Homebrewing Thread for KCW

[Andrew Breecher]

The best beer I've ever brewed was an oatmeal raisin cookie stout (8.1%). I also made a really great coffee stout, which I'm about to rebrew, since I'm out of it! I currently have bottled and ready to drink: a dry cider, an oak-aged imperial stout (16%), a dunkelweiss, and a light summer braggot (got to drink that one up before it really gets cold out!). I'm about to make the aforementioned coffee stout again, and a pumpkin ale.

I bottle everything in 12oz brown bottles (a few odd-shaped bottles, such as the St. Peter's Brewery bottles, just because they're cool). I work in a bar, so bottles are free, and it's not really that much work to wash them 12 at a time. I bottle them a case at a time, so it really doesn't take a lot of time. Then they're much easier to share with friends when they're bottled in the smaller bottles. I've thought about getting a Party Pig, though, so I could do half the batch in that, and bottle the rest.

My to-do brew list: a doppelbock, a barleywine, an IPA. Re-make my oatmeal raisin cookie stout.

Andrew.

[Schultz]

Yes, those St. Peter's Brewery bottles are fantastic! My wife likes to appropriate my stock for little single flower vases. I keep telling her to get her own ;)

I've discovered the joy of the mini-keg, mostly because I detest bottling. Even still, I do end up having to bottle some (maybe 8 or 10) because you can't quite squeeze four mini-kegs out of a five gallon batch. My specialties are a pale ale that tastes amazingly close to Bass (w/o trying to do so) and my beloved porter, which I really can't get enough of.

It has been a while since I've struck up the old kettle, but the wife is on me to brew again. I just have to get up the energy to retrieve my brewery from storage and make it over to Maryland Homebrew for the ingredients. Perhaps this thread will be the kick in the **** I need. I can already smell the hops...

[MacMullen]

The best beer I've ever brewed was an oatmeal raisin cookie stout (8.1%). I also made a really great coffee stout, which I'm about to rebrew, since I'm out of it! I currently have bottled and ready to drink: a dry cider, an oak-aged imperial stout (16%), a dunkelweiss, and a light summer braggot (got to drink that one up before it really gets cold out!). I'm about to make the aforementioned coffee stout again, and a pumpkin ale.

My favorite beers that I've brewed are my Stout, my Raspberry Blonde, my Hefeweizen, and my Scottish Ale.

On my classics to-do list I want to brew a Wee Heavy and another IPA, which I haven't brewed in a while. I also want to brew a reasonable version of my Sandman's Cerveza (9%ABV ) and get it down to around 5% ABV and call it Sandman's Cerveza Ligera.

Besides the classic styles, I like to brew beers with fruit so my to-do list includes a Strawberry Cream Ale. I also like to brew wheat beers, so another one on my list is a classic Belgian Whitbier, plus I'd like to redo my Fat Head Belgian Ale with some Victory malt to get it closer to a clone of Fat Tire.

One thing I've noticed is that any wheat beer I've brewed has been a big hit with my wife, my friends' wives, and my sisters-in-law. So, if anyone has trouble finding a beer that their wife or g/f might like, give them a wheat beer. Hefeweizen and Honey Wheat seem to be the big favorites in my experience.

My to-do brew list: a doppelbock, a barleywine, an IPA. Re-make my oatmeal raisin cookie stout.
Andrew.

Thanks for reminding me! Barleywine is also on my list for December or January. Got any good recipes?

It has been a while since I've struck up the old kettle, but the wife is on me to brew again. I just have to get up the energy to retrieve my brewery from storage and make it over to Maryland Homebrew for the ingredients. Perhaps this thread will be the kick in the **** I need. I can already smell the hops...

Good news! Whenever my wife points out that I haven't brewed in a while, I always take that as permission to go the brew store.

[Andrew Breecher]

Thanks for reminding me! Barleywine is also on my list for December or January. Got any good recipes?

I haven't made up a barleywine recipe yet. I'm planning on making one before I set off on my next five-month hike, so I know I'll be able to let it age for a while without tasting it!

That oatmeal rasin cookie stout sounds OUTSTANDING. [...] Again, if you don't mind, a recipe would also be outstanding!

Okay, extract recipe:
7 lbs. dark malt extract
1 lb. crystal 60L
1/4 lb. chocolate malt
1/4 lb. roasted barley
1/2 lbs. toasted oats (toasted in home oven)
1 oz. Fuggles
a touch of vanilla extract
1 lb. black raisins
1 cup blackstrap molasses - priming
English Ale Yeast

Steep the grains (not the oats) in 150 degrees for 30 minutes. Remove the grains, add malt extract, oats, and hops. Boil for 60 minutes, rack to fermenter, and pitch yeast.
Rack to secondary, adding the vanilla and raisins. Fermentation will begin again because of the sugar in the raisins (this is what makes the ABV so high).
Bottle with molasses. This beer is good to drink in a week and a half - so yummy fresh! Even five months later it's still a joy. I couldn't keep it around longer than that, so I guess it's time for another batch.

