Thinking about getting into homebrewing beer

[Lakemonster]

[img]http://www.patriotnetwork.net/forum/images/smilies/coolchug.gif[/img]

[Buford]

For those interested, check out [url="http://brother-buford.livejournal.com/13977.html"]my photo log of brew day, with commentary[/url]

[bigmahlman]

hi, im planing on buying my dad one of the kits to make your own beer, anyone know what a good one is?

[Buford]

Are you talking kit like Mr. Beer, or a set of equipment from a homebrew shop?

[bigmahlman]

i actualy just got him mr. beer, its the best one i coudl get him online, i figure he can use that and figure out how to do it, then if he likes it he can start using buckets and whatnot

[Scalliwag]

This place is sorta local for us Lake. http://www.homebrewhq.com/Default.aspx Are their prices good?

[SanguineSolitude]

man i wanna homebrew now. maybe ill ask my dad if he wants to get back into it over the summer.

[Buford]

My first batch is in bottles but I still need to let it sit for another week and a half to finish carbonating.

I labelled a few of them:


I have another batch in the fermenter (brewed Saturday). It's an IPA. Hell, I don't even really like IPAs but I figured what the heck. Besides, I had a label idea already made up for an IPA.

[SanguineSolitude]

yeah my dad used to do it when i was about 10-12 and he had some good successes. his heffeweizens turned out really good. i think it might be a fun way for me and him to spend time together. and i could use some help getting started.

[Scalliwag]

Hey Buford, how did these turn out? I made my first batch yesterday. I am posting a thread for the adventure. Fortunately I got a real good deal on all my equipment and a lot of good advice from Lake.

[stevehookah]

beertools.com

nuff said

[Lakemonster]

Sorry Im slow gettin to this.....

The site you listed, Scalli is pretty much on target.

The LME is cheaper than what Im used to. the DME is a dime higher.... hops is a 70 cents higher.... yeast is right on.... grains are cheaper by around 7 cents a pound.

The money saved on LME would easily take care of the few pennies higher prices on the lower cost items.

Really.. nothing to sniffle at... especially when shipping isnt even in the picture.... but there is the gas involved with the drive.

Did you ever go to that one in S. FT worth? I noticed that the hops and yeast are cheaper there.... the DME is higher.... but the LME is the same price as the one in Richardson. Probably enough savings to cut a few bucks or so off the cost per batch..... depends on how much hops you use. Edited December 28, 2006 by Lakemonster

[Lakemonster]

I never tried BeerTools.... have used Strange Brew in the past.... I like using software to make those quick calculations..... and give me an idea of the color before commiting to it.

[Buford]

Sorry, haven't been visiting here as regularly recently since I've cut back my shisha smoking a bit to about three or four times a month and spending a lot of time on homebrewtalk.com.

The first batch, porter, came out pretty decent, but I do see room for improvement. I only have two bottles for myself left in the fridge and three I'm saving to give away. I have made three batches since then (an IPA, an ESB, and a brown ale). The ESB is currently bottle conditioning, the IPA needs to be bottled Saturday, and the brown ale is in primary. The brown ale was my first partial mash; I built a mash tun recently from a 5 gallon cooler.

Pics of the mash tun setup can be seen here. If you poke around in that journal you'll see that most of my recent posts are all brewing related, sometimes with pictures.

I purchased BeerSmith after trying it out, and it works great for figuring out all the calculations for partial mashing. Edited January 4, 2007 by Buford

[shisha fan]

first of all, sorry for the necrobumpage.

i just bought some homebrew equipment and i have a question. i bought 3 muntons kits which only need water and sugar or dextrose and 3 brewing buckets of 30 liters each. the muntons kits are good for 24 liters of beer each and they should be ready for consumption in about 6 weeks. but the thing is, i don't have enough empty bottles to store it in.

so i was wondering if i can let the beer sit in the brewing buckets for a few weeks until its ready for consumption?


oh and the kits i got are; muntons bock beer, canadian ale and premium pilsner. if this works out well i'm gonna try yorkshire bitter and belgian abdij beer.

[thecyrax]

first of all, sorry for the necrobumpage.

i just bought some homebrew equipment and i have a question. i bought 3 muntons kits which only need water and sugar or dextrose and 3 brewing buckets of 30 liters each. the muntons kits are good for 24 liters of beer each and they should be ready for consumption in about 6 weeks. but the thing is, i don't have enough empty bottles to store it in.

so i was wondering if i can let the beer sit in the brewing buckets for a few weeks until its ready for consumption?


oh and the kits i got are; muntons bock beer, canadian ale and premium pilsner. if this works out well i'm gonna try yorkshire bitter and belgian abdij beer.

It may be OK, but I would go ahead and spend the little $$ it would cost to buy some more bottles.

The beer carbonating and adjusting in the bottle is quite the important process.

You could always go out and buy a few larger half gallon jugs to store them in.

Shouldn't be more than $1-2 each.

[shisha fan]

You could always go out and buy a few larger half gallon jugs to store them in.

i do have enough empty milk and juice jugs that hold about 2 liters, so i`ll use those in the meantime.
later on i will eventually spend some money on a keg or one of those home tap things.

