Just curious if anyone else homebrews beer? I have been doing it for about 10 months now and find it to be a great hobby with good rewards. ;) Not really a great way to save money on beer, but most of my batches so far have been better then the majority of store bought beer, making it well worth the effort.

 

My brother did that for a while. Pretty tasty. Strongass ____ too. One stein and you pretty much shouldn't be driving...

 

I have been doing it for 2 years now.

Just took 1st, 2nd and 3rd place at the Del Mar Fair (I refuse to call it SD County Fair).

I won a label design contest as well.

My motto: If I want a Sam Adams (for example), I am going to buy it, not brew it. I take lots of chances and have gotten wonderful comments from local breweries (Stone, Ballast Point, AleSmith, Pizza Port...)

Some of my more exotic brews:

Chocolate Vanilla Coffee Imperial Stout Aged on Whisky (Jameson of course) Soaked Oak

Fennegreek Sweet Stout

Lavender and Black Pepper Amber Ale

Wormwood IPA



Dont limit yourself to brewing beer that "fits" into a certain style. Take a chance...you just might blow your mind.

 

I have a Chai Mead that has been aging for 1.5 years. Clocks in at 21%. One 7oz bottle is a chalenge to get through, believe me.

 

FYI - I find hops the most expensive part of brewing since I LOVE IPA's. A great source of hops is:

http://www.hopsdirect.com/hops/buyleafhops.html

I was paying $3.99 for 2 ounces at my local homebrew store. $4.68 buys you 1lb (!!!) of hops. And their pounds usually weigh between 22 and 30 ounces! Store them in the freezer or fridge and they have an EASY 6 month shelf life.

Best deal out there if you are a hop lover like myself.

 

I frequent Tastybrew.com and a bunch of guys on there swear by hopsdirect as well.. and have mentioned that they definitely go over the weight you order. I will have to try them out.

Sounds like you are making some pretty cool brews heathen. So far most of mine have been on the tamer side, couple IPAs. I made an Amarillo Red with 7oz of amarillo hops that is outstanding. Was seriously going to send in bottles to the Sam Adam's contest, but in the end, I couldn't bear giving up 4 bottles. LOL My most out there creation is an apple honey ale. Has 5lbs of honey, 1lb brown sugar, 2 gallons fresh cider and then the usual beer ingredients. Been in a fermenter going on 5-6 months now. Coming in at 14.5%ABV and is slowly starting to taste like it may be drinkable. Planning to let it age another 3 or 4 months before even considering bottling.

Tonight I am hoping to bottle a batch of hefeweizen and a belgian style ale. The hefe tasted great when I sampled it, the belgian wasn't quite what I was hoping for. Still good, just not exactly what I had in mind.

And I just gotta say.. you suck.. living with easy access to all those breweries. The best around me is 3 Floyd's, so I can't complain too much.

 

Amarillo is some good stuff. I hate to give away my secret, but have you tried using Simcoe yet? It is (IMO) the BEST hop out there. The '3 C's' are fine, but these new strains are where its at if you really want to set yourself apart from the herd.

It is not easy replicating the Belgian style. Good luck on the hefe.

Well, you are really going to hate me after this.

Both Stone and PP host beer festivals. PP has the best though, 4 times a year (an ale fest, real ale, strong ale (nothing under 9%...must get a local hotel), and my personal fav, a Belgian ale fest. The Belgian has over 40 different Belgian beers represented, with a few decent ones from the States.

Speaking of Belgium…..

I traveled to Belgium last year. First off, I was able to do some lateral tasting of Chimay at the Kulminator (a bar that has a beer menu the size of a phone book!!)…a bottle from 1973, 1983 and 1993. WOW! The '73 was presented to our table, still covered with 30+ years of dust. The '73 had some earthy, mushroomy undertones. VERY interesting!! The '83 was superb, with earthy, organic matter notes, but still with that chimay zip. Tasting the 3 back to back was worth the vacation by it self.

But..

There are Trappist beers (Westmalle, Westverlatten are some of the better ones IMO) that run about $6 - $10 for an 11.2 oz bottle here in the states IF you can even find them. I was able to try all the Westmalles at ~ 99 euro cents each!! That’s about $1.30USD. The most expensive Westverlaten was 5 euro, but it was the ultra-rare '12' - actually not legal to sell, even in Belgium. Impossible to buy here in the states unless you know someone who does beer acquisitions.

