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Was finally able to open up the first bottle of Home Brew I made a little while ago. Did an amber ale. Yes, it tastes as good as it looks. I plan on brewing again in the coming months.
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Must be the light as it looks a little more than amber.
It looks pretty go from here!Yes, it tastes as good as it looks.From the "deep south" part of Canada
Richard in Smithville
http://richardspensandthings.blogspot.com/ -
Careful, a friend of ours got rid of his woodshop to setup his brewery after the bug bit him. On the bright side once he's loaded the materials into his vessels he can go from zero to fermentation barrel from the comfort of his den.
I've dabbled and seen a lot of home brewing, but a near fully automated brewery (he only has to load and clean in person) is pretty serious stuff.Comment
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From here that looks like a Porter! I haven't home brewed since before my wedding... I need to go to Home brew supply, grab some fixins, sanitize the equipment and bottles and get busy... I could really use one of those turkey cooker burners though. Home brewing on an electric stove leaves a LOT to be desired..
How do you cool your wort? I have found speed chilling it REALLY helps keep from getting bitter beer... It was cheap to build when I did it, but not so much any more...
Basically take 2 50' boxes of 3/8" copper tubing, and use a 3 gallon plastic bucket as a winding drum, and create 2 coils, with inlet / outlet pipes that are higher than the sides of a 5 gallon bucket. connect them via some heavy 3/8" ID plastic tubing, and connect to a sink faucet. The first coil gets put in a bucket packed with mostly ice, ice water. The idea is as the water in the tubing passes through the icewater, it gets as cold as possible, before going out and into the second coil.
The second coil gets sanitized obviously, and dunked into your wort. an output hose goes down the drain, into the flower bed, or wherever, just remember the water will be HOT when it comes out at first!
As the cooled water goes through the coils in the wort, the heat from the wort gets transferred to the water, and taken away down the drain, thus dropping the temp of the wort.
If you like to brew, this little rig really does help out a LOT... Worth a shot anyway...
FWIW, so far I have only done cream ales and bocks... the stuff I like to drink...Please like and subscribe to my YouTube channel. Please check out and subscribe to my Workshop Blog.Comment
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My stepson brews and his hootch is very good. He makes a dark brew.
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The picture is from my cell phone at night, so it looks a little darker in the picture. It does have a nice amber hew to it when held up to a light. I used a combination ice bath then stuck the pot in the snow to finish off the cool down. It worked ok, but took some time. A wort chiller like you described would be nice, but I'll have to see what the future holds.
I was really worried about sanitizing when I first did this. I've heard some bad stories about bacteria that really fouls up the beer. After the first pour my mind was put at ease. The only thing I really messed up was when I went to add the priming sugar. You're suppose to mix it with hot water to make sure it dilutes properly; however, I musts have forgot to read this step and just added the wort to the bottling bucket without thinking. A couple bottles came out with too much carbonation (a result of not being properly mixed) but most of them turned out fine. It looks like I'll be brewing this weekend to get started on the next fermentation.
This summer I want to try a blackberry ale. My parents own a farm with a ton of wild blackberries. I'm thinking that my be the perfect ingrediant.Comment
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Home brewing is great....haven't made a batch in over 15 years, but it was fun. Had good results with liquid yeast, and real hop plugs...never made my own mash though.Happiness is sort of like wetting your pants....everyone can see it, but only you can feel the warmth.
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Hey Shep,
When you get up to the point of making a single malt bourbon, give me a call, I'll trade my older daughter for a barrel.
Bruce"Western civilization didn't make all men equal,
Samuel Colt did"Comment
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Shep,
Congrats on your 1st homebrew. I did it for years and even helped out at a local micro when I lived in FL. I moved to Knoxville 10 years ago and haven't brewed since. I still have a Corny Kegging setup and a bunch of nice fermenters.
Did you do a liquid malt for your 1st or did you do all grain? What hops did you use. Which yeast strain? My best beer was a honey porter.
PaulComment
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