Thread: Home Brew

So i couldn't find a thread on this so i figured i would start one. Are there any other beer brewers out there? If there is a thread on this let me know.

As for me i have a red ale that i will be moving into a secondary today to clear a bit before i bottle it.

Ex-brewer. I used to work for Anheuser-Busch before they sold out to Inbev. I worked at the brewery in Fairfield CA in the brewing department. I did everything from unloading rail cars, transferring beer around, operating cookers and kettles. Now retired. I never did homebrews though. I do make my own ginger beer for making Dark and Stormy's. LOL. I love going around checking out the local stuff wherever I go. I prefer the darker heavier brews such as stouts, porters, and dark brown ales. Must be from my four year stint in England while I was in the USAF. Good brewing and smooth shaves.

Mike

Thanks. I generally prefer the darker brews as well and I also make ginger beer. This red is actually an experiment on combining a ginger beer and red ale.

Are you going the full route on grains from grinding malts, cooking, spargeing etc. or using the easier and more commonly used malt extracts?

I am doing some grain with some extracts. this will only be my 4th batch of beer and i am still working up to all grain but i do plan to get to that point.

I used to be into it about 20 years ago. Loved it ! I sure miss it but have to many other*hobbies and my interest in drinking it has waned with age.

JoeD got into it, and I thought I might, too. I did some batches with him, but it didn't really appeal to me. Too much kitchen time, or maybe I'm too shortsighted (as he always had tons of beer around, so it must be worth it long run).

Homebrew!

Brewing in Norway, so if anyone drop by Oslo and want a taste, let me know.
Everything goes. Pale Ales, IPA, Brown Ales with some Rye, Dark Lagers, Cocoa Porters, Oat Stouts, Dark Milds, Mead, whatever.
RDWAHAHB!

I used to homebrew but grew tired of all the cleaning etc.

I found that the main things that gave me the best beer was good ingredients, not trying to make beer over 6%, and the biggest factor to a clean crisp taste was artificial carbonation with CO2 pressurizing the keg rather than a secondary fermentation in the bottle.

Ginger beer I could easily get to around 14% and still taste great, but beer over 6% was always below par.

I found that sourcing the best hops and yeast had a huge effect on quality, more so than the quality of the barley etc. Played around with different waters, and one could taste the difference, but didn't necessarily make it better, just subtle differences.

If interested, one of the more pleasant beers I produced was a wheat beer with some Lychee in it. Personally I have the taste of the fruit, but a little helped with mouthfeel, and left a beautiful lingering aftertaste.

Also, if you're kegging and using CO2 pressure to dispense, I found that getting a font that allowed cooling at the tap is worth every cent. I didn't fork out the $ for Glycol, I just had a pond pump in the freezer, in a large bucket of water with antifreeze in it, pumped it out of the freezer, through the font then back to the freezer in a closed loop system. Dispensing temp was between 1-2 degrees Celsius, beautiful to drink

Oh, on other thing... I had my font installed in a wood coffee table, so when watching games etc, Id drag the coffee table over in front of the lounge, then whenever I wanted another beer, I simply leant forward and pulled one

So since I know we all like pictures, the first is just after moving from primary to secondary. Second is about 24 hours later and third is this morning. Been in the secondary about a week. I plan to bottle tonight. I plan to invest in some kegging equipment eventually but can't afford it right now.