Fellow INGO Homebrewers!

[littletommy]

I couldn't wait another week for my first brew to bottle condition, so I chilled one and gave it a taste, and it is AMAZING! I'd buy this stuff off the shelf if I had to. It's a Northern Brewer American wheat extract kit, and it exceeded my expectations by miles! It has some carbonation at this point, so it will only get better. Here's a crappy pic. I am a proud feller about now!

 

[littletommy]

$30 for a burner and cheap stand? Sold!

How good is the burner?

It had 3 gallons boiling in 8 minutes, worked out great, and was easy to assemble.

 

[jetmechG550]

Not sure who follows Great Fermentations but they are opening a second store in Avon soon. 36 & Dan Jones

 

[forgop]

I bought a full kit a year ago and have yet to get it unpacked. No idea if the brew ingredients are still good.

Maybe I need to get this all unpacked and brew a batch.

 

[hooky]

I bought a full kit a year ago and have yet to get it unpacked. No idea if the brew ingredients are still good.

Maybe I need to get this all unpacked and brew a batch.

As long as everything is still sealed and it hasn't been in your attic at 125 degrees, it should be fine. Brew on!

 

[danmdevries]

I bought a full kit a year ago and have yet to get it unpacked. No idea if the brew ingredients are still good.

Maybe I need to get this all unpacked and brew a batch.

If it came with yeast, ditch the yeast and pickup some new.

Hops are usually ok if packaged correctly (commercial packaging) but if it's a hop-forward beer, 1yr old may not give the presence you're looking for.

Get it unpacked and brew a batch. It's not hard to do. The hard part is if you really get into brewing. I probably spend more money and time brewing than I do with guns and shooting (and I enjoy reloading). I brew at least 15g/mo, always have between 5-8 fermenters full and 3-5 kegs full at all times. I have several recipes I've developed myself and I still brew many kit beers. I've got yeast cultures in the fridge, I've got about two dozen hop vines growing out in the woods, my bottle collection is well over 200. I've been slowly (2 years in now) building up my parts pile to build an indoor electric brewing setup.

The beautiful thing about brewing as a hobby is you can be as involved as you want to, or you can just buy an extract kit and make some beer on your kitchen stove. Either way works, and you get good beer for less than retail. Similarly to reloading though, you start reloading to save money, then you realize you reload to shoot more. I started brewing so I could have good beer on hand (after 3floyds stopped selling me kegs) but now it's grown to brewing for the sake of brewing, and trying experimental brews, and brewing friend/family requests as well as keeping good beer on hand. All in all with my equipment costs I doubt I really save much, but the beers I want aren't available in kegs, and I can make 5g of something similar or even a spot on clone, for $35-$50 which is about 48 12oz bottles/ 26-28 22oz bombers. Considering a 22oz bottle costs $5-10 retail it costs between 25% and 50% to brew your own. Factor in time, propane, equipment and it'll take a while to break even. I've run the numbers and even with a handful of ruined batches, I've broken even sometime last winter. BUT... it's illegal to sell. So I give away probably 50-60% of what I brew because half the fun is sharing it with others. So in that case, I'll never really break even. Still, it's a fun hobby that doesn't require much maintenance....unless you want it to.

 

[church]

Ive always wanted to brew up some beer and some mead. This thread is giving me the insentive to get off my rear and try. But ive got so many projects going on right now that im not sure if I need another. The idea of making my own beer is weighing heavily on the "One more project couldnt hurt" side of things and itd give me a pretty good excuse to buy 10-15 lbs of high quality bacon.

 

[danmdevries]

Ive always wanted to brew up some beer and some mead. This thread is giving me the insentive to get off my rear and try. But ive got so many projects going on right now that im not sure if I need another. The idea of making my own beer is weighing heavily on the "One more project couldnt hurt" side of things and itd give me a pretty good excuse to buy 10-15 lbs of high quality bacon.

It really is easy now. Other than a food grade bucket, lid and airlock for a fermentor, racking cane and bottling wand, you probably have everything you need to brew an extract batch.

