow for the home distillation of alcohol for personal consumption, we aren’t there yet and is still not legal. However, you can easily get a license to make ethanol to use as a motor fuel. “And that’s all I got to say ‘bout that”.
Thanks. I just checked out the video for the BeerSmith software and that looks like a great tool to have even though I'm not ready to get into all-grain brewing yet. I'm going to have to purchase a copy of that. I've got a copy of Palmer's How to Brew but I haven't gotten ahead of myself and dived into the parts involving all-grain brewing. I've been a tad intimidated with how involved and scientific the process can be but I'm probably overcomplicating things on myself (part of the problem with being a newb). That's good to know. I wasn't aware that home distilling for personal consumption was still illegal. Heck, I was astonished at how home brewing beer was illegal until relatively recently. Other than campaign donations from distilleries I can't imagine why Congress hasn't legalized it by now.
It gets a bit involved but once you get your mind around it it’s not intimidating. Water is important and tweaking it to match your beer style will take you to the next level. Even extract brews can benefit from a proper water profile with regards to healthy fermentation and flavor. Once you get beersmith and enter in your water report, you will see on the spread sheet where you are, where you need to be, and how to get there. Also you will get to see your sulfate to chloride balance. You can adjust this to make your water suited for either malty or hoppy beers. This balance can be done alone or done while you are bringing your ions in range. For instance, say your tap water is low on calcium, there are three things you can add to bring it up but each has its own side effect. You choose the one that has a beneficial side effect. For instance, you can add gypsum. Gypsum will add calcium and increase sulfate. Sulfate May or may not be something you need. You could add calcium chloride. You still get your needed calcium but it will increase your chloride. Either of these will add your calcium but the side effect is changing your sulfate to chloride ratio. Higher chloride will benefit a malty type of beer where sulfate benefits a hoppy beer. And the third calcium is chalk which will bring up your water hardness. Once you populate your spread sheet with your report, you will see your water in a single picture and you can add your salts and see the results before you even build your brewing water.
Thanks again. I just watched a short video on all-grain basics (at Northern Brewer here) and I think I made it out to be more complicated and difficult than it is. I do like the idea of making my own wort instead of relying on someone else's extract. Is there a water testing kit you can recommend?
The only testing I do is pH. I just rely on my water departments online report. I have read about a company that will send you an empty bottle and you return your sample to them and they will give you a report. Lots of home brewers use them and they are in the Midwest somewhere. Home Depot has free mail in tests but I don’t think I would trust them knowing they have things they want to sell you. My local brew supply (morebeer) has a test kit but it’s a little spendy. I can’t offer an opinion on them.
Cool. I'll have to do a little research on that. I live out in the middle of nowhere and get my water out of a well so I'll have to get it tested and perhaps spring for a kit.
Associated with a local Artisan Distillery and we plan on distilling a barrel of peated whiskey just for fun. That would be around 150-200 bottles of whiskey.
Depends how good you want it to be. Legally for a scotch whiskey in Scotland I believe it is 3 years but hey, nothing wrong with seeing how it is coming along the way. A small barrel would develop quicker, something like 6 months.
That's interesting - I had no idea a smaller barrel would speed things up. Six months isn't bad. The ales I've been brewing take anywhere from 2 to 3 months to condition properly and lagers take twice that time.
I just watched a video of John Palmer batch sparging an amber ale. I had only seen people doing a continuous sparge before that. Do you have a preference for either method or do you use whatever works best for a particular brew?
Smaller barrels, say a 15 gallon, has much more surface area to liquid so speeds up the change. A full barrel is something like 53 gallons.
I batch spare. My end of running gravity is usually under 1.010 so I call that good enough, I sparge twice.
