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Do You Homebrew?
Fiscus asks: "Alcohol is a part of most peoples lives, and I'm sure many Slashdot readers rely on a couple of 'cleansing ales' as the week draws to an end. While most of us drink alcohol, not many decide to start brewing their own - now is your chance! And if you already homebrew, a new forum has been setup to speak with fellow brewers. Homebrewing can open up a whole variety of benefits; brew your favourite beer, experiment, make rocket fuel, as well as impressing friends. The new forum, is Australian based, however everyone is welcome and I would love to see some Slashdot readers down there sharing advise/tips/recipes for the christmas homebrewing season! Happy Homebrewing!"
my housemates tried to make 2 different batches of beer a few years ago, but both times it just didn't turn out good whatsoever. it was theoretically drinkable, or, as our friend put it, 'fit for the funnel'. terrible stuff.
depending on the laws in your area, there might be places where you can pay someone to brew the beer for you, so you still get it cheap, but without the work.
just an idea..
when the rain comes, they run and hide their heads. they might as well be dead.
Im under age, you insenitive clod.
How about a site for amature chemists and pharmacologists? Alcohol isn't quite the superdrug a lot of people imagine it to be.
We were experimenting with som moonshine, we got about 47% alcohol, and after filtering through some special coal, it was very fine.
Slick looking forums.
Way to go!
Beer is an Aussie thing. The Powerhouse Museum (Sydney, Australia) has had a game in one of it's many discrete corners where you must successfully brew a batch of beer. At the end of the game, if you got the mix correct, the guy swallows your drink and says "Well done son!" (or something similar :)), or he spits it out and tells you you screwed up!
Anyway, from the age of 6 I've been a few times and my dad was the first to show me how to get the ingredients in the recipe correct. Beer is made and drunk all around the world, but it is such an integral part of aussie culture. I love it here.
...if you "look like an Arab".
One second you're home-brewin', the next, you're in Camp X-Ray trying to explain why that rocket-fuel-makin' thingy in your basement isn't a rocket-fuel-makin' thingy...
There are only a few things that can go wrong. Infections, which can be avoided by keeping things clean and sanitizing everything; and exploding bottles, which can be avoided by long enough fermentation (or by kegging the stuff).
As to economy, it is pretty hard to compete with the cheapest commercial breweries (at least here in Denmark), but who wants to make that kind of stuff anyway. Making good quality beer is certanly cheaper than buying the imported stuff. And most of all, you get to choose what kind of beer you want to have, down to the last detail. There is lots of room for tweaking and hacking...
In Murphy We Turst
Since this is ask Slashdot, just what is your question?
No I mean it, what is the question that warrants this being on ask Slashdot?
Have the editors given up entirely on even trying to make ads blend in with the stories now?
Wax-Museum Fire Results In Hundreds Of New Danny DeVito Statues
At least try to mix computers, algos and empty casings with your stuff to make it sound like it.
"Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you." -Nim Chimpsky
i was researching distilling my own whiskey. it doesn't look too hard. it won't taste great, but supposedly a crockpot w/holein lid, copper pipe, and recepticle makes a cheap still, especially if you get it at goodwill. distilling your own liquor is illegal in the US, as we tax the hell out of it, or at least used to. i'm under 21 and don't check the local prices of liquor that often.
why is it that stills in the old days used to blow up? you see this happen in an episode of the simpsons, but they don't explain why. otherwise i'd have set up my own distillery in my dorm by now...
moox. for a new generation.
I've been homebrewing for nearly 10 years now. Although the homebrewing fad has passed, there's still some folks out there seriously dedicated to the art.
rec.crafts.homebrewing is a great place to visit to ask questions once you've got the basics down. Brewing beer is not really all that complicated with the quality ingredients available today.
A few tips:
1. Sanitize - You must sterilize anything that touches the beer after its done boiling. Don't go crazy on this just wash your hands and arms and keep some weak bleach solution handy.
2. Ferment Cool - For ales, anything over 68-70F is too warm. Basements work great for this and constant temperatures are important.
