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Home brewing beer

RUhappy69

RUhappy69

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Jan 16, 2002
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I just brewed my first batch ever of beer and wanted to get others opinions on home brewing. I did a 'Wit' beer and added some orange peel at the end of the brew cycle to the wort. Its been fermenting for a week in the glass carboy in my basement in a nice steady temp room. I will probably bottle sometime next weekend. I really had fun doing it but was/am paranoid that I will somehow mess it up lol. Share your experiences and what types you've brewed at home and how it came out!
 
I only brew "beer" with no hops, using predominantly corn as a base grain and no weird foofy additives like orange peels. On account of it just gets distilled out, anyway.
 
its fun. try different combos... really hard to mess up IMO.

The only thing i ever messed up was when I tried to make Meade, but that has a different fermentation process and is more like wine than beer.

Just make sure you used the correct yeast. Lagers use a yeast that needs to be fermented in cooler than room temp. if i remember correctly.

I also love using honey to give it some honey notes.
 
RUhappy69 said:
I just brewed my first batch ever of beer and wanted to get others opinions on home brewing. I did a 'Wit' beer and added some orange peel at the end of the brew cycle to the wort. Its been fermenting for a week in the glass carboy in my basement in a nice steady temp room. I will probably bottle sometime next weekend. I really had fun doing it but was/am paranoid that I will somehow mess it up lol. Share your experiences and what types you've brewed at home and how it came out!
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I've brewed about a half-dozen batches. The advice I would give anyone is to thoroughly sanitize all of your equipment and bottles. As long as you take care of that, there's not a lot to it.

We just polished off 2 cases of an American-style wheat that I brewed--my friends really enjoyed it.
 
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RUhappy69 said:
I just brewed my first batch ever of beer and wanted to get others opinions on home brewing. I did a 'Wit' beer and added some orange peel at the end of the brew cycle to the wort. Its been fermenting for a week in the glass carboy in my basement in a nice steady temp room. I will probably bottle sometime next weekend. I really had fun doing it but was/am paranoid that I will somehow mess it up lol. Share your experiences and what types you've brewed at home and how it came out!
Click to expand...

I'm not an expert by any means but I have been brewing for 20 years now. About 2 batches a year mostly ales and lagers. Lately I have leaned toward the Belgium Wit, adding orange peel and cardomon to the last 5-10 minutes of the boil. The key is CLEANLINESS! Make sure EVERYTHING is sterilzed including your bottles, caps, or whatever you plan on storing it in. Bacteria is not your friend!

I have my next batch launching this fall, a Guinness like stout with coffee hints.
 
awesome. If it goes well I may try a coffee porter or Stout next.
 
A friend of mine cold brews coffee in a jar of vodka and dumps it into his stout right before he bottles and it comes out great. I Might take that approach.
 
Others above are right. Keep everything clean and sterile. You can get sanitizers that leave no aftertaste from your brew supplier. If you have another carboy, you might want to use it as a secondary fermenter. It will help to reduce sediment and clarify. If there's nothing left to ferment in the primary fermenter, after about 10 days the yeast cells might start to eat each other and this imparts a foul taste. A good reason to either bottle or rack to a secondary. A little more orange rind in the secondary goes a long way.
 
I've been home brewing for the past 2 - 3 years. I've probably brewed 15 batches in that time including wheat beers, Irish Red Ale, Saisons, Blonde Ale, Belgian Dubbel, and a decent clone of Rogue Brewery's Dead Guy Ale. In addition to sanitation pay close attention to your fermentation temperatures. Not the room temp but the actual fermentation temp as fermentation can add 5 degrees or more. Ales typically in the mid 60's and lagers at about 50. There are a lot of exceptions to the rule so research the type of yeast being used. I started out as an extract brewer but recently stepped up to All Grain brewing which can easily be a 6+ hour brew day. But it's a labor of love for me. If you are in the North Brunswick area, the Love2brew store is on Livingston Avenue with a good supply of equipment and brew kits with reasonable prices.
 
RU4Real said:
I only brew "beer" with no hops, using predominantly corn as a base grain and no weird foofy additives like orange peels. On account of it just gets distilled out, anyway.
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So how different is the ingredient list for whiskey, particularly barley-based Scotch, from beer?

I was at an old German brewery earlier this year that also was a distillery. They made single malts from the same "special" barley that they brewed their beer from. They also distilled a schnaps from each beer on the menu. So you could wash down a mug of bock beer with a bock beer schnaps, then move up to whiskey.

