Better Home brewing now?

[Hack_Fisherman]

I’ve been considering brewing my own craft beer after hearing of much better quality results. I’m not talking the plastic bottles filled with the beer ingredients out of the box kind of beer. I’d invest in a mini-keg set up and a full mash/boil process with a system like this;

https://www.clawhammersupply.com/products/digital-electric-120v-homebrew-beer-system

a local supply said they could set me up with ingredients that would put me close to my favourite craft brews. 
 

anyone here doing this already and has it been successful/rewarding? 

 

[Big Cliff]

I didn't do it at home but many years ago there was a business in Milton called Hogs Head Brewery where you could make your own beer. A couple of friends and I started playing around and developed our own recipe. It worked out so well they actually added our recipe (called Bignell's pilsner) to their book of standards and took out a full page add in the local paper with my picture 😊. 

If there is a similar place close to you I think I would try doing it using their equipment rather than buying and maintaining all your own, that will give you a lot more options than trying to do it at home. Anyway,  good luck and have fun with it, nothing more rewarding than DIY 😊

[Hack_Fisherman]

12 hours ago, Big Cliff said:

I didn't do it at home but many years ago there was a business in Milton called Hogs Head Brewery where you could make your own beer. A couple of friends and I started playing around and developed our own recipe. It worked out so well they actually added our recipe (called Bignell's pilsner) to their book of standards and took out a full page add in the local paper with my picture 😊. 

If there is a similar place close to you I think I would try doing it using their equipment rather than buying and maintaining all your own, that will give you a lot more options than trying to do it at home. Anyway,  good luck and have fun with it, nothing more rewarding than DIY 😊

I’m definitely going to look into that. I’ve got a bunch of growlers I could use. I don’t want to buy bottles. If it wasn’t for mini-keg or growlers I wouldn’t get into it. Too much work with all the extra filling/washing/sterilizing. 

[dave524]

I brewed for years, but nothing fancy. I used the canned stuff from Brew Canada, had a big primary that would do a double batch (10 Gallons). It looks like a  plastic laundry tub but with a tap on the side at the bottom and a air tight snap lid with a hole in the centre for an airlock. After the primary fermentation was done in about 5 days I would rack it down into 2 X 5 gallon glass carboys with airlocks for 3-4 weeks before bottling. To bottle I racked the carboy into a 5 gallon bucket with a tap on the bottom , add a cup of dextrose and bottled and capped in regular beer bottles, took a month to develop good carbonation. I did do a few additives later  like hops, it was quite good I thought and never lost a batch. A double batch was about 5 1/2 cases I recall , was 28 ahead at the start of summer once 🤪

[DanD]

My dad use to make homebrew all the time. Especially when his favorite (Black Label) crap went up in price. LOL He used a stone crock for fermenting; the whole house had a smell of hops, yeast and wet socks; nice to come home to. LOL After mixing his concoction, he would check it daily, by shining a flashlight into the crock's liquid; looking for the bubbles to stop.  Once it did stop bubbling; he'd put a teaspoon of white sugar into each regular sized beer bottles. These were the old stubby bottles; Dad hated it when they went to the long necks; why; I don't know?!! LOL OK it's bottling time; Mom would always fill the bottles with a syphon hose from the crock to the bottles. She never admitted it; but I think she liked the taste of that swamp water? LOL Dad wouldn't let us cap the bottles with that metal cap crimping gizmo; "you'll break the bottles" and this is him breaking one in five. (Again LOL sorry) The filled and capped bottles would go into the basement for its "curing time". After whatever time frame that was he'd open a few bottles and we all had to try it. Well you know the saying a little white lie won't hurt anything. Well I lied through my teeth; Yeah Dad it's not bad a little on the yeasty side. Oh man was it bad; but Dad liked his brew.

Sorry for the long post; BUT!

One time Dad bottled his brew before it was done doing whatever it does. About three days later; in the middle of the night, I could here something banging/exploding? Went into the basement and there were bottle neck shards and bottle caps stuck in the drywall ceiling. Yup the bottles exploded and shot the tops into the ceiling. LOL

Man I miss my Dad and the things he would try!

Dan.

Forgot to say I still have that old stone crock and everytime I see it I laugh at Dad's homebrew. LOL 

Edited March 2, 2021 by DanD

[dave524]

49 minutes ago, DanD said:

My dad use to make homebrew all the time.

One time Dad bottled his brew before it was done doing whatever it does. About three days later; in the middle of the night, I could here something banging/exploding? Went into the basement and there were bottle neck shards and bottle caps stuck in the drywall ceiling. Yup the bottles exploded and shot the tops into the ceiling. LOL

Man I miss my Dad and the things he would try!

