Learn to Brew Beer - American Homebrewer's Association

http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/pages/community/videos/show?title=homebrewing-lesson-1-introduction

by phren0logy • 16 years ago

27 18 16 years ago

phren0logy2• 16 years ago

I'm submitting this because a friend recently introduced me to homebrewing. It's really easy to get started, and doesn't take much time or equipment (unless you want it to).

I thought it might be something that some people around here might be interested in, and might not see otherwise. It is fantastically geeky in all the right ways.

P.S. I'm not endorsing drinking more beer, I'm endorsing drinking better beer. Brew exactly the beer you would want to drink, even if it would never be commercially viable to sell.

lbrandy• 16 years ago

I agree, although I haven't started brewing yet (my brother does). Doing it by yourself, I think, is hard, cause it's difficult to make a "reasonable" amount of beer for one person.

That said, it is def. appropriate for HN. Beer brewing is on my short-list of "telling hobbies" that is most certainly hacker-tastic. It just seems to be the kind of thing that good devs are drawn to, I could only make an educated guess as to why. I told my brother he needs to put it on his resume, somewhere at the bottom, because if I saw it on a resume, I'd give mental bonus points.

alexsherrick• 16 years ago

thanks a lot for this... always thought it would be cool to learn!

phren0logy2• 16 years ago

No problem. I hadn't really given it much thought until recently, but when a friend suggested it I jumped at the idea. I have been dreaming about all kinds of exciting things to try, like beers brewed with fruits and peppers.

Like programming language communities, hobby communities can also add or detract from the experience. In general, I have found homebrewers to be pretty laid back. You don't want to do the fancy processes and equipment? No problem, you brew the beer you want the way you want to do it. There's no right way, do what makes you happy.

Avshalom2• 16 years ago

So the greatest pepper beer I've ever made/drank was a green chile ale made with the grain bill of a marzen.

That recipe though is part of a friends business plan so I can't share it I can share this older one though:

10 gallon batch:

  16lbs english pale
  4 lbs green chile
  2 lbs biscuit malt
  2 lbs crystal 10L
  2 lbs white wheat
  1 lbs german wheat
  1 lbs melanoidin
  1 lbs carapils
  1 lbs munich 10L

Mash in 8 gallons of water at 155F for 3 hours

Sparge with 9.5 gallons

60 minute Boil time with:

  1.25 oz Pioneer 8.5% at T-60 
  0.75 oz Wilamette 4.1 at T-30
  1 tsp irish moss
  1 tsp gypsum at T-25
  0.75 oz Saaz 5.9% at T-15
  0.75 oz Cascade 5.9% at T-5

Nottingham yeast

Let hang in primary for a 10 days then transferred to secondary and added 4lbs Green Chile.

It's been a while since I've lived in New Mexico so I haven't made this in a couple years, but aside from the quantity of chiles it should work pretty well for any pepper. Though I'd use more cascade and less pioneer if it was a citrus-y pepper like a habanero.

mattmichielsen2• 16 years ago

I actually presented this (http://www.slideshare.net/mattmichielsen/how-to-make-beer) at a local BarCamp a couple years ago instead of the talk I was planning to do on mercurial vs. git. I got a lot of people excited about it and at least one has been brewing himself lately.

varikin• 16 years ago

As a beer lover, I have looked into brewing and decided I don't have the patients for it. So I did the next best thing. I have a good friend who loves to brew. He always wants to give away as much beer as he can so he has room to brew and store more beer.

uxp2• 16 years ago

As someone who homebrews, this is fantastic advice. I give most of my product away to friends because I can't drink the quantity I end up producing all by myself.

To anyone who says they don't have patience, don't worry. Beginning with extract brewing, a very simplified approach is boiling a large pot of water for about 2 hours and then tossing it in a bucket for a week. Don't worry, the first batch will be garbage. Learn why it failed (it was because you weren't clean enough), and try again.

flexxy86• 16 years ago

Great link, as someone who has just gotten into home brewing it's a lot fun. I'm really only on my 1st brew (bottling day is sunday!) another thing to check out would be the Basic Brewing (found @ basicbrewing.com) podcast which has some good info as well.

uxp2• 16 years ago

The Brewing Network (http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/) is also a great resource for beginners and all the way to advanced and commercial brewers. They have a handful of live shows that are archived to podcasts ranging from completely offtopic drunken chatter to clear cut how-to's.

Avshalom2• 16 years ago

I recommend the book Radical Brewing by Randy Mosher. It's a fun read, comes with a crap ton of tables of what ingredients add what flavors and comes at brewing from the angle of wanting to make the perfect green chile prickly pear doppelbock.

jsm386• 16 years ago

Brewed my first batch last month. http://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html was essential. Everything went to plan...except when we got too vigorous a fermentation and the airlock blew off at 3am. Thankfully the beer turned out great, but next time I'll be using a blowoff hose.

steauengeglase• 16 years ago

I've been doing this for a couple years and I've got to say, it has been pretty satisfying, quick and cheap. Depending on the yeast you use and how dedicated you are to experimentation, you can clone almost anything after less than 3 months of serious reading/tinkering/tasting.

I can't think of too many hands-on knowledge investments that have such a quick, broad return with such a low monetary cost. [I've been building a spare brewing kit from more-or-less rummage sources, just to see how cheap I can go. Half-way finished and I've literally spent only $5.]

arohner• 16 years ago

I've been brewing for several years, and always enjoyed it. Two pieces of advice, they cost more, but the results are worth it.

1) Keg your beer, or bottle in larger containers. I brew 5-6 gallons at a time. Putting that in 12oz beer bottles requires sanitizing and capping more than 50 bottles. Screw that. Use 1-2 liter bottles, or even better, keg your beer. Kegging tastes better, is less work, but more expensive (because you need a CO2 tank, a regulator, and a keg).

2) Don't kegerator. Kegerating is problematic because your beer line runs from the cold to room temperature. Germs can crawl up the tap, causing the beer to taste skanky. Kegerating requires cleaning the tap frequently.

Instead, put your whole keg inside the fridge, tap and all. Doing this, I've had a batch last 6 months, with no skankiness.

pasbesoin• 16 years ago

> Instead, put your whole keg inside the fridge, tap and all.

The brother of a friend is in a local brew club. Also very technical and (selectively) a perfectionist. That's how he/they do it.

Just be ready to take a few shelves out of the refrigerator. He has a second one in the basement devoted to this.

Once a year, they have a big Oktoberfest fund-raiser for charity. Everyone gets to bring and share their brews with the crowd, and it all goes to a good cause.

blangblang• 16 years ago

I've got to mention 'Brewing Classic Styles: 80 Winning Recipes Anyone Can Brew' by Jamil Zainasheff and John Palmer here. It contains examples of both all-grain and extract recipes for every BJCP category. The breadth of styles provided and the consistent, accurate recipes make it a great reference for any level of brewer.

billswift• 16 years ago

If you want to ruin perfectly good edibles, there are faster ways than turning them into beer.

Learn to Brew Beer - American Homebrewer's Association

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