 

[Gamez235]

It time for brewing!!!

 

[littletommy]

It time for brewing!!!

Nice! I'm getting ready to set up out on the deck for a brew here in an hour or so. I'm doing a Bavarian wheat extract kit this time, just bottled my Caribou Slobber yesterday, and ordered a cream ale kit just a few minutes ago. I started out with the essential brewers kit from Northern Brewer, and have since added 2 more fermenting buckets, and 3 5 gallon carboys that I'm using for Apfelwein.

 

[littletommy]

Ive always wanted to brew up some beer and some mead. This thread is giving me the insentive to get off my rear and try. But ive got so many projects going on right now that im not sure if I need another. The idea of making my own beer is weighing heavily on the "One more project couldnt hurt" side of things and itd give me a pretty good excuse to buy 10-15 lbs of high quality bacon.

Look up Joes ancient orange mead, or JAOM. It's simple, and takes about 10 minutes to get a gallon batch going. The down side is it should sit for a year before it's ready. I have several gallons of it, that I've mixed up at various times, the oldest being 8 months ago, and it definately needs to age as long as you can wait.

 

[Gamez235]

Nice! I'm getting ready to set up out on the deck for a brew here in an hour or so. I'm doing a Bavarian wheat extract kit this time, just bottled my Caribou Slobber yesterday, and ordered a cream ale kit just a few minutes ago. I started out with the essential brewers kit from Northern Brewer, and have since added 2 more fermenting buckets, and 3 5 gallon carboys that I'm using for Apfelwein.

This one is going to be a Passion Fruit Wheat. I've really been brewing alot since I got into it. My annual Pumpkin Ale is next up.

 

[Gamez235]

It's that time. Hopefully it will be ready to be tapped around Mid-September.

 

[jetmechG550]

For those west side Avon area home brewers that don't know Great Fermentations is opening a second location near Dan Jones & 36

 

[Gamez235]

Up till 2am getting this one going last night.

 

[whitetailbowhunter]

I've been wanting to get into homebrewing for awhile now and it just so happens my brother quit drinking. (He has been homebrewing for about 8 years). He recently gave me all of his equipment so that i can't start yet another hobby. I just ordered the Sierra Nevada Pale Ale kit from Midwestbrewing supplies so I should have my first hand at it next week! I never noticed this thread but i may have some questions coming for you guys throughout my first batch. Cheers!

 

[littletommy]

I've been wanting to get into homebrewing for awhile now and it just so happens my brother quit drinking. (He has been homebrewing for about 8 years). He recently gave me all of his equipment so that i can't start yet another hobby. I just ordered the Sierra Nevada Pale Ale kit from Midwestbrewing supplies so I should have my first hand at it next week! I never noticed this thread but i may have some questions coming for you guys throughout my first batch. Cheers!

The extract kits are a great way to get into brewing, just follow the step by step instructions, and make sure you sanitize everything the beer will touch after the boil.

 

[Mark-DuCo]

I've been brewing for awhile now and I just first found this thread. Any thoughts on kegging vs bottling? I have been throwing around the idea lately about getting a kegging setup. My father has an older chest freezer he wants to get rid of (still works, just getting too old to trust a couple hundred pounds of meat in) that I think I could turn into a kegerator pretty easily.

 

[JettaKnight]

I've been brewing for awhile now and I just first found this thread. Any thoughts on kegging vs bottling? I have been throwing around the idea lately about getting a kegging setup. My father has an older chest freezer he wants to get rid of (still works, just getting too old to trust a couple hundred pounds of meat in) that I think I could turn into a kegerator pretty easily.

I only bottle beer for long term storage. It's too tedious. Look online, there's plenty of controllers to make it work.

 

[ArcadiaGP]

I've got a nice kit and everything, and all the ingredients to start, I've just never gotten around to it. The instructions seemed vague... so I really don't know the step-by-step to doing it.

I need to pick up some good water and give it a try sometime, maybe find instructions online unless someone here has a good walkthrough.

I've got a bunch of growlers from various breweries I can store in, as well as a number of bottles