Home Brew

[ben410]

Anyone have any experience with making your own liqour at home? I need help. What do I do?

[ben410]

btw im not an alcoholic haha ... i did a science experiment in class and want to try it at home ... but make it taste good

[drewC.]

might want to try this thread http://skimonline.com/forum/showthread.php?t=24640

[ben410]

That's what made me think of the thread i just created

[sealice aka lone ranger]

no don't go there. we planned on making a separate brewing thread.

[ThatGuy]

Sit back and relax....wait for the sawyer bros. to answer all your questions.

[Jim Gordon]

We did get a beer making kit for Christmas......it turned out good. And just the other day we made some Kahlua, we used vodka, dark roast coffee, vanilla and some sugar. You cook it until it all mixed and let it set for 30 days......I couldn't wait so I'm drinking it right now.=P

[sealice aka lone ranger]

im assuming you cooked it a few hours ago?

[Jim Gordon]

im assuming you cooked it a few hours ago?

Yesterday.^

[beachbum]

I sometimes enjoy the smell of my own brew.

[sealice aka lone ranger]

Yesterday.^

lol

[Brave H]

I got my 2nd batch going since xmas, da first was quite tasty

[RickSawyer]

This thread is as good as any I suppose...


Not much going on during homebrew front other than we bottled our DIPA this weekend. Our first foray into hop extract and I am sold.

[robsawyer]

If I read the first question in this post - it appears that you are looking to brew - not distill - right?

I only ask because one is legal to do at home and the other is not - furthermore, one is easily done for a few hundred dollars while the other is a bit more expensive. If it is brewing to make beer that you are looking to do - then we can surely help.

Brewing or crafting beer is a relatively simple process (until you start studying the science behind it all - but that can wait). Beer tends to consist of 4 main ingredients:
1 - Grain (Barley, Wheat, Flaked Oats, and in the yellow fizzy beers - rice and corn) - The starches in grain breakdown during a boil to provide the yeast with fermentable simple sugars - remember, yeast eats sugar to create alcohol
2 - Hops - Hops act as a flavoring and preservative agent.
3 - Yeast - This is the living part of your beer. These little guys are a brewers best friend! As mentioned above - they break down the sugars from the grain into alcohol and CO2.
4 - Water - The media for the masterpiece.

Here is a super simple explanation of how brewing works - if you are brewing an extract recipe, skip to number 3:
1 - Mash - Mix grain and water at a predetermined temp (generally around 150 - 153* F) for a predetermined time (generally 60 min.) to start the chemical reactions that change the complex carbohydrates to simple sugars. This mixture will become your wort.

2 - Sparge - Drain the wort into a kettle using some type of filter to ensure that all grains and grain husks are removed from the water.

3 - Bring the wort (if all grain) or water (if brewing with extract) to a boil, add any extract that recipe may call for and boil for predetermined amount of time (generally 60 min.).

4 - Hop Additions - during the boil, you will add hops. The type of hops, amount of hops and timing of their addition is determined by the recipe and/or style you are brewing.

5 - Cool the boiled wort (you can't add yeast to hot wort and expect a strong fermentation)

6 - Transfer cooled wort into some type of fermentation vessel (carboy or fermenting bucket).

7 - Take a hydrometer reading (measures amount of sugar in a solution) and add yeast (if you want to sound like a pro you can say - pitch yeast). Be sure to write down your initial hydrometer reading (also referred to as your "starting gravity"). You will compare your starting gravity and your final gravity to determine the beers alcohol content (ABV).

8 - Allow fermentation to occur - leave the beer in an area that's not too hot or too cold (different yeast strains want different temps). Fermentation for an ale will generally take about 7 - 10 days.

9 - Take a hydrometer reading to determine if your beer has reached your expected final gravity - and if it has you will want to transfer it to a bottling bucket and prepare to bottle or keg (I am going to go through the bottling steps). Transferring the beer will remove it from the left over yeast (called the trub), and also help filter out any hops or other solids that you don't want in your beer.

10 - Once beer is transfered to bottling bucket - you will want to boil about a cup of water and add priming sugar until disolved - once disolved cool this solution down and add it to the beer. This sugar will remain in the beer after you bottle it - there will be some yeast still in the beer and the yeast will eat this sugar to carbonate the beer.

11 - Using tubing, fill bottles and cap.

12 - Let the bottles sit in a moderate temp environment (70*F or so) for a week or two for carbonation.

13 - After a week or two - open a bottle to see if beer is carbonated. If not - then let sit longer, if the beer is carbonated, then throw it in the fridge and enjoy. Some beers want more time to condition than others. If a beer tastes strange young - give it some time, it will probably come around after a few more weeks.

Here is a photo of me adding grain to my "Mash Tun". This is the vessel where grain is exposed to water to convert the starches to simple sugars.




Here are some good online resources for brewing

Awesome free website with tons of info on brewing
http://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html

Online Homebrew Stores
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/
http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewing
http://www.austinhomebrew.com/index.php?cPath=178

Homebrewing blogs and forums
http://www.themadfermentationist.com/
http://www.homebrewchatter.com/
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/