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Homebrewing Beer

It's extract. I'm pretty comfortable with that process now, so I'm interesting in mashing and lagering in the future.
 
The first kit I made was all extract, and I've gone partial mash ever since. Its more time consuming, but I actually prefer it. I'm hoping to do the WH Ale Sunday if I get home from the mountains in time.
 
VUDore said:
I'm a proponent of the low and slow method of carbonating. The beer will probably improve from some time conditioning in the keg anyways.
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I agree with this. Don't rush the carbonation. It is still way faster than bottle conditioning, and once you get the right level it stays right there the entire time. I won't bottle another beer. All kegs for me. 6 gallon boil, 5 gallon batches. Perfect combo for a 10ga capacity brew kettle.
 
get to taste the test batch of our wedding brew next week, we brewed the first real batch last night and it's happily bubbling away in the primary now. we tasted a bit before bottling and I thought it was great, hopefully the carbonation works out well.
 
I'm usually only boiling 3-4 gallons, making up the rest later with ice to bring temp down since I don't have a wort chiller.
 
tsywake said:
Hmm, I guess I've never experienced that since I use a lid.
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Take the lid off. Boiling out some of the water concentrates the wort and allows for better beer. If you're leaving that much water in there, you're going to get a watered down beer.
 
I usually only boil a couple gallons in the wort, and add cold filtered water as it goes into the carbouy to fill out the 5 gallons. Now that I've got a 10 gallon kettle, I can start boiling larger amounts. In the past, I just didnt have a vessel large enough to do all of it at once.
 
Sipping my first kegged beer now. I'm sold. I'll still bottle occasionally as gifts or to see how well it ages, but I'm kegging all the way.
 
With the weekend weather supposed to be nasty, I'm going to be brewing the WH Ale Saturday. The Halycon Wheat turned out spectacular, but I don't see it lasting very long in the kegerator. We've been drinking a pitcher or so each night.
 
tsywake said:
Sipping my first kegged beer now. I'm sold. I'll still bottle occasionally as gifts or to see how well it ages, but I'm kegging all the way.
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May I suggest bottling in champagne bottles to give as gifts? I made a holiday brew a few years ago and used the champagne bottles to give out as gifts to friends and family. I am working on switching over completely to champagne bottles for the time it saves and because I never drink one beer, I'm going to at least have two or three. They make plastic re-usable corks for them also.
 
How easy are they to cork? I also have some Cabernet grapes that I'm growing, and the bottle corkers that I've looked into were ridiculously expensive.
 
tsywake said:
How easy are they to cork? I also have some Cabernet grapes that I'm growing, and the bottle corkers that I've looked into were ridiculously expensive.
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The plastic corks are easy. We push them in by hand mostly, then finishing tapping them in with a rubber mallet. Then we secure them with the wire tops.
 
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