Educate me on making beer :)

[silverdoctor]

Hope this is allowed. My great uncle made the best beer I ever tasted, but he took the recipe to the grave with him.


Buckets, carboys whatever - some kind of vessels. Glass or plastic? Matters or not?

Where does one buy hops and yeasts? What the good and bad?

Bottles - glass? Plastic? Do you stock up on beer bottles and buy new caps?

[recce43]

glass carboy get a good bottle washer .
and I don't mean a woman.
sterilize everything . clean is the answer to good beer .

[silverdoctor]

Originally Posted by recce43

glass carboy get a good bottle washer .
and I don't mean a woman.
sterilize everything . clean is the answer to good beer .

What's a good sterilizing agent? Bleach and water?

[Jeron Kahyar]

Well best beer is really a personal taste thing I think. But what better way to find that out than experimenting with making your own beer!

To start out brewing I would highly recommend the Brew in a Bag (biab) method. Saves a lot of hassle with sparging and whatnot. Don't bother with the cheep malt can kit things not worh it. Use either "Beer Smith or Wort" app to make recipes.

For equipment all you need is a large pot 7 gallons preferably but 6 will do. This will be your kettle for heating the water and mashing the grain. A Turkey burner works well for a heat source. After that you will need some siphon tubes to transfer your beer/wort. And a bucket to ferment in. To bottle you can save bottles and wash them or buy new (still have to was/sanitize them) and a bottle cap crimper.

Winning Wines Plus on 111ave just north of Southgate mall is my go to store in Edmonton.

Things that are really nice to have is a roller mill for the grain. I have crushed it with a rolling pin many times however. As well as a bottling wand, saves making a mess bottling. Old fridge to maintain temperature during fermentation and cold crash your beer.

I'm all out of home brews right now but have a couple batches that should be ready in 3 weeks if you want to try some send me a PM.

[Drashin]

Brewing beer can be very rewarding, I have not done any in a long time. Stop in at Estate Brewing in the West End of Edmonton, Kevin (I think that was his name) has amazing stock and supplies. You could do a simple starter kit that comes in a box that you just add yeast and wait to bottle or get right into mixing your hops and boiling it down. He sells all the supplies you need. Also check Kijiji under beer and wine making!

http://www.estatebrewing.ca/

[purgatory.sv]

From The Hip had some brewing information, and I do believe he brews good beer.


http://www.outdoorsmenforum.ca/showt...t=home+brewing

http://www.outdoorsmenforum.ca/showt...brewing&page=3

http://www.outdoorsmenforum.ca/showt...t=home+brewing

[Jeron Kahyar]

Originally Posted by silverdoctor

What's a good sterilizing agent? Bleach and water?

StarSan is what you want for making beer.

[Redfrog]

Can you grow your own hops or is that not feasible?

[crosman177]

Figure out how much of a set up you want to get into. Many different styles: extract, partial extract/mash and all grain. Keep eyes open on Kijiji. Pick up used grolsch bottles at the bottle depot.

Can Kit extract brewing is a fun start- lots of styles to try out and tons to alter. Than figure out what malt crystals you like and hops and yeast. If your truly thrifty you can recycle yeast up to 8 times.

Watch craigtube on YouTube.

[Jeron Kahyar]

Originally Posted by Redfrog

Can you grow your own hops or is that not feasible?

You can grow hops here yes. If you live in the city somebody may report you thinking you are growing Marijuana though. They look somewhat similar and both have a pungent odor to them. Also it will be at least a year from planting to get any hops. Best to leave them grow for a full two seasons before your first harvest. You can buy them from a few places online Northern Girl Hoops (https://www.windhover.ca I think has them).

[Mhunter51]

If you go down to the nearest beer/wine making outlet/store a lot of them offer free beer and wine making seminars. At the begining the canned beer kits are the way to go. There are so many brands, varieties that you will not get through all your options. The canned kits make some VERY good beer. There are lagers, pilsners, lights, malts and so many more. They have all the sanitizing products and that part is very important. Good luck.

[qwert]

Most simple DIY brewing does secondary fermentation in the final bottle,
this leaves a layer of sediment at the bottom of the bottle which requires careful pouring into a large glass or pitcher to avoid disturbing,
once you start pouring you do not stop until the sediment just reaches the mouth of the bottle.