[thecyrax]

You could always go out and buy a few larger half gallon jugs to store them in.

i do have enough empty milk and juice jugs that hold about 2 liters, so i`ll use those in the meantime.
later on i will eventually spend some money on a keg or one of those home tap things.

Eh i'm not so sure milk jugs are air tight enough once the seal has been broken.

Also, it's going to be hard to resist constantly opening the jug and taking a swig

[shisha fan]

Also, it's going to be hard to resist constantly opening the jug and taking a swig

true dat , the waiting is gonna be tough.

i'll probably take a few samples before its done.

[tinyj316]

It might be worth your while to go to a couple local bars and ask them what they do with their empties. A lot of places will give you a couple boxes of empties out the back door (assuming they don't have a bottle deposit where you are)

Also, I've found that swing top bottles work great for bottling purposes... you might want to look into getting some of those.

[shisha fan]

It might be worth your while to go to a couple local bars and ask them what they do with their empties. A lot of places will give you a couple boxes of empties out the back door (assuming they don't have a bottle deposit where you are)

no they don`t give empty bottles away for free, we have this system where if you return the crate including bottles you`ll get 5 euros back (which were included in the price when purchased), don`t know the english term for it (rebate comes close i guess).

Also, I've found that swing top bottles work great for bottling purposes... you might want to look into getting some of those.

yeah those are great, but they cost 75 cent for a 33cl bottle and i have 80 liters fermenting at the moment and i`m planning to make 60 more liters this weekend. so that would get kind of costly.

i`m probably going to get a home tap system and some of those empty refills to store the beer in.

[tinyj316]

It might be worth your while to go to a couple local bars and ask them what they do with their empties. A lot of places will give you a couple boxes of empties out the back door (assuming they don't have a bottle deposit where you are)

no they don`t give empty bottles away for free, we have this system where if you return the crate including bottles you`ll get 5 euros back (which were included in the price when purchased), don`t know the english term for it (rebate comes close i guess).

We call it a bottle deposit... it gets tacked onto the price of each bottle, and we get it back when we return the bottle to the recycling center.

It was just a thought...some bars give them out, some don't... cest la vie

Also, I've found that swing top bottles work great for bottling purposes... you might want to look into getting some of those.

yeah those are great, but they cost 75 cent for a 33cl bottle and i have 80 liters fermenting at the moment and i`m planning to make 60 more liters this weekend. so that would get kind of costly.

Yeah... with that much beer, it can be pretty costly... For future reference though, when (IF) you buy store bought beer again, or have friends that do, have them buy beers that come in swing tops...Grolsch comes to mind as a "popular" beer that comes in swingtops... over time, you can save a lot of money on bottles if you get them from friends/coworkers... you might have to buy them off with a couple liters of beer, but its a small price to pay for quality bottles.

i`m probably going to get a home tap system and some of those empty refills to store the beer in.

That can get pretty costly as far as first time purchase goes... but good luck!

[shisha fan]

Yeah... with that much beer, it can be pretty costly... For future reference though, when (IF) you buy store bought beer again, or have friends that do, have them buy beers that come in swing tops...Grolsch comes to mind as a "popular" beer that comes in swingtops... over time, you can save a lot of money on bottles if you get them from friends/coworkers... you might have to buy them off with a couple liters of beer, but its a small price to pay for quality bottles.

thats definately a good idea!, i love grolsch and i was already planning to give out lots of samples. and those swing tops can probably also handle a lot more pressure than regular bottle caps. in the meantime i`ll save up for a good tap system.

[thecyrax]

Yeah... with that much beer, it can be pretty costly... For future reference though, when (IF) you buy store bought beer again, or have friends that do, have them buy beers that come in swing tops...Grolsch comes to mind as a "popular" beer that comes in swingtops... over time, you can save a lot of money on bottles if you get them from friends/coworkers... you might have to buy them off with a couple liters of beer, but its a small price to pay for quality bottles.

thats definately a good idea!, i love grolsch and i was already planning to give out lots of samples. and those swing tops can probably also handle a lot more pressure than regular bottle caps. in the meantime i`ll save up for a good tap system.

I was about to say... if you're brewing beer batches that size, you need to start kegging for sure.

[woknblues]

Yeah... with that much beer, it can be pretty costly... For future reference though, when (IF) you buy store bought beer again, or have friends that do, have them buy beers that come in swing tops...Grolsch comes to mind as a "popular" beer that comes in swingtops... over time, you can save a lot of money on bottles if you get them from friends/coworkers... you might have to buy them off with a couple liters of beer, but its a small price to pay for quality bottles.

thats definately a good idea!, i love grolsch and i was already planning to give out lots of samples. and those swing tops can probably also handle a lot more pressure than regular bottle caps. in the meantime i`ll save up for a good tap system.

I was about to say... if you're brewing beer batches that size, you need to start kegging for sure.

Look into the soda kegs as a cheaper and more convenient method of tapping. Typical soda kegs are 10-12 L (I am guessing here from memory, it has been a while). The whole set up would be about 1/3 the cost of a traditional keg system. Sometimes you can find restaurants that go out of business and pick a system up super cheap. A few friends of mine have done this.

Barring that, it doesnt take too many 1L bottles to make quick work of a batch. I find 1L bottles more convenient to use. I used to brew my own from home, and at a facility. The facility would actually bottle in 1L plastic, and we never had any issues. Kinda surprised me.