yep, used to brew my own beer. Probably will again sometime soon. My best advice is to make sure the bottles and equipment you use are sanitized properly. Use a dishwasher on them first, then use an iodine solution to finish the job. If you don't do this, you end up with nasty tasting stuff. Not that I would know first hand about that... ;) Also, patience is a virtue. Let the wort and yeast fully mature, don't get impatient and bottle early.
It really is fun - stick with ales at first, they are a bit easier to get good results with and can be brewed at higher temps. They are also less sensitive to fluctuations in temperature than are lagers.
In NC, every late summer, early autumn, these delicious clear elixir's would show up in Mason Jars. Some were berry, peach, or uh,...I can't remember, but it made people talk funny, and do some strange things..
::)
Funny you should ask! I used to be a Brewmaster at a brewery! Mac!
Takes about 3-4 weeks start to finish. You can go crazy with hygrometers and stuff, but I just use a 6-gallon food grade plastic bucket with a fitted lid and an airlock. It will bubble right along for about 10 days and when it slows to one burp in 10 to 20 minutes, it's about 24 hours away from bottling. Add some dextrose or cane sugar to each bottle, fill and cap, then wait another 10-14 days before chilling and enjoying. There will be a bit of residue in the bottom of the bottle, so pour in one motion and stop just before the sediment exits the bottle. You will get a beer that's about 10% alcohol or better if you have carefully followed the steps. If you have any questions, or just want to pick my brain a bit, give an IM or an email and I will happily share all I have learned. Good luck and enjoy.
Crusader
CR and Fatman or right on the money!
I would just add, use ONLY brown bottles! You don't want "skunky" beer!
Any one here know if you can home brew "nonalcohol beer" and how to do it?
For those times when you're dying for a beer but don't want to get bogged down, you can make a beer that is low in alcohol but high on flavor. You don't even need any fancy equipment. Just a large pot (like your brew kettle) and a way to heat it (like your oven).
You can turn any beer you make into a non-alcoholic brew. You say you can't find a non-alcoholic stout? Then just whip up a batch of your favorite stout and convert all of it, or just part of it, to a non-alcoholic version. It just takes a few simple, extra steps.
You are in control of the amount of alcohol left in your beer. The basic idea is to brew a batch of you favorite beer, heat it after fermentation to drive off the alcohol, then pitch fresh yeast and prime for bottling. The resulting beer isn't really completely alcohol free, but it can be very low in alcohol content.
The temperature and duration of the heat applied to drive off the alcohol will be one factor in determining how much alcohol is left in your beer.
The other factor is the amount of priming sugar used to carbonate the beer. If you use 1/2 to 3/4 cup of priming sugar, it will contribute less than 0.25 percent alcohol to the beer. If you strive to remove virtually all the alcohol, the alcohol content of your finished brew will surely be less than one percent and most likely will be around 0.5 percent.
This from http://www.brewcraft.com/recipies/lowalcohol.htm (http://www.brewcraft.com/recipies/lowalcohol.htm)Can't add an additional word. Go for it.
Yeah,Phil. I regularly make my own brew. Here are a couple of examples of my recent work. First one is an Oz-type lager. Second is similar to Newcastle Nutbrown Ale. Both were quite good.
Sorry I can't invite you in for a taste, but Haz will confirm the drinkability. You can get everything you need right there in Oz. Check www.coopers.com.au and makebeer.net for all the information. Sanitation is key--I use household chlorine bleach and rinse everything well after soaking. Wear rubber gloves for this part as chlorine is not good for hide. If tap water is off tasting, use bottled because every fault will be magnified in the beer.
Takes about 3-4 weeks start to finish. You can go crazy with hygrometers and stuff, but I just use a 6-gallon food grade plastic bucket with a fitted lid and an airlock. It will bubble right along for about 10 days and when it slows to one burp in 10 to 20 minutes, it's about 24 hours away from bottling. Add some dextrose or cane sugar to each bottle, fill and cap, then wait another 10-14 days before chilling and enjoying. There will be a bit of residue in the bottom of the bottle, so pour in one motion and stop just before the sediment exits the bottle. You will get a beer that's about 10% alcohol or better if you have carefully followed the steps. If you have any questions, or just want to pick my brain a bit, give an IM or an email and I will happily share all I have learned. Good luck and enjoy.