I was wondering what the ingredient/process difference was between the whiskey and schnaps. Needless to say, I was in no condition to get into a long discussion about it while there. Plus I don't think the girdled bar maid (kinda sexy, but strong like bull) would have known.
 
Generally speaking, there's no difference.

Whiskey, of any variety, has three primary ingredients: Grain, Water and Yeast.

Scotch Whiskey, Malt Whiskey, Single Malt Whiskey... all contain barley, water and yeast.

Bourbon is 51% corn, 49% any other grain you wish, water and yeast.

Corn Whiskey is 100% corn, water and yeast.

Any other whiskey made in the U.S. that isn't Bourbon or Corn Whiskey is any grain(s) you wish, water and yeast.

So you get the idea.

Other ingredients to provide flavor, added to the ferment cycle or the still kettle, are not permitted. So, for example, the current craze of "Honey-flavored Whiskey" is exactly that - it's regular whiskey, flavored with honey after the fact, i.e. prior to blending & bottling.

The distillation ABV requirements as well as the aging requirements for specific types of whiskey add more complexity to the equation.
 
Recognizing that I failed to address the question about "schnapps".

First of all, the TTB (BATF Tax & Trade Bureau, which regulates alcoholic beverage production in the United States as well as the import thereof) does not recognize "schnapps" as a category. Any product sold in the United States with the word "Shnapps" on the label is, technically, a "Distilled Spirits - Specialty".

That said, the more or less standard definition of schnapps is "any grain neutral spirit (spirit distilled from an all grain mash between 160 and 190 proof - think "grain alcohol") flavored with natural or artificial flavors and which may or may not contain added sugar.

So it's of questionable lineage. :)
 
You can't hardly mess it up. As said above, keep things clean. Fermentation temps are important in that too warm and fast ferment will give you off flavors. Too cool is fine except that things will take a little longer. Transferring to a second vessel (or racking) will make your beer much more clear and professional looking in my experience. Your main enemies after primary fermentation are oxygen and light. Limit exposure to the best of your ability.

I am not a big fan of the citrus attributes of the wheat beers myself but have made a couple. Mostly ales and porters for me. Porter is a great breakfast tailgate beer.

Brewing is a lot of fun and a sickness if you get really into it.

Good luck brother. Drinking a beer you made yourself is very cool.
 
I haven't brewed in like 20+ years...I still have all my equipment. I might have to take it out and make some this fall. There used to be a place to buy ingredients on main st in Highland Park and one on Rt. 27 in Princeton. Any recommended places around New Bruns area?
 
RU_87 said:
I haven't brewed in like 20+ years...I still have all my equipment. I might have to take it out and make some this fall. There used to be a place to buy ingredients on main st in Highland Park and one on Rt. 27 in Princeton. Any recommended places around New Bruns area?
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I get my stuff from a place on rt33 in Freehold. Brewer's Apprentice. Pretty good place in Clifton too. Not sure out your way. Many online sellers of ingredients though. Like Midwest Brewing.
 
Been home brewing for quite some time and will echo what's already been stated...post boil is all about sanitizing, Starsan is the best IMHO, and fermentation temperature control.
Homebrewtalk.com is an outstanding resource

Cheers!
 
RU_87 said:
I haven't brewed in like 20+ years...I still have all my equipment. I might have to take it out and make some this fall. There used to be a place to buy ingredients on main st in Highland Park and one on Rt. 27 in Princeton. Any recommended places around New Bruns area?
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I would recommend Love2brew on Livingston Ave in North Brunswick. I would guess sanitizers like Starsan would make your brewing experience a lot easier than it was 20 yrs ago.
 
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RU4Real said:
Recognizing that I failed to address the question about "schnapps".

First of all, the TTB (BATF Tax & Trade Bureau, which regulates alcoholic beverage production in the United States as well as the import thereof) does not recognize "schnapps" as a category. Any product sold in the United States with the word "Shnapps" on the label is, technically, a "Distilled Spirits - Specialty".

That said, the more or less standard definition of schnapps is "any grain neutral spirit (spirit distilled from an all grain mash between 160 and 190 proof - think "grain alcohol") flavored with natural or artificial flavors and which may or may not contain added sugar.

