Home Brewing (1 Viewer)

[lemonbravo]

What with current economic forecasts, anyone got any good experiences/tips on home brewing?
Maybe link a brand with an album for listening while drinking....

I have zero experience, interested lately though.


Last time I had some was in 1990 I think, grim enough times then also. As was the home-brew.

 

[HMD]

There's a couple of threads here with recipes. It's easy enough to get started

i would post a link to them but i keep getting this error

Oops! An error occurred: connection to 127.0.0.1:3312 failed (errno=111, msg=Connection refused)

 

[RayRay]

Was looking at doing it recently myself and from googling i kept getting the same kit . I've asked around a little about it too and apparently sterilization is the key.

 

[pete]

There's a couple of threads here with recipes. It's easy enough to get started

i would post a link to them but i keep getting this error

looks like *someone* forgot to restart the search stuff

do a google search for "site:thumped.com home brew" or something and i'll get it going again later

 

[east hastings]

someone said you can buy it donnybrook, maybe the off license or something

 

[lemonbravo]

looks like *someone* forgot to restart the search stuff

do a google search for "site:thumped.com home brew" or something and i'll get it going again later

cool.

 

[east hastings]

someone said you can buy it donnybrook, maybe the off license or something

by 'it' i meant home brewing kit

 

[тхеодоре кацзынски]

Place in rathmines does everything you'll need.Look in the food sub-forum on here and you should find the couple of older threads handy enough.

 

[HMD]

The lads in rathmines are helpful and their stuff is priced well.

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

I bought the utensils last christmas, havent got any further since

 

[тхеодоре кацзынски]

Sell them to lemonbravo.

 

[nonemoreblack]

Lots of homebrewers hang out at http://www.beoir.org/ . I only use it for reference but you'll find pretty much everything you need to know there.

My advice is to start with a starter kit with a prepacked brew kit. Then move onto extract + real hop brewing and then eventually whole grain brewing if you can be bothered!
You need to be spotlessly clean with your equipment, rinse everything well and be patient!

 

[nonemoreblack]

Oh yeah. I buy all my stuff here: http://www.thehomebrewcompany.ie/

 

[lemonbravo]

thanks for all the replies!

 

[egg_]

I haven't had very good experiences with extract brewing. All the ale extracts taste of, well, extract rather than beer

 

[fobster]

When I did my first batch (bottled my third batch a week ago) I got everything from the shop in Rathmines, in total equipment and ingredients was just shy of €80. Like most retail businesses, some of the lads working there know their stuff, others haven't a breeze.

I used a kit and a can of Liquid malt extract, it costs a bit but it gives better quality beer than if you use a kit and ordinary sugar. I can recommend the Muntons Connoisseur's Wheat Beer 1.8 Kg along with a can of Coopers Malt Extract Wheat 1.5kg, most people say the yeast that comes with kits is poor but I found the Munton's yeast to be pretty good. You can have a drinkable wheat beer ready in a month, 2 weeks in the bucket fermenting and two weeks in the bottle carbonating.

Beoir.org has the following guide for brewing with a kit, easy to follow. There's other guides for bottling etc.
http://www.beoir.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=17&Itemid=48

For sanitising stuff, the best way I find is a bleach/vinegar mix as you don't have to rinse it afterwards. The method is mix 30ml of bleach thoroughly into 20L of water then mix in 30ml of clear vinegar, those proportions can be altered i.e. 15ml in 10L of water etc. (don't mix the bleach and vinegar together before... makes chlorine gas). Soaking stuff for about 3-4 mins will suffice.

Edit: Don't worry if something goes wrong when you're brewing, for my second batch I tried doing an extract brew which was a bit of a nightmare (I blame the cooker!) but I let it ferment and having tasted the first bottle, it's pretty good. The homebrew mantra: Relax, don't worry, have a homebrew!

 

[RayRay]

Nice post... Deffo gonna give this a go after xmas

 

[fobster]

Here's a quote from the William Elliott Whitmore interview, very appropriate:

"It's like a metaphor for making music. Like, there's a million beer recipes but can you make something that is just a little different from everyone else?... It kind of helps you get more in touch with what you're drinking, you see the process what it takes to make this and I like that. It all matters, letting it go for one more day or adding such and such a spice... It all matters. Like I said, it's like music. There's nothing new under the sun but if you can put your own twist on it, then you've got something."

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

The homebrew mantra: Relax, don't worry, have a homebrew!

did you get this book?

Someone gave it to me last christmas and I got all excited for a few weeks, then it passed.

 

[fobster]

Haven't gotten that book, I picked up John Palmer's 'How to Brew' but haven't looked at it much yet... I think it's best when you're starting to just focus on getting to know the practical side before looking at books. From the science behind brewing to the variety of ingredients used, it's pretty easy to overwhelm yourself with information that isn't necessary to get a drinkable beer on your first go.

An earlier edition of 'How to Brew' is available online. Handy reference site, but again it's more aimed at brewers who have moved on from kits.
www.howtobrew.com