My wife and I were out driving in the city (St. Paul) yesterday afternoon (before the 10.5 in. of snow fell) and drove by a place that sells all the stuff a guy needs to brew his own beer.

Do any of you guys do this and how does it really turn out? They have a nice set up for about $365 that allows one to make a finished product, and, if the directions are followed, it is supposed to be pretty good. Cost per batch (about 5 gallons) is around $25. With experience one can then experiment and get away from the prepackaged kits. What do you guys think?

I have never done it myself, but I work with a couple different guys who do this for personal use. I have watched the process and it looks like fun. The rewards are pretty good too! Funny that you posted this here at TC. The owner of this site is a Brewmaster by trade! Al will probably chime in on this one :thumbsup:
Dano

I have brewed my own for about 10 years. Check out www.northernbrewer.com (http://www.northernbrewer.com), they have everything you need. Their nut brown ale is probably one of the best kits to start with. Bottling is kind of a pain in the ass, but its kindof fun making labels. Beer has a shelf life of 90 days or less (like thats a problem).

Here's the first label:
http://www.valleydentalsupply.com/bobf2/smokindo.jpg

Here's a link to one that is a bit riske to post here.
http://www.valleydentalsupply.com/bobf2/xxxpale.gif

Have fun,
Bob

I used to brew beer for a while and really enjoyed it.
One thing that is most important is that everything in the area of brewing has to be absolutely sterile, including the equipment. My Wife loved how clean I had to have the kitchen, but the smell of the boiling mixture (wort) was awful. If you introduce rogue bacteria (that is what yeast is) into the wort before fermentation it will ruin the batch or add some funny flavors. I even used to keg it into some of the old 5-gallon stainless steel soda fountain syrup tanks. Kegging was much easier than bottling and was great for a party.
After awhile I figured out that I was better off just buying a nice micro-brewed beer. When you make it in 5 gallon batches you tend to drink more and the alcohol content was pretty high at 5-7%, my waist grew some too.
IPAs are some of my favorites, there are plenty of recipes to be found.
It is very rewarding to know how to make a good beer!
If you read into my screen name you can figure out how I came up with it.
Brew (Home Brewing) Hog (Harley’s) 55 (year born & my other car)

I tried it with an old-world (as in the first instruction in the recipe is to harvest the barley) Polish recipe once and it turned out ok. I just had a tough time finding hops for some reason.

The home brewing trade has really grown in the past 10 years. I'd encourage you to find a local homebrew club if any exist in your area.

I've never made it at home, my batches are over 10,000 gallons at a time. I've done some small ones, 4000 gal or so, specialty brews. Brewhog is right, cleanliness is a key factor. Nothing will grow in beer that can seriously harm you, but it can sure taste nasty. Temperatures and times are also a concern for a quality brew.
I just checked my bookmarks and these two are listed.
http://brewery.org/brewery/Library.html
http://www.brewingtechniques.com
http://www.alabev.com/glossary.htm

It can be a lot of fun and those who get hooked are always working towards perfecting the "next" batch, even if the amounts are pretty large for some of them. :)

Cheers! Al

:beers: I've got one of those Mr. Beer brewing kits. I've mave 5 or 6 batches and they have all turned out great. I gave kits to my mom and dad and my sister this past Christmas. They're all making beer and enjoying it. The stuff has good flavor and it only about $50 for the kit. :beers:

I don't have a kit and I am not interested in brewing, however, if anyone needs a taste tester, call me.

We organize a group of close friends several times a year to brew our own in Sacramento at Brew-It-Up!.
( http://www.brewitup.com/personal_brewery.htm )
We brew several types each trip and split up the cases so each gets a variety of beers to enjoy at home.
My favorities are Dare Devil Red, Holiday Red, Belgian Dubbel/Trippel, Irish Amber, Tradewinds IPA and of course "Eliminator" Dopple... (guess where that came from... ;) )
It's a fun time spent with friends as we select the grains, sample beers, mill the grains, sample beers, brew the wort, sample beers, select the yeasts, sample beers, chill the wort, sample beers and then come back after the beer has aged to sample beers, bottle & cap and sample beers...
Oh - Did I mention how you get to sample all kinds of beers while your "working" ??? :D
Might make a fun outing for local Camaro folks...

