Any Beer Brewers out there?
According to my wife I have far too many hobbies. I used to hunt and fish but since moving from Alaska I haven't hunted and I've fished very little but I still build custom rods. I'm an avid golfer with a 10 handicap. I enjoy cooking and I especially like making BBQ and homemade jerky. I used to have a barrel smoker but switched to a pellit smoker. After moving to Oregon I found it difficult to find any good BBQ so I started making my own, you see I'm from the south and BBQ is in my blood.
My favorite hobbie is woodworking, my second favorite is beer brewing. I started brewing in Alaska about 20+ years ago and untill a few months ago I concentrated on partial mash brewing. I'm in the process of building a full mash system. There is great satisfaction in relaxing and enjoying a glass of great tasting beer that you've created. You can brew excelant beer with a minimul investment in money and time. I spend about $40.00 for ingrediants which produces 5 gallons (2.5 cases) of awesome brew. Yes you can buy a couple of cases of beer for a little less but why subject your taste buds to that torture. It's like comparing Prime Rib to Hanburger.
Views: 18
Replies to This Discussion
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Site AdminPermalink Reply by John Morris on -
That's a great snap shot of who you are John. All great interests and hobbies. I wish some folks here were brewers as well, I don't brew, but what a cool conversation.
I have a question for you. My family has passed down a story from when I was a child. Apparently as the story goes, I was about 3 years old or so, my ol man tried his hand at brewing beer, this would have been around 1969 or so. He stored his brews in progress under the front porch, the only cool dry place on the property. As the story goes, there was a loud KABOOM! And the family awoke to a partially destroyed front porch. Some of the boards were strewn about, and there was brew all over the place. It exploded, so the story goes. Well you know how Big Fish stories get bigger and bigger over the years, and my question to you is, is this one of those Big Fish stories? Could kettles of home brew really blow up and cause damage to a surrounding structure?
Years later, my dad tried his hand at home made wine. Now, talk about some stories! I was in my late teens, prone to heavy experimentation, and let's put it this way. One summer me and my buddies stayed drunk darn near every day and all day. This stuff was brewed as wine, but I think the Alcohol Content was closer to 20 percent, more of a liqueur then a wine. It was made from Guava's. He had about (5) five gallon water bottles going at any one time. Let's just say, me and my buddies don't remember much about that summer of debauchery and crazy antics. But it was fun, and the beach area I grew up in, will never forget, the summer the Morris's made the Guava Wine! And law enforcement won't forget either.
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Permalink Reply by Mike Dillen on
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Back in the 60s many home brewers didn't have access to brewers yeast like we have today so being the industrious folks they were they used bakers yeast which in bread is great but can cause catastrophic results in sealed glass bottles of beer. I'm not sure it could cause damage to a structure but I suppose it's possible. Great stories!
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Permalink Reply by Greg Coleman on -
I have never brewed my own beer. I received a home brew kit for Christmas one year. It still sits in the storage area of my shop begging me to give it a try.
John, my dad tried the same thing with grapes one year. It was the late 70s About 17 to 18 years old for me and my buddies. The only bad thing was the stuff was AWFUL. Talk about a buzz though. I would pilfer some out on occasion but the guys complained so much about the taste I finally left it alone. Can you imagine that? Wine so bad that 18 year old boys won't steal it. I think my dad was disappointed we didn't try .
The wine made another appearance the day my Navy recruiter came to house for my parents to sign the permission forms for me to join. My dad offered my recruiter some wine. I was shaking my head no in an attempt to spare him, but like a good salesman he accepted the offer. My dad beamed as the recruiter raved about how good the wine was. I should have known not to trust that lying rascal after that.I could see him wince after every sip he took. Needless to say that if I had told my dad that I was backing out of my commitment he would have kicked my butt to town and back. I can hear him now, "your not backing out on that fine recruiter, he's a good man, and besides he liked my wine".
The American Woodworker said:Let's just say, me and my buddies don't remember much about that summer of debauchery and crazy antics. But it was fun, and the beach area I grew up in, will never forget, the summer the Morris's made the Guava Wine! And law enforcement won't forget either.
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Permalink Reply by Fred W. Hargis, Jr on -
Beer brewing is something I would really like to try, but haven't got up the ambition to get started. It certainly sounds like fun! A cyberbuddy of mine was going to send me some home brewed beer, but got redeployed (military) before he was able to get it shipped. (Josh, if you see this, hope things are going well!) It's still on my checklist of things to do.... I did try wine making once. Didn't work out too well, besides which I'm not really an oenophile.
