

Learn to Brew Beer - American Homebrewer's Association - phren0logy
http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/pages/community/videos/show?title=homebrewing-lesson-1-introduction

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phren0logy
I'm submitting this because a friend recently introduced me to homebrewing.
It's really easy to get started, and doesn't take much time or equipment
(unless you want it to).

I thought it might be something that some people around here might be
interested in, and might not see otherwise. It is fantastically geeky in all
the right ways.

P.S. I'm not endorsing drinking more beer, I'm endorsing drinking better beer.
Brew exactly the beer you would want to drink, even if it would never be
commercially viable to sell.

~~~
lbrandy
I agree, although I haven't started brewing yet (my brother does). Doing it by
yourself, I think, is hard, cause it's difficult to make a "reasonable" amount
of beer for one person.

That said, it is def. appropriate for HN. Beer brewing is on my short-list of
"telling hobbies" that is most certainly hacker-tastic. It just seems to be
the kind of thing that good devs are drawn to, I could only make an educated
guess as to why. I told my brother he needs to put it on his resume, somewhere
at the bottom, because if I saw it on a resume, I'd give mental bonus points.

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arohner
I've been brewing for several years, and always enjoyed it. Two pieces of
advice, they cost more, but the results are worth it.

1) Keg your beer, or bottle in larger containers. I brew 5-6 gallons at a
time. Putting that in 12oz beer bottles requires sanitizing and capping more
than 50 bottles. Screw that. Use 1-2 liter bottles, or even better, keg your
beer. Kegging tastes better, is less work, but more expensive (because you
need a CO2 tank, a regulator, and a keg).

2) Don't kegerator. Kegerating is problematic because your beer line runs from
the cold to room temperature. Germs can crawl up the tap, causing the beer to
taste skanky. Kegerating requires cleaning the tap frequently.

Instead, put your whole keg inside the fridge, tap and all. Doing this, I've
had a batch last 6 months, with no skankiness.

~~~
pasbesoin
> Instead, put your whole keg inside the fridge, tap and all.

The brother of a friend is in a local brew club. Also very technical and
(selectively) a perfectionist. That's how he/they do it.

Just be ready to take a few shelves out of the refrigerator. He has a second
one in the basement devoted to this.

Once a year, they have a big Oktoberfest fund-raiser for charity. Everyone
gets to bring and share their brews with the crowd, and it all goes to a good
cause.

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mattmichielsen
I actually presented this (<http://www.slideshare.net/mattmichielsen/how-to-
make-beer>) at a local BarCamp a couple years ago instead of the talk I was
planning to do on mercurial vs. git. I got a lot of people excited about it
and at least one has been brewing himself lately.

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Avshalom
I recommend the book Radical Brewing by Randy Mosher. It's a fun read, comes
with a crap ton of tables of what ingredients add what flavors and comes at
brewing from the angle of wanting to make the perfect green chile prickly pear
doppelbock.

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steauengeglase
I've been doing this for a couple years and I've got to say, it has been
pretty satisfying, quick and cheap. Depending on the yeast you use and how
dedicated you are to experimentation, you can clone almost anything after less
than 3 months of serious reading/tinkering/tasting.

I can't think of too many hands-on knowledge investments that have such a
quick, broad return with such a low monetary cost. [I've been building a spare
brewing kit from more-or-less rummage sources, just to see how cheap I can go.
Half-way finished and I've literally spent only $5.]

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jsm386
Brewed my first batch last month. <http://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html> was
essential. Everything went to plan...except when we got too vigorous a
fermentation and the airlock blew off at 3am. Thankfully the beer turned out
great, but next time I'll be using a blowoff hose.

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blangblang
I've got to mention 'Brewing Classic Styles: 80 Winning Recipes Anyone Can
Brew' by Jamil Zainasheff and John Palmer here. It contains examples of both
all-grain and extract recipes for every BJCP category. The breadth of styles
provided and the consistent, accurate recipes make it a _great_ reference for
any level of brewer.

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flexxy86
Great link, as someone who has just gotten into home brewing it's a lot fun.
I'm really only on my 1st brew (bottling day is sunday!) another thing to
check out would be the Basic Brewing (found @ basicbrewing.com) podcast which
has some good info as well.

~~~
uxp
The Brewing Network (<http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/>) is also a great
resource for beginners and all the way to advanced and commercial brewers.
They have a handful of live shows that are archived to podcasts ranging from
completely offtopic drunken chatter to clear cut how-to's.

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varikin
As a beer lover, I have looked into brewing and decided I don't have the
patients for it. So I did the next best thing. I have a good friend who loves
to brew. He always wants to give away as much beer as he can so he has room to
brew and store more beer.

~~~
uxp
As someone who homebrews, this is fantastic advice. I give most of my product
away to friends because I can't drink the quantity I end up producing all by
myself.

To anyone who says they don't have patience, don't worry. Beginning with
extract brewing, a very simplified approach is boiling a large pot of water
for about 2 hours and then tossing it in a bucket for a week. Don't worry, the
first batch will be garbage. Learn why it failed (it was because you weren't
clean enough), and try again.

------
billswift
If you want to ruin perfectly good edibles, there are faster ways than turning
them into beer.

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alexsherrick
thanks a lot for this... always thought it would be cool to learn!

~~~
phren0logy
No problem. I hadn't really given it much thought until recently, but when a
friend suggested it I jumped at the idea. I have been dreaming about all kinds
of exciting things to try, like beers brewed with fruits and peppers.

Like programming language communities, hobby communities can also add or
detract from the experience. In general, I have found homebrewers to be pretty
laid back. You don't want to do the fancy processes and equipment? No problem,
you brew the beer you want the way you want to do it. There's no right way, do
what makes you happy.

~~~
Avshalom
So the greatest pepper beer I've ever made/drank was a green chile ale made
with the grain bill of a marzen.

That recipe though is part of a friends business plan so I can't share it I
can share this older one though:

10 gallon batch:

    
    
      16lbs english pale
      4 lbs green chile
      2 lbs biscuit malt
      2 lbs crystal 10L
      2 lbs white wheat
      1 lbs german wheat
      1 lbs melanoidin
      1 lbs carapils
      1 lbs munich 10L
    

Mash in 8 gallons of water at 155F for 3 hours

Sparge with 9.5 gallons

60 minute Boil time with:

    
    
      1.25 oz Pioneer 8.5% at T-60 
      0.75 oz Wilamette 4.1 at T-30
      1 tsp irish moss
      1 tsp gypsum at T-25
      0.75 oz Saaz 5.9% at T-15
      0.75 oz Cascade 5.9% at T-5
    

Nottingham yeast

Let hang in primary for a 10 days then transferred to secondary and added 4lbs
Green Chile.

It's been a while since I've lived in New Mexico so I haven't made this in a
couple years, but aside from the quantity of chiles it should work pretty well
for any pepper. Though I'd use more cascade and less pioneer if it was a
citrus-y pepper like a habanero.

~~~
mattmichielsen
This is definitely added to my list of beers to try. Thanks!

