Homebrewers

[woodysjames]

Does anyone else out here homebrew their own beer, mead, wine, or distill? I've been making mead for 8 years, and haven't made any beer in a few years but ready to get back to it.

[Richrail]

I home brew. I mainly an extract brew, I don't have the room to do all grain. My oldest son has been home brewing now for about 5 years.

[Tarheel]

I have a friend that started a micro-brewery but is focusing on beer. I have several other friends that raise bees. If I could get them together there would be mead (beers, wine and solid spirits) I'll keep putting a bug in their ears. "Mississippi Mead" (as a label) just flows off the tongue when spoken aloud. Let's hope for the best.

[IsaacW]

I have been brewing (mainly extract and moving to all grain) as well as making wine and mead for a number of years. I like a good drink and it is fun to make my own

[Liam]

I have been making my own beer and wine since 1970. I make less beer than I used to. I have all the all grain equipment, but haven't fired it up for a while. I purchase grapes from the Okanagan Valley each fall and currently have about 100 litres of merlot on the go. I also make rhubarb wine and both a fino and an olorosso style sherry. I have made mead in the past. Distilling is illegal in Canada, although I have a couple of friends that do make grappa out of their failed wine projects.
It is a great hobby.

[woodysjames]

I live in Salisbury, NC, but we have a company locally that is a brew supply store. Originally, it was Beer and Wine Hobbies, International, on South Blvd in Charlotte. They had to close shop when the light rail was being constructed. They got a warehouse in Belmont (just outside of Charlotte) and it was called Alternative Beverages. They ended up opening a new Beer and Wine Hobbies about a block from the original location on South Blvd, and then a couple others in the area, including Mooresville (closer to me). I've bought pre-made kits that had the hops, DME, and other ingredients. I've done the extract (cans of syrup) and they are fine. But, you can get, say an Irish Stout Draught kit with everything in it except the yeast (it's separate) for about $30, which will make 5 gallons (about 48-50 beers). It takes probably an hour to 90 minutes to brew it up and get it to the carboy and yeast pitched. I did an Irish Stout once that friends that were hardcore Guinness drinkers said was as good as the brand.

I do have a friend down in SC where I'm from that started brewing and opened a microbrewery and restaurant. On that scale, I couldn't do, but if you can find a local brew shop, get a kit, or the recipe and get the ingredients separately. Like IsaacW said, it's fun, and you'll appreciate it more if you make it yourself and see everything going into it.

I went to our office holiday party (postponed til last Friday due to flu) and shared some of my mead. I drank a half of a brandy glass worth, and had a buzz. Everyone loved it, and some wanted to buy some, but I don't sell it. We have an annual gathering for a religious group and several people make mead. We share it with each other and by the end of the night, everyone is at least a sheet in the wind. I don't drink often, but those are the good times when getting together with friends and sharing home brewed adult beverages.

[Andrew Breecher]

I've been homebrewing for the past 10 years. I've made mead a few times, but mostly stick to all-grain beer brewing. I've experimented a few times with old beer recipes from the 19th century, with varying success.

[brewerpaul]

Started grinding grain for full grain mash in 1992 or so with a buddy of mine. We worked nights in the emergency department and would set up the grist mill in a room and split a 50lb bag of grain between the two of us. We always had a bit of dust to vacum up after the session. 1994 turned a hobby into a profession when I started as an assistant brewer at Flatbranch Pub and Brewing here in Columbia MO. Took over after a year and put the place on the map beer wise. Brewed for them for 8-9 years brewing over 65 styles. We were some of the first to have vintage nights with big beers such as Imperial stout, Barley wine and Trappist Trippel going back as far as 5 years in age. This was the early days of brewpubs that came and went before the could even be written about. I tended to stick with interpretings styles after reading about them in Michael Jacksons Beer Companion. Even got to meet Mr Jackson once along with Charlie Papazian and Dave Miller. In the early days they wrote to books on brewing. Since then Ive been in the cardiac cath lab and have brewed extract a few times. My brewing cycles around having my crocks in use, yes open fermentation, with either Kim Chi or saurkraut. I still have a preference for English hops, traditional styles and a good hearty Imperial stout to accompany a good dram of Scotch. Too many trendy gimick beers out there now but I can usually find what I like on the shelf.


When asked if I ever made test batches of beer I would always point to my 300 gallon fermenters and tell them there was my test batch.

[IsaacW]

As I am shifting to whole grain (have done a couple batches now) and since I grow large gardens... I decided to try growing my own barley next year. I have an OLD variety from the Orkneys called Bere barley (Bere is simply the word for barley). I will hopefully yield enough to do 10-20 gal. of beer with it, probably brewing some with our own hops that we have been growing for 4 years.

IW

[Liam]

Papazian's book was my bible when I got into all grain brewing.