Have you ever brewed your own beer?

[Bible_Belt]

Has anyone here tried home brewing or had any friends that tried it? How did it go, and was the beer any good?

http://www.instructables.com/ex/i/9AE1D9CE21D61029BC6B001143E7E506/?ALLSTEPS

http://dmoz.org/Recreation/Food/Drink/Beer/Homebrewing/

 

[Chillisauce]

My friends are pretty good at it, after about 3 different batches.

The first batch had those brave enough to try it throwing up within minutes.

 

[Skel]

I tried to make wine when i was 10 or so. I threw a bunch of grapes in a can and put them under my bed and forgot about them. What I found was disgusting and Im pretty sure it wasnt wine.

 

[insomniac]

Has anyone here tried home brewing or had any friends that tried it? How did it go, and was the beer any good?

http://www.instructables.com/ex/i/9AE1D9CE21D61029BC6B001143E7E506/?ALLSTEPS

http://dmoz.org/Recreation/Food/Drink/Beer/Homebrewing/

I home brew from time to time. Bought a kit (one 5 gallon bucket for fermenting, another for bottling, bottle capper, siphons, tubing, etc.) for $70 a couple years ago. It's usually $20 for the ingrediants to brew 5 gallons or 48 12oz bottles.

So far I've brewed Bavarian wheat ale, Belgian ale, Blonde ale, and Hefeweizen. I've only done ales, as lagers require lower temperature for fermenting. While not as good as an import, it's often better than some microbrews you'd find in a restaurant. The important part is thoroughly sanitizing all the equipment, as bacteria will ruin the taste.

The more serious brewers will do the whole process from scratch, which requires extracting the malt from the grain and more time/equipment. The easier way is to just buy malt in liquid form that's already been extracted from the grain. That way you just have to boil it in a pot with water, steep some grains for flavoring, add the hops, cool it down, add the yeast, let ferment for a few days, and bottle it.

 

[Bible_Belt]

http://hbd.org/brewery/library/yeast-faq.html

Yeast culturing is interesting. Apparently every type of beer has its own strain of yeast.

 

[ShizamDaMan]

One of my roommates from last year makes his own brews. They're not so bad, I forget what he puts in them though.

Give me a Heineken anyday though...