Home Brewing (Beer and Wine)

[Kelly]

Spinning off a comment from the Dairy thread, seems there may be a few of us with interest in these skill sets.

I plan to make beer and wine but only have theory at this point, no hand's on yet (basement plumbing project underway; hopefully I'll be brewing by June...).

In the meantime, love to hear what others have done in this area; tips, tricks, do's don't's and, of course, RECIPES!

One area of concern I have is that I also plan to use the brew room for my cheese-making. I'm concerned about cross-contamination of the yeast/cultures. I will have a good vent hood and even thinking of upgrading that to prevent as much as possible. While I think beer-flavored cheese might not be bad, the reverse would suck.

Kelly

[tk]

Way to jump in Kelly. My dad made wine for years. But sorry to say I never did much to help him. I do know a few years ago he quit buying the whole grapes and started buying the grape juice in 5 gallon buckets eliminating a whole lot of steps such as getting grapes shipped from California and hoping they got to PA before they rotted. And pressing and screening takes a lot of work. I will get you some of his recipes. The only wine I can stand is his tomato wine (its more like a brandy) and its great for getting rid of the tomato's that are going the other way and it doesn't taste like tomato's .

[southernmom]

My husband is joining today and he will chime in.

[tk]

FEK's Tomato Wine Recipe
12 LBS tomatoes - 12LBS sugar - 4 oranges - 2 Lemons -1 large cake yeast -4 LBS raisons - 5 quarts ( 1 1/4 gallons) water.
Put 1 gallon of water in crock, stir in sugar and stir till dissolved. Add yeast to 1 quart of warm water. Stir until yeast is dissolved then add to crock. Grind up tomatoes, oranges, lemons then add raisins. Add and stir into water mixture in crock. Keep crock in a cool place. Stir once a day for 2 weeks. Then strain crock contents through cheese cloth and pour into glass jugs (LEAVE LIDS LOOSE) and let jugs set in cool place for 1 week. Then syphon into bottles being careful not to stir up sediments. Leave in these bottles for 1 week. Then carefully put into your wine bottles. Then put a cork in it. The glass jugs he was referring to are 3 gallon wine making jugs . Then he would use class 1 gallon or half gallon wine bottles with a screw on cap. Then he would put it in regular wine bottles and cork. Like I said before I cant drink his dago red ( shit will make you pucker all over) but I can drink this tomato wine (I like it cold) all day long. Or till I fall over. TFK

[Frankenrigger]

I'm not an expert, but I'm pretty sure you can do cheese and beer in the same basement. If you are doing it right your beer will be protected during fermentation with an airlock, then safely in its bottle! My advice is to start simple, use recipes that are based on malt extracts. Less time, smaller volumes of liquid and less cleanup! Plenty of time to work up to all grain recipes. Definitely invest in a wort chiller. It's a device (sometimes homemade) that will help cool the wort (unfermented beer!) from boiling temp to yeast pitching temp quickly. Probably the most important part in controlling your end results. Airborne yeast and bacteria is everywhere and can't be avoided, so you want the yeast you choose to have every chance it can get to do it's job. Glass carboys are good to start with for fermentation. I can go on forever, but I think I'll let you come up with some specific questions rather than bore you with stuff you may already know! Good luck!

[W.Lynn]

Somewhere, I have two copies of the same book on mead making. Haven't done it, but I want to.

[southernmom]

Mead is super easy, and the results are pretty good! Honey is a lot more expensive, now than it was which is why I want a few beehives in the near future.

[W.Lynn]

I like honey. We've been working our way through a gallon jug, with another one on standby.

I might need a place where I can keep bees.

[Frankenrigger]

Mead is very nice! And easy. The hardest part is waiting! Takes a couple of months to complete fermentation. When I first started brewing Al Gore hadn't invented the internet yet so I had this book, the home brewer's bible by Charles papazian. Very good source. Easy read, full of info, and perfect for beginners on up to advanced brewers.

[tk]

I just checked at a local Amish bee keeper here . He sales his pure honey for 12 bucks a quart. I don't know if that's a good price or not. But I do intend on making a batch of mead when things settle down here. And I'm going to look for that book Frank. Thanks