3. Don't Worry - 9 times out of 10, whatever you're worrying about won't affect your beer.
4. Wait - Homebrew less than 1-2 months old is almost never (some styles excepted) as tasty as it will be later.
5. Moderate - Both in recipe's and drinking. If you're shooting for a high alchohol beer to get you drunk faster, it will probably be nasty. Same goes for hops. Keep it in the moderate range (20-35 HBU's for your first beer)
Get some good equipment and try it. If you're spending $200 on a video card, you can afford $150 on a good setup that includes a wort chiller and a nice big pot to boil.
You'll never want to go back to commercial brew again (those living in many places in Europe can ignore the last sentence).
A long running forum is The HomeBrew Digest. There's only about 14 years worth in the archives.
You may also want to try: nntp://rec.crafts.brewing
It's been awhile since I read that newsgroup but it was also useful for me.
I have been brewing my own beer for close to 20 years, and I'm a computer geek, so I feel qualified to comment on this thread.
There are a lot of similarities between DIY beer and DIY computers. Making beer offers many opportunities for fabricating equipment (to enable more advanced brewing methods), writing software (to help calculate recipies), surfing the 'net (for recipies, supplies, advice, etc), and the list goes. And as with Linux, there's a single individual (Charlie Papazian) who is very influencial in shaping the direction of the field.
The Internet and it's predecessors have played an important role in the homebrewing community. As other posts have mentioned, the Homebrew Digest and rec.crafts.brewing are two long running forums for discussing homebrewing information. It's neat that several important advances in homebrewing (and commercial brewing) were first introduced, and refined, through discussions on these two forums. Beer making is definitely a field, like computers, where the home experimenter can make a difference.
I should also put in a plug for the American Homebrewers Association, which dispite it's name it a worldwide organization that promotes homebrewing.
Relax, don't worry, and have a homebrew!
For the first timer, even beer can be a little complex. However, there is nothing more simple than mead.
Take 17 gallons of honey, toss it into a carboy. Add water to fill up carboy to neck. Add wine or sherry yeast. Come back in a year.
Its almost that simple. Ok, you could boil the mixture if you wanted, that tends to make it smoother and clearer faster. And add fruits or spices if you desire. And of course rack it every few months. But other than that...
Btw, for those of you who like to read the manual for these sort of things before diving into it, I cannot recomend enough Charles Papazian's great book 'The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing'. It probably is one of the most important books that started the recent fad, and its well worth getting.
First, I wonder why this is in "Ask Slashdot" - It's more of an announcement, it belongs in the general category (heck, belongs front-page). Still, I'm glad it made it to Slashdot in whatever form. :)
So far, I've brewed one very small (1 gallon) and one "normal" 5 gallon homebrew batch.
I got lucky - Both batches are drinkable. Not the best, but drinkable, and I know exactly how to fix the problems. (Too much priming sugar in the second batch, it's overcarbonated, tastes much better if you let it sit for a while and lose some of the excess carbonation. Yes, I've had 1-2 bottles go boom in storage.) Both batches were primarily fermented with bakers' yeast, which is normally a no-no, but the kits I made these with weren't exactly fresh...
That said - If at first you don't succeed, try and try again. Most people consider it to be extremely good luck if your first 1-2 batches are drinkable, but you learn from your mistakes. I fully intend to brew myself a weizen of some form when I finish drinking through my current batch. (I'm not a big drinker, so a batch of 48 bottles lasts quite some time)
The process can be fun, and it's very rewarding when you get something drinkable, and after a few tries, better than what you can buy in the store. (Even my "weird" batch is still far better than the likes of Coors, Bud, etc.)
Economy-wise - You will probably save money, as long as you don't compare prices to the economy beers like Coors, Bud, etc. You might be spending a bit more, but after a few tries, there is no comparison as far as quality - Homebrew is much better. (Competing with microbreweries is a different story - Most of them are VERY skilled, but they also tend to be quite expensive.)
