home-made beer

[RobertN]

And you're commenting about the fact I'm a Harley rider too /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif Honestly though, Pilsens and lagers are an art, and quite possible more "serious" to brew than the darker beers. They can also be enjoyed when darker beers just don't fit as well, like after 4 hours on the seat of a tractor in 105 degree heat.

And, a Sportser is a fine bike. I ride a Big-twin, and really like it. But, a sporty sure can cut the canyons easier(well, some models). It is a Sportser after all, and should be able to do sporty things/w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif

 

[Egon]

Patrick:
For your pears:

Just go to your nearest wine/beer making store and find a knowledgeable salesperson. Get advice on the type of yeast and buy the proper sugar. [ table sugar don't cut it as well ] Most important of all get a hydrometer and air locks and have patience.

One of the finest Pilsners Is Pilsner from Pilsen. Never go wrong with it.

Now is this confusing?

Egon

 

[RobertN]

Around here, Sierra Nevada, Guiness, and other brews go for $6-8/6-pack, and are comparable to some things I a have brewed. With that, you are looking at $60-80 for 2-1/2 cases. So, my $25/10-gal, 5 cases is a lot cheaper.

Yes, you can get Bud, Coors, Pabst ect for cheap. It would still cost me about $20-25 if I did try to brew 10gal/5 cases of a "Bud like" pilsen.

I have a made a number of batches of "Hard cider". We are surrounded by apple country. I have had some wonderful fortified sweet hard cider, and another less swwet version. Both are really good, and really simple.

Pear cider should be good. Go with natural yeast, or a non-attenuative champagne yeast. It would be really tasty!

 

[Egon]

Patrick:
Forgot to add.
Redesign your house so it will contain a wine cellar as you may get a surprise if you take this brewing seriously.
I haven't done any for over thirty years but had a spot picked out in the basement and just as it was nearing completion lost it to boxes of clay and a wheel. Even had plans for a racking shelf. All for nought.
Egon

 

[RobertN]

I have brewed mead's, and beers with honey. I personally do not like the honey beers. I made a batch, and thought it went bad. Had friends taste it, to see if they could identify what was wrong, but they all liked it! It's just not for my tastes, even though I like lots of beers.

The hard part with the mead was saving some. My brother brewed 10 gallons of the stuff on my beer system. It tasted good after only a couple months aging. I had to convince him it would get even better. Finally, he set some aside. That was four years ago. It is REALLY good now! And, yes, it will light you up!

If you want to fortify a cider, corn suger is probably the safest thing to add. It has no junk in it, and will have minimal affect on the flavor. That's why Coors uses it.

 

[patrickg]

Robert, Thanks so much for the Pear Cider advice. Sounds like it may be worth the time and effort to give it a whorl. Pear champagne, might it be worth trying? We like the sparkling apple juice and some champagnes are OK for once in a while. Maybe I can make some pear champagne...

I was mostly kidding about the beer pricing. Although I don't drink much of it or often, as I sometimes go for years between beers, nevertheless, my taster isn't broke and I can certainly appreciate the difference between good beer and the swill that is so popularly discounted. Name brand or Yellow label generic, swill is swill.

Patrick

 

[Ozarker]

Are you in Belgium? My son has been living in Belgium for about 4 years.

 

[Ozarker]

I've had Lone Star. The Army tries to import a wide range of beers to various posts and Lone Star use to make it to various NCO Clubs overseas.

 

[RobertN]

Each time I made a cider, I did carbonate it. I consistently used the same recipe, but used two different yeast. One was less attenuative, leaving more residual sugars, and a sweeter, more cidery flavor. The other yeast was more attenuative. It was not as sweet, and had less of the cider taste. It was bubbly from the carbonation, and had a champagne feel to it.

In all cases, I used champagne yeast. It fit well for the flavor, and handled higher alchohol levels than beer yeasts. Beer yeast peter out around 7-8% alchohol.

Hard Cider:
5 gallons sweet apple cider
1 lbs light brown sugar
2 lbs dark brown sugar
3 lbs honey
2 pkg champagne yeast

Pour 3gal of cider into glass carboy. In a pot, add 1/2 gallon of cider. Warm the cider, and add the brown sugar and honey; only warm the cider enough to dissolve the honey and brown sugar. Pour the mixture into the carboy(I like to cool the mixture first). Add the yeast to the carboy, and "Swirl" the mixture. Add additional cider to fill carboy, leaving enough headspace for fermentation(you'll have some sweet cider left over). Put a stopper and airlock on the carboy, and wait for fermentation. After fermentation, I added the same 3/4 cup of corn sugar to the mixture at bottling that I would for beer. In later batches, I cut that about in half. Bottle, and let sit for a few weeks. It gets better as it ages, so don't drink it early, even though it taste good. Give it some aging time.

You could take this recipe, and split it between two carboys. Use one packet of yeast for each, and try both yeasts.

Beware though, it will sneak up on you, and knock your socks off/w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif

 

[Steveng]

Yes sir, born and raised! In 4 years your son should have been able to taste some of the delicious beers we're brewing over here...

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Since I like Bud, It probably won't surprise you that I don't know what mead is. I have heard of it, but never tasted it. what is the difference between mead and beer? Something to do with the aging? I know beer doesn't need to be aged. Well, at least my friend's beer doesn't. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif And maybe you brewers will know the answer to this. Why does beer taste so much better out of a glass bottle than a can? Is it all in my head, or does the can change the taste of the beer?

