Any Home Brewers out there.

[glennhendricks]

Interesting group here, I was wondering how many folks make their own beer?

I've been brewing for about 5 years. I'm not snobbish about it, it's just fun.:clap

[MotorradMike]

I brewed for a long while and made about 6,000 beers. Not sure where they all went.
2-3 batches weren't drinkable to me but my friends still liked them.
Best ones were bitters with extra dark malt added in.
I stayed with the kits, never used cane sugar, and always bottled in glass.

Hmmmm, I'm getting excited about it again.

[bricciphoto]

I brewed for a bunch of years back in the late-80's through the late-90's. It's a lot of fun. Our very own Darryl Richman (DarrylRi) has published books on brewing. I'm sure he'll see this and chime in.

[GlobalRider]

Interesting group here, I was wondering how many folks make their own beer?

I used to, but it is really tough to make great home brew. That based on my own and the home brew of friends. Now, if I could brew a beer that tasted like Augustiner, then I'd be :clap

In comparison, I've had incredible home made wines. It seems easier to make a great tasting wine, one that easily surpasses what you can buy.

[DarrylRi]

Yes, I was pretty involved in home brewing for about a dozen years. Brewing is a lot of work. When I started in the mid-80s, your beer choices were Yellow Beer or stale imports. Now the proliferation of great micros means it's just not worth 16 hours of my time and effort to make a batch.

Thanks for the plug, Bricciphoto:
http://darryl.crafty-fox.com/Images/bock.gif (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/093738139X/darrylrichmas-20)

Alex, you can make beer as good as or better than Augustiner (and I really enjoyed drinking it at the Ausschank in Munich, too), but it requires a great deal of time, effort and care to make it work. Once you master a few aspects of brewing, pretty much everything comes out good.

I still have all my equipment, including about a dozen soda syrup kegs, various CO2 fittings, a real English "beer engine", two high output propane burners and two 15 gallon cookpots (modified beer kegs), a grain crusher, lots of microbiology bits for dealing with yeast, and so on. The only thing I need beyond that is a thermostatically controlled chest freezer for lagering. But I don't really see myself getting back into it.

[squiffynimrod]

I make beer from the new style kits that are a pakaged wort from microbrewery stock. Make it like wine kits. Add water, pitch in the yeast, bottle. Pretty good results, far better than the canned malt.

[john1691]

I brewed a number of batches in the early nineties as well. Never was really satisfied with the results. It was always drinkable, and I considered one batch "good", but none were great. I kept all the hardware, thinking once I retire I might take it back up. My wife is not a beer drinker, so if anything, we would probably start making wine instead. As Darryl mentioned, with the vast number of quality micro brews available, it is a huge time commitment and quite disappointing if you end up with an "average" batch.

[GlobalRider]

Alex, you can make beer as good as or better than Augustiner, but it requires a great deal of time, effort and care to make it work.

Without a doubt Darryl, but its a matter of priorities. Now that I can afford it, I'd like to get a top end telescope, something I've always wanted, but once again, its a matter of priorities and time and I'd hate to see it just sitting there.

With retirement in another 2 to 3 years, I think sailing will be next...something in the 38 to 42 foot range.

Summer: 6 months of motorcycle touring.
Winter: 6 months of sailboat cruising down south.

Sound good? :stick

[MotorradMike]

I used to, but it is really tough to make great home brew. That based on my own and the home brew of friends. Now, if I could brew a beer that tasted like Augustiner, then I'd be :clap

In comparison, I've had incredible home made wines. It seems easier to make a great tasting wine, one that easily surpasses what you can buy.

Interesting,
I find the opposite true. Wine requires excellent ingredients, beer just needs a few rules followed and no cane sugar(makes an apple flavour).

I've had good home made wine about twice. One I tried cost the guy $8 a bottle.

[BluegrassPicker]

Interesting group here, I was wondering how many folks make their own beer?

I've been brewing for about 5 years. I'm not snobbish about it, it's just fun.:clap

My niece left some hard cider in the house. That was the inspiration, and I am now making my 2nd 3 gallon batch. :buds

[bricciphoto]

I agree with Darryl’s assessment. Brewing your own takes a lot of time and there are many excellent examples of styles being brewed all over the place nowadays.

I still have all my brewing stuff, too. I keep telling myself I’m going to get back to it, but I can only drink so much beer and for me variety is the spice of life. Ten gallons and a dozen or so hours doesn’t lend itself to much variety.

But, it is fun. And you can learn to make beer that is equal to anything you can buy, particular ales. I wouldn’t discourage anyone from venturing into the hobby—just realize it has some limitations and one of them is potentially "beer/brewing burnout." :drink

[scoobs]

Coming from the land of good beer (Scottish Borders) I was disappointed at the "commercial swill" being passed off as beer when I got here 15 years ago. Sadly there are many in this area who think that over-priced bottled fizzy lager is "beer" so that is what is sold here. Fortunately things are improving, there's a fantastic brewpub here in Columbus that makes a variety of excellent ales, and Atlanta has a good bunch of micro breweries.
I started brewing my own about 4 years ago and enjoy my beer, it gives me the colours and flavours I crave without having to pay $8 + for a 6-pack microbrew.
While I'm here, why do the bars/restaurants classify "Sam Adam's" and other reasonable tasting US breers as "Imports"? This excuse to jack up the price is getting beyond a joke.
Cheers, (literally)

Ian :drink :drink :drink

[glennhendricks]

The industry calls Bud, Coors etc "premium'. Sam is a 'super premium' so you pay the super ticket.

Actually beer has improved so much in the states in the past 20 years it is difficult to believe.