Homebrewer's Thread

Hey Everyone,

After feeling exceptionally inspired by the beer label contest and some slight prodding from Matt to start one, I've decided to make a home brew thread here on 3reef.

I have to imagine that I'm not the only one who enjoys both Reefing and Homebrewing, so I'd like to hear from everyone about their experiences or if you are just interested in trying out homebrewing, I'd be happy to help if I can.

My Story:

Lets just say I started homebrewing before I could "legally" taste the beer I was producing. I started out with a friend of mine and we brewed in his parents kitchen with a simple start-up kit and an extract beer recipe.

Since that time, we've made countless beers, upgrade our system to better suit our needs, moved to full-blown mashing, and my friend is currently a brewer at Yards Brewing Co. in Philadelphia.

I have a wealth of knowledge and have made too many mistakes to count, so hopefully I can help others to be successful in their brewing endeavors.

So let's hear it- Who else enjoys crafting their own brew during those rare occasions when you aren't tinkering with your tanks?

 

Great to know Astrick!

Home brewing is something I'm really looking fwd to doing in the future. I simply just DO NOT have any more space to start another hobby at this time.

There are about 5 - 8 people at my work who are big time brewers, they've made some really, really good beer.

when the time and space allows, yet another hobby I'll have!

 

Awesome thread. I havent had any first hand experience with brewing, but my Dad used to be really big into it. He would brew around 10-15 gallons a week. He would say that, "He had alot of friends then." lol He genuinely loved doing it. I kinda inherited his love for beer pretty early on... I recently bought a brewing kit to maybe motivate him to start again. This winter we plan on renovating part of our basement into the brew room. I know Todd and Zesty are also into homebrewing. Its a Wisconsin thing I guess. Haha.

 

Yea, it does take a bit of space, mostly for the storage of equipment/ fermenting beers, but for the most part you can just tuck that away and just bring it out when you need it.

Brewing outdoors is infinitely better than doing so inside the house, unless you have dedicated brewing space.

 

Yea, its amazing how people come out of the woodwork when they know you brew...

And you'd actually be surprised- there are a ton of people all over the country who homebrew. The big thing I've found is that people tend to take it up for a few years, but then get tired of it over time. I guess thats the way it is with a lot of hobbies though.

 

I have been brewing for the better part of this year. Started out doing extract with specialty grain and quickly moved to all grain. I built my own mash tun from an igloo cooler and it works pretty good. I keg when i can and bottle when i run out of space. Brewing a 5 gallon batch about every 2 weeks seems to keep me with a constant supply of beer. I've only done ales because i dont have a lager box to control the temp.

 

I only share my brew with a select FEW people. My other friends dont appreciate "good" beers. they think a pale ale is "dark" . lol

 

Awesome thread! I started brewing a couple years ago with my dad. We started with a MR. Beer kit and slowly started experimenting with those. Then we finally put together a complete 5 gallon kit, got an 8 gallon stainless brew pot, installed a thermometer in it, built a mash tun, and still to this day we havent even brewed one batch with it! It always seems like we have something else going on. Would love to start brewing again though.

 

Thats awesome! Unfortunately, my brewing is on hiatus because my apartment doesn't allow burners.

If you want to get into lagers, all you need is a refrigerator that will fit your bucket/carboy and a temp control regulator. Midwest supplies sells one that you just plug the fridge into and it will turn the fridge on and off as needed to maintain lager temps. Worked great for me

 

Get to it! Once you get into a groove, brew day goes much faster than you think