Beer at home, easy or difficult?

homebrewing ranges from very easy (all extract) to about as complicated as you want to make it.

is it cost effective? i don't homebrew to save money, and probably when you factor in the cost of equipment, ingredients and time, is more expensive overall than just running out and picking up something commercially produced. i do it for the variety, quality and satisfaction that comes from "doing it yourself".

bob p

I'll add a bit more... if you like typical American Bud/Miller/Coors style beers (

Depending on the type of beer you want to make, it can be very easy to produce very good beer. If the beer you want toproduce is a lager, though, it's more difficult and takes more equipment and time. Cost effective? Maybe, but do it for a hobby, not the economics.

-------------->Denny

complicated as

expensive

I bought a homebrew kit for something like $50.00. Using just what came with the kit, I got five gallons of decent brew -- better than the commercial stuff, but rather 'winey' because I used white sugar. That comes out to ten bucks a gallon, or something like $22.00 a case. It's not as cheap as bud, but it's cheaper than a lot of the higher quality brews.

After that, it's about twelve bucks a batch of five or six gallons, or more like twenty or twenty-five if you like to make all malt brews (no sugar).

Just to cut the discouragement factor, I would recommend starting with prehopped extract and the like. Purists may sneer at it, but it beats the megabrewed beers by a long shot. Whether or not you like it as much as the microbrewed fare is a matter of taste.

The point is that it's inexpensive, very simple to make, and produces very good results.

The next step up is to use malt extract and hop it yourself. That requires a little more equipment. Besides the fermenter, airlock, siphon hose, and some kind of bottle capper, you need a big pot to boil the wort in.

The next step is to use malted grain and mash it yourself. That takes more equipment and time. Whether it tastes better than beer made from extract is the subject of much discussion. I won't even go there. ;-)

In summary, if you start with a kit and make beer from pre-hopped extract, you'll have some good beer at a price that beats all but the cheapest swill. Once you have tried that, you can decide how far you want to get into the art of brewing.

Ray

I've been doing it for a year, and I learn more and more every day. I have a feeling I can do this for 20 years and still not know everything.

Brewing beer can be very simple or very complicated, I'm still doing it the easy way with concentrated kits, and I progress to the more complicated methods at my own pace. My first batch was a 23 litre kit where all I had to do was pour it into my fermenter, sprinkle the yeast, and wait.

It sounds easy, but there is work involved, as there is in any hobby.

Cost effective? Here in Canada it is. Aside from startup costs, at about $20 a kit that makes about 66 bottles (2 3/4 cases of 24), compared to $30 for a case of 24 domestic, it is definitely cost effective. If you use glass bottles, the bottle caps will have to be bought.

I hope you enjoy it should you choose to pursue it.

I can't speak for beer, but I found by accident that perfectly drinkable alcohol can be made VERY cheaply.

get a 2 liter bottle of grape juice at Wal-Mart or similar, and drink about a third and leave it with the top not too tight for about a 3-4 days. then tighten the top and give it a shake. you will see the bottle expand with a pop and the contents get very foamy. you will also smell alcohol in the bottle. from this you are now on your way to freedom from alcohol taxes. have fun.

But that equipment is a choice, not a requirement. I use a 48 qt. cooler, a 7 gal. AL pot, a converted SS keg, and a propane burner. That's it...cheap, easy, effective.

To see the easy, inexpensive way to do all grain, see

-------->Denny

Werry Werry hard.

Honestly if you can make tea you can make beer.

__Stephen

OH Derric!

where can I buy Bud or Coors for less than $5.99 a sixpack ? It's been six or seven bucks a sixpack here for long as I can remember.

I am heartened by the promising responses within this thread. My first batch of Cooper's Lager is racked and bottled after a vigorous week of fermentation at 76 degrees till on day five somebody told me about swamping. This lesson probably cost me my first batch as I see very little activity as the bottles stand

warmest regards

Yodar in orlando Life is a lesson, live it and profit from it

The beer will be great - you've done nothing wrong. Red

Sorry, but he did...no way you can make a decent lager by fermenting at

76F! Lagers ferment at 45-55F, then are cold conditioned (that's "lagering") at 32-35F for several months afterwards. A lager fermented at 76F will not have lagerlike characterisitcs. 76F is too high for pretty much any beer but a few Belgians.

---------->Denny

snip

76 degrees is a bit warm; the yeast might have produced some fusel fuels that will give you a heck of a headache. I suppose it also depends upon the particular strain of yeast you used, but I try to never let my temp get much higher than 72, and I prefer to keep it in the 68 to 70 degree range as much as possible.

Bill

so that fusel stuff is related to temperature?

There are other sources, but fermentation at too high a temp is the main cause.

--------->Denny

Denny - this link apears to be bad....