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Do You Homebrew?

Posted by Cliff on from the Alcohol-Lover's-Experiences dept.

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!"

3 of 84 comments (clear)

  1. Sure I do by heikkile · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Been brewing about a year now, some 20 batches. Some have turned out quite well, some I have dumped straight in the drain.

    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

  2. Try it - Don't worry by dgb2n · · Score: 5, Informative

    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).

  3. HomeBrew Digest by gizmo_mathboy · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.