Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[ScottWood]

I delved into the world of home brewing back in the early 90's with limited success.  I was living in Tucson at the time in a house that only had an evaporative cooler and had a hard time keeping the temps stable for fermenting.

Many years have passed and I have more and more friends who are home brewing and it sort of re-lit my desire to give it another go.  Now that I am back home in the PNW, with what I think is much friendlier temps, and perhaps being a little older with perhaps a little more patience, I have just ordered a home brew kit.

Seems to be that home made BBQ and home made beer sort of go hand in hand?

[Bar-B-Lew]

I am interested in seeing your progress on this.  Right now, I don't think I want another hobby, but this may change my mind.

[dk117]

I'm afraid I agree with Lew.   I gave home brew a pathetic attempt in the 90's.   Had a friend who's a chemist make a good batch once.   I just don't have the patience.  This coming from a guy who has no problem doing 10 hour pulled pork.   Even at $6 a pint, I can do a lot better in the PNW at my local bewpub.  Don't mean to rain on your parade, but where I can make BBQ equal or better than any local BBQ joint, I just don't have a chance against local bews. 

DK

[cookingjnj]

Funny you should bring this up.  I was down in my basement the other day and was looking at all my "old" brewing kit.  I too was brewing back in the mid 90's early 2000's, with a bit of success.  I started early on using pre packaged malts etc, and worked my way up to seeping my own mash, experimenting with hop combinations, using Irish Moss as a cheater to help clarify my ales etc.  According to friends I was doing pretty well, brewing mostly ales, and they never complained about my brewing.  Kids came, job responsibility changed, moved out of the country for a while and now all my "stuff" has been to a corner in the basement.  I started drinking craft beers again (mostly IPA) hence my trip down to the basement to look at the gear.  Too bad I did not get the urge earlier, as my favorite time to brew is during the winter because it is a good time to use the natural elements to cool down the brew quickly, before starting the fermentation process.  Now the ambient temps have gone up..... yep just another excuse not to pick it up again.  If I do follow up on the urge, I will definitely post here.  Although not a pellet cooking topic, thanks for starting this one ScottWood.

[TLK]

Used to home brew all the time.  Just don't have the time............

Good luck and keep us posted on your progress

[ScottWood]

I'm afraid I agree with Lew.   I gave home brew a pathetic attempt in the 90's.   Had a friend who's a chemist make a good batch once.   I just don't have the patience.  This coming from a guy who has no problem doing 10 hour pulled pork.   Even at $6 a pint, I can do a lot better in the PNW at my local bewpub.  Don't mean to rain on your parade, but where I can make BBQ equal or better than any local BBQ joint, I just don't have a chance against local bews. 

DK

If I am going to be honest, that is probably what has held me back for a while now.  We are lucky here in the PNW to have a lot of great craft beer.  Heck, here in Olympia alone we have 3 great taprooms and a handful of breweries that should be on any craft beer lovers list of places to visit.

With that said, my goal isn't to try to compete with any of them from a beer quality standpoint, it is more to find another creative outlet.

[SmokinHandyman]

I will stick with my Busch Light.

[LowSlowJoe]

I don't drink alcohol...    so, beer brewing is out of the question...   

I do drink Kombucha, and while it can have a small amount of alcohol ( or a fair amount depending on how you do it, etc... )...  I've been making my own kombucha, which requires a bit of fermenting.   Kombucha is best done around 77F, it can be done from about 70F up towards 80F. I like to try and be consistent with it, so I built a fermentation chamber out of a old mini fridge... I also have a large (2x2x6') wooden box that I use.  I'm pretty much always heating it slightly, to get up from 68-70F in my basement , or just trying to make sure it never drops bellow 75F in my heated/air conditioned home.  So, I don't ever need to cool the space... 


  Along the same lines, I have dreams of doing things like making sausage and/or cured meats in a climate controlled area...  which would need ability to control humidity and temperature... but I haven't gotten to that point yet.

[Fire708]

If I am going to be honest, that is probably what has held me back for a while now.  We are lucky here in the PNW to have a lot of great craft beer.  Heck, here in Olympia alone we have 3 great taprooms and a handful of breweries that should be on any craft beer lovers list of places to visit.

With that said, my goal isn't to try to compete with any of them from a beer quality standpoint, it is more to find another creative outlet.

