The Seriously Fun Business of Home Brewing
Get to know all about different style of beer you can home brew, including stout beer; learn more about how beer is made in this free instructional video.
Expert: Mark Emiley
Bio: Mark Emiley has been homebrewing beer since 1998, with about 140 extract and all-grain batches under his belt, his beers have won numerous awards and his recipes have even been brewed commercially.
Filmmaker: Mark Emiley
Duration : 0:2:59
Final project for intro to technical media. Made with iMovie and a 6.1 megapixel Kodak digital camera.
Duration : 0:8:41
Hi, I just started homebrewing 4 days ago with an easy mead recipe.
So far so good, I can tell that the brew is fermenting, I can smell the alcohol, and the color hasn’t changed noticeably.
I would like to know how to tell if the brew had been contaminated earlier. I’m really not using any of the standard equipment (just a milk jug and a makeshift airlock), but I took the steps to sanitize everything as well as I could. From what I’ve read, everything looks fine. So…
How do I tell if something went wrong in the intermediate steps with regards to contamination?
And is there anything else I should watch for to make sure my batch is drinkable?
I started home brewing by making mead. Yes like the others mentioned there really is no way of telling if it is contaminated until it is finished and you taste it. Of course a new home brewer really doesn’t know what a contamination tastes like. Especially if you are new to mead. If you buy 10 commercial meads each one will taste different. Its hard to define mead.
Some obvious off flavors are,
Vinegar,
Diaceytal, which is a buttery or butter scotch flavor.
Sour, is usually a lactic infection
Your best bet is to find a local home brewing club.
http://beertown.org/homebrewing/listings.asp
That should help you get started.
By the way today ( Nov. 1) Is teach a friend to home brew day. Many home brew supply shops will be having events. Its a great way to see some hands on home brewing, most of these events will have home brew clubs participating in them.
Here is a link to where some teach a friend to homebrew events are happening today.
http://beertown.org/events/teach/sites.aspx
Good luck and have fun!
My brother said he wants a home brew kit to make beer for his birthday. He has also stated that he will not tell us what one, or where to buy it at.
The only information I have about it is:
1) You make beer with it
2) It’s $230
If any of you can give me help on all the home brew kits out there, that would be great. Also, maybe helping me find the $230 one?
Thanks!
There are better ways to spend your money and still get him what he needs to make great beer. For the basic kit, go to eBay or to your local brew shop. Add a stainless steel stock pot (5 gallons if he is going to brew with extracts, 7 1/2 gallons to 10 gallons if he is advanced enough for whole grain). Add a 5- to 6.5-gallon glass carboy. Your cost will be about half of what you thought. You can even add a copy of Papazian’s book The New Complete Joy of Home Brewing. It’s my favorite basic brewing book.
If you really want to spend $230, you could get an assortment of malts, extracts, adjuncts, and assorted chemicals and toys. Home brewers can always find another gadget to play with.
BTW, I got started with a Brewers’ Best kit and still use it.
I know that by boiling them up in water to make the wort, I’ve effectively extracted everything usefull in terms of brewing from them, but it still seems such a waste to throw them in the bin.
Thinking from a green environmental viewpoint, is there any way of recycling them or using them for a secondary purpose after I’ve boiled my wort?
There are tons of recipes out there for "spent grain" foods. Cookies and Breads are the first that come to mind. You can google "spent grain recipes". Here are a few that I found
http://www.breworganic.com/recipes/Cooking-Recipes.html
http://harvette.net/2009/03/spent-grain-cookies/
I know that the Deschutes Breweries use Spent Grains to make a veggie burger. If you e-mail them, they may be willing to share the recipe.
I live in Buffalo, NY and Rochester is only an hour away. Beers of the World in Rochester, NY has/can get 70+ of many of my favorite micro and European brews in 1/2, 1/4, and 1/8 kegs! So . . . being a beer lover . . . I’m thinking about converting an old fridge to a keg-erator. Making one, adding external taps, and equipment isn’t a problem, but I’m curious what other people who have/use them think of them. Are they a pain to maintain or are they a great addition to a beer-geek/home brewer’s house? Just looking for personal opinions.
Location: Basement (I’m thinking of running two insulated lines up to my kitchen)
As far as what I’m looking for answer-wise, tap system need to be kept clean consistantly (taps, lines, etc…). Also, a line can go stale if not used daily.
Location: Basement (I’m thinking of running two insulated lines up to my kitchen)
As far as what I’m looking for answer-wise, tap system need to be kept clean consistantly (taps, lines, etc…). Also, a line can go stale if not used daily.
I’d say it’s one of the better investments a consistent beer drinker or homebrewer can make. The obvious reason being that it saves you a considerable amount of money in the long run and you don’t have to mess around with recycling and all that.
In response to your edit, beer in the lines can go stale especially if it’s out of the refrigeration but if your taps are getting enough use it shouldn’t be a big issue. When I’m using my kegerator I basically use it daily and either dump the first runnings or just drink it anyways, stale good beer is still better than fresh bad beer.
Again if you’re using your taps regularly you shouldn’t have to worry about cleaning the lines or replacing them too often but it’s such a cheap and easy thing to do that I personally just replace the lines every keg or so. With a home kegerator you’re generally talking about a few feet of hose which is a couple of dollars at the most especially if you just buy like 50ft at a time.
I wouldn’t recommend running lines from your basement up to the kitchen because it will be a pain in the ass getting consistent draws (non-foaming, non-flat) and it will make cleaning and such more of a chore. It’s not out of the realm of possibility I just think it’s a bit unnecessary is all.
Looking for an online website to buy cheapest home-brew supplies. Preferably someplace with cheap shipping also.
Looking for an online website to buy cheapest home-brew supplies. Preferably someplace with cheap shipping also.
ps. There are no local stores within a 40 mile radius.
Go to http://byo.com. Try both "Reader Resources" and the list of advertisers.
I found a way to install home-brew without using Twilight Princess game (I don’t have the game, don’t want the game, and don’t have money for the game). Now i want to find a method to install Mplayer (i think that’s what it’s called) WITHOUT using Twilight Princess.
Thank You
Use bannerbomb (http://wiibrew.org/wiki/Bannerbomb) to launch the hackmii installer (http://bootmii.org/download) To install the homebrew channel (http://wiibrew.org/wiki/Homebrew_Channel) and DVDX (required if you want to watch movies dvds)
After you install homebrew channel, just make a folder called "Apps" on the root (page you get when you click the sd card in my computer) of the sd card (if the homebrew channel doesn’t make one for you.
then go into the apps folder and copy the folder with your homebrew .dol, png, and meta.xml in it to the apps folder.
The key is the exposure to oxygen…also the temperture, style of beer, and alcohol content.
If you fill your keg, seal it, then turn on the CO2 at low pressure and pull open the pressure release to bleed off the oxygen…you should be fine at room/cellar temperature for at least 6 months before you start noticing a drop in freshness.
If you are storing it cold, it’s more like 9 months.
If it’s a high-gravity beer, you can pretty much store it indefinitely. Your flavors will change as the beer ages, but generally not in an unpleasant way.
Learn how to use sanitizers to clean your home brewing equipment – free home brewing video tutorial.
Duration : 0:1:27