Home brew

[Cybyassociation]

I enjoyed brewing but here are a few things I don't like:

If your going spend the time you may as well do a 5 gallon batch. With a 5 gallon batch, your talking 50 bottles of beer. I like a lot of variety.

My results were just average. I would rank Miller Lite, Bud Light, etc. a 1.5. I would rank most of the beer I made a 3. The problem is that there are so many 4+ craft beers out there that I like. I've also tried other peoples home brew and none of them were great IMO. I'd rather take the money that I was spending on brewing and make a beer run to pick of some beer from Toppling Goliath, 3floyds, Bells, Surly, etc. that tastes a lot better than I could produce.

I will say that it was great learning experience and made me appreciate the work required to make a good beer.

I'm a pretty big beer nerd, drink a lot of different beer, pretty active in trading beer on BA and people ask me all the time if I brew. I tell them absolutely not. I do not have the patience required to overcome the learning curve. I want to start at the top and that's just not possible. I would rather spend some money, buy some quality beer, drink it and not have to worry about it. I'm sure its a great hobby and I'd love to brew with someone some day, but its just not something that I've got a burning desire to do right now.

 

[BKLYNCyclone]

I was in CA the first week in April and went to Russian River and Lagunitas. Lagunitas doesn't hold a candle to Russian River... (Though the brewery/bar/restaurant was actually much better than Russian River's).

I like Lagunitas usually, but we got the sampler which was 16 4 oz pours. Honestly, they almost all had the same underlying hop taste, which frankly, was a little skunky for me (there is a reason there is a 420 on the label IMO). I only enjoyed 2 or 3 of the 16. Russian River had 24 2 oz pours, and they were 24 distinct beers. I enjoyed 20-22 of them (not a brown ale fan unless it is a sour brown ale).

For homebrewing, I started brewing because I couldn't get certain beers I wanted to try in NYC. So, I brewed up a Shirley Ferocious, (Surly Furious), and a Black IPA and was pretty much hooked. Bell's was impossible to get in NYC, so I did the Two Hearted clone. Now I brew what I like to drink... Imperial IPAs, IPAs, & American ESBs (I love Bitter Brewer) are my every day beers. Beyond that, I brew what tends to be pricey and available only in belgians. Since I don't drink nearly as much as I used to, I've been doing this more and more as these beers actually improve with age. The one brett beer I've got in carboys has been there for 3 years... I've still got about 5 bottles left of an oak aged ale I did 6 years ago. Given that I've got 8 carboys, I'll probably do a batch of wine in the near future just to try...

 

[BKLYNCyclone]

Favorite beers that I can remember right now:

JW Lee's Harvest Ale (2008 was great) Runs $10-50 per 12 oz bottle depending on what vintage
Baladin Xyauyu ($50-70 per 50 cL bottle...)
Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA (Last I saw this it was going for $8 a bottle)

Russian River Pliny the Younger (can't get this regularly, will do a clone soon)
Russian River Pliny the Elder (can't get this regularly, will do a clone soon)
Firestone Walker Double Jack

Southern Tier UnEarthly (both oak and unoaked versions)
Deschutes Inversian IPA
Surly Abrasive Ale
Brooklyn Detonation

Surly Wet
Brooklyn Blast!

Lambics/Bretts

Surly 5 (I was lucky to have this once... I'm sure it's basically gone now so would like to do a clone)
Russian River Consecration

And then I'm fair game for any of these series:

Boulevard Smokestack Series
Brooklyn Brewery's Brewmaster Reserve Series (on tap only, and rotating menu)
Surly's Annual Anniversary Limited edition

I'm forgetting a ton, but my beer tastes trend toward Bretts, Lambics, Imperial IPAs and really, really strong Barley Wine type beers...

 

[NickTheGreat]

I just kegged two of mine over the weekend and am trying dry hopping for the first time. Should be fun!

 

[josh4cy]

Just saw this article. At first it sounds crazy expensive but if it looks like it would save you a ton of time.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/michael...beer-brewing-kitchen-appliance-is-on-its-way/

http://picobrew.com/

 

[BKLYNCyclone]

Just saw this article. At first it sounds crazy expensive but if it looks like it would save you a ton of time.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/michael...beer-brewing-kitchen-appliance-is-on-its-way/

http://picobrew.com/

C'mon... I wish I would have seen this 5 years ago... I have $1600 easy in kettles and new fermenters alone... Wow, the varieties I'd brew with that thing... (I'd be buying 2.5 gallon kegs in bulk).

 

[dcxme1183]

Just saw this article. At first it sounds crazy expensive but if it looks like it would save you a ton of time.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/michael...beer-brewing-kitchen-appliance-is-on-its-way/

http://picobrew.com/

I remember reading a forum last fall on that thing; I don't recall if it was homebrewtalk or somewhere else. A lot of people compared it to a bread machine or a keurig. I don't know if that's a fair comparison and I certainly wouldn't fault anyone for using one. I'm sure it makes fine beer, but it kind of takes away from the fun parts of the hobby for me. I like the ritual of a brew day and I like constantly tweaking, rigging, modifying or otherwise kludging my set-up.

 

[State43]

I'm a hop head. Some if my favorites IPA's:

lagunitas Sucks
3floyds Zombie Dust
Stone Ruination
Bells two hearted
Hopslam
Odell IPA
Toppling Goliath Psuedo Sue
Surly-I like 3 of them
Steel Toe Size 7
Racer 5
Sculpin IPA
Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale

in your neck of the woods , I like Lucky Bucket and want to try some from the Nebraska brewing company.

and about 5o other IPA's



i did try out something different (for me) the other day at Red Monk. I tried my first Lambic and loved it. The good news is that I'm going to Belgium in about 4 months and they supposedly make the best Lambics. I'm not a huge fan of quads that always rank so high.

I will have to try and get my hands on some of these. As for Nebraska Brewing, I recommend the golden BB (Formally Hopgod) and Brunette nut brown. Great beers. The aged ones are the best but pricey (Golden BB and Melange)

 

[josh4cy]

I just transferred my rye pale ale to a secondary fermenter and dry hopped with an additional 2oz of cascade. That is the most amazing smell. They need to make hop air fresheners or somthing, I would love it if my house smelled like that all the time.