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".   

[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.

[Kremmit]

I used to brew.  I no longer do.  Sometimes it tasted like poo.  Good luck to you!

No, really, here's a bunch of tips, in no particular order-

 It doesn't have to be difficult or expensive.  The more you read, the more you'll start to think you have to buy all sorts of equipment, and boil 3 different types of grain and change the temperature every 20 minutes.  That's all well and good after you've tried the easy stuff, but by all means, try the easy stuff first. 

My advice is, don't buy a bunch of stuff for the first time out.  You want to see if you like it before you go nuts.  We did our first several batches in a scavenged 5 gal kettle on a regular kitchen stove.  We fermented in a 5 gal. plastic bucket, and in an empty water cooler bottle.  If you can find a local brew supply store, that's better than buying from a catalog/website, until you're confident that you know what you're doing.  The guy at the store can help with a lot of stuff.  If you do find a store, take some empties with you when you buy your bottle capper, try out the different models, have the guy at the store teach you how to use it, and how to spot a cap that doesn't seal.  A cap that doesn't seal is a bottle down the drain.  You need about 40-50 bottles for a 5 gallon batch, and buy extra caps, because you will ruin some.  Buy a bottling wand, and a couple of lengths of clear tubing.  Buy the sterilizing agent, don't try to use bleach, the taste will get in the beer.  Take the sterilizing stuff from the books seriously.  When you siphon, always draw from the top of the vat, never the bottom, as that's where all the sediment is.  When you get to the bottom, it won't kill you to leave that last little bit down there, instead of running the siphon too far down and pulling up a bunch of mung.

Brew from extract at first.  Don't kill yourself trying to go from grain, it adds all sorts of complexities to the process.  Get a hop bag- it's a sack made from cheesecloth, more or less.  Put all the hops inside it, and when you're done, you just pull it out and toss it- saves a ton of time straining the stuff.   Still, have a really big strainer (the wire mesh kind, not the pasta collander- holes are too big) to run the stuff through before you put it in the fermentation vessel.  Get a candy thermometer, and don't put the yeast in untill it cools down enough, or you'll just kill the yeast.  Keep a CLEAN lid on as much as possible after the boil is over.

Do labels, people think it's cool:

[DrewKaree]

Someone here does it, I know for certain.  I was checking out their cab site, and their home brew site was bigger than their cab pages!

I have 2 buddies who do, and the one I pointed to this thread told me, firstly, that the guy whose beer tasted like Clorox needed to practice better sanitation processes.  The reason it would taste (he said it probably SMELLED like Clorox, rather than tasted like it) like that is not rinsing well enough, or not allowing the stuff to dry well enough - other than those two things, you just used too much bleach.

I know what you mean about too much information to absorb....I was contemplating this, and still may, but Zakk's right, making wine is WAY easier, and the screwed up batches are still drinkable!

If you find some good sites, post 'em back here, I'm betting you aren't the last person with these concerns and questions!

[DYNAGOD]

yea,im lucky enough to have a local hobby shop that sells home brew supplies, i plan on going there this weekend and grilling them for info. they are also affiliated with the local brewing club,so that could prove usefull.
I luckily like darker ales,porters,stouts.. so that cuts down considerably on the work involved from what ive read. Ales from what i understand take considerably longer.

heres some links ive found in my hunt.

http://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html
http://brewery.mvlan.net/folder/011/Homebreweries%20Directory/
http://www.brewboard.com/
http://www.clanward.com/brewery_files/Homebrew%20Glossary/homebrewersGlossary.htm

[_Iz-]

My friends and I made some when we were in college - we wern't quite patient enough and we would drink it slightly earlier than we should. The head on it always tasted like gravol...   

[SeaMonkey]

Start with a pre-packaged kit, like so:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=38172&item=4358601082&rd=1&tc=photo

then buy custom equipment as you find brews you want to make that you don't have the equipment for. It is a cheap way to get in.

I also suggest getting a good book on brewing mead.

[RacerX]

I have 2 buddies who do, and the one I pointed to this thread told me, firstly, that the guy whose beer tasted like Clorox needed to practice better sanitation processes.  The reason it would taste (he said it probably SMELLED like Clorox, rather than tasted like it) like that is not rinsing well enough, or not allowing the stuff to dry well enough - other than those two things, you just used too much bleach.

Thanks, Drew.  I'll have to pass that on to my friend in case he ever has time to brew any more beer.  He has a 14 month old baby girl that keeps him "hopping" these days.   

[lucindrea]

i did it for awhile ( acctully went on to make mead ,evil stuff - i rember opeining a bottle , and waking up )  not hard if you find a local place that has the malts allready

basicly it's

setrilize everything
boil malt/water in larg 20qt pot
add hops
syphion into 6gal glass watercooler bottle ( they sell these at most brew shops - or you just use a 5gal plastic bucket )
fill bottle with water till full
add yeast
put vapor lock on
wait 45 days or so
bottle

that clorox taste ( if it's from bleach and not boiling to sanatize then you got other  problems ) is a result of air getting into the brew and hence , nasty bugs/germs.

anyway here is a good place to learn a bit more
http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/

their is only one catch .. home made brew unlike the stuff made in the major brew plants is very diffcult to filter , basicly their is allways some grain in it , this adds to taste and doesnt effect the way it looks or feels when drinking it but , um , it has a high fiber content , hang overs tend to be real bad