So my supplies are all gathered and tomorrow I will start my first batch of beer. I have done wine and mead before(several years ago) but this will be my first beer. I found a Mr. Beer kit on clearance and couldn't resist! It is a "American lager light" so probably not much flavor but I'm sure it will be better than the big three. So how many others here home brew? I seem to remember there are a few. What has your latest creation been?
Made wine at home a couple of years ago (3 maybe?). It didn't turn out; the alcohol content was maybe 2-3%. I think it was too hot, considering the average temperature probably didn't go beneath the max temperature for the yeast while it was fermenting. It's used for cooking, not drinking. I say "is used", not "was used" because we're still getting through it; the kit made something like 30L. So yeah, that was a bit of a failure .
Made some mead a couple years ago and still drink it in the winter... damn good, IMO. It took a few months to get rid of the cheap-booze-throat-burn, but now its delicious.
When I was a wee little lad I found out that if I put apples, sugar and yeast in water for x amount of time I'd get really icky cider. Then thanks to the internet I found out with a pressure cooker, I could make a cheap and easy still. The rest is history . On that note, I've made wine and root beer at home with success. Haven't tried beer yet, maybe in the future, beer from what I've read is a lot more finicky. Let me know how it turns out.
Mead is by far my favorite. I seem to remember it taking nearly a year before it was drinkable. Did a lot of mead mixed with whatever fruit or berries was available. Grape, raspberry, cider, ect. I think my best was a apple/pear hard cider.
Lagers can be tricky because they need a cold(er) fermentation temperature than ales. If you are fermenting above around 70 degrees F, your lager may develop into a "steam beer", similar to "Anchor Steam" out of San Francisco, which is pretty good stuff. My go to kit beer is an American Red Ale, which tastes pretty close to the bottled Hobgoblin Ale we get in the US--also wonderful stuff. My opinion is that British styles of beer (ales, stouts and porters) are the easiest to make. However, beer is pretty forgiving stuff and anything homemade is excellent.
***gets pen and paper*** go on. has anyone tried without a brewing kit? meaning, have any of you done this from scratch? looking for mead, cider, and beer how tos. p.s.: i've only tried making coconut "vodka" on the farm.
This is my first time using a kit. All my mead and wine were from scratch. Recipes from books or internet with a healthy amount of winging it. Is there any homebrew shops near you? That would be a good place to ask. If not you can order supplies via internet. Mead requires a fair amount of honey , you pretty much need to get it from a bee keeper to get a decent price. Here is a few links to help you out: Mead Hard Cider Beer Home Brew Forum
Thanks Dave76. No, no home brew shops near me in the Philippines (actually, I doubt there are any on the Islands). I am more familiar with backyard distilleries (as they are quite rampant here).
I bet the good brewers at the home brew forum could help you with a supplier that could mail order to you. Brew and grow This is the supplier that I used to buy from. I know they do mail order but don't know if they would mail to the Philippines or not. Edit: If there are backyard distilleries what are they using for yeast if there are no homebrew shops? You could use this yeast to make wine with whatever fruit is locally available. Also I am always curious as to how other people do things. I am curious by nature, fortunatly I am not a cat!
Thanks Dave76, you bum! You just peeked my interest in brewing again, not like I have anything better to spend my money on! Gawd! Anyways, spoke to a good friend of mine, his cousin is Brew master at Yukon Brewing here in town. Im going to see if he's willing to give me a list of equipment I need to get started and maybe see if he can give me an in on where, what, and how. If you have questions you would like me to ask, fire away, ill ask him if I remember next time I see him.