 

[Chuck52]

Robert,

I don't care for most honey beers either. If I can taste the honey, it never seems to go with the other flavors. My friend's fruit meads are OK, but I really prefer the bitter beers as my normal drink. I cultured some yeast from Red Hook Hefeweizen once and used it for 2-3 years in almost every brew I made. It had none of the clove or banana tastes the German hefeweizens had, and it was good for the kind of bitter wheat ales I like. Alas, my culture died during the brewing drought that accompanied our move to the country. I sure hope to get back to brewing now because I have a root cellar I can use for brewing and storage. There's a bathroom in the basement, too, so I could potentially set up a brewing kitchen down there. Ah the possibilities.

Chuck

 

[patrickg]

Robert, Thanks so much for the recipe and directions and gee, almost coming to help. Sounds like a fun experiment. If the flavor isn't hurt too much or the final, after aging, results aren't hurt too much I would be happy to end up with less alcohol. I tend to drink copious quantities of good tasting beverages and don't need the extra alcohol.

When I was in London I went out with my hosts (British Royal Navy Submarine Communications guys) and after sampling pints of various brews, I tried some cider. They told me the same thing, be careful, the cider will sneak up on you. Being a larger than average fellow and having had an English supper (pretty darned heavy) my drinking capacity was enhanced. I upheld the honor of the US and made sure those blokes got in a cab to take them home safely after their navigation and gyrostabilization became seriously impaired.

Thanks again for the info,

Patrick

 

[RobertN]

A meade is more of a honey wine. It is usually made from honey, water, yeast, and possiibly some herb or fruit essence added for a particular taste profile. It is typically thick, and very sweet. It is known to be very potent.

Beer will pick up flavors from containers. Aluminum cans, even with all the work the brewers do, can impart off flavors. Glass will not affect the flavor.

 

[RobertN]

I think it would be a fun expieriment. Maybe just try 2.5 gallons for a first try. Oh, and ship a bootle out here/w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif

 

[RobertN]

Are you stove top brewing? All grain or extract?

I switched from extract/stove-top to out doo extract brewing in a modified keg on cajun cooker. It worked really nice. Boil was fast, and it was nice doing a low gravity boil. Sine then I have moved up to a gravity feed all-grain system. The propane cookers are well worth it. But, they limit you to well ventilated area's.

 

[patrickg]

Bob, If you were to come out and supervise you could take some home, a little of each variation you might suggest we try. If I have a success, I could send a bottle. Will it get highly pressured as the little yeast guys make CO2? I used to make rootbeer in the days of metal pop bottle lids. I still have the capper and a box of lids with real cork linings. I had 2-3 bottles explode once while they were on the mantle and I was away looking for the lost Dutchman's mine. It was dried up when I returned (oodles of sugar to clean up) but there was glass embedded in the wood mantle and the wall panneling. It didn't blow the lids off but did explode the large glass pop bottles I used.

I suppose a specialty shop would have bottles and "champagne" corks with wire retainers. Could I be "de classe" and just put the stuff up in screw lid plastic pop bottles or would they make better bombs than beverages?

Patrick

 

[Chuck52]

Robert,

My last brews were partial mashes, about half extract half mash, and stovetop. When I get back into it, I'll probably get a cooker and slowly go all-grain, though I might have difficulty getting the gravities I like with all-grain. My basement is a walkout with a cement pad where I could easily set up the cooker. Lordy, decent stainless pots cost an arm and a leg, so your route with the keg is probably the way to go. Did you buy one of those brewing "sculptures", or put together your own system. I really like the idea of all-grain since it lets me use the biochemistry I learned for something useful!

Chuck

 

[patrickg]

Egon, Digital cameras as low as $30 with USB interface.

Thanks for the aging/storage reminder! All I would need for a near constant temp storage place would be a bumpout in the basement wall with a decently insulated door/cover. My deep earth temp is about 62.5 degrees F (sorry not C, convert it) If the bumpout was in the floor or low on a wall I should be near that temp. Is that cool enough? Too cool? Warmer is easy and still free. I am currently thinking 1 1/2 story house with full or nearly full walkout basement and should have room for "beverage storage/aging". Maybe I could age cheese?

I've seen pictures of basement wine storage racks that were clay drainage tiles sticking through the wall and sealed on the back side. Don't recall or wasn't told the earth temp at that site.

Patrick

 

[brewerbob]

Robert:
First let me say that I reuse my yeast. I buy Wyeast products and reuse them six to eight times. I did not amortize the cost of the yeast into the "Less than $10 for 5 gallons', but I make a pale ale with 9# 2-row, 1/2# carapils, an ounce or so of Galena hops, and Wyeast British Ale II yeast. I also did not figure in the cost of the propane for my burner, the cost of line cleaner or Idophor, but even doing that it's cheap, and fun. I'm going to make some hard cider in a few days. Apples are 40 cents a pound in the orchard, and my wife's cousin gave me his old apple press. I'm using champagne yeast and will add about 3# of honey to each 5 gallon batch. I'll kill the wild yeast with campden tablets and add yeast nutrient. I made some several years ago and it was great, but low on alcohol. I only used 1# of honey. I carbonate it in a corny keg. Brewing is my second hobby after tractoring.
Bob