Brew your own beer?

[The Balanced Man]

No, I don't mean Mr. Beer, or something like that.

I'm mulling around two different ideas. One is going someplace like this: http://www.thebrewkettle.com. With this you go and pick a recipe, brew the beer, leave it to ferment, and come back and bottle it. Over 75 different recipes, and you can add your own flair.


Then there are things like this:

Anyone have experience with either way of brewing your own beer? Success? Horror Stories?

[scottaa1]

I have never tried it, but I know a few guys who have. Most of their stories end with either "and then stuff exploded, and I threw all the equipment out" or "and then I got married and my wife said we didn't need it any more." The exploding during fermentation wouldn't be an issue (at least not for you) if you do it at the brew kettle place and then went back to bottle it up. Sounds like it could be interesting, if you go ahead with it, please let us know how it turns out. Send me a sixer if it turns out well

Also, how much % more $$ is it to do it at the kettle place versus going the home route?

[beanoX3]

I knew a couple guys who tried brewing their own beer. Neither of them suffered any explosions, but the final result wasn't anything great. One guy's beer tasted like weaker Miller Lite (he was aiming for a light lager) and the other guy's beer just tasted bad (he was aiming for Sam Adams Boston Ale). I've talked to the guy who owns the local brew and grow (he focused more on "grow" than brew, if you get my meaning) and basically he said there has to be a lot of attempts and experimentation to get a good taste. In the end, it seemed like home brewing would have cost a lot initially along with lots of time getting the recipe right, and I've got nowhere near the patience or desire to do that.

[Metroid]

Add me to the list of people who have had friends that did it.

They did quite a few different batches and had mixed results, it's something you have to really practice at...or go to school for to get any sort of consistent quality results. There's a reason brewmasters are like chemists.

In the end they both decided it wasn't worth the hassle. Good luck though and let us know what you decide.

[Guru13]

I'm sure if you sent out free samples to cafe'rs they'd let you kow how it tasted.

[dream_017]

The only guy I know of, was this one

[treat24]

Yes I have, and I've had good and bad. One thing for sure, put the bottles in the oven and make sure you sterilize them... Not sterilizing the bottles makes every batch bad very quickly.

[scottaa1]

Yes I have, and I've had good and bad. One thing for sure, put the bottles in the oven and make sure you sterilize them... Not sterilizing the bottles makes every batch bad very quickly.

Exactly. It's so easy to just go to the store or in special cases the local brew pub to get something fresh.

In a perfect world, it would rain beer, and my roof would be a funnel. To my mouth.

[The Artful Dodger]

I've known a couple of people who have tried their own homebrew and I'd like to try brewing some time (not sure how detailed BeerAdvocate's tutorials are). Besides, microbrews are relatively easy to get around here especially when Stone and Alesmith are two hours drive away.

[Omaha Red Sox]

Add me to the list of people who have had friends that did it.

x 2.

Had a buddy that tried it years ago and it really sucked so I had no desire to try it myself. I did get a bottle from a guy in the company who makes his own beer and it was really good. He wanted the bottle back.