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Master and Commander
Posts: 1431
| Subject: Any Home Brewers n Board?
I'm thinking about trying the fine art of making beer at home. I tried a kit that I got as a Christmas present but I wasn't impressed with the resulting brew. Any beer brewing afficianados out there in cyber space with killer brew resappies they are willing to release to the beer drinking publick???? |
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Senior Crew
Posts: 184
Location: ConroeTexas | Subject: RE: Any Home Brewers n Board?
I tried it once when I was stationed in Corpus Christi, I bottled it up in a bunch of quart beer bottles I had saved up and a few cases of 12 oz bottles, the 12 ozers held up ok, but it seems the quart bottles were weaker and they all exploded in the middle of the night, sounded like the 4th of July and sure made a mess in my garage. Havent tryed it since.
Doc B. |
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Master and Commander
Posts: 1796
Location: Albany, GA. | Subject: RE: Any Home Brewers n Board?
I believe we have more drinkers than brewers. You can get all the recipes you need out of a book. The important thing is attention to detail. Temperatures, and exact measure are important. The more exact the approach, the better the beer. Then again what do I know. I was a Brewing Team Leader for Miller here in Albany. |
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Great Sage of the Sea
Posts: 606
Location: Citrus County FL | Subject: RE: Any Home Brewers n Board?
Most of my experiences with home-brew came from my experiences with snake ranches. 1. 60% of home-brew mead will wind up on the ceiling. 2. Your best batch will be the one you did not keep good notes on.. 3. Clean bottles are your friend. 4. You can make good wine from those berries on the bushes by the parking lot (WTF are these berries? Donno, but there's a lot....get a bucket) 5. Make a new label for EVERY batch of beer. That is sometimes the only thing worth remembering about a batch. (BTW "Tree Frog Beer" is taken. It was up to batch XXII the last time I saw a label....)(TFB was first brewed by some nukes on new construction of the QUEENFISH in the late 60's.) 6. Fruit flies. Just get used to them. |
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Master and Commander
Posts: 1431
| Subject: RE: Any Home Brewers n Board?
When i was a kid in Chicago, Miller was one of the big four: Miller, Hamms, Schlitz, and Budweiser. I heard that when the Miller Co. came out with Light beer they screwed the pooch by labeling it "Light Beer by Miller". Folks would go to the local bar and ask for a "Light" to which the barkeep would then ask which one. Bud picked up on this and labeled theirs "Bud Light". Gimme a "Bud Light" worked better for them. Actually I liked Miller as well as any, but I never was a big "Light" beer drinker Because I would drink more regular ber beers than the other so there was no advantage to the "Light "variety. Regular beer just tastes better to me. |
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Senior Crew
Posts: 102
| Subject: RE: Any Home Brewers n Board?
docbeeghly - 2007-07-05 2:08 PMI tried it once when I was stationed in Corpus Christi, I bottled it up in a bunch of quart beer bottles I had saved up and a few cases of 12 oz bottles, the 12 ozers held up ok, but it seems the quart bottles were weaker and they all exploded in the middle of the night, sounded like the 4th of July and sure made a mess in my garage. Havent tryed it since.Doc B.
My sister had a similar experience - in the KITCHEN! This was years ago, and prompted a kitchen remodel, but what an ugly mess that was!
Bill
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Great Sage of the Sea
Posts: 602
Location: Visalia, Ca. | Subject: RE: Any Home Brewers n Board?
I tried a few kit brews when I lived in the barracks at Subase Pearl. Not bad, but not much better than Budweiser.
I started to get into homebrewing after I retired from the Navy, but other things came along to fill my weekends.
There used to be a forum on Compuserve for homebrewers, and a Usenet newsgroup.
A good book to work from is "The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing" by Charlie Papazian. My copy is 1991, might be a newer edition. This book tells you just about everything you need to know to make good-tasting home-brew beer. It includes equipment lists, step-by-step instructions, recipes, descriptions of various styles of beer you could make.
If there is a brew-pub in your area, talk to the owners or the brewers. Often they started out as home-brewers. You might also look for a local beer and winemakers' supply store or a home-brew club. Those folks will be glad to share their knowledge and experience (and their own home-brew) with you.
