Forums » Off-Topic and Casual Chatter

Home-Brew

    • 294 posts
    September 10, 2017 5:35 PM PDT

    Geeesh, All this time on my hands waiting has got me trying something new.

    I like playing Dwarves, so I'm enterring the world of brewing my own beer.

    Going to try my hand at an Oktoberfest/Marzen this week. My very first home-brew. I'm excited. Hope it doesn't bomb... Wont have results for a few weeks to come, but will try to check back in here to let you all know how it turned out.

    Any other home-brewers out there?

    • 21 posts
    September 10, 2017 7:20 PM PDT

    Try combining a cask, 2 elven wines, a red wine, and a white wine to make faydwer porter. should be trivial around 115.

     

    But in all seriousness i've just finished a stone ipa clone from craft a brew that turned out pretty good, i've been brewing for about 5 years now.

    • 624 posts
    September 10, 2017 7:52 PM PDT

    When I was fresh out of school I rented a house with three other guys and the basement was a great place for our alcohol lab.  Two of us experimented with wine making, the other pair were into beer.  Lots of boiling hops and barley, mashing the wort, selecting fruit juice varietals, adding brewer's yeast, cleaning five gallon glass carboys and stainless steel kegs, capping/corking bottles, making up fancy labels for our runs, giving away samples to family and friends. It's been years now, but your post brings back memories of great times.  I am now thinking about making a Pantheon Pale Ale.

    Good luck my friend, enjoy the art - and have fun with your creations (even if one crashes - everyone has a failure now and then).

    • 1399 posts
    September 10, 2017 9:41 PM PDT

    Years ago I was into it pretty heavy. Dark beers, Porters and Stouts. I ventured into a few Ciders and even brewed up a Honey Mead a few times. Bottled into bottles first then Growlers and eventually i bought a fridge and 5gal kegs.

    I have been seriously considering getting into it again, but haven't taken any action twords it yet. Good luck, its a lot of fun. 

    • 1778 posts
    September 11, 2017 11:01 AM PDT
    Nice man! Have fun with it.
    • 2886 posts
    September 11, 2017 11:22 AM PDT

    Cool! It would be awesome to have a booth of real-life representations of in-game alcohols at a Fantheon convention :)

    • 1860 posts
    September 15, 2017 11:59 AM PDT

    I've been homebrewing off and on since the late nineties.  Good luck with your first batch.

    2 bits of advice for a newbie:  Fermentation temperature is very important.  Also...it becomes a lot quicker and easier once you start keging instead of bottling.

    • 294 posts
    September 17, 2017 6:48 AM PDT

    OK, So I spent a good eight hours yesterday brewing up my first five gallon batch of Oktoberfest. It is in the carbouy now and bubbling away. I am having a bit of an issue keeping the temps down to where I need them. I'm going to try to cool it a bit using a small fan.

    Everything went fairly smooth for my first attempt. I ended up forgetting to prep the yeast and was somewhat delayed with that, but all in all it went well.

    I'll write again when I have more info to tell.

    • 294 posts
    September 22, 2017 5:41 PM PDT

    Update on my first brewing attempt.

    Been in the carbouy for a week now. The yeast activity is almost come to a complete halt, not quite, but almost.

    I may be bottling tomorrow or Sunday. 

    • 294 posts
    September 24, 2017 12:51 PM PDT

    I bottled today. Gotta wait 3 weeks to get a proper taste. Ohhh, the wait.....

    • 1399 posts
    September 24, 2017 8:38 PM PDT

    Congrats Klumpedge.

    Between you and my wife now brewing Kombucha I think I'm going to move on it myself. I've been drinking a beer called Dragons Milk Stout from New Holland Brewing and thanks to Google I'm going to try this one.

     

    Dragons Milk Clone

    • 1860 posts
    September 28, 2017 9:22 AM PDT

    Are you taking hydrometer readings?  Just because you don't see activity in the airlock doesn't mean it is finished fermenting necessarily.  I would hate for your first batch to turn into bottle bombs.

    • 294 posts
    September 28, 2017 4:40 PM PDT

    Yes Philo. I am using a hydrometer. FG was 1.012 @ 60F. A little sugar left in the brew, but most was used up and converted. Thank you for the concern.

    I have a friend that has a nasty tale about bottle bombs. He brewed up a batch, bottled way too early, and went on vacation for a week up north. He came home to a closet full of nasty, smelly, mess... and no beer left to drink. :(

    • 294 posts
    October 1, 2017 2:09 PM PDT

    I've gone and cheated. I couldn't wait two more weeks for taste and cracked open a bottle today. I have to say I am quite pleased with the results.

    Nice flavor with a bit o' bold from the hops at the end. Plenty of foam and fizz and mellow to drink with a hint of larger to it. This is going to be a great October beer.

    I will call my first attempt at brewing a positive experience. Looking forward to my next batch. Might try a pumpkin spice next or an auzzie recipe I found called Hobbit Sauce.

     

    • 624 posts
    October 2, 2017 4:42 AM PDT

    Congratulations - enjoy the batch!  Hobbit Sauce just sounds wrong; Sauced Hobbit however...

    • 294 posts
    October 22, 2017 4:19 PM PDT

    Working a Pumpkin spice now.  Should be bottling in a couple days. It smells good. I can't wait to taste it.

    • 1120 posts
    October 22, 2017 6:11 PM PDT

    Klumpedge said:

    Working a Pumpkin spice now.  Should be bottling in a couple days. It smells good. I can't wait to taste it.

    I bet the ladies will love that!  Ladies love pumpkin spice. 

    • 294 posts
    October 28, 2017 11:13 AM PDT

    I'm a bit dissapointed with the Pumpkin spice brew. Came out a bit on the weak side. 

    With the weather cooling off now, I'm going to brew up a good German style Lager. Might be ready for Christmas if I get to it this weekend.

    • 294 posts
    November 29, 2017 4:31 PM PST

    Holy Cow !!! I hit the jackpot brewing a nice munich style larger. Takes a bit longer than the usual IPA but I ended up with a strong, hearty flavor with a nice mellow bite and it packs a punch. Should be almost perfect for Christmas.

    • 334 posts
    November 30, 2017 3:15 PM PST

    1 brew a month.. be carefull you don't wake up missing new years eve, lol (I let my brother do the brewing)

    • 1019 posts
    December 13, 2017 10:42 AM PST

    Have you tried to make the White House Honey Porter?  If done right, it's a really good beer.  Or at least I think what I had was done right, because it was a really good beer.

     

    Beer Yumm

    • 294 posts
    December 25, 2017 3:35 PM PST

    White House Honey Porter sounds good. I'll have to look that up.

    My Munich larger did come around very well for a hearty christmas beer....

    Happy Holidays everyone and Merry Christmas.