Anyone brew their own beer?

If so, I’ve got a pretty good stout recipe that’s a mod. from one of Northern Brewer’s Kits.

Joel

‘ell I don’t even drink my own beer. It’s mostly Tucks!

I made their lightest dark beer…English something or other.

It turned out pretty good as penetrating oil the second time I made it.

What did you do to it Joel?

I haven’t gotten to all grain brewing yet, but the kits I use all seem to turn out VERY good… The wine kits also taste extremely good.

On tap right now – German Alt, Bravarian wheat, coriander wheat, cologn kolsh, homemade “champagne” (yup, on tap), the best tasting root beer ever, and cream soda.

Mike

Pass it along, I was going to make some this summer. Thanks,
B

Forgot… Should have used this icon…

One of the kit wine recipes I have going right now is a Stag’s Leap Merlot… The bottled version of Stag’s Leap Merlot in stores goes for $32 per bottle… Pretty sweet to make 30 bottles of the stuff at well under $5 per bottle.

Brian:

I just played with their standard sweet stout recipe a bit. I found a dark beer that’s useful in weaning friends off of the see-thru stuff, yet still tasty to guys that are beer snobs.

Here’s inventory:

Specialty Grains

* 0.25 lbs. Dingemans Debitter Black
* 0.25 lbs. Simpson’s Chocolate
* 0.50 lbs. Flaked Oats
* 0.25 lbs. Simpson’s Roasted Barley

Fermentables

* 6 lbs. Amber Malt Syrup
* 1 lbs. Lactose

Boil Additions

* 1 oz. Willamette (60 min)

If you choose dry yeast

* Danstar Nottingham Ale Yeast. Optimum temperature: 57-70° F.

If you choose liquid yeast

* Wyeast #1028 London Ale Yeast. Optimum temperature: 60-72° F.

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I haven’t gotten to all grain brewing yet, but the kits I use all seem to turn out VERY good… The wine kits also taste extremely good.

On tap right now – German Alt, Bravarian wheat, coriander wheat, cologn kolsh, homemade “champagne” (yup, on tap), the best tasting root beer ever, and cream soda.

Mike

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Very cool. With your experience, you could probably tweak the yeast strains on this to make it turn out even better. It’s not perfect, but it’s still great. I’m impressed with Northern Brewer. For a kit, the stuff is incredible, and they have a great selection.

Bottled – Honey Nut Brown Ale
Bottled – Sweet Stout Mod.
Secondary – Witbier
Primary – Cream Ale

Joel

Fot those that do brew, I grow a nice crop of Cascade hops every year for the taking, just ask for a six pack or two in return. I’ve heard they are great hops from those that have taken them, keep me in mind this fall.

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Fot those that do brew, I grow a nice crop of Cascade hops every year for the taking, just ask for a six pack or two in return. I’ve heard they are great hops from those that have taken them, keep me in mind this fall.

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Grow hops. Give hops to people. People come back and give you beer.

Flippin’ GENIOUS!

Not including the starter kit, what do you guys figure it costs per 12 ounce beer?? I’m a see through beer drinker as you put it to compare with.

Minus the initial equiptment costs, you mean??

Pretty cheap, really. You have some cleaning solution cost(very inexpensive per brew) and your ingredient cost. Bottles are free (Think of them as bonus gifts after drinking a case of bottled beer — Twist off bottles won’t work)

Extract kits can be had for about $22-$35 per kit (Depending on various factors including liquid or dry yeast, etc…) My kits generally average about $27 bucks per kit. Midwest brew supplies out of the cities has about the best kits I have found, and they do an excellent job helping beginners. http://midwestsupplies.com/ ..Extremely fresh, and they will give you free “how to make beer/wine” DVD with any order.

Full grain brewing is slightly more involved and will take a little extra time, but you can really tweak recipes and make whatever you want. It is also cheaper to whole grain brew… Cost will depend on how big of a bulk you get your grain in, (I guess??) but I would think a lot of guys whole grain brew for about half the cost of my kits??. Generally for me, kits work well because my time is generally limited and almost all the kits I have made have been as good or better than anything I can buy in a specialty beer store. Although I did just have a Belgian Tripel and some Delerium Tremens last weekend, and that was pretty darn good. Watch out, though, at 8.5%!

For kit beer, you can complete the brew process in under 2 hours, but might want to give yourself 3 hours to not be rushed, and make the wife happy with a good clean-up afterwards.

A kit will make 5 gallons of beer. I keg (I don’t bottle) which is easier, but adds initial cost for kegging equipment, which can be considerable if you want it to be, depending on the equipment you choose. (I have 2 kegerators, one with 3 taps and one with 2 double tower taps (4 faucets))– But it can be cheap-ish if you get a free used fridge/freezer, depending on your dispensing equiptment and CO2 usage.

