The (Un) Official Homebrew Thread?

I was thinking about this not more than an hour ago?!?! Have I been kicked out of Brewlore Inc? What gives?!?! :(

no kicking out has occured...yet :p

I just havn't had a chance to get all the stuff we need to convert the cooler into the mash tun. Fri or sat Luann and I will be picking up the hose clamps, washers, etc. and I'll hopefully either build the tun this weekend or next. Either way, we'll be brewing another beer before the end of the year
 
FINALLY got 98% of the parts we need for a mashtun. All I need is an o-ring and a few fender washers.

Hoping to have a brewing session in 2-3 weeks.

Thinking of doin' a ESB or Porter
 
You guys still brewing?

We just brewed a bitter brown ale our first all-grain batch with Ben's dad. Low original gravity though,1.035 :(. I think we just sparged with too much water.

Our next batch should be a strong IPA, hopefully 1.080 OG. Bittering hops and flavour hops are going to be Amarillo and probably dry hop with Centennial. American Ale Yeast.

Probably gonna brew a bunch of IPAs initially and just fuck with the hops.

If things go right, we'll bring some to HCIII!
 
Aye, Sunday morning we bottled our Saison. OG was 1.055 (lower than predicted, sparged a tad too much). Upon bottling the Gravity dropped way fucking low to 1.000. Still tastes good, the sweetness is very low an there's a subtle bitterness to it. Should come out great once it's conditioned.

Not sure what we're doing next. Maybe something along the lines of a Winter Warmer or something for the fall/winter season.

Word of advice! Add some gypsum to the water you use for your IPA, it'll help bring out more of the hops!
 
We bought some gypsum, but I haven't decided if we should put it in. Midwest water is harder than west coast water though.
 
Me and the old man were gonna do some brews now that it's cooling down, but the supply shop we go to got driven out... gonna have to find a new place.

Fuck, I spent a large chunk of time this weekend of cleaning the basement getting it ready :(
 
Support your local homebrew supply shop!!! :kickass:



Well, try to at least. Although with the hop deal that's going on buying hops online makes sense though. One of the local shops gets small shipments of the more in demand hops. Yet online it's fairly easy to get despite costing about 4-5 bucks for an ounce of the bigger hops (Amarillo, Chinook, etc). I can't even find Simco
 
The homebrew shops in our area or fucked up people. We went to one and were just generally put off by the dude; also, the new homebrew shop guy is just as fucked up (according to my buddies dad, I'll find out for myself this weekend though).

We are supporting a Homebrew place in Minnesota, so that's close enough!
 
Currently dry hopping our IPA. It smells and looks awesome. I can't wait to see how the dry hopping affects the beer! With a low OG, we actually got 7% ABV, it's also bitter as fuck. So far, it reminds me of a super bitter, fruity English Pale Ale.
 
I'm planning to start brewing my own beer once we've moved. How do I proceed? A simple guide that includes everything, including where to buy shit (preferrably in Sweden but I know Google so it's alright) would be ace, but I'd prefer your own tips and experiences. I hear ales are the most simple brews to make yourself? Where would be suitable for fermentation (correct word?) that I will be likely to have nearby? How do I keep a good temperature?
Shit like that. Spill it!
 
Google Homebrew Starter Kit and you'll get loads of kits to buy to start out. We got something like the Deluxe set on http://www.northernbrewer.com/starterkits.html, but you'll have to buy a 5 gal brew pot or 7-10 if you plan on getting more advanced. Ales are generally easy because they ferment at the correct temperature in most basements. The only difference is lagers have to be fermented colder and take longer to ferment because of the strain of yeast. Usually a basement or a closet will work fine for fermenting, but since you're in Sweden it might get a bit cold for Ales, so a carboy belt would be perfect to keep your temperature good for fermenting.

Also, when you start, the best is to go with kits where all the ingredients are picked for you and all you have to do it boil it, put it in a carboy, then bottle. The big trick is to stay super clean and sanitize everything.

I'd highly recommend buying The Complete Joy of Homebrewing by Charlie Papazian. It's perfect for the beginning, intermediate and advanced brewer.

Also, I've heard the Scandinavian countries are kicking ass at homebrewing because the price of alcohol is so expensive. You can also join a local homebrewing club. A bottle of Nogne and Mikkeller run 8-9 dollars here, so it makes sense.
 
We just bottled our Simcoe IPA, and it smells and tastes wonderful! It has a very grapefruit taste and an incredible smooth bitterness. Too bad the alcohol percent is only 4.9-5%. However, when dry hopped our IPA smelled skunky, which made me a bit nervous, but now I'm super excited to try it in 7 days!

I'd highly recommend hopping your IPA with a huge hop addition at 15 minutes, it brings out soo many flavours.
 
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My Strong Dark Belgian fermentation going crazy.
 
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From left to right: A dry hopped Imperial IPA (8.2% ABV), a Strong Belgian Dark (8.8% ABV), and Wee Heavy (probably going to hit 8.2%).

The Wee Heavy's fermentation went crazy over the night, and I thought I lost it this morning with the blow off tube out of the cup and the cup was filled with Krausen.

When we tasted the Belgian out of the fermentation, it was fucking awesome, spicey, estery, and smooth; I think it's going to be great. The Imperial IPA tasted like most IPAs do right out of the fermentation: a super bitter/hoppy fruit flavour. Going to keg the Imperial IPA for the super bowl and bottle the Strong Belgian Dark and Wee Heavy. A nice 15 gallons of beer!

Up next:

A hoppier version of Heathen Red (the good Heathen Red) for the keg. Going to use a bittering hop then 2 oz of flavour hop.