Dan.

Forgot to say I still have that old stone crock and everytime I see it I laugh at Dad's homebrew. LOL 

Yeah, I always used a secondary and waited until fermentation had stopped, adding a precise amount of sugar to carbonate in the bottle, Dad was obviously in a hurry to get a drinkable brew.

[DanD]

45 minutes ago, dave524 said:

Dad was obviously in a hurry to get a drinkable brew.

You think so? LOL

Again I loved my Dad to no end; but he did experiment with things that sometimes went wrong! "Why didn't that work" "I Don't Know" lets try again; oh crap look out Danny run!!! LOL That's all I heard when Dad tried building a still! No it didn't go well; he blew up the chicken coop! Mom was pissed; no eggs and no sign of her hens.

Believe this or not; but that was my Dad.

Dan.

[ketchenany]

Dan, I have an old friend who did it with his dad, each night they would go and have a taste! It never made it to the bottles he told me. 
I used to cure olives in one of those crocks, still have it. 

[Hack_Fisherman]

Some great stories here. I’m hearing a common denominator here; “so and so used to brew”

I wonder if the mini-keg brewers last longer before giving up brewing? 
I have to imagine at some point it becomes too much of a hassle regardless of equipment. 
 

 

 

[Big Cliff]

13 hours ago, DanD said:

My dad use to make homebrew all the time. Especially when his favorite (Black Label) crap went up in price. LOL He used a stone crock for fermenting; the whole house had a smell of hops, yeast and wet socks; nice to come home to. LOL After mixing his concoction, he would check it daily, by shining a flashlight into the crock's liquid; looking for the bubbles to stop.  Once it did stop bubbling; he'd put a teaspoon of white sugar into each regular sized beer bottles. These were the old stubby bottles; Dad hated it when they went to the long necks; why; I don't know?!! LOL OK it's bottling time; Mom would always fill the bottles with a syphon hose from the crock to the bottles. She never admitted it; but I think she liked the taste of that swamp water? LOL Dad wouldn't let us cap the bottles with that metal cap crimping gizmo; "you'll break the bottles" and this is him breaking one in five. (Again LOL sorry) The filled and capped bottles would go into the basement for its "curing time". After whatever time frame that was he'd open a few bottles and we all had to try it. Well you know the saying a little white lie won't hurt anything. Well I lied through my teeth; Yeah Dad it's not bad a little on the yeasty side. Oh man was it bad; but Dad liked his brew.

Sorry for the long post; BUT!

One time Dad bottled his brew before it was done doing whatever it does. About three days later; in the middle of the night, I could here something banging/exploding? Went into the basement and there were bottle neck shards and bottle caps stuck in the drywall ceiling. Yup the bottles exploded and shot the tops into the ceiling. LOL

Man I miss my Dad and the things he would try!

Dan.

Forgot to say I still have that old stone crock and everytime I see it I laugh at Dad's homebrew. LOL 

Dan, thank you so much for sharing this, what wonderful memories😊

[dave524]

9 hours ago, Hack_Fisherman said:

Some great stories here. I’m hearing a common denominator here; “so and so used to brew”

I wonder if the mini-keg brewers last longer before giving up brewing? 
I have to imagine at some point it becomes too much of a hassle regardless of equipment. 
 

 

I kept my primary fermenter and 4 - 5 gallon carboys, thought I might get back into it when I retired, that was almost 13 years ago 🤣. Think there is even a few cases of non twist off , green Amstel bottles in the furnace room, they were the best.

 

 edit : could actually do wine with that equipment 🤔

Edited March 3, 2021 by dave524

[Big Cliff]

59 minutes ago, dave524 said:

I kept my primary fermenter and 4 - 5 gallon carboys, thought I might get back into it when I retired, that was almost 13 years ago 🤣. Think there is even a few cases of non twist off , green Amstel bottles in the furnace room, they were the best.

 

 edit : could actually do wine with that equipment 🤔

Wouldn't take much to build a still, opens up all kinds of possibilities, make all your own liquor, brew wine, so much easier to store than beer. 

[Sinker]

Moonshine is easier and more effective 😂

[dave524]

Think it was the 80's, anyone else remember  " swish "  it was popular with the East Coasters at work.

 

[DanD]

Swish.

I do remember those barrels. Being on a tobacco farm, we had greenhouses. Dad would get a couple barrels, dump whatever amount of water in and put the barrels in the greenhouse, startling the walkway. Everyday he'd go into the greenhouse and give the barrels a push and roll them over. What we/he wouldn't do to get cheap booze. LOL Even as watered down that crap was, it would get you going and the whole time you'd worried that we didn't go blind. LOL

Dan.