Homebrewing Thread for KCW

[MacMullen]

This post is in reply to another post by KiltedCodeWarrior, as I didn't want to hijack the other thread with my reply. Anyone and everyone else should feel free to throw in their opinions or their own experiences.

As a home brewer myself, more wine lately than beer, I can understand your inspiration! Let us know how the stout comes out! Do you bottle or keg?

Do you make grape wines or fruit wines? I had some great apple-raspberry wine at the Burn's Supper a couple of weeks ago, made by the guy standing behind me in my Toast to the Lassies pic. Incidentally, his name is, actually, Guy.

KCW, what styles of beer have you brewed? Do you bottle or keg? How many gallons a year?

I bottle in 1 liter brown plastic bottles (formerly Frost Top root beer bottles). I did use a Party Pig until I, um, melted it. The instructions mean what they say when they tell you not put boiling water in it. It wasn't actually boiling, but it had been, a little too recently

Most recently I've been using the new 16 oz Coors Light bottles. They're great, plus, you get to empty them first. I recommend pouring the contents in a glass, rather than down the drain.

The thing about plastic bottles is that you never have to worry about breaking a bottle if you overprime it, and I usually finish drinking a batch of beer within a couple of months, so I don't worry about air penetrating the plastic bottle and spoiling the beer.

I've brewed my Irish Stout several times, and it has always been excellent. I use the Brewer's Best kit because, unless I do a full mash, I couldn't buy all of the ingredients separately for the same price. Lately I've been using White Labs liquid yeast, WLP004, Irish Ale, and then I recover the yeast at the end of fermentation and use it again for the next batch, which spreads out the added cost of the liquid yeast.

Stout is my favorite style of beer to drink, but it's too expensive to buy very often. Guinness around here costs roughly $17/gallon. My stout tastes every bit as good, if not better than Guinness, and it only costs me $6/gallon. If you like premium beers, especially imports, homebrewing is the way to go.

Here's the label for Stryker's Irish Stout:


You can check out the other beers that I've brewed on my Webpage Don't be afraid of the labels. Most of them incorporate pics of some of my friends, although, the Joel's Wretched labels truly live up to their name. My Cerveza and my Lawman's Lager are both high octane. A couple of those and you'll either go to sleep or start a fight.

Currently, I'm drinking my Hefeweizen until I get my Stout brewed and bottled. I would be ahead in my brewing, but the Burn's Supper put a dent in my supply.

Anyway, probably more info than you were looking for, but homebrewing has become one of my favorite hobbies (as if you couldn't tell).

[Andrew Breecher]

The best beer I've ever brewed was an oatmeal raisin cookie stout (8.1%). I also made a really great coffee stout, which I'm about to rebrew, since I'm out of it! I currently have bottled and ready to drink: a dry cider, an oak-aged imperial stout (16%), a dunkelweiss, and a light summer braggot (got to drink that one up before it really gets cold out!). I'm about to make the aforementioned coffee stout again, and a pumpkin ale.

I bottle everything in 12oz brown bottles (a few odd-shaped bottles, such as the St. Peter's Brewery bottles, just because they're cool). I work in a bar, so bottles are free, and it's not really that much work to wash them 12 at a time. I bottle them a case at a time, so it really doesn't take a lot of time. Then they're much easier to share with friends when they're bottled in the smaller bottles. I've thought about getting a Party Pig, though, so I could do half the batch in that, and bottle the rest.

My to-do brew list: a doppelbock, a barleywine, an IPA. Re-make my oatmeal raisin cookie stout.

Andrew.

[Schultz]

Yes, those St. Peter's Brewery bottles are fantastic! My wife likes to appropriate my stock for little single flower vases. I keep telling her to get her own ;)

I've discovered the joy of the mini-keg, mostly because I detest bottling. Even still, I do end up having to bottle some (maybe 8 or 10) because you can't quite squeeze four mini-kegs out of a five gallon batch. My specialties are a pale ale that tastes amazingly close to Bass (w/o trying to do so) and my beloved porter, which I really can't get enough of.

It has been a while since I've struck up the old kettle, but the wife is on me to brew again. I just have to get up the energy to retrieve my brewery from storage and make it over to Maryland Homebrew for the ingredients. Perhaps this thread will be the kick in the **** I need. I can already smell the hops...

[MacMullen]

The best beer I've ever brewed was an oatmeal raisin cookie stout (8.1%). I also made a really great coffee stout, which I'm about to rebrew, since I'm out of it! I currently have bottled and ready to drink: a dry cider, an oak-aged imperial stout (16%), a dunkelweiss, and a light summer braggot (got to drink that one up before it really gets cold out!). I'm about to make the aforementioned coffee stout again, and a pumpkin ale.

My favorite beers that I've brewed are my Stout, my Raspberry Blonde, my Hefeweizen, and my Scottish Ale.