I used to buy my stuff at RockyTop. Back when Dave ran it.  I made a couple of really good beers using his recipie’s but didn’t really keep going. Gave all my stuff to my son who makes some pretty good beer. He’s also a WSU grad. Maybe theres something in Pullman that gives you guys a brewing bug.

[jgrayson]

I also used to do a lot of homebrewing back in the 90's.  I found myself too busy with work, and foolishly let a friend borrow my equipment.  He never really used it, and then I moved away without reclaiming my stuff.  A couple of years ago I decided to get back into it.  My wife agreed (wow, I love her!), and bought me a new startup kit for Christmas a couple years ago.  I've turned out several pretty good brews recently.

Recently my older son (he's 10 so he doesn't get to really enjoy the results yet), has gotten interested in how the brewing process works.  I quickly accepted him as an apprentice and he is happy to help on brew day, checking on the fermenters in the basement, and even enjoys crimping bottle caps on bottles.

[bregent]

I've been homebrewing for over 30 years.  One of the original members of the Bay Area Mashers, a large homebrew club with a focus on all grain brewing. However, it's probably been 5 years since I made a batch. All grain brewing is a time consuming process, and I just don't have the time right now. When I first started, it was great to be able to brew styles of beer that were not readily available. These days, you can find any beer you can conceive of, and many styles you can't!  When I retire in a few years I'll start back up.

I do still make wine - it's not as time consuming and you only do it once a year!

[ScottWood]

I used to buy my stuff at RockyTop. Back when Dave ran it.  I made a couple of really good beers using his recipie’s but didn’t really keep going. Gave all my stuff to my son who makes some pretty good beer. He’s also a WSU grad. Maybe theres something in Pullman that gives you guys a brewing bug.

[Bentley]

I know nothing of brewing.

As opposed to what other type of brewing?  What makes the all grain more time consuming then these other processes?

All grain brewing is a time consuming process..

[bregent]

I know nothing of brewing.

As opposed to what other type of brewing?  What makes the all grain more time consuming then these other processes?

All grain brewing is a time consuming process..

The two major types of homebrewing processes are those that use commercial malt extracts, and all-grain brewing in which you extract malt sugars from grains yourself. With all grain, you need weight and crush the grain, then steep the grain in warm water (mash), and maybe alter the temp of the mash at different steps to produce a specific profile, and finally sparge (rinse) the grains to extract the malt sugars. From there, you need to boil and then chill the full volume of the batch size you are making. That process can take 6 hours and can include a lot of hands on time.

With extract brewing, the mashing has already been done. You simply add malt extract (powder or syrup) to water, maybe steep some specialty grains,  and boil then chill. Because it's already been extracted, you can use smaller volume of water for the boil and chill by adding cold water reducing the time even further.

All grain requires much more equipment but can produce better quality product. When commercial extracts are produced, they must be reduced by concentrating the mash into syrup or powder and this step can alter the flavor. However, extract production processes are getting better all the time and you can produce excellent beer with today's malt extracts.

Another time consuming aspect of either type of brewing is cleaning and sanitizing. Malt is a very good food source for all types of micro organisms which can ruin the beer. So all equipment that comes in contact with the beer post boil must be cleaned and sanitized. Wine making a lot more forgiving in this regard

[dclord]

I was brewing quite a bit about 10 years ago, but family demands along with the fact that I put on about 20 pounds during the two years I was brewing kind of brought a halt to it.

My two cents:
1) Whole grains. Yes it takes longer but it is much more interesting and gives you much more freedom to explore. Also, extracts are messy and obnoxious to work with.
2) Brew in a bag (BIAB) where mashing is done in a paint strainer bag in your brew pot makes working with grains a lot easier and less expensive.
3) Don't waste your time on IPA's. There are too many good commercial ones and I've yet to taste a home brew IPA that compared.
4) I hate bottling. If you can afford it, get a kegging setup.
5) Most of the work in brewing is cleaning and sanitizing. It's also the least fun part, but don't skimp on it.
6) Patience. Fermentation takes up to a month. Get a new batch started as soon as you bottle or keg the previous one.
7) Forums are full of people talking about their expensive equipment. You don't need it. A turkey fryer setup, a 5 gallon paint bucket with a lid, thermometer, strainer bags, a siphon, a cooking scale, and cleaning equipment will get you started. I never even used an airlock on my fermenter, just sit the lid on loosely and keep it away from rooms with kids and pets and you'll be fine.