The Beer Thread

[badflash]

Anyone here brew their own beer? I just got back into it after a 15 year break. I'm now doing all grain beer. For about $200 you can buy everything you need to brew beer from pure malt grain and keg it in 5 gallon soda kegs. If you can make soup, you can make beer. Tilapia adapt quickly to eating the spent grain.

Once you have the equipment, the beer costs just 22 cents a mug. Hard to beat. I'm using all American ingredients. The malt runs me $54 delivered. I can get a pound of hops for $13. You use an ounce of hops to 10# of grain.

It is pretty low tech. I converted a 10 gallon water cooler to sparge the grain, and brew in a 6 gallon plastic bucket with a bubbler on top. I rack the beer to a clear 5 gallon platic carboy after one week. Week 2 it has cleared and I transfer it to the soda keg and carbonate for 2 days at #30, then drop the pressure to #5 to serve. Just about 2 weeks start to finish. I brew on Sundays for a continous supply.

[urbanfarmer]

I bought a kit over a year ago, but then I got into hydroponics hoping to grow my own ingredients... and well... here I am, with the rest of you AP addicts! :lol: I will follow along with you if you're planning to do it. A buddy of mine made bacon flavored beer once... he said it was good. I'm not so sure about that.

[badflash]

People add all sorts of stuff to beer. All you need is barley, hops water and yeast

[urbanfarmer]

True, but would you dare try bacon beer? :mrgreen:

[stucco]

i would have a bacon beer :)

[jackalope]

I have all the makings (except the barley and hops) and the equipment, we used to brew our own back a few years, but since I've moved a couple of times, everything is mis-placed :( badflash, you've inspired me to find all the ingredients and equipment and 'git 'er done' - when I bought this place about 10 soda kegs came with it ..... I've just got to get with you and find out more about what you meant by #30 and #5 pressure, and how to apply it! I've never used the soda kegs before, just used bottles (I have about 15 or 20 cases saved up so far), but the soda kegs would be a lot easier from what I've heard.

I have a CO2 tank that I'd have to have refilled, if that was what you were getting at. Mind sharing your recipes and your how-to's? You could PM them if you don't want to post them. I like the dark porters and stouts, the stouter the better! I developed a taste for them when I served in Germany in the early 60's.

[badflash]

Yes, the pressure is CO2 pressure from a bottle.
You probably need to replace the O-rings on the cover and fittings. Northerbrewer.com sells kits for that if your kegs are like mine.

To make stout you just follow the recipe, like any other brew. It just takes a little longer to ferment.

The American Pale Ale I just made is as simple as it gets. 10# of crushed 2 row barley, 1.5 ounces of Cascade Hops, Safeale US-05 yeast.

Get a brewing book to show you how to get the sugar out of malted barley. HOW TO BREW by John J. Palmer is a good one. Brew-Master's Bible by Stephen Snyder is also good.

After extracting the sugar from the grain I steal a cup and add a cup of cold water to it. I add the yeast to that to get it started. You bring the rest to a boil and add 1/2 the hops. Boil for 45 minutes, add the other half and I put in a tab of wirllock to help with clarity. Boil for another 15 minutes, chill the wort down to 110F (I use a beer chiller) and add enough water to make 6 gallons in the fermenter. Add the yeast and close up the fermenter, put on the bubbler and let it go for a week. Transfer the beer to a clear carboy with an air lock to get the beer of the yeast and to allow the beer to clear. On week 2 it goes in the keg for a couple of days of cold conditioning at 30#, then turn the regulator down to 5# to serve.