Ordered a beer brew kit.....

I guess I'm going to delve into making my own beer. I drink the more expensive brews, and at 10+ a six pack, it gets more expensive than I care for.

Buying kits to make your brew (5 gallons) runs 20-60 bucks. Average price is about 40.
5 gallons = 48 12 ounce bottles.

So we'll see how this pans out. 4-6 weeks (or maybe longer) to complete a run. Kit should get here by next week sometime.


Anyone else home brew?

I worked with a guy that brewed his own and have to say, it was the best beer that I have ever tried....and he was an idiot.

The only problem he had (seems common among home brews) was the filtering was not so great.  Beer ended up with a little pulp to it from the hops.

If you can do a good job with the filtering, you will likely be impressed by the results.  I think skill is only needed in making really huge amounts to keep it uniform, seems any idiot can get great results on small batches.

I've been doing some research/study on home brewing. Sanitation is actually probably one of the most important parts of it. If you contaminate it past the wort boiling stage, you will ruin the batch (kill the yeast or retard it where it makes a crap batch).

Most of the brewing is with put together kits. Pretty hard to screw it up. Everything comes in a box. I bought one for my first batch of beer for simplicity. I do however, want to do, only, all grain brewing. Just add your preferred hops.

From what I have learned, clarity in beer comes from the fermentation and sometimes a filtering process. Most people want only to do one ferment and bottle it. Doing a transfer into another ferment container half way through the process, helps with clarity. Most kits, only require one ferment process, hence a more cloudy beer. .

I don't intend to acquire much equipment beyond what I have coming in the kit. It takes me awhile to drink a case, and this makes 2 cases at a time. Besides I would need to buy more bottles, and they are as expensive as a case of beer. 22 bucks a case for bottles....

My co-worker just used glass canning jars. He looked like a moonshiner. He used a kit as well, nothing fancy, and like I saihe was an idiot yet it came out really well.

I think you will be impressed. Could do what many of the small micro-brewers did and change to alcohol-pops instead. The reason is that there was far less need to clean the vats between batches.

Well, I hit up two brew shop about an hour away. The first sell hydroponic stuff as well as some beer/wine supplies. I bought a couple small 1 gallon carboys, and a couple other small things. Nice people but no knowledge of beer/wine making at all.

Second shop, I got a few cases of bottles, and some other small supplies.

I got a bit better of a deal, then I could shop online. But the second shop turned me off to going into another brick and mortar. The guy was pretty knowledgeable, but was quite the jerk about anything he had to say. His loss. My money spends like anyone else's does. There isn't anything any of these stores sell, that I can't buy elsewhere. I will just have to wait a few days for my stuff to arrive.
Both stores did tell me that many people comment about stuff they can buy online cheaper. We as people in business, know why that is, and I understand their frustration. But I don't think it is a wise idea to go off on a tangent about it, personally.

Regardless, I got a few supplies, because I am going to try making a batch of honey molasses mead. Hopefully I end up liking mead. If not, the supplies can be used to small batch beer brews.

I think running a brick and mortar business that is based on a DIY hobby is probably not the best move to begin with unless they offered classes / training on the side. Internet would strangle them every time in straight selling of goods.

One does offer classes, but if you are a visual learner or one that can learn by reading, these classes really don't offer anything you can't learn from books or YouTube. To get farther than making a kit brew, you will need to learn more from books/formal education/some other form of the science.

So classes are only good for the very beginning, getting started. Maybe it builds some loyalty with folks too.

The only saving grace of a storefront, IMO, is the ability to get supplies today, rather than waiting. That and maybe the shipping on heavy items....

It doesn't just offer immediate access to items, but the ability to compare them and touch them.

As a weak guitar player, I have been surprised at how many times that I have read stellar reviews on something only to find it to be the exact opposite in person. If I had to order everything, there would be a lot of wasted money on mistakes.

