Brew your own...

[forgeblast]

To figure out your % of alcohol you need to take a reading before you add your yeast, this is your original gravity, then you take a reading before you bottle (final gravity) and subtract the two. This lets you know your % of alcohol.
Can be done on a couple of different scales and you can use a couple of different tools.
most use a hydrometer which has the scales on it. You must, if measure at a higer temp adujust for temp.
Using you hydrometer will also let you know if your yeast are done or got stuck, this is important in high alcohol content beers, where you want to pitch more yeast then normal.

 

[Lloyd_E]

Just finished 5 doz of the following - Dark Ale, Pilsner and Brown ale plus 25 bottles of chardonnay. I have another 25-28 bottles of merlot on the go and will start another 25-28 in a month.

Next fall I plan on producing some hard apple cider. I rebuilt an apple press last fall but didn't have a chance to use it... too many projects.

Lloyd

 

[Lloyd_E]

We have a 180-200 year old house with a rock wall foundation. In the basement we have a field stone and wood structure that supports the fireplace and bake oven on the main floor.
For years I have been wanting to utilize the cavity in the structure...

The beer and wine reside here now. It is moist plus does not get above 50f degrees. Winter temps are a little colder... around 41f.

Still need to make doors for the front.

Lloyd

 

[jimmyj]

My dad goes to a place where you use their equipment for a fee. Pick the brew you want and basically they make it for you. Much cheaper than regular priced beer or wine and good too.

 

[dmccarty]

Bad news Dan,

You can get port kits to make at home. They typically cost twice as much as regular wine kits or make half as much. I've never made any, but a friend has a few times and all were good to very good. The last batch he made he aged in an oak barrel for about a year, but that was an "extra" he did just because he had the barrel. I think he originally got the barrel to age a barley wine a few years ago. Have you tried barley wines? Some of them remind me of port, though with quite a different taste profile. The local brewpub made (maybe still does) a barley wine they call Old Cave Dweller. It was aged in a local cave for a year I think. It is served in a wine glass and is about port strength in alcohol. Beautiful dark amber color, and when you swirl the glass it coats it like a good port.

I, too, like port. I keep hoping to find a decent one that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. I made a port strength blackberry wine a couple years ago by fermenting the wine until the yeast quit because the alcohol content stopped it. Then I fortified half of it with some blackberry brandy (which itself tastes terrible, sticky sweet). It certainly wasn't port, but it did have a nice sweet/tart balance and made a nice desert drink.

Chuck

This is getting out of control....

:laughing:

I had not heard about port kits. The brew store has wine and cheese making kits. I did not pay attention to the wine and I ran from the cheese.

Looks like we really need to build the root cellar so we can hide from storms, brew beer, make port, age cheese, and, oh yeah, store veggies.

I have heard of barley wines but never drank any.

Stopped at the brew store yesterday and bought another primary and extract kit, a Belgian Triple, and few things that would be good to have around. Near the brew store is a decent beer store. Convenient, :laughing:, but bad for the wallet. They have some good German beers in cap bottles I have been buying up. The beer is just an extra.

Today or tomorrow the Belgian is going to get brewed if things go to plan. :laughing:

Later,
Dan