Are you feeling the hate yet?

I visited a few breweries also (Chimay, Straffe Hendrick and Cantillion). While in Brugge, I met a local (Lander) who introduced me the the head brewer/owner(?) of Cantillon who was visiting him at the time. He even had a few bottles of some 'private reserve' he brought down from Brussels with him. He was kind enough to share them with us. These were very special beers (lambics actually), one of them 20 years old. The normal sour/tartness of the style was quite tame in comparison to young lambics, but the Brettamyces bacteria did some mind blowing things to it. I still struggle to descibe the taste correctly, but a wooden, wool/spice/wet tobacco (but in a good way)…..I don’t know….so hard to put my finger on the flavor. Special does not even begin to descibe the experience.

Ok….now the hatred will come out…

Cantillon brewer (I was unable to remember his name) let me take a streak (microbiology term) of the yeast on an agar plate, and when I got home I was able to isolate a single yeat colony and use THAT to inoculate my own lambic which I made when I got home. Not only that, but I brought back a few bottles each from Westmalle and Westverlatten back to the states with me, and was also able to culture some of the yeast from the Westmalle…..for some reason, I got no colonies from the Westverlatten. My guess is the high alcohol content (11.8%) mutated the yeast and killed them off after bottle carbonation.

:::ducks incoming bullets:::



A Belgian beer fact:

-Over 300 different beers, and ALL are served in their very own unique glass to compliment the nose and flavor of the beer. If a bar has only 1 glass (as is the case with the more exotic styles) and someone else is already using it, they will NOT serve you the beer since it would not nbe in the proper glass. They have much respect for the beer, even more respect than the most snobbish wine snob here in the states. All this from a country about the size of Maryland.

 

I don't even know how to respond to that. Just WOW... that sounds amazing!

I went to Europe in 2000 with my dad right before I got married. Spent a few days in Berlin, then 2 nights in Brussels, and finally a night in London before we headed back home. Anyway, the day in Brussels was pretty eye opening to say the least. I don't remember names of the places we went, but the first bar had a beer list that hit 350 varieties. That was the second smallest selection of any of the bars we went to. One place said they had 1100 beers available, and was tiny. Had 2 small tables on the sidewalk in front of the place, and the interior had a bar that could accommadate maybe 10 people comfortably. A few small tables inside, and that was it, but had 1100 beers available... Most of the beer was stored in the cellar, and the bartender would have to open a trap door in the middle of the bar and go down to get what you ordered. Very cool place. We drank some bottles of lambic that came out to about $0.60 / bottle at one little bar by the train station. Lambic that is much better then what you can generally find around here in the States. All in all a fantastic trip, with a great time at the biergartens around Berlin.

But that just doesn't even come near your trip, now does it.

Do the breweries over there have daily tours, or did you have to know someone? I would love to go back to Belgium, and if I knew then what I know now, I would have re-organized our trip to be a little more focused on Belgium. I had been to Europe before, but I hadn't been that exposed to the Belgian beer styles. Now I could see spending 2 weeks in Belgium alone. Truly the Disneyland of beer.

I do love how they serve beer in specific glasses. And it really isn't just Belgium, most of Germany is like that as well. You don't just get a generic pint glass (don't even get me started on that abomination) like over here. Germany specifically, the beers are served in a glass with the logo of the beer you ordered on it, right up to a marking denoting the quantity you are getting. I believe it is a law over there that the glass have the fill mark on them, something that should happen over here. Nothing agravates me more then to order a beer at a bar here and get a pint glass with about 3/4" of head and realize I lost about 4oz or so from the pint. Total scam.