Larger bottles result in less beer loss from pouring sediment. I do not know the best currently available bottles, we used quart sized bottles with new crown (crimped) caps. Many have good luck using (and re-using) screw top bottles of various kinds.
Chemically sterilize any bottles before first use then rinse well immediately after pouring and store inverted.

We just used a NEW clean plastic garbage can for primary fermentation, and set up a floating siphon for filling the bottles without disturbing the sediment.

People have made beer for eons, it is a pretty basic process, and much more forgiving than wine.
You do need a decent hygrometer to monitor the progress and constant temperature helps.

IMHE it is a LOT easier to make good tasting beer with moderate alcohol levels, 'high test' is certainly possible but requires more experience to do right. The temptation is to do too much secondary fermentation in the bottle and this can cause 'surprising' results.

Good Luck, YMMV.

[densa44]

As has been said CLEAN, CLEAN, CLEAN! You can get some of the yeast from a beer you like. For example Guiness stout is not filtered and there is live yeast in the bottle. Brink most of the beer, put some malt into the beer that remains in the bottle and voila you have Guiness or what ever brand yo are copying for your own purposes.

Be careful of the alcohol content, keep it low.

[silverdoctor]

Ok, so I got a couple of glass carboys today for dirt cheap. Maybe this weekend i'll swing over a pick up a couple of different kits to try.

Anyone have any suggestions on kits? Not a huge fan of Molson products, but anything else is fair game. I love a good stout, and yes, cream ales - although they go down like water.

[Canehdianman]

Google "Brew in a bag". Cheap way to go all-grain.

And a great way to make damn tasty beer.

[propliner]

Stouts are among the easiest to brew and usually turn out great.

My advice after doing this for a few years now is to try and get straight into all-grain brewing ASAP. It's the most genuine beer and won't have the weird kit taste. Plus, it's the cheapest once you have the equipment. Watch a few videos on youtube to get the gist of it.

The steps are:
-crack the malted barley. Some shops can do this for you and provide a bag of ready-to-go cracked grain. I use a grain mill. You'll usually need between 10-15 lbs of grain per 23litre batch.

- heat water and put most of it in your mash tun (usually a modified cooler), add your crushed grain and steep it for 60-90 minutes. Save some water for rinsing later.

-drain the wort off. This is the nectar of the gods that you will soon be fermenting. You'll need to rinse the grains at the end to extract it all. Some of your original hot water is saved for this purpose.

- boil your wort. Usually boil in a large pot for about an hour. During this boil is where you add the hops. Some at the beginning for bitterness and some at the end for aroma. Or anywhere in between. Experimenting is the key.

-cooling the wort. This must be done quickly and a wort chiller is the best tool. Check one out online. Usually a copper coil that you run cold water through.

-whip the cooled wort up in a plastic bucket (primary container) and add yeast. Let it sit with airlock on it for a couple weeks bubbling away and making some pretty nice dang beer.

-siphon into a carboy and let it sit a couple a weeks longer. This clarifies it.

- take a 3/4 cup of sugar and boil it in a bit of water and put it in your plastic bucket used earlier. Siphon your wort out of the carboy into it and mix it up gently. Keep mixing it as you siphon into bottles and cap them as you go. A cheap bottling tube is a must for this.

-this is the hard part. Wait a week or two for the beer to carbonate. Then drink up. This beer will easily last 2-3 years in the bottle and always gets better with age.

[silverdoctor]

Ok, so I may have some beer to drink by winter?

[propliner]

Originally Posted by silverdoctor

Ok, so I may have some beer to drink by winter?

It's a long process to that first batch being ready. Once you have some inventory, the there's always beer at the ready. I have 20 cases of pints ready to drink at any time now including 9 varieties. Patience is key when getting started but beer independence is a wonderful thing.

[ak-71]

Originally Posted by silverdoctor

Ok, so I may have some beer to drink by winter?

Takes about 6 weeks on average for simple ales (3 weeks fermenting + 3 weeks in the bottle), for sanitizer - StarSan, PBW - to wash carboy or bucket. I, personally don't ferment in 2 stages, I do 1 stage in the bucket to ferment (it seals good and I put a lock in the top in a hole).
I went to all grain almost from start, way more fun and not much harder. I have a very simple setup: mash tun made from a cooler, big pot (mine is a simple aluminum), propane burner and copper cooler, also made a magnetic stirrer for yeast (5$). But, of course, you can make the setup as advanced and expensive as you want.

[Canehdianman]

I've been brewing for about 2 years now.

