HomeBrew

[Binomial Nomenclature]

Any Slap Pals out here into HomeBrewing?
It's a fun little hobby I've taken up. I know there are entire forums devoted to it, but I thought it would be cool to share with the skating community. What's brewing? What are some tips, favourite recipes and ingredients etc.?
I'm bottling a brown ale tomorrow, fermenting a lager right now, and planning a wheat beer for my next brew day.

[Stoop Kid 2.0]

Yeah there's a few of us on here. Last beer I brewed was about a month ago. I'm hoping to get my hands on some lupulin powder so I can get to work on some brews I've been thinking about. I usually stick to brewing IPAs and Stouts.

[Coastal Fever]

Bump.

So far I’ve only made juice wine/hooch by throwing yeast and sugar into a bucket or carboy with store bought juices.  Concord grape and apple turned out pretty decent, clarified and carbonated very nicely after cold crashing in the fridge.  Tried pear nectar but had to toss it because it stayed pretty syrupy.

Just bought a Festa Brew West Coast IPA kit which is super basic, again just have to add yeast, but I plan on adding Citra and Mosaic hops to make it more like a NEIPA.

Anyone else have recipes or tips they want to share?

[Mongey]

I’m in. Been brewing 5 years. Started with cans. The last 18 months have been doing all grain.

I mostly brew Belgian stuff. Big fan of saison so brew allot of those. Also belgian pales , singles , dubbels etc.

Mix it up a bit and do the odd apa , ipa or brown ale.

Yesterday bottled a saison and had a cube of mosaic apa ready to go. Pitched some
Kviek yeast into it. Haven’t used it before and it’a pretty nuts.  Was bubbling away after 45 minutes and fermenting it at 35 degrees. Gonna re use the kviek on the next few batches to see what it’s like in different styles.

[woodinbrine]

I made a small batch of dry mead last year that turned out pretty good, that was my first try at homebrewing. It’s been cool to see how the flavor developed with age, and I’l probably make another run one of these days. It’s my impression that mead is probably the easiest thing of all though.

My brother in law has been doing some beer brewing and asked if I wanted to help out and experiment a bit, which of course I want to do. I think he’s mostly into pale ales though, I hope I can convince him to try some darker stuff at some point too.

[Binomial Nomenclature]

Thanks for bumping the topic! I brewed a few beers for the Christmas season and still have some bottles left over. I was pretty happy with my Saison flavoured with juniper and coriander that came in at ABV 7.35%.
I also really enjoy doing comparison homebrews: for example I did the same saison without the juniper and coriander to compare, and usually when I do pale ales I'll make two batches of the same grain bill but change the hop profile.

[Mongey]

Thanks for bumping the topic! I brewed a few beers for the Christmas season and still have some bottles left over. I was pretty happy with my Saison flavoured with juniper and coriander that came in at ABV 7.35%.
I also really enjoy doing comparison homebrews: for example I did the same saison without the juniper and coriander to compare, and usually when I do pale ales I'll make two batches of the same grain bill but change the hop profile.

Did you put the juniper and coriander seeds in the boil , how much. I’ve used coriander in a dubbel but not juniper.

So just checked my kviek apa and it is pretty much done in less that 48 hours. 1052 to 1010. Nuts. Tastes pretty decent too. Will bottle this weekend

[Coastal Fever]

I’d love to get there but brewing beer from scratch freaks me out, seems like there’s so much room for error.  Wouldn’t you need a massive pot for boiling too?  I don’t even own a hydrometer yet, which I know I should.. but how do I safely and cleanly use one if I use a carboy for primary, tie a string to one end and drop it down the bottle neck?

Update on my NE/WCIPA.. it didn’t really start fermenting after 2 1/2 days, so I threw in another packet of US-05 yeast, along with my dry hops, and it’s going full tilt now.  I’m thinking I’ll wait a week or so for the yeast/krausen to settle, then wait a couple more days before bottling into Grolsh swingtops with 1 or 1 1/2 Coopers carb drops.

[Binomial Nomenclature]

Expand Quote

Thanks for bumping the topic! I brewed a few beers for the Christmas season and still have some bottles left over. I was pretty happy with my Saison flavoured with juniper and coriander that came in at ABV 7.35%.
I also really enjoy doing comparison homebrews: for example I did the same saison without the juniper and coriander to compare, and usually when I do pale ales I'll make two batches of the same grain bill but change the hop profile.

[close]

Did you put the juniper and coriander seeds in the boil , how much. I’ve used coriander in a dubbel but not juniper.

I put the Juniper and Coriander in the boil with 5 minutes remaining in a one hour boil. In the future I would probably add them at the hour mark when I remove the pot from the heat. The wort would still be hot enough to sterilize, but hopefully less boil would mean more juniper flavour.

[Binomial Nomenclature]

  I don’t even own a hydrometer yet, which I know I should.. but how do I safely and cleanly use one if I use a carboy for primary, tie a string to one end and drop it down the bottle neck?

I would suggest sanitize a siphon and take a sample from the car boy and measure that in a flask with the hydrometer.

[Mongey]

I’d love to get there but brewing beer from scratch freaks me out, seems like there’s so much room for error.  Wouldn’t you need a massive pot for boiling too?  I don’t even own a hydrometer yet, which I know I should.. but how do I safely and cleanly use one if I use a carboy for primary, tie a string to one end and drop it down the bottle neck?

Update on my NE/WCIPA.. it didn’t really start fermenting after 2 1/2 days, so I threw in another packet of US-05 yeast, along with my dry hops, and it’s going full tilt now.  I’m thinking I’ll wait a week or so for the yeast/krausen to settle, then wait a couple more days before bottling into Grolsh swingtops with 1 or 1 1/2 Coopers carb drops.

The move to all grain isnt that hard and you don’t need much gear. I just do simple brew in a bag  , full
Volume mashes. I have  a 50l pot , a gas burner and a bag. That’s literally it and you can start making beer.


You’ll need a siphon or a large wine thief to take a sample. I use a fermenter with a tap. Makes life allot easier to take sample.

[Coastal Fever]

Cold winter’s coming, so no better time to get some batches on the go and build up the supply, while the temps are still fermentation-friendly.
 
I always try to time it so I’ve got a new one ready before the last runs out, but I got caught slipping and had to crack into my Citra-hopped blonde lager after just 1-2 weeks in the bottle.  Actually wasn’t too bad though.

Just bottled a Cooper’s Stout, and just pitched a Cooper’s Hefe Wheat that I plan to dry hop with 2oz Mosaic.  I know canned extract kits are hardly considered brewing, but I really don’t care.  My goal is to make the absolutely cheapest and easiest decent beer I can, and these kits seem to be the way. 

[sacking rails]

damn you guys are crazy... i usually just buy whatever is 2 for $4

[Coastal Fever]

Tall cans up here are $4-5.  I can make one for $1.  Believe me if I could buy beer as cheap as in the States I wouldn’t bother brewing either. 

I just can’t believe how intense I was about sanitizing everything when I first started.  Now I don’t give a shit, rinse everything with hot water and that’s about it.  No infected batches yet, knock on wood.