Anyway, that is truly awesome that you got to bring some yeast home. Where I work we have a yeast specialist, he does experimental research on yeast and I couldn't tell you much more then that. To the point, I was talking to him one day and found out he is also a homebrewer. I had asked him where I could buy an ehrlen-meyer flask to make a starter, explained why I wanted one, and he jokingly said he would be insulted if I didn't have him make the starter. Then he proceeds to show me a collection of about 25 test tubes of various strains of brewers yeast in his refrigerator. All labeled from which beer they were originally from. I already had a smack pack of wYeast, so I brought it in to him, and he streaked it, selected the healthiest looking colony, and then plated it. A few days later he presents me a 1L flask filled to the 750mL line with slurry from my yeast. He tells me the flask is a growler for yeast, and to bring it in anytime I want it refilled. I have had him do this for me twice now and the difference in start up time after pitching his cultured yeast is amazing. Very cool guy to know.

Simcoe.. I have heard good things and want to try it. Do you know any professional brands that use it, something I could maybe find in a store to try out? Of course I am sure there is a bunch available near you that don't make it my way. I have been planning to make another batch of my amarillo red, but I may try the same recipe with different hops. I am kicking myself because a month ago on Tastybrew someone was talking about a new variety of hops available that he described as a super amarillo, but for the life of me I can't remember what they were called. Higher AAU then amarillo, but similar flavor characteristics. So I was originally going to try that in my red recipe, but now I think I will try the simcoe. I just need to clear out some fermenters and get a free weekend.

btw, do you extract brew or all-grain? I am extract with grains personally. I don't have the equipment for all grain, and right now with a 2 year old don't have the time.

 

Thanks! It was an experience of a lifetime, of which I hope to have many more.
Ahh…a fellow traveler. I find it the most rewarding experience in my life. My eyes have been opened, my tolerance for other viewpoints has increased….traveling has soooooooo much to offer everyone. I URGE everyone to try it, at least once. It has become my newest hobby and passion.

I am off to Czech (Home of the original Budweiser, Budvar!), Poland and Ukraine (or maybe Hungary or Romania….I don’t like to over plan when I travel and I wing a lot as well) in about 30 days for almost a month. Beer wont be quite as good, but at under $1.00 per liter, I wont be complaining! Besides beer (and Scions of course), architecture is another interest, so I have enough memory for 1300 pics. I hope its enough.



Yes, it stays in better shape since it doesn’t have to travel across the pond.
Are not the bars/pubs there just fantastic? The atmosphere, the age/history. I LOVE the trap door reference. I do remember seeing that just once while over there. And I loved the music. All of the strictly pubs (as opposed to clubs and diskotechs) had classical music in the background, so many interesting, intelligent conversations were had as compared to back home.

I disagree. The fact you made it over there speaks volumes as to your mindset. Love to here it!

All the brewery (except Chimay) tours were simply me walking up to the brewery and getting in on the tour. At Straffe Hendrick, I did have to wait about an hour, so I bought a bottle of beer from them, and spent that time outside on a canal with some cheese, bread, and a lovely local girl. She told me how the swans were brought into Brugge from a past king, and the legend has it that as long as they remain in the city, Brugge will remain prosperous. Unfortunately, the populations have declined in recent years. Maybe a harbinger of things to come?

Yes, I spent 10 days there (5 of which in Brugge…a beautiful, beautiful town, straight out of the middle ages) and regret not spending more time there. Oh well, I now have a reason to got back…..as if I really needed one! I still am in contact with Lander and he wants to let me stay at his place and take me to every brewery in Belgium, Germany and The Netherlands. I hope one day to be able to take him up on that offer.
If you can ONLY see one town, I would recommend Brugge, then Antwerp (has The Kulminator…maybe the best bar in the world) or Ghent.

WORD!

It was hard for me to readjust as well. And the CHOCOLATE!!!! I have lost my palate for American chocolate. I can no longer have a Hersheys or M & M. It is like comparing a Budweiser to a Chimay!

Nice! I love the scientific side of brewing. Yes, starters are a MUST IMO. My usual starter is 2 liters to a 5 gal batch. Also pitching on the lees from a previous batch (from the primary fermented) really speeds up the lag time. My record on hearing that "glug, glug" in the overflow container was 35 minutes!


I do not know of any professional breweries that use it, mainly because it is such a new variety, and the acreage is too limited for commercial scale use of it. It is a VERY high AAU (I think 15 - 18%), but VERY neutral and CLEAN in flavor, with no resiny undertones (but I do love those undertones!)

