beer You too can home brew

cheezydemon

cheezydemon

With a minimum of equipment, it now costs me about $37 to brew 60 12 oz beers of incredible quality.

Something like Guinness costs me more like $25.

The $37 gets you a rich Maerzen (oktoberfest) A hoppy IPA, A rich dark stout, etc.

You can brew something like miller lite for around $17 for 60 beers, but why bother?;)

At roughly $.60 a beer(for the richer ones), I am not saving a ton, but I get healthier, fresher, and much higher quality beer.

For the beginner, probably $60 in equipment is needed.

I started out using free water cooler jugs to brew in, which was not the best, but it cost nothing.

:cheers:


Also, I now grow hops, the most expensive ingredient these days. I have not taken that into account in the costs I listed. Those are what someone would pay with no yeast on hand, and no hop vines in the yard.

It appeals to me in many of the same ways growing peppers does.

Pride in accomplishment, joy of flavor, love of sharing, and love of beer.(the beer thing seems to be almost universal among pepper growers and grillers!)

IT IS EASY!!
 
klyth said:
Cheezy, I've been thinking about brewing my own beer. Do you recommend BOP's or doing it at home?
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It couldn't hurt to go BOP the first time, there is nothing like having guidance in person, but I leaped straight in with no problems.

imaguitargod said:
I've done some brewing at a friends place a few times. I'm considering doing wines, but I'm starting to really lean twords beer.
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Wine seems to be more cost effective than beer actually, but it offers less in the way of creativity. Also I like beer better.

To get grapes and start from scratch would be cool, but it would require a large investment in grapes and equipment.

Also, if you ruin a whole batch of wine by adding something wierd, you are out 80 bucks or so as opposed to the 20 or 30 for beer.
 
if you have the equipment to do beer, you have the equipment to do wine
homebrewing is great fun, the beer is waaay better than any of the mass produced stuff, and better than even most craft brews; ive been doing it for a few years now, and im so glad i started; next season i hope to start my own hops & grains, which will further reduce the cost to brew, and make it that much better.
my initial start up money was a bit more than $60.00, but thats because i got things you dont need to brew with, but they make it an easier/quicker process; heres what i got:
6 gallon food grade bucket w/lid & airlock (primary)
5 gallon glass carboy w/ handle and airlock (secondary)
5 gallon food grade bucket w/ spigot (bottling)
4 gallon (16 quart) stock pot (wort)
hydrometor (spec. gravity)
thermometor (wort)
long copper coil with sink attachment (rapid wort cooling, not necesary and its expensive)
bottle washer (sink attachment)
capper
misc. brushes for cleaning equipment
i think thats all my equipment, note that you will need several bottles, not the twist off kind, but they are pretty easy to come by if you drink good beer or have friends that drink good beer
i suggest charlie papazian's "the complete joy of homebrewing" its a great book to read through, gives you some decent recipes in the back as well
most homebrew stores can set you up a kit, but it will be cheaper to just source all the pieces yourself, but i think its worth the extra few bucks to help out the homebrew supply stores, they gotta eat too
 
Yeah my SWMBO did a batch of wine in my set-up last year.

Wine is a little easier without the boil and with no real additions.(she added oak, but it wasn't in the recipe)

For a beginner, the process is:

Heat water, add extract(hopped), boil.

Cool, place in fermenter, add yeast, wait.

Bottle, wait (;)).......drink.

It gets cheaper when you go to grains from extract, but it requires a thermometer, probably a cooler, and a little more equipment.

I recommend doing 1 easy batch on the cheap. From there you will either be consumed by plans for your next batch, or you won't! Nothing lost.

And like has been said, I do save tons of money if you consider that I am drinking $8 a sixer brew at a budweiser price.
 
definitely something I want to do at some point but right now

a) I don't have the space
b) I don't have the time

right now I don't even have the time to make hot sauce which is really sad.
 
I have been planning to brew my own beer for ages, I'm sure I'll try it one day, but not now when I'mm busy "getting rid" of all the peppers I am harvesting!
 
Chiliac said:
I have been planning to brew my own beer for ages, I'm sure I'll try it one day, but not now when I'mm busy "getting rid" of all the peppers I am harvesting!
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Must admit been a few years since i brewed my own but its a really satisfying experience and man the amount of kits,hops,yeast..recipes has certainly changed from years ago..Wouldn't mind have a peep in I.G`s cellar or smell would be the right word :)
 
I began with a bucket behind a chair in our computer room.

The hose and sanitizer etc cn sit on top of the fermenting beer.

No real space required. It could go in a closet or a garage. A 5 gallon bucket is all you need to start.

And yes, the ingredients and their quality have vastly improved in the last 5-6 years.
 
chilliac, if you need to get rid of some peppers you can send them my way ;)
as for the brewing, yeah you can really start with a 5 gallon food grade bucket, one of the extract kits, and some empty bottles; I brewed for the first time with a friend who had been brewing for a few years, and i knew it was a sound investment for me so i skipped the extract in a can method and went straight to mostly grain brewing, and have since moved up to all grain brewing, and soon the only thing ill have to buy is yeast :)
 
You gonna grow the grain hydro?;)

Seriously, growing the grain is not the challenge. Properly kilning it to convert the sugars is a 10 on the DYI difficulty scale!

I have done 3-4 AG batches with great success, but the birth of our 3rd child pushed me back to partial mashes out of necessity for time.
 
Ya, but I don't have a pot big enough to boil 5 gallons and I was thinking of doing all grain instead of extract....so I'll need some extra stuff.
 
you can get stock pots cheap online; when i brew i use a 4 gallon stock pot (i think i paid like $10), but only put 3 gallons of water in it when i brew 5 gallon batches; i essentially make a super strong 3 gallon wort, and then add extra water, at temp to the carboy at the end; another option is to split your grain bill & hops up equally across two pots, kinda makes it more challenging, but th more effort in the better beer coming out.
forgot to mention, you want to get siphon of some kind; could be as simple as a rubber hose, but when you bottle you may want to transfer from the carboy to another container, and leave behind some of the sediment which can consist of dead yeast which can hurt thr flavor of your beer; dont forget the bottling sugar!!
 
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