Brewing Your Own Ale

[itself]

Anyone doing this at home with a kit or from a book? I really want to give it a try, but am afraid it might be more work and mess than what it is worth.

If you are doing it, tell us about it!

[bluebug32]

We put a brew kit on our registry for our wedding and got it! It's been so much fun and a great thing to do together. We ordered a kit from Williams Brewing http://www.williamsbrewing.com/COMPLETE_BREWERY_WITH_GERMAN_A_P2343C257.cfm

We started out with the brew that came in the kit (a Belgian) and we now calculate new recipes through beersmith (computer program) and work with our local brew supply place.

[Mr. BlueBug32]

To further what the Mrs said:

Brewing from kits is pretty simple: just follow the directions provided in the kit, and you'll be good to go. The thing is, most of those kits are pretty pedestrian.

If you really think you're going to get into it, a good Local Homebrew Shop is a must. Brewing is as much an art as it is a science. Someone who can explain the difference between Belgian biscuit malt and Belgian Special B malt, and how it will affect the final taste of the beer in question, will be absolutely NECESSARY to understand craft brewing and brewing from your own recipes.

Once you find a good LHS, and have the science of brewing down through doing a couple kits, turn your imagination loose and see where it takes you.

[jessmarimba]

Yep, we just bottled about 10 gallons of beer here last night! Though I'm just doing all of the little work now and I'm not very familiar with the whole process. It's a ton of fun.

[itself]

Thank you so much! Oh my gosh, I am so glad to see that it is really fun and enjoyable. The link provided has what appears to be an awesome brewing kit, with a kettle and transfer tools to make it easy and less mess. Definitely seems like the $200 investment is worth it.

I love smooth, non-hoppy ale, so I am hoping to find one like this to brew the first time around. Huh, there is a brewery in Sedona, I will go in and have a chat with them, great suggestion!

[malkin]

I thought bottling was pretty much a pain. Saving, washing, storing bottles--they ended up everywhere. Keg system solved all that!

[kermit]

I found a Mr. Beer kit on line. It comes with a 5 gallon plastic jug and you can buy kits for different brews. It was fun and we made everything from a light beer to kinda like a Sam Adams, 12%. It was fun!

[Mr. BlueBug32]

I thought bottling was pretty much a pain. Saving, washing, storing bottles--they ended up everywhere. Keg system solved all that!

How tough was it for you to transition from bottling to kegging? Any special changes in your process?

[gnat23]

Kegging is nice in that you only have to clean/sanitize one, er, "bottle".

You can also force carbonate if you don't want to wait the two weeks for the sugar-priming. Beer faster!

We went from endless bottles to two kegs and a single CO2 source in a chest freezer with a temperature loop controller. Bit of a cash outlay to set up, but if you're going to stick with the beer as a hobby, it's sooo worth it.

-- gnat! (got upgraded to a 10gal full boil system for christmas!)

[malkin]

I nagged Brewer for a couple years to get him to keg rather than bottle. Once he went for it, it was a breeze. The only change I noticed was not fussing with bottles all over the place all the time. Finally we sold cases and cases of bottles and the capper.

I got him a nice ceramic tower with 3 taps that sits on top of a modified chest freezer too.

[bluebug32]

Kegging is nice in that you only have to clean/sanitize one, er, "bottle".

You can also force carbonate if you don't want to wait the two weeks for the sugar-priming. Beer faster!

We went from endless bottles to two kegs and a single CO2 source in a chest freezer with a temperature loop controller. Bit of a cash outlay to set up, but if you're going to stick with the beer as a hobby, it's sooo worth it.

-- gnat! (got upgraded to a 10gal full boil system for christmas!)

That sounds pretty enticing. Thanks for sharing, Gnat.