Choose My Home Brew!!

Inspired by comments in the 'Microbrew' Thread, I've decided to solicit some advice on my next batch of homebrewed beer! It's been about 6 months since I made a batch, and I'm getting a little itchy, but I can't seem to decide on what to make..

So, fellow homebrewers (or anyone with an interest in good beer!) tell, answer me any or all of the following questions:

What style? IPA? Bitter? Wheat? Belgian? What do you enjoy?

Malts/Grains? Any special grains that make it particularly good?

Hops/Seasonings? More bitter or aroma? And what types work well for you? Any non-hops secret weapons (spices, liqueurs, etc?)

Yeast? Any strains that you favour?

A few things to consider:

* I favour mini-mashes at the moment, since it's cheaper and and makes less of a mess in my small apartment

* It's summer here, which means I'd like a style that can survive the temperatures (I.e. lagering is out...) and will be good to drink come August/September

*Since I'm pressed for storage space, I tend to make slightly smaller batches (3 gallons) of 'higher octane' beer (5% ABV+)



If I get some good suggestions, I'll let you know how its going, and please share how any of your current brewing projects (or past ones) are going/have gone...

And if you happen to be in Halifax by the time it's done, you can have some

I've done home brewing with my friend, though I was very much the accomplice while he handled the details you get at in your OP. All I know is that we use wort (possibly the grossest substance known to man) and add (a large amount of) sugar then water, then the yeast. It gets left for a few weeks then syphoned into a barrel, the left again.

It tends to taste good; I say that as someone that is not a massive beer drinker.

Truronian said:

I've done home brewing with my friend, though I was very much the accomplice while he handled the details you get at in your OP. All I know is that we use wort (possibly the grossest substance known to man) and add (a large amount of) sugar then water, then the yeast. It gets left for a few weeks then syphoned into a barrel, the left again.

It tends to taste good; I say that as someone that is not a massive beer drinker.

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Hmmm....well, in that case, what's your favourite style and brand. THere's plenty of 'beer copycats' on vrewing forums that spend hours figuring out what gives a particular brand its distict flavour...

Commercial brands? I'm very much a Guinness man, though I do dabble in some of the Cornish beers just 'cause I've been to the brewery they're all made at... Tribute is pretty nice.

I have a friend who brews tons and tons of ginger beer. At any point in time the guy will have 4 large batches of gingerbeer undergoing fermentation, each with a distinct flavour. At the end of the 2-week cycle, he'll pour the batches into 2L bottles, numbering each batch, and then trying new things and new flavours with new batches. It actually doesn't taste much like beer.. but it is pretty strong and it has lead to some pretty interesting parties. One was pirate themed and it was a BLAST.

Anyway, don't use ginger.

Truronian said:

Commercial brands? I'm very much a Guinness man, though I do dabble in some of the Cornish beers just 'cause I've been to the brewery they're all made at... Tribute is pretty nice.

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Well, I don't know if I want a stout for summer drinking. What are cornish beers like?

warpus said:

I have a friend who brews tons and tons of ginger beer. At any point in time the guy will have 4 large batches of gingerbeer undergoing fermentation, each with a distinct flavour. At the end of the 2-week cycle, he'll pour the batches into 2L bottles, numbering each batch, and then trying new things and new flavours with new batches. It actually doesn't taste much like beer.. but it is pretty strong and it has lead to some pretty interesting parties. One was pirate themed and it was a BLAST.

Anyway, don't use ginger.

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Ginger beer is what I used to brew while I was staying in europe and ran out of cash, using nothing but old 2L coke bottles, baking yeast, a 2Kg bag of white sugar left behind from someone in our flat, and as much fresh ginger as I could buy at the time. It tasted like sour gingerale, but, in the words of Dave Chapelle: "It'll getcha drunk!! You might even fight a <african-american> or two..."

Just how easy is it to homebrew? I'm getting interested by the sound of this...

dos equis - stay thirsty my friend

Root Beer

Abaddon said:

Just how easy is it to homebrew? I'm getting interested by the sound of this...

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Home-brewing is about as easy or as difficult as you want to make it. The first step is usually locating a shop that will sell you the right supplies, and a little space in your home you don't mind getting too messy. But in a nutshell the process is simplified down to this:

(1)Sugar! In order for yeast to produce alcohol (as well as some other tasty chemicals) they need a source of food, which comes in the form of simple sugars like maltose. Basically, you extract these out of malted grains using a process called a 'mash' or simply add the needed sugars to water using a malt extract. Or use a combination of these methods.

(2) Boil! Boil that sugar solution (wort) to ensure that it is sterile, to convert some of your sugars to more accessible forms to yeast. It will also concentrate your wort a bit...

(3) Hops! While it is boiling, add hops to bitter your brew (which will also help preserve it). What kind of hops and when you add them in the boil will change how bitter or aromatic they will be.

(4) Yeast! Once it's all cooled down an in a fermentation carboy, you can add yeast. Again, the strain of yeast will influence the flavour or the brew (some yeast like certain sugars better than others, some produce very particular by-products that can make a beer taste like anything from a crisp pilsner to a fruity belgian), as will the temperature...

(5) Wait! From 3 weeks to 6 months for the yeast to do their job. Then, filter out the sediment and either drink it immediately (not so tasty) or age it from 6 weeks to many years (!!!) for the brew to hit its peak.

(6) DRINK!

This is, of course, a gross oversimplification of the process, but if you want to find out more, I'd recommend starting with something like this

What not to doon't buy those cheap 'instant--prehooped-homebrew-in-a-can' kits. Not only do they usually taste awful, they remove all the fun of choosing your own combination of malts, hops and yeasts, and the experimentation that makes it so much fun....

Cheers man. If I stop moving around, i'll give it a go!

Be a man. Make an Imperial Stout.

bombshoo said:

Be a man. Make an Imperial Stout.

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I've been thinking of this...but want to give it a bit of a summer twist. Maybe itrus zest in the place of high hops bitterness

Honey Mead, or is that too expensive as a carbon source? How about Honey-Wheat beer?

GoodGame said:

Honey Mead, or is that too expensive as a carbon source? How about Honey-Wheat beer?

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You know I've never given mead a shot, but yeah, pretty expensive form of sugar!

I've incorporated honey into a belgian-type beer before with good results, but my best 'alternate sugar' was an oat and wild rice stout with a generous dollop of maple syrup...expensive, I'll admit, but damn did it make for good beer....

A dark mild is boiling away as I type this!
The first recipe I wrote myself.

Voting for IPA. Citrusy hops.