About 1 year ago I read MMM's posts on homebrewing beer. "Duh!" I thought. "Craft brew for High Life prices? Yes, please." I approached a buddy to split costs, but he wisely chose to buy a bike, and the project was shelved as we went for long rides together instead of brewing. Fast-forward to Father's Day 2013. "What do you want for F-day?" asks the wife. I have my answer ready, "my own beer." Thus was born "The Obscure Presidents' Ale Society."
After a lesson in the importance of sanitation (RIP, Robust Porter. So much promise, so much acetobacter.), tonight I enjoyed two bottles of my first brew, a very hoppy wheat beer ("George Hoppy Wheat Bush"). Award winning? Certainly not, but fulfilling in a way that goes beyond the simple consumption of alcohol. I'm looking forward to the saison, brown ale, and "Grover Cleveland Non-consecutive Double IPA" currently in buckets.
Here are my thoughts on the process, for others getting into the hobby:
- Used is your friend. On the Monday after Father's day, I was riding my bike to work ('natch), when I saw a nice bucket on the side of the road. "That looks like a fermenter," I thought. "And that brush looks a lot like a carboy brush!" Pulling over, I netted a bucket, a capper, a bag of caps, a hydrometer (later broken, oops) and sample tube, and a racking cane. I put a note in the mailbox of the house saying that I wanted to buy any other brewing equipment. I ended buying 2 kettles for $50, along with a handful of books thrown in for free. I live in a low craiglist utilization area. I'm sure other could do the same with CL.
- Go all grain, right from the start. MMM's articles mention "malt extract," which is the canned soup of beer production. While great beers can be made from extract, we know that not outsourcing the work (of soup or beer) is more fulfilling and more thrifty. Sacks of malted grain can be had for pennies per pound. In my case, my wife was visiting relatives in Minneapolis, home of several homebrew shops. She was able pick up a bag of pale malt and a bag of wheat malt for costs so low they are not worth mentioning.
- Use the "Brew In A Bag" (BIAB) technique. After sticking your gain in hot water, you will need a way to remove the spent material. Traditionally this is done with a lauter tun, a big sieve. But we aren't traditionalists. Instead, stick your grain in a big tea-bag and let it steep (mash, to use the proper brewing terminology). When it is done, pull it out. Easy-peasy and it avoids all kinds of head aches.
- When you are done boiling your wort (sugary pre-beer substance) you can either chill it using mechanical means (pumping cold water through a copper tube) or just letting it coll down (or perhaps throwing the pot in an ice bath). I favor the "no-chill" method. But immersion chillers are not expensive. Just don't think that you _must_ have a chiling solution. Just get some plastic wrap, cover your pot, and let sit over night (the wrap was inspired by earlier sanitation issues; but I shoudl point out that I made just about every other mistake imaginable for that batch)
- I ferment in $3 Home Depot/Lowes/Farm 'n' Fleet food safe buckets. At 5 gallons you will need to scale down many recipes by about 20%, but this pretty easy to do (many recipes are for 5.5 gallons total, assuming a 6.5 gallon fermenter). In terms of total beer, the difference is not worth mentioning. If you want to really cut costs (not worth it IMHO), you could probably get used buckets from restaurants. For my money, I'll use buckets that I know weren't abused.
- I use dry yeast. In the future, I'll buy liquid yeast, create a starter, and split it into freezable batches. For now, the limited choices in dry yeast are more than I need. I've reused yeast cakes (sanitized a cup, after bottling I skimmed off some junk on top, and tossed the next layer down into an immediately-to-be-used bucket).
- I can't recommend the book "Beer Craft" by Bostock and Rymill highly enough. While you wouldn't think it, homebrewing books can show their age surprisingly quickly. They focus on 1-gallon batches, but you can easily scale their recipes into whatever size you want.. This book also contains interesting interviews with pro-brewers and several fun projects for branding your brew. I made a batch of "fired-on" bottles (painted and baked in the over) with my logo. These kind of projects keep up the enjoyment of the hobby when you would otherwise be sitting on hands waiting for yeast to do what they do.
Finally, while I've highlighted my choices, there are many ways to brew beer. Frankly, nature wants to turn your sugar into alcohol, so just let it. Brewing big batches, small batches, extract, whatever is great. When it comes down to it, my only recommendation is, "get off the sidelines and make your own beer!"