Good luck, and good brewing!
Let us know how things turn out.
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Admin
Posts: 2297
Location: Renton, WA | Subject: RE: Any Home Brewers n Board?
Brewed for a few years and loved it. Shifted from bottles to kegging (Cornelius kegs, better known for use to store soda fountain syrup under pressure). Found that kegs are more difficult to get sanitary (bacteria free) than bottles. Never lost a batch that I bottled but had 2 or 3 kegs go bad on me (whatta pisser that is...).
Brew supply houses have tons of recipes on file and I was contantly tweaking an IPA recipe but never got it where I wanted it. The brew was very good just the same. Find one and experiment! I stopped about five years ago when I succumbed to the complaints of others about the smell of wort (ahhh... better than napalm in the morning...).
Hmmm, maybe it's time to wash out those old carboys...
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Master and Commander
Posts: 1796
Location: Albany, GA. | Subject: RE: Any Home Brewers n Board?
Rinse the carboys with water above 180 degrees. They taught us at Brewing School that a 172 degrees will kill most any bacteria. Just remember the motto, "You can't sanatize dirt." It has got to be clean to begin with. A 3% caustic solution usually can get that done if it is 170 degrees. |
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Crew
Posts: 75
| Subject: RE: Any Home Brewers n Board?
Not exactly what you might use at home, but I have several good recipes that will make 5000 barrels a pop. Comes out really good though.
Sewer Pipe Snipe; what brewery did you work for? I worked at Miller in Irwindale, CA. |
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Crew
Posts: 69
Location: Irwin, PA | Subject: RE: Any Home Brewers n Board?
I only make my own rootbeer. I remembered doing it as a kid and decided to pass it along to my boys. It is better then any bought off the shelf. |
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Crew
Posts: 75
| Subject: RE: Any Home Brewers n Board?
John, that brought back a memory from my childhood. We used to make our own RB but my mother, in her infinite wisdom, decided that it wasn't very good for us and decided to "fortify" it with grape juice. The bottles that didn't explode tasted like hell. |
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Master and Commander
Posts: 1796
Location: Albany, GA. | Subject: RE: Any Home Brewers n Board?
Ron, I worked at the Albany Brewery for eighteen years before I was reduced in force. I worked the Irwindale strike, but maintained a low profile. |
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Old Salt
Posts: 359
Location: Saco, Maine | Subject: RE: Making root beer...
I was all set to start a batch last weekend when I went to the store and discovered they have discontinued carrying the extract. I have tried several other places to no avail.
Any ideas as to a source? I miss it! |
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Crew
Posts: 69
Location: Irwin, PA | Subject: RE: Making root beer...
I get mine at the local homebrew outlet. I have also seen it online at one of the brewer supply places and at a site that specializes in old handcranked appliances. I guess people that shop tha site have handcranked 8080 computers. Sorry I can't remeber the names of the sites, I had them bookmarked on a computer that died. |
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Crew
Posts: 69
Location: Irwin, PA | Subject: RE: Making root beer...
I get mine at the local homebrew outlet. I have also seen it online at one of the brewer supply places and at a site that specializes in old handcranked appliances. I guess people that shop tha site have handcranked 8080 computers. Sorry I can't remeber the names of the sites, I had them bookmarked on a computer that died. I have a bottle in my hands right now that is labeled "Old fashioned HOMEBREW Birch Root Beer Concentrated extract makes four gallons Ozark made" maybe that will help you.
http://www.leeners.com/rootbeer.html
Edited by John J. Patterson 2007-07-09 6:09 PM
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Master and Commander
Posts: 1405
Location: Houston, TX (Best state in the US) | Subject: RE: Any Home Brewers n Board?
Was doing a steam trap survey at the Miller Brewery in Ft Worth last month and ran to an knucklegragger from A gang on the USS Annapolis. He's working in their maintenance dept. Name was AJ Rothe. We told him how to get in touch with USSVI.org and let him know there was a Cowtown base in the area.
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Any Home Brewers n Board?
