Anyone else brew their own beer? I brewed a 4 gallon batch of a kolsch with friends last weekend, it's fermenting nicely right now. I'm going to brew a 5 gallon batch of a SMASH (single malt and single hop) ale this weekend, though I haven't picked the malt or hop to use yet.

i love Kolsch beer

Spock;1862940 wrote:i love Kolsch beer

It's a great easy-drinking summer beer, for sure.

I tried once, problem I had was keeping it fermented at a consistent temperature (this was in Cleveland in the winter in an apt with terrible heating). I would like to try again now that I could probably keep it a more consistent temperature.

I do quite a bit of homemade wine, but have not done any beer.

iclfan2;1862943 wrote:I tried once, problem I had was keeping it fermented at a consistent temperature (this was in Cleveland in the winter in an apt with terrible heating). I would like to try again now that I could probably keep it a more consistent temperature.

Yeah, that's a big problem I had when I initially attempted 5 or 6 years ago. I lucked into a free beverage fridge from my in-laws that I've been using to ferment smaller batches. I'm currently fermenting the kolsch in two 2-gallon buckets in the fridge. It has a glass door so I can monitor the fermentation without opening the fridge. I built a temperature controller a while back that keeps the fridge at a steady temperature (currently 50º).

Fermenting most ales is relatively easy if you have a cool basement, as it only needs to be around 68º.

I've done it in the past, it's a lot of work/space and I just like drinking beer more than I like making it.

Hopefully I can get doing it at some point. I need a hobby, other than my career.

Maybe...when my house sells and I can get settled in I'll get rolling with some homebrew stuff.

OSH;1862985 wrote:Hopefully I can get doing it at some point. I need a hobby, other than my career.

Maybe...when my house sells and I can get settled in I'll get rolling with some homebrew stuff.

You're in my area now. You can always come by when I'm brewing to learn the process. I'm still learning and improving as I go, but I've got the basics down to where I can brew a batch of decent to really good beer every time.

Never done beer. I've done mead, and I helped a buddy do moonshine once, but never beer.

How involved a process is it?

O-Trap;1863133 wrote:Never done beer. I've done mead, and I helped a buddy do moonshine once, but never beer.

How involved a process is it?

It's pretty involved, and pretty messy, but once you get the hang of it it's not bad and is actually an enjoyable process.

For extract brewing:

1. Mix extract with water to make wort.
2. Boil wort for an hour.
3. Add hops at (usually) the beginning of the boil, with 15 minutes left, and with a minute or two left.
4. Cool wort to ~75º as quickly as possible.
5. Pitch yeast.
6. Let ferment for two weeks at 65-68º.
7. Bottle after two weeks (mix with bottling sugar solution to create carbonation).
8. Let it sit in the bottle for 2 weeks or so to carbonate.
9. Enjoy.

For all-grain brewing steps 2-9 are basically the same, you just create the wort yourself from scratch, instead of starting with the concentrated extract.

1. Bring water to temperature (usually 165-170º) and add milled grain.
2. Let sit (or "mash") for (typically) an hour at a steady temperature (usually between 144-152º I think).
3. While mashing heat up water for "sparging" (basically just pouring water over the grain to get as much of the sugar as possible)
4. Sparge the grain and collect the wort.
5. Start at step 2 above.

I tried it a couple times and decided it's too much trouble, too much time and didn't taste very good.

(see previous post)

I'd rather just buy it.

I didn't get a chance to brew this weekend, but I did check on our Kolsch from last weekend and it's starting to look like beer.

Do you build your own kits from a local store or use a website like Midwest Supplies? Do you do mostly extract kits (with or without specialty grains) or All grain?

I have a nice little library of home brewing books that I pull recipes from. I buy my supplies at Listermann's (great local home brew shop and brewery in Cincinnati). I am doing all-grain brewing.