Who is a Home Brewer?

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
Status
Not open for further replies.

FireManDan

Member
Mar 6, 2011
99
Scotland,CT
Well i make my own beer i just started recently and love making my own brew! So far i have A amber Ale bottled and ready to drink that is delicious. I just bottled yesterday an Irish Stout that looks like it will be an awesome winter brew. Then i have some Cider i transferred into my secondary ( glass Carboy) that is going to be get you on your ass strong!

So who here on this Forum Makes any kind of ALcohol ?
 
There's quite a few of us.. Going to keg an ESB this weekend and use the yeast off of that to make something else.
 
I used to get into it, but it got to be too much of a chore after the initial fun wore off. Maybe I'll start it back up again once I get settled into my new digs. All that time I'll save by using wood in pellets rather than on pallets will be well spent on other pursuits like brewing.

Last batch I made was a high-gravity Imperial stout that just kept on getting better as it aged. I made it on St. Paddy's Day, and drank the last four 22 oz. bottles on St. Paddy's Day three years later. I'll bet it could have lasted a few more years before it started to decline, but I am not that patient.
 
I've made 10 or 11 5 gallon batches over the last couple of years. The last two have been ciders, one a test with supermarket cider that turned out great and currently in the primary is some fancy local orchard cider plus enough dark brown sugar to get me near 9% ABV.

I also drink the bulk cans of cheap beer and buy some micro stuff but the homebrew is cheap, easy, fun, and worth doing. I have done a few partial mash recipes but no all-grain batches yet. Oh and I bottle condition, no kegs.... yet. Bottling day is the biggest PITA of the whole thing.
 
I agree bottling day is a bastard to do. Mainly just Sanitizing the Bottle really , the most recent bottling i took my bottles and put in the dishwasher and just ran hot water under the sani-rinse feature. They were clean really well and hot! My cider i used some of the Musselman's Bran Cider from Walmart. Local cider around here is about $6.00 a gallon.
 
It is cider time here right now.
 

Attachments

  • 110411 cider press.jpg
    110411 cider press.jpg
    207.3 KB · Views: 290
  • 110411 cider.jpg
    110411 cider.jpg
    101.9 KB · Views: 271
I can buy Orloff cheaper than I can make it. It's easier. It's legal. It's safer.
 
I want to ferment some cider without making the cider myself. I live in apple country, and I'm having a hard time finding any for an affordable price. $5 a gallon :gulp:
 
I bought some store brand Musselmans from walmart that was $3.98 a gallon. Cheaper alternative to the local orchard and taste good.
 
~*~Kathleen~*~ said:
I want to ferment some cider without making the cider myself. I live in apple country, and I'm having a hard time finding any for an affordable price. $5 a gallon :gulp:

That's what it often goes for in my area. I called ahead (orchard store) and told them I'd buy 20 gals if they could give me a deal and they sold it to me for 3 bucks a gal. Pretty good savings I thought! Maybe get some folks to go in with you?

pen
 
That's a good idea.. you can make a deal with orchards for their unsold expiring cider, though it depends on any preservatives used. Sometimes that stuff in excess amounts will inhibit fermentation.

Many orchards will do custom pressings for folks with a certain bushel minimum. Around here its around $1 to $2 a gallon with a 5 to 10 bushel minimum. See if you can bring your own containers.. carboy or 5 gallon bucket.
 
pen said:
That's what it often goes for in my area. I called ahead (orchard store) and told them I'd buy 20 gals if they could give me a deal and they sold it to me for 3 bucks a gal. Pretty good savings I thought! Maybe get some folks to go in with you?

pen

Okay Pen I got a break on the price. Can't find your recipe! I am going to use yeast.
 
FireManDan said:
I bought some store brand Musselmans from walmart that was $3.98 a gallon. Cheaper alternative to the local orchard and taste good.

Around here all the cider in the stores are pasteurized . . . would that still work for making hard cider? Personally, I can't stand pasteurized cider anyways . . . tastes like unfiltered apple juice to me vs. the non-pasteurized cider.
 
firefighterjake said:
FireManDan said:
I bought some store brand Musselmans from walmart that was $3.98 a gallon. Cheaper alternative to the local orchard and taste good.

Around here all the cider in the stores are pasteurized . . . would that still work for making hard cider? Personally, I can't stand pasteurized cider anyways . . . tastes like unfiltered apple juice to me vs. the non-pasteurized cider.

You want pateurized juice. No preservatives, no sorbates or other chemicals, just pasteurized. This kills the natural bugs, yeasts, and bacteria that may be stronger than the yeast that you choose. Should the wrong bugs take over the fermentation, you could end up with apple-cider vinegar which is fine if you want 5 gallons of vinegar but not if you want hard cider. In the abscence of pasteurozed juice you have to kill the natural bugs yourself which normally involves campden tablets which is better known as sulfites and gives people headaches. No thanks, regular pasteurized cider is ideal.

5$ a gallon is cheap. That's 25$ for a 5 gallon batch which is 53 12 ounce bottles which is 50 cents each and is cheaper than buying the junkiest busch macro beer. And it's freaking wonderful homebrew hard cider!

Don't cheap out on ingredients if you want real local cider. You might save 5 or 6 bucks on a 5 gallon batch to go from really good ingredients to some sort of rehydrated chinese cider powder from 1967.
 
Highbeam said:
firefighterjake said:
FireManDan said:
I bought some store brand Musselmans from walmart that was $3.98 a gallon. Cheaper alternative to the local orchard and taste good.

Around here all the cider in the stores are pasteurized . . . would that still work for making hard cider? Personally, I can't stand pasteurized cider anyways . . . tastes like unfiltered apple juice to me vs. the non-pasteurized cider.

You want pateurized juice. No preservatives, no sorbates or other chemicals, just pasteurized. This kills the natural bugs, yeasts, and bacteria that may be stronger than the yeast that you choose. Should the wrong bugs take over the fermentation, you could end up with apple-cider vinegar which is fine if you want 5 gallons of vinegar but not if you want hard cider. In the abscence of pasteurozed juice you have to kill the natural bugs yourself which normally involves campden tablets which is better known as sulfites and gives people headaches. No thanks, regular pasteurized cider is ideal.

5$ a gallon is cheap. That's 25$ for a 5 gallon batch which is 53 12 ounce bottles which is 50 cents each and is cheaper than buying the junkiest busch macro beer. And it's freaking wonderful homebrew hard cider!

Don't cheap out on ingredients if you want real local cider. You might save 5 or 6 bucks on a 5 gallon batch to go from really good ingredients to some sort of rehydrated chinese cider powder from 1967.

Ah, I've learned something new today . . . thanks HighBeam . . . I'll take the rest of the day off from thinking now. ;) :)
 
I've been home brewing for over twenty years and used to be very active in the internet
home brewing community, including a paid column for one of the informational web sites
that went bust about a decade ago.

Then I got heavily into home roasting coffee and eventually opened my own coffee roastery.
Now that the coffee business has been sold off, I'm back into home brewing, doing three consecutive
batches in the spring and three more batches in the fall, which are all kegged and quickly tapped
empty by friends and family. I stick to a tried and true pale ale recipe in the Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
style and supplement that with many of the fine craft microbrews from south central Wisconsin.
 
I don't do beer because I find it hard to make good beer. I do alot of fruit wine which I find very good. My cellar includes about 200 bottles . Always something brewing.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.