The Official Chat Thread - Part 2

[psalms 91]

Really to see you, please come back and stay for awhile

 

[psalms 91]

Really good to see you, please come back and stay for awhile

 

[Lamb]

Hello. I am popping in for a moment or two to see how everyone is doing?

Hey!! Doing okay! How about you???

 

[tango]

Seriously lazy day for me today.

 

[psalms 91]

Good morning

 

[Lamb]

Good Morning! Happy Valentine's Day! :hearts:

 

[MS140ukn]

 

[psalms 91]

Happy Valantines Day

 

[tango]

Major lazy weekend for me. Aside from church this morning and a fellowship lunch afterwards I've spent most of it watching TV with my wife.

 

[Lamb]

Major lazy weekend for me. Aside from church this morning and a fellowship lunch afterwards I've spent most of it watching TV with my wife.

I had a 3 day weekend but it was filled with chores and taxes. Back to work tomorrow!

 

[psalms 91]

Good morning

 

[Stravinsk]

Wow...it's been 20 years since I've seen that person and she hardly appears to have aged - and still in great shape. Thump.......thump.

 

[Stravinsk]

Spent 2 hours this morning bottling home brewed beer. 7 cases ( 84 750ml long neck bottles) Would have been less but I was bottling off two different size fermenters for 2 different types of beer. Cost savings: $119 for 2 hours work. Maybe 1½ hours next time. Time to make the equivalent amount - about 20 minutes. Totally worth my time.

 

[Lamb]

What ingredients do you use for your homemade beer?

 

[Stravinsk]

What ingredients do you use for your homemade beer?

I typically use kits. Various places sell them. They are basically a can of malted barley and hops. Then I have to add more dried malt or Dextrose, a measured amount of hot water, mix, then add cold water, then yeast at the right temperature. The kit comes with yeast but saflager is a superior yeast for lagers (which also costs $6 a packet) so I reuse yeast after each fermentation (it multiplies and is found at the bottom of the fermenter after bottling off). If I reuse it, I "clean" it, which is just letting it settle in fresh water a few times.

No other ingredients, usually. Sometimes I add lime. Sometimes I use additional different hops for different flavor.

I've also malted my own barley (should say - let it go through the germination process then halted that at the appropriate time). Unfortunately, I can't complete that process for beer - as I can dry it out in my dehydrator to reduce the moisture suitable for kilning - but as of now my oven doesn't work. One of the few things I need to get fixed around my place.

I'd rather do the process from scratch instead of buy kits (cheaper too - 4kg of dried malt costs around $42, whereas the unmalted grain is around $28 for the same amount) - and all malt beer tastes better than using Dextrose only or a mixture of Dextrose and Malt.

 

[Lamb]

There is a liquor store in the next state (not far really LOL) and it has all the ingredients for beer makers and I thought about getting some of that stuff for my husband to try. I think he just likes to drink it but not sure he'd enjoying brewing it.

 

[Stravinsk]

There is a liquor store in the next state (not far really LOL) and it has all the ingredients for beer makers and I thought about getting some of that stuff for my husband to try. I think he just likes to drink it but not sure he'd enjoying brewing it.

It is not hard to make. Like I said, maybe 20 minutes of work to make 7 cases worth, and around 1½ hours to bottle it. But then, I have been doing it for years, and I know lots of shortcuts. Finally got smart and set up 2 fermenters in the same area I store my beer, so I can bottle off 2 at a time, then put away in the same area.

 

[psalms 91]

We have made wine before, no kit just made it

 

[Stravinsk]

We have made wine before, no kit just made it

Wine is super easy to make. I used to buy plastic bottles of grape juice, add a little sugar and yeast then tighten the lid just enough to CO2 escape - and in a week or so, voila! But I'm not much of a wine drinker, so I usually don't make it.

 

[tango]

A friend of mine used to brew his own beer, and was really very good. I think he reckoned it cost something like 40c/pint which is pretty good compared to what you'd pay for it anywhere else. From the taste of what he made I'm guessing he used decent quality ingredients, his stuff was good.