Home brew: do you?

[Elmorton]

I just saw someone mention home brew in a BWW thread, so I was wondering how many PSers are brewing their own beer?

My parents gave DH a Mr. Beer kit for Xmas, and we just tasted the first batch this week - way, way better than I expected! A few of my friends'' mates are really into this and told me that the Mr. Beer is sortof like the kid riding a bike with training wheels on, and considering how much DH has been talking about what all sorts of things he''s been finding online, I have a feeling that this is a hobby he''s probably going to get more into as time goes on. I think the whole phenomena/popularity is kinda interesting because it''s a "guy" thing, but every man I know who is doing home brew has a woman helping him out - I just don''t hear women chatting about it.

So, tell me about your home brewing experiences. How did you start out? What have you progressed to? What are your tips?

 

[cnspotts]

I homebrew!!!

I''ve been doing it since the early ''90s. I also used to make mead.

A friend of mine (guy) started doing it and I''d hang out to watch. It smelled so good. After a couple of batches I started making it myself. Eventually I was brewing quite a bit, thankfully there were lots of people around to drink it then (entire Squadron). I started with a giant pot on the stove then moved to the "afterburner" like gas thingy outside (picture the turkey fryer). It went much quicker then. For awhile I bottled but that gets to be a pain so I graduated to kegging using soda kegs. We had a dedicated "beer" fridge (old round top from the 50''s) very cool. It all started with "kits" that my local brewery guy would put together for me based on "flavors" but after awhile I started experimenting with grain brewing. That''s my favorite! I love to mix up flavors and see what happens especially since my preference is dark beer.

Last Christmas I got hubbs a "kit" from the local homebrew supplier, he thought he''d like to give it a try. As it turns out he just wants to drink it. Currently I''ve got 5 gallons ready to tap.

Yumm Yumm. I''ll probably brew up some more for next month''s Full Moon party I''m having.

 

[elrohwen]

We've done it once and have a second kit waiting around to do it again. I have to say that the first batch was excellent, but it only lasted for a few months before it started to taste less fresh. Bottled beer doesn't taste as fresh right away, but seems to last longer. But that was only one time, so maybe next time it will keep for longer. And even when it tasted less fresh, it was still good! Just not any better than anything we could've bought in a bottle. I don't think we'll ever get into it enough to move beyond kits, but you never know!

I have friends who are home brew fanatics (well, mostly the husband is) and I love going to parties because he always shows up with something new and different for us to try.

Oh, and I saw that post in BWW about using beer as favors. I don't know why we didn't think of that! We're going to do personalized beer glasses that people can use to drink our favorite beer we're having brought in (in kegs) and then can take home at the end of the night. We're kind of obsessed with beer

And as for tips, my biggest tip is to buy new bottles at a brewing store. We have tons in our garage and tried cleaning them out, but the bottoms get moldy pretty easily (even though we rinse them before putting them in the garage) and it took forever to get enough cleaned out. If we had started with clean bottles, it would've just been a few minutes of sterilization and rinsing instead of hours of scrubbing. And when you use the bottles for the first time and drink the beer, I recommend putting them in the dishwasher before you put them away. That'll keep mold from showing up while you're storing them. Cleaning bottles is by far the most time consuming and frustrating part, but it doesn't have to be.