Anyway, for under $30, I make 5 gallons of beer. If you bottle, the only extra cost per batch is a tiny bit of cleaning solution. 5 gallons will make about 2.5 cases of 12 oz bottles. Considering When I buy beer (I fall into the “beer snob” category), I usually buy beer that costs at least a buck per 12 oz beer… Microbrews that are $6-8 per six pack… So at $1+ per beer, thats about $60+ per 5 gallons. So I cut my beer costs about in half, even after you add in cleaning solution and CO2 for my kegerator. If you find a deal on a 30 pack of “clear beer” Keystone light or Blatz or something, you might be able to buy 60 beers for $30…. But thats just peeing a lot for the same cost, not really drinking beer… For my money and my tastes, homebrew is “friggin awesome”

Its a very cool conversation piece, and most all of the beer making equipment can be used for making wine — Most of my beer I share while “entertaining” and we give a lot of wine away as gifts, which people generally love. My kegs can also be transported and dispensed picnic tap stle at a party, bbq, (or ice fishing weeken )

Wine can be made either from a kit or from scratch. Beer is easy to make, wine is super easy… Time for aging is the hard part, but sometime aging makes all the difference. And many of the kits out there taste phenominal.

You can get a GREAT wine kit for $80-$100 bucks, plus or minus… This will make 30 bottles of wine (6 gallons). $3 per bottle of wine, that when compared to store wine would run you $10-$20 per bottle, easy. Like I mentioned in an earlier post, I made a Stag’s Leap Merlot that goes for $32 per bottle in the stores, all for around $4 per bottle. I also have a Reisling, Guwurstraminer, pino gris, and dolcetto aging right now, along with some homemade cranberry, cran-apple, strawberry, and elderbery.. The sauvingon blanc and verdelo were very good last year.. oh ya, and the “champagne” on tap, which turned out really good. Plus you can make one HECK of a homeade rootbeer with the Gnome extract kits… Just make sure to use “Raw sugar” not the refined stuff. Best rootbeer you’ll ever have!!

I’d be glad to answer any more q’s for people just getting into homebrewing or kegging… But I don’t full-grain brew, so I would defer to others regarding that.

Long story short, yup, you can brew better tasting beer cheaper than can be bought in the store.

Mike

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Not including the starter kit, what do you guys figure it costs per 12 ounce beer?? I’m a see through beer drinker as you put it to compare with.

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Kooty:

I’m of the opinion that it’s really worth it for the guys that enjoy some of the more expensive beers, and not necessarily as cost effective for the guys that like the american mass-produced lagers (bud, coors, etc.).

That doesn’t mean it’s not fun and/or rewarding. A guy gets pretty proud of his creations if you know what I mean! Not to mention, I totally agree with whittsend in that you can brew better beer for cheaper!!!

At the same time, if an exact replication of that stuff is what you’re after, you’d have to do it for more than cost savings because I think they’d be minimal at best. Lagering adds another layer of complexity in that you have to typically cold-ferment it at a small temperature window, which requires a higher end fridge thermostat.

You have to figure in your startup costs too, for me with nice stuff and multiple fermenters was around $150, but you can get away with $50-$75.

Time for me is the biggest obstacle. It’s 3 hours to brew a batch and cleanup/put-away, then figure up to an hour each for transfer to secondary fermenter and bottling. That’s 5 hours and $20-$30 tied up in two cases. If you’re paying a buck a beer, that’s cheap.

For me, I can brew better beer for cheaper, depending on what I value my time at. If you go all-grain, there’s quite a bit more time involved, but costs go down. I do it also because it’s fun and rewarding.

Joel

For those people who drink a lot of mass produced American beers like busch light, miller lite, coors, budweiser, etc, there a lot of beers that you can brew that will sort of be “in-between beers” – They will have more flavor and character than the mass produced stuff, but also will not be too heavy or too bitter to turn people off. There are a lot of the “middle of the road” beers that quite fankly taste excellent, and might help you to realize what you are missing , and break the clear-beer habit. Some examples of kits that Midwest supplies offers that have excellent flavor but aren’t overly dark – bavarian wheat, hank’s hefeweisen, excelsior altbier, flat tire, and dry rye roggenbier. I have made these a number of times, and they always turn out great.

I happen to love a good oatmeal stout, but I know its not for everyone. (Although, even many of the “dark” beers aren’t what people generally expect… And most clear-beer drinkers that try some of my darker beers usually like them very much. — but maybe thats just because they are free….?? )

Thanks for the recipe jnelson. That brew sounds good. I may give it a try one of these days.

Thanks guys. Midwest is only a short drive from my office. I’m gonna head over there next week. I’ve been interested in this, but never have taken the plunge. My problem will be time. Never enough of it around our house.

Plus I got a snosuit I gotta pay for before investing in this stuff. Love reading your passion about this though!!

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Midwest is only a short drive from my office.

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OOOOOHHHH, lucky bass-turd. Midwest is great with help, has very good prices, ships very fast, and a great free instructional DVD… Ask them for that when you go, it will give you a very good (step by step) idea of what to expect. As far as expense, you could brew you first batch for under $100. You might even have some of the equiptment at home. Good luck!!
Mike

My neighbor has a bunch of stuff. He never bottled though. He claimed it was always flat. So he put it in the keg. I’m gonna have to give it a shot. I’ll go get the DVD next week.

Kegging can get expensive (setup costs mainly), but it is waaaay easier and less time consuming. No bottles to clean, sanitize, fill and carbonate. (Remember, one batch will require the cleaning/sanitizing of over 50 bottles)

Only maintenance costs of kegging are CO2 and electricity, basically.