I just started my first batch of home brew. I have fermented several batches of Wine, but I am finding out that there is about as much similarity between wine and beer making as there is between a pit bull dog and a kitten. My first comment is to the "experts" who suggest that I start with a Kit. If I wanted easy I would buy a case of Bud, put it into a refrigerator overnight, open by placing a cloth over the lid and twisting (wouldn't want to hurt my hand" and gently pour into a prechilled beer mug. Well I did buy a MrBeer Kit, because it was on sale 1/2 off for
20 bucks. I also went to the wine supply store and bought a True Brew Amber beer kit (27 bucks? I could buy 2 cases of beer for that so you sure don't do this for the economics) and "Joy of Home Brewing" . My first batch is neither. While at the wine supply store I picked up a pound of 2 row Barley Malt (If I would have know about the enzyme thing I would have gotten 6 row Barley) and an ounce of Cascade Hop pellets (the store cracked the barley for me). Just in case the guy at the store who was making Pumpkin beer is on this news group, Thanks, the 2 minutes you talked to me was more informative than the owners half an hour. Just in case the owner is on this news group, no offence, you are a "by the book" person, I am an experimenter. My ultimate goal is to grow and malt my own grain. Maybe sill a little alcohol for my car :'). or start a whole alternative fuel company with switchgrass, but that's getting off subject for this news group. After selectively reading sections of "Joy of Home Brewing" I came to the conclusion that there was no "directions" for how to make beer, just a lot of guidelines, so I wrote up my own. If this first gallon even taste like beer I'll be surprised. I peeled and shredded two small potatoes rinsed in 1 qt cold water, and boiled the liquid starch mixture (Used the shreaded potatoes for hash browns). (I know potato starch is not recommended but I wanted to give the enzymes extra starch to work on). brought the temp back to 130 F and added most of the 1 lb of malted Barley final temp 123 F. in a 1/2 gal cooler. added small amounts of boiling water to maintain 123 F for 1/2 hour. Gradually raised the temp to 150 F with boiling water stirring vigorously to prevent hot spots from over heating the enzymes. By now I had to transfer the entire contents to a 2 gal cooler. I maintained the 150 F for about 15 min. I couldn't get the temp up to the next level of 158 F by adding additional boiling water so I tried a couple of other method, added a heating element into the liquid was somewhat successful, but I finally poured the contents into a crock pot and set the temp on warm. After several hours now midnight the starch test was still strongly positive, so I just let it go overnight. The temp did creep up to about 163 F by the next morning the starch test was still positive so I just went to the next steep. Poured the contents into a pan and brought to boiling. added 1/3 ounce of the Hop pellets and remaining Barley and boiled for 45 minutes. the last few minutes I added a few more hop pellets (total 1/2 oz). I filtered the hot wort with a household sieve, dipping the sieve into a bowl of hot water occasionally to rinse the nectar from the trub. I brought the temp to below 75 F with Ice cubes and pitched the yeast. Since I already had several batches of wine going and didn't want to waste either kit's beer yeast I just added some of the fermenting wine. By now I imagine that some of you beer loving experts are really cringing and ready to let me have it. so go ahead- posted
17 years ago