I have not made a batch for a while because the weather is rarely below 80, at that is at midnight! I don’t want to hang out near 5 gal. of boiling liquid. I am looking forward to my next batch…a jaggery (Indian palm sugar) amber ale. Not that it matters much since I love to brew more than drink, so I have about 8 cases of past beers in my "cellar" (not really a cellar, but it is as close as I can come).

I too stick with the extract plus grains. I do boil all 5 gal though. It takes enough time as it is, with clean up and all, and I don’t really want to make it into an 8+ hour event. I have come close a few times to making the switch, but lack of storage space and time has kept me away. I enjoy brewing and don’t want to turn it into anymore of a chore.

A big starter, some additional sugar (I know I know, but it improves attenuation and is not as evil as the books make it sound when used in moderation….stay away from the heavily processed or white sugar though) and fresh extract will keep that "extract twang" away.

 

I was fortunate to travel literally all over the world with my parents. The most exotic place was South Africa, then Zimbabwe and Zambia for a month. Unfortunately I was fairly young, around 13 years old, but it was an amazing trip. We met local people there that invited us to stay with them while we were in Cape Town, then brought us to a large BBQ with many of their friends. Just something you would never see happen in this country. Sad to say, I have heard nothing but horror stories about how that country has become crime ridden and dangerous.

Before that trip I was taken for a month long trip to Europe. We spent about 2 weeks touring England, Scotland, Wales,and Ireland. Then went over to the mainland. This was during the Cold War, 1985. We went to East and West Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and I am sure I am missing a few off the top of my head. It was amazing to see the the difference between the West and the Soviet Bloc countries. An example of how bad the Soviet side was, while we were in Poland, we went to a restaurant for dinner. We were handed a menu that was about 5 pages long filled with many items, but everything we tried to order, they didn't have. In fact, the only thing they did have was chicken and french fries. The chicken looked like it was probably slaughtered shortly after hatching. Got to see the Berlin Wall still standing from both sides. The West side completely covered in grafiti, the East side protected by a 'no-mans' land and guard towers.

I got back to Europe in 1991, and once again we went to Germany, and to see the difference in Berlin was amazing. Still a few places where the Wall was standing, but mostly gone. You could still tell a difference between East and West, one side being vibrant, the other more industrial. We then went Yugoslavia and many of the Mediterranean countries. Yugoslavia was just starting down the path to civil war, with Croatia and Slovenia squaring off at that time. We stopped at an outdoor market selling all manner of things and my dad bought me a camoflage cap that had a patch on the front that said "Cro Army". 2 days later, we got stopped at a checkpoint by Slovenian army guards. I was wearing the hat and getting very dirty looks while they told my dad that it would not be safe for us to go to Sarejevo. Instead we altered our plans and travelled the coast of the Mediterranean and stayed in amazing cities. I wish I could remember the name, but one city had a colleseum style stadium from when the area was part of the Roman empire that was fully intact. I have never been to Rome to see the famous Colleseum, but I can't imagine being more impressed with this one that was still fully standing. I often wonder if it is still there. I remember reading an article years ago how ancient Roman architecture was being destroyed in the war there, and I hope that wasn't one of them.

Anyway, that is the long way of saying I totally agree with you. Travelling is the only way to really understand how the rest of the world lives. I have been to every state in the US with the lone exception being Hawaii. I don't know how many people I have talked to that down a city like New York but have never been there. My parents grew up in New Jersey, most of relatives live that way, so I spent much time there visiting throughout the years. But I have at least 3 friends who have never been and tell me they hate New York City because of the crime, the this and the that. Ignorant, and nothing I can say will change their minds.

When you go to Czech, you should definitely go to Pilsn. I mean no self respecting fan of beer should pass up the opportunity to go to the birthplace of pilsner style beer. If things are remotely the same as when I went, you should be able to get a pretty good meal at the Pilsner Urquel brewery, along with a nice fresh beer of course. Also while you are in that area, there is a castle somewhere in either Poland or Czech, I unfortunately don't remember now, that is a must see. It was built into the side of a mountain right in front of a very large cave opening. The cave opening is so large as to be seen on either side of the castle. Anyway, the story is it was the home of a rogue similar almost to a Robin Hood. I don't remember how the full story went, but the cool thing is you could go into the castle, and they had tours of the cavern behind it. Inside the cavern they had this little pool of water they had constructed and in that was a bunch of eyeless amphibians, which that cave was the only place known for them to exist in the world. The cavern itself was very cool, there was a railed path we travelled along, but on the other side of the railing, the path dropped off and you could literally not see the bottom.

