Beer to drink while waiting on wine to age?

[Intheswamp]

Ok, there's a thread going on in the beginner's winemaking subforum... "Drinkable wines while waiting for others to finish aging". But, I like beer, too, but have never brewed any. I'm thinking of brewing beer to help "span the ages". I'm a wimp and normally drink Coors Lite. And, I figure the best route is to go with a kit...but which one?

What would be the most simple process to use? Anybody got a link to a cookie-cutter, generic, beginner's beer-making tutorial for the criminally mundane?

When I start reading about malting, and mashing, and 5-row, and other aspects of homebrewing my eyes start crossing...

So, any *really* basic pointers on where to start at?

Thanks!

 

[bshef]

Stay off the beer forum; people really get serious. Any pale ale kit will work for the rank beginner who drinks lite lager. Get one from Austin Homebrew. They have a mess of clones. Remember only sanitize with Star San, no Kmeta. O2 is more harmful to beer than wine. Keep it really clean and stable temps. Ales ferment at room temp but the beer will suffer if too close to heat or AC vents. I brew beer and make wine. Beer takes more time on the front end but drinkable in a month or 2.

 

[bshef]

Also try hard cider; best of both worlds.

 

[jsbeckton]

Anybody got a link to a cookie-cutter, generic, beginner's beer-making tutorial for the criminally mundane?

When I start reading about malting, and mashing, and 5-row, and other aspects of homebrewing my eyes start crossing...

So, any *really* basic pointers on where to start at?

Thanks!

‘How to Brew’ by John Palmer is the Bible of homebrewing. It’s a big read but excellent info.

Brewing is similar to wine making in that most people start with kits and move up after they get the hang of it (all grain/all grape). The beer kits will give you pretty much everything you need but again similar to wine many people swap out the yeast.

If you are into watery lagers (sorry [emoji3]) you might want to try making a Kolsch as lagers require more time and temp control than most ales.

Craigslist is your friend for equipment.

 

[BernardSmith]

Here's the thing - if you plan on making a beer using all-grain and your plan is to make 5 gallons then you need to plan to make this outdoors and use a propane heater. Typically, a kitchen range is not powerful enough to bring that amount of mash or wort to the kinds of temperatures you want in a time frame that you can tolerate. If you have no access to a propane heater then either plan on making smaller volumes (say 1-3 gallons) or think about using DME or LME (dried malt extract or liquid malt extract.
There are a number of books that focus on recipes for gallon batches and you simply increase the amount of malt and hops.

 

[bshef]

PM me for some good extract/mini mash recipes/tips.

 

[pgentile]

Do a search for a Coors Light Clone kit if that's what you like there are few out there. A kit will be extract plus some grains or all extract. I started with kits and then went full blown all-grain. I have since switched to primarily wine making but still make about 4 10-gallon batches of beer a year. But I have settled in on extract batches with some steeped grains. I don't boil any more and dry hop for 3 - 4 weeks. Primarily make and IPA with orange zest and dry hop with Citra, Galaxy, Cascade, etc. Tried many of the different yeasts, but only use Safale us-05 these days.

All-grain beer making is like golf for me, I like it but don't like committing to the time and hardware needs.

 

[bshef]

Time is my biggest restraint on all grain. I make good extract with steeping grains. I don’t enter competitions and only make for my family and friends. If I ever open the farm brewery I’ll have plenty of all grain brewing to do.

 

[Mcjeff]

Also try hard cider; best of both worlds.

Agree. I made some cider from a kit (cider house) I wasn’t expecting it, but it was better than I thought it would be. My friends and family love it. Ive made the regular apple and pear.

 

[bshef]

I make cider with Musselmans cider (WalMart). My last batch was 5 1/2 gallons cider, 2 cans of frozen apple juice concentrate, 1/2 lb of lactose, Nottingham yeast. I let it ferment 10 days, added 2 1/2 teaspoons of sorbate and back sweetened with 2 more cans of frozen apple juice concentrate. I kegged that batch but bottling still is good. If bottling I would go with 3 1/2 teaspoons of sorbate. I was all set to start a batch today but no Nottingham. Since it only goes 10 days I have time to order yeast and get it done by Christmas. Makes great mulled cider.