January 09, 2005
Brown Ale beer next up!
Another productive day of brewing, trying batch number 2 before the
first one is even done fermenting. Debbie is excited about this one,
it should be her kind of beer! I've had several requests for a
nut-brown type so I hope this one fits the bill.. I also used some
grain (and extract) this time, so it's a slightly more advanced
recipe. This one is supposed to be ready fast, we'll see I guess.
I bought a couple pieces of equipment, a funnel & blow-off tube, for
fermenting in the glass carboy this time. Pretty easy, but messy to
get the beer in there even with the funnel!
Here's a couple shots of beermaking:
SWEEET JEBUS! that's friggin Awesome...I so want to try beer brewing...let me know how it turns out...and how involved the whole process was
Posted by: Timmeh at January 9, 2005 11:33 AMI'll let you know how it turns out, I've got my fingers firmly crossed. =)
It's not too involved actually, there's a couple of tricks to know to make things easier but it's a lot like cooking.. just make sure things are clean and sanitized before sticking them in the beer! Took me probably 3 hours for the first batch to get it started fermenting, then it's probably a few hours job to do the bottling. Then weeks to drink the 5Gal of beer..!
Posted by: Brett at January 10, 2005 10:58 AMWeeks...awww...we were hopin' for weekend-long-drinking-vomiting-drinking-vomiting-hello-hospital-raging-keg-party...juuuust kidding
In all seriousness though, about how much did it cost to get all the necessary items (like that giant glass bottle, and all the stuff you didnt' have...hops, yeast...etc)...this beer-brewing intrigues me...
Posted by: Timmeh at January 10, 2005 02:15 PMWell... Letsee. About $100 for a brewing kit with just about everything, and about $20 for the stuff to make the beer. I'm starting to get a little more equipment which costs a little.. but only a few dollars at a time fortunately. Spend some time reading Papazian's book if you're interested.. "The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing" by Charlie Papazian is pretty much the bible!
Posted by: Brett at January 10, 2005 05:59 PMThat's not too bad at all, for some reason, I had it in my mind that it'd cost a bit more initially...where'd you find the brewing kit? locally, online, or from a friend somewhere...and what inspired you to give it a try?
Posted by: timmeh at January 11, 2005 11:06 PMOk...i'm stupid, and somehow missed the entire post about where you got it, and the whole new years resolution...
anyway, what inspired the resolution?
Posted by: timmeh at January 11, 2005 11:08 PMUmm, beer is good? Actually I have a friend who is into homebrewing, I've had a couple of his beers and they are darn good. He strongly advocated trying it myself since I'm becoming a bit of a beer snob and it might be fun, I agreed. Besides it's cheaper, 5Gal of beer for $20 and some work (and some equipment).
Mostly, though, I thought it would be fun! So far so good...
Posted by: Brett at January 12, 2005 09:54 AMNice...
I was just wondering if you'd been wanting to do it for a while and hadn't gotten around to it, or if it was just a spur of the moment type of thing...
and yes, I'm all for cheaper, and better beer (the two cannot be independent though...like you, I am somewhat of a beer snob =)
anyway...keep us posted, and enjoy the gallons of tastiness...
Posted by: Timmeh at January 13, 2005 09:38 AMIt was a combination of both, I had known about it for years but wasn't interested since I could buy such good beer around here.. but a friend prodded me into it and showed how easy it is and I was hooked pretty quickly. Then one day I went nuts and got all the stuff and brewed that day.
It isn't very hard to make good beer, or so I'm told. I know I've had a few bottles of my friend's homebrew which was really good, equivalent or better than any bought beers I've had.
I'll keep you posted.
Posted by: Brett at January 13, 2005 10:35 AM