Homebrewing Thread for KCW

[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.