Andrew.

[flyv65]

The best beer I've ever brewed was an oatmeal raisin cookie stout (8.1%).

SNIP

My to-do brew list: a doppelbock, a barleywine, an IPA. Re-make my oatmeal raisin cookie stout.

So Andrew-when will be be sampling your efforts? I'm a big fan of IPA style beers, and the oatmeal raisin cookie stout sounds like a kickin' wintertime dessert beer.

Bryan...but I wouldn't want to limit a beer chronologically: I'd be willing to drink it year round...

[Bob C]

That oatmeal rasin cookie stout sounds OUTSTANDING.

I've been brewing for quite a while, but have not brewed much, lately. I mostly brew stout and brown ale, but I'm thinking it might be time for an IPA.

I built a website for my "brewery" a few years back. It's almost entirely fictional, but the responses I get from around the world - most from folks who think the brewery is real - are hilarious.

Check it out, if you like, at: http://www.geocities.com/bobnyjc/cbc.htm

There are no kilted pictures on it. I need to change that.

[MacMullen]

That oatmeal rasin cookie stout sounds OUTSTANDING.

Again, if you don't mind, a recipe would also be outstanding! ;-)

Bob, your brewery site is better than some big brewer's websites I've seen. with such a large, state of the art facility, I'm surprised you don't brew more! :mrgreen:

[John M.]

That Oatmeal raisin cookie stout does sound good.

Right now my fridge is stocked with "Captain Bastards Oatmel Stout" & some Hefeweizen from a micro brewery here in Utah.

I've always wanted to try home brewing, but I've got so many other things going that I don't ever have the time or $ to get into it.

[Shay]

Ohhh- I'm a total Hefeweizen girl. Krystalweizen if I can find it. Which I usually can't.

The husband just make hard cider, and we bottled it yesterday- we finally found a local apple press that will sell him unpastuerized juice! It's a bit sour right now, but hopefully it will mellow a bit in the bottle.

(In a different note- my 7yo daughter wants one of those, "Make your own root beer' sets for Christmas- I was hoping someone on the thread could PM me or post and let me know if they actually work?)

[MacMullen]

Thanks for the recipe. I'll put it in the file in my To-Do list.

That Oatmeal raisin cookie stout does sound good.

Right now my fridge is stocked with "Captain Bastards Oatmel Stout" & some Hefeweizen from a micro brewery here in Utah.

I've always wanted to try home brewing, but I've got so many other things going that I don't ever have the time or $ to get into it.

Time would be a good argument, but for the money, as I mentioned, if you like premium imports, it really makes it worthwhile.

The best argument is to break it down by $$$/gallon.

As I noted above, Guinness costs roughly $17/gallon. McEwans costs me about $18/gallon. Dirty Bastard Scottish Ale costs me $14/gallon. Even the cheap Berghoff Hefeweizen I buy costs me $9/gallon.

I can brew beers in those styles that taste as good or better for half the price, at $4-$7/gallon. Of course, there is an initial cost for bottles, but, again, as I said above, if you buy them full, then you get to empty them and reuse them. THe only other initial investment is the brewing kit, but they're fairly cheap. I have one for $30 on my website. The price per gallon goes down the more batches of beer you make.

And, as far as skill needed, it's like I always say, "If you can boil water, you can brew beer."

Ohhh- I'm a total Hefeweizen girl. Krystalweizen if I can find it. Which I usually can't. (In a different note- my 7yo daughter wants one of those, "Make your own root beer' sets for Christmas- I was hoping someone on the thread could PM me or post and let me know if they actually work?)

You and my wife both. That's her favorite. If you can't find krystalweizen, brew it yourself. Just leave the hefeweizen in the Secondary Fermenter for a few extra days to let more of the yeast settle out, and then don't suck any off the bottom when you siphon for bottling. You'll still have enough yeast to carbonate the bottles, but the beer will pour clear.

On the Root Beer kits, priming the bottles takes a while if you use yeast to pressurize it. The only problem is, you add the yeast right before you bottle, so you end up with a lot sediment in the bottom of the root beer bottle, which sort of grosses kids out. If you have a CO2 system the sediment isn't a problem, since you don't have to put yeast in it.

The root beer itself tastes very good, but when you make your own you see first hand just how much sugar goes in the soda pop.