On my classics to-do list I want to brew a Wee Heavy and another IPA, which I haven't brewed in a while. I also want to brew a reasonable version of my Sandman's Cerveza (9%ABV ) and get it down to around 5% ABV and call it Sandman's Cerveza Ligera.

Besides the classic styles, I like to brew beers with fruit so my to-do list includes a Strawberry Cream Ale. I also like to brew wheat beers, so another one on my list is a classic Belgian Whitbier, plus I'd like to redo my Fat Head Belgian Ale with some Victory malt to get it closer to a clone of Fat Tire.

One thing I've noticed is that any wheat beer I've brewed has been a big hit with my wife, my friends' wives, and my sisters-in-law. So, if anyone has trouble finding a beer that their wife or g/f might like, give them a wheat beer. Hefeweizen and Honey Wheat seem to be the big favorites in my experience.

My to-do brew list: a doppelbock, a barleywine, an IPA. Re-make my oatmeal raisin cookie stout.
Andrew.

Thanks for reminding me! Barleywine is also on my list for December or January. Got any good recipes?

It has been a while since I've struck up the old kettle, but the wife is on me to brew again. I just have to get up the energy to retrieve my brewery from storage and make it over to Maryland Homebrew for the ingredients. Perhaps this thread will be the kick in the **** I need. I can already smell the hops...

Good news! Whenever my wife points out that I haven't brewed in a while, I always take that as permission to go the brew store.

[flyv65]

The best beer I've ever brewed was an oatmeal raisin cookie stout (8.1%).

SNIP

My to-do brew list: a doppelbock, a barleywine, an IPA. Re-make my oatmeal raisin cookie stout.

So Andrew-when will be be sampling your efforts? I'm a big fan of IPA style beers, and the oatmeal raisin cookie stout sounds like a kickin' wintertime dessert beer.

Bryan...but I wouldn't want to limit a beer chronologically: I'd be willing to drink it year round...

[Bob C]

That oatmeal rasin cookie stout sounds OUTSTANDING.

I've been brewing for quite a while, but have not brewed much, lately. I mostly brew stout and brown ale, but I'm thinking it might be time for an IPA.

I built a website for my "brewery" a few years back. It's almost entirely fictional, but the responses I get from around the world - most from folks who think the brewery is real - are hilarious.

Check it out, if you like, at: http://www.geocities.com/bobnyjc/cbc.htm

There are no kilted pictures on it. I need to change that.

[MacMullen]

That oatmeal rasin cookie stout sounds OUTSTANDING.

Again, if you don't mind, a recipe would also be outstanding! ;-)

Bob, your brewery site is better than some big brewer's websites I've seen. with such a large, state of the art facility, I'm surprised you don't brew more! :mrgreen:

[John M.]

That Oatmeal raisin cookie stout does sound good.

Right now my fridge is stocked with "Captain Bastards Oatmel Stout" & some Hefeweizen from a micro brewery here in Utah.

I've always wanted to try home brewing, but I've got so many other things going that I don't ever have the time or $ to get into it.

[Shay]

Ohhh- I'm a total Hefeweizen girl. Krystalweizen if I can find it. Which I usually can't.

The husband just make hard cider, and we bottled it yesterday- we finally found a local apple press that will sell him unpastuerized juice! It's a bit sour right now, but hopefully it will mellow a bit in the bottle.

(In a different note- my 7yo daughter wants one of those, "Make your own root beer' sets for Christmas- I was hoping someone on the thread could PM me or post and let me know if they actually work?)

[Andrew Breecher]

Thanks for reminding me! Barleywine is also on my list for December or January. Got any good recipes?

I haven't made up a barleywine recipe yet. I'm planning on making one before I set off on my next five-month hike, so I know I'll be able to let it age for a while without tasting it!

That oatmeal rasin cookie stout sounds OUTSTANDING. [...] Again, if you don't mind, a recipe would also be outstanding!

Okay, extract recipe:
7 lbs. dark malt extract
1 lb. crystal 60L
1/4 lb. chocolate malt
1/4 lb. roasted barley
1/2 lbs. toasted oats (toasted in home oven)
1 oz. Fuggles
a touch of vanilla extract
1 lb. black raisins
1 cup blackstrap molasses - priming
English Ale Yeast

Steep the grains (not the oats) in 150 degrees for 30 minutes. Remove the grains, add malt extract, oats, and hops. Boil for 60 minutes, rack to fermenter, and pitch yeast.
Rack to secondary, adding the vanilla and raisins. Fermentation will begin again because of the sugar in the raisins (this is what makes the ABV so high).
Bottle with molasses. This beer is good to drink in a week and a half - so yummy fresh! Even five months later it's still a joy. I couldn't keep it around longer than that, so I guess it's time for another batch.

Andrew.