So it's of questionable lineage. :)
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Good stuff, thanks. And for your efforts, I reward you with a photo of my German barmaid (or at least the best photo that a Googling of "German barmaid" turned up - fairly disappointing search, believe it or not)
divers-barmaid-img.jpg
 
Thanks. Having spent some time in Germany - and in German bars - I can tell you that there's probably a good reason why your Google search was disappointing.
 
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Haha, yeah, the big, butch 50-something beer barrel is definitely more common than the dough-eyed Hitler child with cans dirndl-squeezed to perfection.

But I'm an American, dammit, and it's my right to daydream about that wonderful stereotype.
 
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so my secondary ferment is a 6 gallon PVC pail with a spigot near the bottom. Once I pump it from the carboy into this do I bottle it right away? There is also a sugary mix I have to boil up.
 
I would use the PVC pail as the primary (first) fermenter and the glass carboy as the secondary, but that's just me. The theory being that the carboy is easier to sanitize and you can watch the degree to which the yeast and other impurities settle out, then rack when appropriate.
 
RUhappy69 said:
so my secondary ferment is a 6 gallon PVC pail with a spigot near the bottom. Once I pump it from the carboy into this do I bottle it right away? There is also a sugary mix I have to boil up.
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you don't have to secondary ferment but it will clear up the beer a little and supposed to keep it from absorbing the taste of the trub. if you secondary ferment, you don't need to add the priming sugar. you can add that before bottling. boil the sugar water (or boil up about 1/3 cup of dry malt extract with some water. Its supposed to give a better taste than the priming sugar).

BTW, anyone on here make a homebrew for tailgating?
 
Seriously there is zero reason to move a wit to a secondary. Let it sit in the primary for a couple of weeks then bottle that shit up. I'm guessing as your first brew you're not going all grain, probably doing extract, so there won't be any trub to speak of just settled yeast which you can easily leave behind when you move the beer to the bottling bucket. Btw If you stick with homebrewing you'll soon get sick of bottling and just keg it!
 
Brewing is fun. Sometimes you get excessive sediment in one or two bottles near the end of the bottling phase but always comes out delicious. Our KBS clone should be ready to roll for Sept 5
 
I also recommend Love2Brew for anyone trying to get started. Great staff, very knowledgable.

My old college group and I brewed for a couple years and still try to.

Try downloading the free trial of BrewMaster
works amazing if you know the details of brewing
 
My buddies and I have been brewing for a couple years. We hope to eventually develop our own recipes but for now we are just relying on what we find online, although we have started to experiment a little bit and change a few things here and there, and in doing so I think our two most recent beers have been our best.

At the start of the summer, we made a really nice lemon wheat beer that was great for hot days, and more recently we made a pickled jalapeno gose, using jalapenos, dill leaves, and pickling spices. I had no interest in brewing this, but my friend is a huge fan of pickles so he had been wanting to brew a pickle beer for a while. We didn't have high hopes, but I think this is one of my favorite beers we have made, and I'm not even that crazy about pickles or goses. We would have liked a little more heat from the jalapenos, but still I think the dill leaves and the saltiness of the gose style complement each other very well.
 
I'm gonna be honest with you guys Istarted out homebrewing as a hobby. It was fun. Got some great feedback. Quit my job. Now I try an sell people my creations on a weekly basis. Seems to be working for the most part. People like what I make but sometimes question why its not as cheap as Coors light.
 
Starsan is what I use for sanitization. I've never had a skunked beer. As they say "don't fear the foam" when you use it. It is a no rinse product. As long as you follow any online directions while brewing you should be good. I buy most of my ingredients from labelpeelers.com. They have great prices and if your into all grain brews they will mill the grains to whatever consistency you request. My best home brews have been Kolsch style or Stone IPA clone. The Stone IPA is surprisingly easy to make. I have 10 gallons of a Victory Prima Pils clone lagering at 45 degrees for three months now and after an acetyl rest will bottle in a week or two. I do extract and all grain recipes depending on how ambitious I feel. It is a very addictive hobby. Good luck.
 
Update: Bottles 2 weekends ago and finally tried yesterday during the game. I have to say I was shocked it came as good as it did for a first time lol. Even the wife said 'It's really good!' lol. Now I am hooked and thanks again for all the great advise!
 
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The sanitation comments cannot be over emphasized as all of your work can come to naught by screwing that up. The only regret I had when I was brewing was not getting a "pig" to hold the beer in the frig. instead of putting it all in bottles. A lot less work and you have draft beer right on hand. It's not like it will be around all that long anyway.
 
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