Anyone else making booze?

[pen]

Definitely high on my list of things to do when I have more time... I just know that I don't have enough to devote to it in order to do it well now. Where did you get those nice glass jugs? Are they five gallon? My dad keeps his eye out for them when he hits the yard sales but never seems to find them.

I inherited these, but they can be had for about 50 bucks. Cheapest place I've found is amazon.com but you may have to wait up to 3 weeks for some models to arrive.

I have 1, 5 gallon and 5, 6 gall carboys. If you do beer it's usually in 5 gal batches so a 6 or 6.5 gal carboy gives you some head space to work with when the yeast really start digging in and foaming things up.

I also make cider right in gallon (or 4 liter) wine jugs. That might be a good place for you to start as they come free with the purchase of cheap wine Carlo Rossi has some cheap Italian table wine in 4 liter jugs that is not bad drinking at all. For 11-14 bucks you get 4 liters of wine and a jug to play with. An airlock and stopper will cost you another 2.50.

pen

 

[iskiatomic]

People (read Gamma and Flatbed Ford) weren’t impressed w/ the Busch Light and Yuengling Lager I showed up with to help supplement Craig’s offering.

Pen, no complaints here. That Yuengling Lager kinda grew on me. I am glad to see that I am in thirsty company.


Now really, just how are you supposed to cut, split, stack, etc, etc, without adult beverages?

Of course never while using the saw.


KC

 

[pen]

Now really, just how are you supposed to cut, split, stack, etc, etc, without adult beverages?

Of course never while using the saw.

KC

Roger that! Yuengling is of course a Pa beer, but not skunk water. If you are into darker beers try and find Yuengling Porter. They make a black and tan (their porter and premium beer blended) but I don't as big a fan of that. The porter however can't do you much better in front of the fire in the winter.

pen

 

[Thistle]

Now really, just how are you supposed to cut, split, stack, etc, etc, without adult beverages?

Of course never while using the saw.

KC

Roger that! Yuengling is of course a Pa beer, but not skunk water. If you are into darker beers try and find Yuengling Porter. They make a black and tan (their porter and premium beer blended) but I don't as big a fan of that. The porter however can't do you much better in front of the fire in the winter.

pen

Tried their Black & Tan when visiting a friend in NE PA back in 2006.Thought its as good as any Guinness I've had either in the UK or here in the States. Would be nice if they shipped it further west though,I think Ohio is the limit so far.Lager & Porter were great too.

 

[begreen]

We have some local microbreweries that have been making some excellent porter variations. They are super smooth, smoky and chocolaty. I love em.

 

[RNLA]

Hey BG, Try scuttlebutt brewery in Everett. They got the goods...

 

[Mrs. Krabappel]

Trying my first beer from my first batch


"Beer pours a nice clear amber color with a nice and frothy white head. Smells of sweet caramel and toasty malts, also get that crisp lager smell, I take a sip and get a medium bodied mouthfeel with sweet caramel and some slight malts, altho I can realy get a noble hop taste, maybe hallertau or tettnager hops, some noble variety, ends in a long lasting caramel taste"

:lol: I did not write that. All I have to say is me likey.

 

[begreen]

Hey BG, Try scuttlebutt brewery in Everett. They got the goods...

Thanks for the tip. Last taste was in Tacoma at the Harmon Brewery. Not bad at all!

http://harmonbrewingco.com/

 

[dafattkidd]

Pen, That looks good, man. I'm a fan of the ciders. I haven't had a home made. Hope it's as delectable as it looks.

*Kind of off topic, but forgive my rant: On my way home from church I swung by a local place and grabbed a pint of their seasonal punkin spice ale, served a brown sugar/cinnamon ring around the brim. It is my favorite. I sat and drank a brew by myself and caroused hearth.com on my phone. It was a great ending to a good fall day. Then I got a ticket for my expired inspection (expired 10/1). crap.

 

[firefighterjake]

Love the hard cider . . . I cannot tell you how excited I was at the Woodstock Open House to find a keg of Woodchuck on tap . . . although I had to be good since I was driving . . . my buddy Aaron on the other hand enjoyed the beer.

Haven't had any home-brewed stuff that I have liked . . . but I keep telling a co-worker that as long as he makes it I'm willing to be the guinea pig . . . until it kills me or I go blind.

 

[Highbeam]

Oh yes cider. I have just gotten into it. My first 5 gallon batch was started in early August from motts apple cider bought at the supermarket. Pasturized is fine, actually preferred, since you add your own yeast and that way you don't have to add sulfites to kill the wild stuff. I mixed up that motts hard cider batch with nothing but cider (at 1.050) and a packet of nottingham yeast. Bottle carb'd with an addition of corn sugar and some alcohol sugars to bump up the sweetness. Alcohol came out to 4.9% and it is very well carb'd and light to drink, women like it, reminds them of a "white zin" whatever that is. I don't like wine.

We liked it so much that I immediately refilled the 6.5 gallon glass carboy on Sunday with much higher quality Honeycrisp cider from a local orchard. This time I added 2# of dark brown sugar for an OG of 1.67 which should get me 8-9% alcohol.

The cider is much much easier to make with no boiling, mashing, cooling, or hopps. You just dump it in and set it by the wall to ferment. Mine is now bubbling away happily after adding yeast less than 24 hours ago.

For reference I used makinghardcider.com

 

[lukem]

Next year I try making hard cider. I pressed 31 gallons this fall and should do more next year. My uncle has offered his carboys...just need some airlocks and a source for some yeast.

This years (non-hard) cider was excellent...very sweet all by itself...but it would be that much better with some fermentation action...

 

[Highbeam]

Yeast is very easy to get a hold of. If you're not getting pasteurized cider then you'll need to first kill all of the natural bugs, bacteria, and yeast with campden tabs or something else. Then add the yeast of your choice and let it roll.

I like the nottingham ale yeast. Buy it in little packets dry for like 2$ to treat 5 gallons of cider. You can mail order it or see if you have a local homebrew store as it is a very common yeast used for beer mostly.

 

[firefighterjake]

Next year I try making hard cider. I pressed 31 gallons this fall and should do more next year. My uncle has offered his carboys...just need some airlocks and a source for some yeast.

This years (non-hard) cider was excellent...very sweet all by itself...but it would be that much better with some fermentation action...

Everything is better with bubbles. . . . .

 

[lessoil]

Well, not quite booze but as much alcohol as the toughest yeast I could buy can produce.

Got 20 gals of hard cider going. Just racked them this week. Tasted great; crisp and clean even though it didn't look it yet. I'll let the little guys go another month or so. If I figured how much firewood we need wrong, we should be able to stay warm for a while with this!

Anyone else making their own?

pen

Nice picture!
I started brewing beer last Feb. Made about 5 batches then Summer hit. Of course all the brew is gone...
Getting ready to try it again. Was very impressed with taste and price.
Will try your cider recipe. A lot of good cider around here.
Cheers!