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
The beers I have made that I didn't LOVE were due to experimentation. I brewed a dead-on Hefeweizen that I couldn't stand. I ended up giving it all away to Hefeweizen lovers who all told me how great it was. Turns out I don't like any wheat beers. Another I made that was questionable was a very high-alcohol Russian Imperial Stout. Each bottle had a 1/3 lb of malt in it, it tasted like licorice and coffee but was very drinkable after it had aged. Most people did not like this beer however.
The biggest piece of advice I can give you is to get a good homebrew shop and be very loyal to them. Take their advice and ask them questions. If you are in the U.S., in the northeast there is a great shop in Monroe Connecticut called Maltose Express. They have never once steered me wrong... no I am not an employee, just a gracious customer of many years.
Which brings me to another point. The beer you make will only be as good as the recipe you use. DO NOT use the recipes off of the can of malt extract, if you do, I can guarantee that your beer will suck. Do not use recipes off the internet unless you validate them with an experienced brewer. Your best bet for recipes is a quality recipe book (Try Clonebrews or Beer Captured by Mark and Tess Szamatulski, owners of Maltose Express) or your homebrew shop.
As far as process goes:
Use liquid yeast, either Wyest smack packs or tube yeast, or yeast you cultivate yourself. Those packets of dry yeast are very hit-or-miss. Your beer is only as good as the quality of your yeast.
Be paranoid about sanitation. Get a quality chemical sanitizer (I currently use C-brite but there are others) and use that on anything that the beer will touch once, tools, hoses, containers, bottles, etc.
Use a two-step fermentation. Your primary fermentation will be VERY active over the first four to seven days. Once the majority of the yeast have settled out of the beer, rack it to a secondary fermenter, and complete the fermentation there. Getting the beer off of the 1-2" of yeast that will cake up of the bottom of the primary will give your beer a cleaner taste.
If you are bottling your beer (as opposed to kegging it), use malt as priming sugar instead of Corn sugar. It will take a little longer to condition, but I find that, depending on the style, malt will usually give a better head to your beer.
Enjoy!
..for doing alco @ home.
first of all, i do this because it's cheaper than buying vodka, rum or whiskey. i live in finland so a 0.7l whiskey bottle is easily 26-30$(scotch blended).
however a nice batch of homewine(that produces about 17liters of drinkable wine) costs about 20$.
that whiskey bottle lasts for 1 night of partying, whilst that wine lasts couple of days more. this is a serious issue during finnish univ. student partying season, around first of may.
why i prefer 'quick' (2 or 7 days versions(!)) of home wine? it's _easier_ to get it right, to get a nice alcohol % (~13% usually) and to get it taste drinkable too. and it's quite fun too.(if you think it's impossible to make 13% wine in 2 days, do some research)
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Maybe I'm just showing my age, but when I see the word "homebrew" on what's mostly a computer-hobbyist site, I think homebrew electronics and stuff, you know, like building radios and oscillators and things with blinky lights (cf. old Heathkit catalogs, the 1970s Homebrew Computer Club et al). Instead it's just someone looking for beermaking pen-pals.
Are Slashdotters becoming Civilized? Beer is after all the root of civilization.
Since we're doing ads, I have a forum that's dying for participation:
Brew-Masters.com
Thanks, slashdot. Next time, I'll post my free ad request as 'news' since the news I submit never gets posted.
The opposite of progress is congress
Since we're doing ads, I have a forum that's dying for participation:
Brew-Masters.com
Thanks, slashdot. Next time, I'll post my free ad request as 'news' since the news I submit never gets posted.
The opposite of progress is congress
your entirely too uptight! have a beer before posting your drivel on /. again.
I have great faith in fools; My friends call it self-confidence. Edgar Allan Poe 1809-1845
Your too uptight. kick back and have decent micro brew before posting your "this isn't /. material" drivel
I have great faith in fools; My friends call it self-confidence. Edgar Allan Poe 1809-1845
It's not beer, but immigrant settlers of the old west would plant apple trees everywhere both as food and drink. They would also put fermented cider outside in winter and take off the ice that formed on top leaving a very hard drink. See last (before last?) month's Smithsonian magazine.