Crusader
Crusader and everyone else Ta for the help
Crusader I am planning on getting the Coopers kit also Coopers Pale Ale is my Favourite beer :)
we also have Brewcraft here as well I might have to check them out
Crusader and everyone else Ta for the help
Aren't them thar Ausies friendly guys ;D Every time someone helps them out they offer us tits and ass ;)
Aren't them thar Ausies friendly guys ;D Every time someone helps them out they offer us tits and ass ;)
Just bottled 2 and 1/2 cases! ;D
That will last, oh about 1 bbq...
it takes them 5 mins to light the grill?
I can get a full stack of chunk charcoal ready to go in 5 mins with a charcoal chimney.
We're talking Haz, Deepwater, and Crusader Rabbit, TOGETHER.
2 1/2 cases should get them through Lighting the grill ;D
it takes them 5 mins to light the grill?
I can get a full stack of chunk charcoal ready to go in 5 mins with a charcoal chimney.
You all realise thats just the colour of the water in Adelaide, he hasnt added anything yet. :o
Here's a "hoppy" recipe
http://www.beaglesunlimited.com/beaglinginfo_hare-rabbitrecipes.htm
Here's a "hoppy" recipe
http://www.beaglesunlimited.com/beaglinginfo_hare-rabbitrecipes.htm
For the 8yrs. that I ran a microbrewery in Ohio, this was my bible.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Papazian
He encourages you to alter recipes and find your own tastes. Good book to find alternatives to the worlds commercial beers.
Joy of Brewing, Copyright 1976, Log Boom Brewing, Boulder Coloradohmmm wonder if that is a coincident
GG's GB Recipe 11/1/2009
1 x Morgans Ginger Beer Kit
1 x 500g Fresh ginger
1 x 250g DARK Brown Sugar
1 x 1kg dextrose
1 x 750ml Buderum Ginger Refresher Cordial
1 x fresh chilli (sliced thinly with the seeds in)
~600ml Sweet Vermouth
~600ml Sweet Sherry
~30ml Lochan Ora
Grated the ginger and soaked in a bowl with equal parts of Sweet Sherry, Sweet Vermouth & Lochan Ora for 24 hours. Combined the GB kit, brown sugar, dex and refresher cordial in 3L boiling water in the fermenter and stirred, then added the grated ginger soak (alcohol & all), added the sliced chilli and topped up to 23L. SG 1.048. Let the fermenter stand overnight while the yeast starter worked its treat, and pitched the following morning. FG 22/1/2008 – 0.996 Alc/Vol : 7.0%
I like this because it is overloaded with ginger bite. It had a real fortified complexity when I tried the first bottle of this brew two weeks after bottling, which has since faded into the background more progressively as the brew has aged. It still has a real kick to it though. I drank 2 1/2 longnecks of this GB with Vietnamese on Thursday night, and while it started to get heavy going towards the end it was a good accompaniment to the noodle soups we had. It would also go a treat with a sweet chilli stirfry IMHO.
I used the following recipe as the basis for my GB. It was posted in another thread, and I didn't make a note of who put this on AHB, but it also seems like a tops recipe...
My Ginger Beer recipe has taken me a while to get good and i love gingery bite!!
Its a K&K tho so i hope its ok to post it here...
1 x Coopers Ginger Beer (or morgans but i cant taste the difference just the price)
1 x 500g Fresh ginger
1 x 250g DARK Brown Sugar
1 x 800g Raw Sugar (or dex or brewing sugar)
1 x 250g Buderum Ginger Honey
1 x 50g powdered ginger
2 x Whole cloves
4 x birds eye chillies (sliced thinly, i personally keep the seeds in)
Boil up around 3litres of water
Add in the honey, chillies
boil for 15minutes
then add the fresh and powdered ginger
boil for 15minutes
about now its smelling really tastey
add the brown sugar and the cloves
boil for 15minutes
remove from heat (i usally cover the pot with clingwrap to prevent anything unwanted getting in) let cool while preparing the fermenter
I guess the order i add things in is abit random... but it seems to work
Make the kit up as normal from here
usually ferment for around 2 weeks, bottle for around 6 weeks, but do taste one bottle at 3 weeks the ginger kick is sooooo strong! it mellows out to a nice hit at 6 weeks, by 3 months its lost most its taste imho.