Here are some tips (entirely my opinion to no take it for what it's worth):

1) Skip the extract kits. They have old extract and old yeast. It's pretty easy to go straight to a Brew in a Bag setup nowadays (google it). All-grain is much more fun and much more hands on.

2) sanitize, sanitize, sanitize. Buy some starsan and sanitize everything. You can almost always make good beer so long as you don't get infected. Don't bother with bleach, unless you want bleach-flavoured beer.

3) Kegging is vastly superior to bottling. God, I hated bottling. Much higher start-up cost though, as you need to build a keezer and buy kegs, but nothing beats coming home from work and pulling a pint right away.

4) water is 90% of your beer, so it's important. Get a water profile for your local water and find a water calculator that will tell you what you need to add to it to get the proper mash ph and mineral content. I use http://www.brewersfriend.com/. I also keep lactic acid, Calcium Sulfate (Gypsum) and Calcium Chloride on hand as those are the additions I need 99% of the time. If you are on well water, you might need to buy RO water and build it up with additions.

Feel free to PM if you have any other questions!

[Mhunter51]

The can/extract kits ALL have expire dates on them so as long as one can read they are not old. Made beer from canned kits for 15 years and not one old, outdated yeast yet. Much more consistant than trying on your own hops, grain etc

[Canehdianman]

Originally Posted by Mhunter51

The can/extract kits ALL have expire dates on them so as long as one can read they are not old. Made beer from canned kits for 15 years and not one old, outdated yeast yet. Much more consistant than trying on your own hops, grain etc

haha yeah, that's why I said it's my opinion. My experience has been more or less the exact opposite of yours.

I tried about a half dozen beer kits 10-15 years ago. Had one decent batch come out of it, but compared to the quality of beer I am making now, even it was terrible.

I now make beer straight from grain. Will never go back. With the ease of a BIAB method, I don't see any reason to point a newbie at extract.

[Au revoir, Gopher]

Originally Posted by silverdoctor

What's a good sterilizing agent? Bleach and water?

Sterile is as unnecessary as it is unlikely. You just need clean. I use TSP and a bit of bleach (a tablespoon of TSP and a teaspoon of bleach in 25l of water) to clean things. Wash once, rinse twice... no bleach flavour.

I like the E.Z.Cap bottles. Best tip I can give you is rinse the bottles well after you empty them and store the empties upside down, it will save you a ton of time when you go to wash them.

ARG

[Unregistered user]

Originally Posted by Redfrog

Can you grow your own hops or is that not feasible?

I do, bought my rhizomes here http://freshops.com/ they ship to Canada no probs.

[Unregistered user]

Beer should be very drinkable within a month but an extra couple weeks aging won't hurt either.

[silverdoctor]

Think I'll try a kit just to get my feet wet. Thanks all

[Jeron Kahyar]

Originally Posted by Canehdianman

haha yeah, that's why I said it's my opinion. My experience has been more or less the exact opposite of yours.

I now make beer straight from grain. Will never go back. With the ease of a BIAB method, I don't see any reason to point a newbie at extract.

My experience with the extract kits are on par with yours. I tried a few years back and had simply given up for a long time since they never made anything worth while.

I now do biab all grain method. Fast simple easy and makes great beer. In my opinion skip the kits and go straight to all grain. Most home brew shops will let you use their grain mill if you buy grain there so you don't need to invest in one right out of the gate (have even crushed it with a rolling ping before).

Everybody's milage seems to differ on this however.

[Au revoir, Gopher]

Originally Posted by silverdoctor

Think I'll try a kit just to get my feet wet. Thanks all

You might find the body of the kit beers is light. That is because you add sugar (it will ferment to add alcohol but adds nothing to the body) to make up the wort. You can use a product like Muntons' Spraymalt to replace some of the sugar and add some body to your kit beer. This way you can play with the recipe and not have to go all out on the all grain method.

It is all good fun. You just need to find the correct level of obsession for you.

ARG

[propliner]

Yes, brew-in-a-bag is by far the easiest and makes great beer. The reason is because you're simply starting with pre-made wort. It's a little more expensive than other methods but us still waaaay cheaper than buying beer from the store, and is still tax-free. And did I say its easy?

[qwert]

Originally Posted by propliner

snip
but beer independence is a wonderful thing.

beer, (and all other kinds of) independence is a wonderful thing.

As I said in the first thread, think of it as 're-loading' or 'hand-loading',
and enjoy the 'load development'.

Good Luck, YMMV.