We've had batches we didn't particularly care for and couldn't rescue so I built a still to harvest the EtOH. Just as a proof of concept mind you. Although I don't see why the BATF fusses with moonshiners. I know a bunch of hillbillies went blind. Actually I had access to GC/MS and found the methanol content to be trace at most. In fact I found more methanol in diet soda.
My favorite? I think it was the batch of Mead that took a year to ferment. So much time to allow things to go wrong but turned out perfect.
I've hit Karma 50 and gotten a Score:5, Troll... I win!
When I was in college, some guys tried to brew a vat of beer in our common area. The RA confiscated it and then wrote them up. I'll never forget -- one of the guys was stoned and all he had to say was "Duuude. This is so weak. We're getting busted for intent to ferment."
When violence rules the world outside / And the headlines make me want to cry / It's not the time to just keep quiet
For those of us in the US...
:)
Homebrewing is a major hobby. There are thousands of home brewing clubs around the nation. It's legal in most (but not all) states.
My friend and I have done about 35 5 gallon batches and 6 or so 15 gallon batches. About 90% "successful" about 5% dissapointing and tha couple that were hard to drink, but we did anyway. You cannot "save money" by brewing at home if a buzz is all you're looking for, but you can make great beer for less than buying quality beer at the store if an appretiation for the beverage itself is your goal.
I was going to post some links to the American Homebrewer Association and others places here in a truly karma whoring way, but a simpler way of getting information is to just type "Homebrew" into google. You'll get thousands of hits. Homebrewing is one of those huge subcultures that no one knows exists.
If you are interested, find a brewstore or a brewclub in your area and check it out. Like all hobbies, prepare to start small and cheap, but have your expenses grow as you get into it
Contrary to popular belief, coding is not all free blow-jobs and beer. Those things cost MONEY!
Yep i brew beer my top tips would be:
- sterilise everything with gusto (or sterilising power)
- after about a weeks fermentation (when its stopped bubbling) syphon it into a barrel and leave it there for at least a month. it will taste much better than the 2 weeks it usually says on the tin.
- a couple of days before you crack it open make sure its where it needs to be for the drinking thereof and let some of the gas out (unless you are brewing lager - yuck). This preparation ensures the sediment has settled after transit from the shed (and the gas expulsion), and it hasnt got a head the size of Belgium.
I also make wine.
'But wine is less macho.'
'Aha, but its completely free.'
'Free, you say? Explain.'
Well, at the moment im brewing a blended wine of blackberry and elderberry (the British grape). I picked them from the side of the road over a warm summers weekend during a pleasant bike ride. It has cost me a packet of yeast (40p) and a bag of sugar (69p). I reckon ive got about 8 bottles (i got tired of picking).
Hurray for alcohol, bringer of blissfull inattention
I've made several batches of mead and wine. But the thing is, I improvised and fermented in 1-gal polyethylene plastic milk jugs. 1-gal batches are fine for my studio apt., but the oxygen ingress of the plastic meant fermentation was boring. The wines were all watery and weak. I'll have to try again.
and it turned out pretty damn good. not perfect, but highly drinkable and super hoppy. yum.
i highly recommend it as a hobby-- there is something very rewarding about drinking beer you created, and the great thing about the hobby is that for n00bs its a relatively simple operation, but for those really into it, it gets rather technical and involved.
beer is good. homebrew is better.
Do You Homegrow?
(cue feds bustin' into taco's server room and raping his
Have you tried drinking beer with the smoke of your cigarrette? (1 glass is enough and very cheap :))))
Rwe obliged 2 save our future by choosing:O3 hole-greenhouse effect instead of accepting everydays gossip-nonsense chat?
I went to that site, and I liked the graphic design.
Rwe obliged 2 save our future by choosing:O3 hole-greenhouse effect instead of accepting everydays gossip-nonsense chat?
Some people find Guinness WAY too bitter, even if they like darker (Stouts/porters) beers. (I'm one of these people) - My favorite beers are all stouts and porters, but I can't stand Guinness. It's just not that good of a stout...
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?