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Any beer homebrewers here?
DYNAGOD:
I am interested in brewing my own as i have a penchant for overpriced hobbys,and an equally insidious love of beer. But i gotta tell ya,theres just way too much information out there for a beginner. i dont know where to even begin and i would like to avoid the pifalls and wasted money that comes with every new hobby.
any help you guys can provide would be greatly appreciated!
thanks!
Zakk:
Try it first at one of those U-brew places. They can help you through the process, plus the beer is 100X better than what you're going to make at home. Maybe start with wine, it ends up being a better end product.
Here's what I remember from my self brewing days:
Ubrew - you go in and cook it all up, they bottle and ferment it for you. Bad part is there is a shelf life on the beer.
Home - You do it all, and the resulting apple vinegar, er beer, tastes poor great! The bottles end up with a lot of sediment at the bottom (from the fermenting process), but the beer doesn't have an expiry date (and you wouldn't be able to taste the difference anyway!!)
Wine tastes best by far, but still will give you killer hangovers, don't know why that is, I mix it with a bit of the carbonated water to dilute it a bit.
Have fun!
RacerX:
I have a buddy that once made some. To give you an idea about its taste, he dubbed it "Chlorox Beer". :P
DYNAGOD:
mmmmm chorine stout....
Bones:
I got into it big time a few years ago. It's pretty easy and there isn't a lot to learn in order to make a fine brew.
The only advice I can give you is;
-Cleanliness! Everything fully sterilized. No shortcuts here!!
-Don't overdo the sugar. More alcohol doesn't improve the taste.
-Control the brewing temperature. If you live somewhere very cold, use a heat blanket or something otherwise it will take forever to ferment (or not al all depending on the yeast used). If you live somewhere very hot- cool it down. The best drop is the one that has fermented over a constant temperature.
-The taste greatly improves at around 3 months after bottling.
I enjoyed brewing and drinking it was rewarding, kind of like cooking yourself a good meal. I stopped though because constantly washing bottles gave me the poops.