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Hello Fred!
There have been many advancements in home wine making that have taken most of the guess work out of it but I like you am not much of a wine drinker. Beer brewing can be as easy or as complex as you want it to be and still create great tasting beer. It just requires a little understanding of the process and strict adherence to cleanliness in your brewing process. I've been brewing for 20+ years and I've only had one batch of beer and that was because I deviated from a process I'd developed for cleaning my equipment. Brewing is a lot of fun. If you want to get started and need some help, I'd be glad to help where I can.
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Permalink Reply by Larry Jenkins on
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John..
How about posting a detailed blog about how you make your beer? I would like to try it.
Larry
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Permalink Reply by Dan Shuflin on -
Larry
I used to brew my own beer about 15 years ago before my wife and I started our Embroidery business. At the time I quit making beer I was brewing about 10 gallons at a time. I started with kits and ended up mashing my own grains. I went from bottling to kegging and charging the dark beers with nitrogen in lieu of CO2. I can give you the name of several books to take a look at and I believe I kept a log of each recipe if you are interesting. Brewing your own is not really all that cheap but for the price of 5 gallons of Budweiser you can brew a top notch ale. You would be surprised at how many friends you acquire when you brew your own beer.
DanLarry Jenkins said:
John..
How about posting a detailed blog about how you make your beer? I would like to try it.
Larry
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Sorry for the late reply Dan! I'd be happy to share my methods. I have a few things I need to get caught up on but I can get something going soon.
Larry Jenkins said:John..
How about posting a detailed blog about how you make your beer? I would like to try it.
Larry
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Permalink Reply by Travis Johnson on
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My family has done its share of making alcohol that is for sure.
Back in 1840 we used to grow a lot of barley, that being the cash crop for the farm. But my Great Grandfather several times removed felt that it caused too many men to "turn from God and beat their wives and children", and so decided to plow up the barley. His father grew upset at him and I think a fist-fight broke out because of his convictions, but ultimately Sam and Erastus took Ox and Plow and plowed up the barley. Now I always wondered why we had wild barley growing on the other side of the rockwall but figured it was just wild barley until I read my Great Uncle's autobiography (Erastus Johnson) where he told this story and thus preserving it.
But just because we no longer raised barley did not mean we stopped growing apples. We no longer do this of course, but that does not mean us Johnson's do not know how to make white lightning out of applejack. It takes a lot of patience, a few key ingredients and good ole fashioned Maine weather, but you can get pure alcohol from hard apple cider.
In 1943 with the war on, and all his boys fighting the German's overseas, my Great Grandfather had no way to bring in the potato crop, so he contacted the War Dept and they brought in POW's from the camp in Bangor. Being happy to be out in the countryside in a country that was not scared by years of war like Germany had been, they loved the experience and American's treated them good. My Great Grandfather was no exception because when the potatoes were in the storehouse, out rolled the cider barrels and all the boys had a good time. He figured the POW's had done such a good job that at the conclusion of the 1943 harvest, they should celebrate as well. And everyone did, including guards and prisoners alike. About 9 PM they figured they were having such a good time that they should keep on going, so at the wee hours of the morning, the boys rolled back into camp every darn one of them completely plastered. The commander of the camp demanded to know what happened and after a bit someone squealed on my Great Grandfather. So the next morning the commander went back to our farm and asked my Great Grandfather why he got them drunk seeing as how his 7 boys were fighting them overseas. He simply said, "When the potatoes are harvested, we have a celebration and these boys worked hard and did a good job and I could not have gotten the job done without them, so I figured they had the right to a drink". The commander must have agreed because as he conversed with my Great Grandfather, he sampled the applejack in question and he was just as lit when he returned to Bangor...but not a word was ever said to the War Dept about what happened here in 1943!! They say that one of the reasons German and American relations fared so well after the war was because the POW's went back and said how well they were treated in the USA as prisoners and I would like to think our farm had something to do with international relations!! :-)
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Permalink Reply by Dan Shuflin on
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John
I am about to take up beer brewing again. Any chance of you posting a picture of your set up for a full mash system?
Dan
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Permalink Reply by Ken Rasmussen on -
Hey Dan, Let me get this straight, you used to hunt and fish and live in Alaska, the most game rich state in the union and you play golf? Sounds like a move to Arizona or Florida is in future....LOL Do you have a problem losing the white balls in the snow?
Ken
Who played golf for years and was a golf supt for a long time too
My job is to give my kids things to discuss with their therapist
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