That is really the true value in a local shop that is well equipped....being well equipped is the key, but I will pay more for that ability every time.

milspec6 wrote:It doesn't just offer immediate access to items, but the ability to compare them and touch them.

As a weak guitar player, I have been surprised at how many times that I have read stellar reviews on something only to find it to be the exact opposite in person.  If I had to order everything, there would be a lot of wasted money on mistakes.

That is really the true value in a local shop that is well equipped....being well equipped is the key, but I will pay more for that ability every time.

I think that has changed. For me (and I think most people), YouTube has taken place of the need to hold it and compare it. A video review or seeing someone actually use and it share their experience negates the need for me to actually hold it. It takes something from being just a picture and description on a webpage, to being a product you can see and understand. You can get a fair idea of what something is and what to expect of it. Now, a guitar neck, tuners, and how the body lays against your body, is admittingly different and subjective. You can't feel the finish of the neck. You can't feel the difference in how a rotovac or a Hoss feels running it on a floor.

So yeah, there are some things you just have to experience for yourself. But I don't need to go into a home brew store to get an idea of what a carboy feels like, or what a certain grain will look like. Things related to home brewing are more like cooking. That is until you get into the science of yeasts, what grains/malts make what beers, or fermentation of beers. You don't need a store to learn that, and truthfully, you are better off find that info elsewhere. If not you are bound to get some very BIASED information. If you go to a Ford dealer, they are going to sell you on a new Ford, not what might actually be best for you and your situation.

I experienced that at store #2. So, in turn, it just cemented in my mind why I don't NEED to use a store for my supplies. Some people don't feel the same way, and that's ok in my book.

A real beer connoisseur buy the cheapest beer they can find.. oh wait that's an alcoholic LOL

Well, progress is happening.
I got my first batch of mead, transferred into a glass carboy. Boy, was this stuff STRONG. The alcohol could knock out an elephant. The bad part IMO, was this stuff isn't sweet. The wine yeast that the store recommended was a bad idea. It did exactly what I told him I didn't want. A high alcohol mean and no sweet. Now I will have to add something to kill the yeast in about a month and back sweeten the mead.

I did start a second batch of mead today with honey and brown sugar. I also just used bread yeast. I'll see in two weeks if this stuff is an improvement over the other.

Brown ale beer is also done. I'll bottle it in a week. Still have another beer to brew. An Amberbock ale.

I'm anxious to see how the first beer tastes. Three more weeks and I'll know.

There is nothing scarier than cleaners in the winter. I bitch about the weather while restoring gas lanterns and you are becoming a bootlegger.

Spring better show up early before we all end up as arms dealers in Central America.

I here "red corn" is making a comeback.
Has basically been non existence for years.
It was used to make moonshine.

Im to impatient to brew my own beer. It's just too convenient to go the liquor barn and pickup a six pack. I guess it might be a cool.hobby though.

I enjoy learning new things so it would be interesting to try a few batches, but I would eventually end up just buying off the shelf.

Brewing beer is an enjoyable hobby at this point. I make 5 gallon batches that take a total time of about 4 weeks from brew to drinking it.

It takes about 4 total hours to brew the batch. That's the longest part.

Thing about brewing is, you can make your beer however you like. You can go all grain, pick your grain bill, and make whatever you like. You can buy easy kits. It's all whatever you want to make it.

Easy hobby, a bit time consuming. But you get 2 cases of beer out of a 5 gallon batch. Not something you are going to drink in a day.

Well, the mead was a bust. I did not care for the taste of it. It's dry and too high in alcohol content. Just not my thing.

I have been enjoying the beer though. Got half the dark ale drank, and now working on one case of the amber bock ale. So far, I like the bock better.

Going to a local-ish home brew shop tomorrow to pick up grain, hops, and yeast for another all grain batch.

I have had the some opinion of mead, I have always been more of a pils guy.

Sounds like you may have found yourself a good hobby.

Now all you need to do is make yourself a brick pizza oven and your set for life