ALABAMA!!

[Orps]

if you can boil water, you can make beer. if you can cook, you can make good beer. it's actually VERY easy to make good beer. and the good news is... it's NOT a felony anymore in alabama! (my homebrew club wrote the legislation that got passed last year)

Woo! Brewing beer sounds interesting. Is there a place I can find instructions? I may want to try it and I'm not even a beer drinker.

 

[biga]

Woo! Brewing beer sounds interesting. Is there a place I can find instructions? I may want to try it and I'm not even a beer drinker.

where do you live? check around... now that it's legal there are more homebrew supply places opening up and most of them offer classes on the weekends to show you how to brew. if you're in north alabama i'd be glad to help you out sometime. i know there are shops in b'ham, huntsville, and montgomery that do demonstrations

 

[bamadude]

I have a brand new mr beer 2 gallon kit and a 6 1/2 gal true brew maestro kit im looking to sell. Ive been buying my ingredients from adventures in homebrewing .com and if im around pensacola i stop by a brew store called the shady lady. I started out using full extract. Its as simple as boiling water and waiting. I have a sierra nevada torpedo clone going to bottles tomorrow. Alcohol by volume is 8.2

 

[bamadude]

Home brew talk is the byc of brewing

 

[biga]

i can't decide if i'm embarrassed or proud of my brewing setup. (i'm leaning toward proud though). i brew all-grain just like a big brewery. i buy base grains from the local brewery in 50# bags and grind it myself. i order specialty grains in small bags b/c there's not a big cost savings for the amounts you use. i order hops by the # or buy from the local brewery. if you've been brewing extract you'll notice a BIG difference in the quality of your beer when you go to all-grain. it might seems intimidating to do a mash, but if you can heat up water you can mash your own grains. just get some software that will calculate water volumes and temps and your mashes will come out great every time. i use BrewTarget, it's free, but there are several paid-for options like Brewsmith that are more inclusive.

i brew all-grain, 12 gallon batches, have a PID temp-controlled fermentation chamber, a PID controlled RIMS for my mash tun, and an 8 keg kegerator in the garage with 3 taps (5 gallon corny kegs not 15 gallon kegs like at a bar)

 

[bamadude]

Biga i would be proud of that set up as well. I agree about the all grain brew over extract. I somehow pulled off my first all grain batch without a wort chiller. I have invested in 1 now. I am going to get corny keg and co2 next. Bottling and priming sugar and capping are aggrivating. What styles are u brewing? I like high abv and high ibu. I love citra hops and liquid wyeast

 

[biga]

i'll brew whatever style suits my fancy at the time. i've done oktobeerfests, IPA, IIPA, stouts, porters, old ale, scottish styles, ambers, reds, ... you name it. about the only style of beer i don't like is Belgian beers. i've tried over a hundred different belgians and haven't found one i would like to make. kegging blows the doors off bottling. you can either clean and sanitize ONE vessel or you can clean and sanitize 48 smaller ones, i choose to do the one. plus kegs are just cooler. you have a little more up front cost but it's way easier and cheaper in the long run.

 

[bamadude]

Biga im on my 9th batch now. 5 of which have been full mash. I want to do a sam adams all grain clone but blast it with about 1 oz of citra hops in secondary. Ive yet to try a lager. Sounds like u have it figured out tho.

 

[mbfarmer94]

Is there anything as far as leftovers that you're not supposed to feed to your chickens?

 

[Tomtommom]

I found a fun website on making hard cider... now that sounds like fun. I've got a grape and a muscadine... which hopefully will start growing decently in the next few years. Homemade wine? Now that sounds like a plan too...

I don't drink enough to really get into making beer, I don't think. Hard cider and wine you can do just a gallon at a time.