LOL this was a thread about homebrewing right? I did brew all grain with a buddy of mine who works for Great Lakes Brewing in Cleveland. All I can say is I am not motivated to do it on my own yet. What takes me about 3-4 hours from start to finish took the two of us 6 or so, and that included some help from his wife. Many more places for something to go wrong, and in all honesty, my beer tasted better then his, and he said the same. Actually his quote went "Your extract beer is better then my all grain beer". Kind of hard to give a response to that considering he went to school for brewing at UC Davis, works at a well respected brewery in this part of the country, and I was only on my 3rd batch of beer at the time.

I definitely would like to try making a batch of beer and timing it right that I could put it right on the previous batch's yeast cake. Unfortunately I either am making something that is using a different yeast, or the timing is all off. I have saved the yeast cake and re-used it, and that made for a very vigorous fermentation. ;)

Think I will stop now.. before the carpal tunnel sets in. LOL

 

Home what???

Wow, sounds like you saw some cool things in your life....Im jealous now!

Pilsn sounds fun! I will probably check that out since I was planning on going to Warsaw, but since the city took a BIG hit in WWII, I might be skipping it. Also it is so far up North. But who knows. Like I said, I fly by the seat of my pants...one of the many benefits of solo travel.

Hmm...it sounds like Prague castle. Even if it is not, I plan on hitting up as many castles as I can, and I understand that E. Europe has some of the best. I do know that Prague's Castle is the largest in the world.

And eyeless amphibians too! Another one of my hobbies.....well, reptiles are anyway.

It has been a pleasure having this talk with you! And I am right there with you on the carpal tunnel statement. Those are the two longest posts I think I have ever typed!

Cheers Friend!

 

I searched around and finally found info on that castle. It is in Slovenia, so if you are heading that way, I would definitely recommend it as a stop on your voyage!

http://www.showcaves.com/english/si/...redjamska.html

This one is hard to read but gives the history of it. But this part I found the most interesting part:

"There is a well known romantic story of the robber knight (baron) at the end of the 15th century - Erasmus who took refuge in unaccessable cavecastle resisting openly his besiegers for one year. According to the story the besieged knight received his necessary food through the secret passage linking the Castle with the Vipava valley. Erasmus met his death only after having been betrayed by someone in his service."

http://www.slovenia.no/StdSide/St_PredJamskiGrad.htm

Unfortunately that write up doesn't mention the eyeless amphibians, so who knows if they are still there.

Can't remember a more enjoyable discourse on an internet forum. Have a great weekend!

 

I think I've found my new favorite thread on this forum!!! I am a huge beer fan and in the past year have been learning everything I can about beers. Im still very new to the experience but willing to learn anything. I couldnt be more jealous of some of the beer tastings mentioned in this thread. I go to as many local breweries as possibl and am going to start brewing with a friend of mine who has been trying his hand at it for a few months now. He made a really strong mead that was a little intense for my personal tastes but still a finely crafted mead overall...

Beer is fun...

 

Nice...glad you enjoyed the talk (type?) as much as I. Enjoy your weekend as well!

Holy s***! That is one HOT looking castle. Looks like it is growing out of the rock!!

Slovenia is right next door...and I have a friend there!....Hmm....looking better and better by the minute.

Going to have to do some reading in my travel book over the next day or two.

 

FYI - Lots of great reviews here:

http://beeradvocate.com/

and articles on educating your palate:

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/101/

 

Yeah that seems like a sweet website. I will have to read it some more to see what I can find on there...

 

Hey PeruzziScion, if you start really getting into homebrewing, go sign up on the Tastybrew.com forums. Some very knowledgeable and friendly people there that will share their experiences and give advice to any questions you have.

Heathen, I just started hitting up beeradvocate a few weeks ago. Great site overall, although I find the search a bit clunky. Very unforgiving if you don't know the spelling of a brewer, which can be a challenge in the case of many imports.