Brewing your own beer

[hordosr]

Anyone make their own beer? If so what is the best kit one has used? I will get in it here in the new new year.
My father in law likes the cervesa.

[Jucius Maximus]

I've looked into making my own beer through a "u-brew" sort of store, but it never worked out:

1. You need to refrigerate it ALL since it has no preservatives. Considering the size of the batch, my fridge would not have room.

2. You have to drink it relatively quickly, otherwise it will spoil. (I don't drink beer often enough for it to be worthwhile for me.)

Wine, on the other hand... I've made over 100 bottles now and I think it's great!

[Keelie]

My husband manages a u-brew here in town, and we have made lots of different beers.

We like the Brew House kits. Red Ale, Pilsner, Pale Ale are the ones we make the most. The Oktoberfest is good too, but its seasonal.
Heres a link to see the different ones,
http://www.thebrewhouse.com/types/index.htm

And yes you do have to keep home made beer in the fridge, but thats not a problem for us as we have a separate beer fridge. It has a life of about 3 months, but for the price we are paying for a batch (with hubby's discount) we can afford to share it with friends and not care. We rarely ever have a batch that lasts for 3 months!!!

I'm beginning to prefer the taste and when we buy beer from the LCB its specialty beers because regular beer tastes so awful.

We are making quality beer, doing it yourself is a lot cheaper, but that doesnt mean you want to cheap out on the kit!!!

[nalababe]

Yes...I used to brew beer all the time in University...it was just weekend event for us....

We brewed from grains directly, no kit. Make awesome ales (more convenient due to temperature requirements.

[M_Matt]

It's been years since I last made home brew, but when I did I simply kept it in my basement, never refrigerated. I don't recall any book - Papazian, ABA, etc - that said it must be refrigerated. So I never did and I never had a problem, same thing with my father-in-law. As long as you keep things clean you should be good.

Small nit to pick: hops, in addition to adding wonderful bitterness, flavour, and aroma also act as preservatives. That's why IPA has so many IBU's: when the Brits were shipping it to their garrisons in India they knew the beer would survive the long journey if they add gads of hops to the boil.

I used to use the extracts from the cans and supplemented the recipe with specialty malts and hop pellets to get more flavour.

[duckdown]

swish!

[M_Matt]

Meaning?