Only three (3) more days until the "Guinness" holiday... :beers:

I used to do quite a bit.
Even to creating my own recipes.
Basic secrets
1/Clean and sterilised
2/use tall rather than wide brewing container and as large as possible....60 litters.
3/leave in brewing container as long as possible, even up to 3 months (sterilisation critical) When bottled there is so little sediment, there is no need to decant.

I used to use the hops, then the packs came on the market here. My basic recipe was
1 pack draught
2 packs of larger
1 drop of artificial sweetener /1/2 lite
Cut the sugar back 25%... This gives a lower OH but far smoother tasting product.

Thanks for all the feedback. 69Vert, Northern Brewer is the place we stopped at on Sunday. I had seen them advertise in local papers but we were in the neighborhood (St. Paul) and stopped by to see what they were about on a whim.

I've brewed plenty of batches of my own beer. Fun hobby and very labor intensive- just like Camaros.

One word of advice on the brewing kits- while they are convenient, you can piece together your own brewing setup for far less than the shops charge for a complete setup. I think my rig wound up costing maybe $100 total. You would be suprised how easy it is to use ordinary, every day items when brewing your own!

As others have said the real key is sanitation/ sterilization. You can sanitize all the equipment that comes into contact with the ingredients by diluting plain old bleach (non-scented) with water and soaking the equipment overnight. Just make sure you rinse well several times with hot water before use!

My brother was doing it for a while. It takes a lot of time and effort, you need to keep things really clean and sterile and the house smells horrible the day you do the cooking. He made some good batches and some bad batches. He hasn't done it in a while now. I built a bar and we go to our local micro brewery and have them fill a keg for us so we have fresh micro bew on tap all the time now. Much easier this way. Right now we have a fresh keg of Dry Irish Stoudt from Triumph Microbrew in Princeton. This stuff is 10 times better than Guinness! :beers:

I don't consider myself a brewer, but my brother-in-law and I used to brew beer using 5gal water bottles in his bath-tub.
This was back in '79 in Calistoga CA..

Today he is the brewmaster for Sierra Nevada (http://www.sierranevada.com/) in Chico...
If you get a chance, take the tour!

Good Luck!
Make your dreams a reality!

I started making beer about 17 years ago.

I have made a lot of good beers, & a few great ones, a quite a few that ended up in the garden.

My initial investment was nowhere near #365.00 I think the first batch of equipment was about $100 or so & then another $25 for the "kit". My later batches were a little more involved than just add water & yeast.

I have not made any beer in the past year or so, but I really do miss it. It is a great hobby.:beers: :beers:

I also make wine too.

It is one of those things that can be a real source of pleasure, or frustration. (kinda like working on your Camaro)

Give it a try, & be sure to buy a book called 'The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing' by Charlie Papazian. this book will be your best source of information.

"Don't worry, have a home brew":beers:

I've brewed a few and like most have said clean..clean. clean..Lotsa Bleach!
Love the NBA's and IPA's
Think about this one;
In the ancient days and I mean way back! They made supposedly beer because they couldn't get clean water. Now I've had a few bad batches for whatever reason and can't imagine how Beer tasted back then with unsterile conditions. God that musta been some nasty sheeite!

Clean...Steriized 2 different things
Clean then sterilize just before use
I used water and elbow grease to clean and Sodium metabisulphate soln to sterilize.
Bleach can taint the product, interfer with the fermentation...unless well rinised out, but doing that it is no longer sterlized lol
Not been mentioned here is consistant Temps, this can create un pleasant after tastes.
I used a large fish tank heater inside the drum, wraped the fermentation drum with Aluminium foil, a large blanket, then an other outer foil layer.