Any Homebrewers Here?

I've been homebrewing for a little while now. I started very casually a couple years ago, and have been slowly building up my arsenal ever since. Typically for me, Stouts and Porters are my favorite beers, so I go with those as they're pretty easy to brew. I am hoping to make some garage space to build a keezer, so I can maintain lagering temps and brew some Marzen style beers for the fall. My wife enjoys semi-sweet wines, and sweet Woodchuck style hard ciders, so I brew those as well. Actually, I find that I enjoy the hard cider now too, which is something I would have turned my nose up at in the past.

There's a blueberry farm a mile away from here that has hundreds of bushes to pick from at only $1.20/lb. We go up a few times every summer and get as much as we can to freeze and make jam with, but this year I plan to spend an extra hour or two up there so I can make a batch of blueberry melomel.

Here's the Cider the wife and the neighbors like:



Anyone else have any experience brewing their own?

 

Awesome. Good luck and lmk how it turns out. A good saison on a hot summer day. Good stuff. Even if a batch doesn't turn out for the best, it's still a fun experience. As cheesy as that sounds.

 

No permits necessary if you're just brewing beer, wine, ciders etc for personal consumption. Most laws allow up to 200 gallons per household. Though, I know people who brew way more than that, as the govt. has a near impossible time monitoring or enforcing that. You would need permits to sell it.

Home distillation equipment is illegal to use or possess in the US and most countries. Moonshine is made by distillation. Beers, wines, ciders etc are not. They're just fermented and cleared.

 

It can be a little overwhelming at first, but like with anything new you want to do, you just take a step in the direction you want to go, and before you know it you're walking.

A quick side story about vaping. My Dad smoked any cheap cigarette he could get his hands on for something like 45 years. After reading Ray's thread, I got a one free e-cig offer in the mail and gave it to my Dad. He's a retired military guy, who is VERY set in his ways, and not usually open to change of any sort. At all. He's also very technologically illiterate.

After explaining to him what it was, he took it and said he'd give it a try. That was in October. He's been vaping exclusively every day since last December. Hasn't bought a single cigarette since. It's crazy to think about.

Anyway, back to brewing. Wines and ciders are a lot easier to brew than beers generally speaking (IMO). As far as waiting for 12 beers goes, typically you'd brew a 5 gallon batch and that would yield 50 or so 12 oz beers. You don't have to do that big a batch, you can tailor most recipes to any size.

The balloon over the top method is cool and pretty old school. I've never done it personally. I just pour the ingredients into a brewing bucket or carboy depending on what we're talking about, put an airlock on top, and forget it for a while. I hear ya about the "knock your socks off" wine. I've brewed a couple of those, too. I've got one that's in the secondary now that my wife liked, but said it was like sweetened rocket fuel. It will need to mellow for a few months before it's drinkable.

Honestly, if you're just starting out and want to see if you'd be into it, I'd suggest picking up a Mr. Beer kit. They're usually pretty cheap and sometimes even on sale. My wife got me one for X-mas a few years ago, and I think a lot of people springboard from those. They used to have a Stout that was better than you'd expect. I think it makes a couple gallons of beer. The longer you wait to bottle it, the better it will be.

 

Homebrewtalk and winemakingtalk are a couple awesome resources. You could spend hours reading there.

Here's that strong wine I was talking about.

 

I have not tried that, but it would be a pretty sweet experiment. I'm pretty sure I'd have a very hard time finding bourbon barrels locally, too. I have seen people have success soaking oak chips in bourbon, and steeping it in the secondary for a few weeks. I may give that a try sometime, though, I'd have to do a small batch because it would last forever here.

 

Heh heh. I may or may not be a little jealous.

I know it's a delicate balance with adding oak. It can either be overpowering as it conditions, or barely show up.

 

Not to derail the thread but a couple things, when I first read the thread title I thought it said "Any Hombres Here?"

Second, was just watching Lawless last night about the Bondurant Boys running moonshine during prohibition, thought it was pretty good.

Ok, back to our regular programing

 

I can start a Lawless thread for you guys if you want. I know hijacking is more fun, though...

You have my condolences. It's addictive.

 

Do what you have to TTF, we cant have a "Lawless" message board after all


I doubt a delicious thread such as this could ever be hijacked though

 

Aww, I was just bustin' balls. Heck, I don't even know what Lawless is.

 

No problems here

I was just making a pun on words