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Topic: Open offer for the next tournament  (Read 4508 times)

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Kokayak

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Aliens,
It really isn't that hard. As Mol said you can really screw up sometimes and the beer will turn out fine. Other times you can do everything right and get an infection in your beer that will make dogs turn there noses. I've only gotten an infection once I think. Bacteria make some really strange flavors. There's a style of beer from Belgium I believe that is fermented in the open air to purposely get infections, they usually add a lot of fruit to the beer too. I can't stand that stuff. Getting back to your post, it really is not hard at all to make beer. All you are doing is making a giant batch of tea and then adding yeast. You need a pot big enough to safely boil 3-4 gal. of water. A turkey fryer does great double duty here. You then need some sort of airtight bucket or glass carboy that you attach a venting mechanism to. Lastly you need bottles or soda kegs to put the beer in. There are numerous little tools that make life easier. Most every homebrew shop is willing to let you use their stuff, like a bottle capper, when you are first beginning. These guys tend to be real cool and helpful. So the process for a beginner is basically:

1. Clean everything, this is the most important step!

2. Bring a few gallons of water to a boil with your malt extract, this stuff looks like honey or molasses. What Mol and I have been discussing is this step. If you do all grain you need equipment to make what is called wort by leaching out enzymes and sugars from the grain. If you don't have that equipment you can buy extract from the brew shop. A company makes a massive amount of wort and then condenses it. Like fresh squeezed orange juice verses frozen concentrate. Your extract plus hops boils for about an hour.

3. Cool the mixture, called wort, down to room temperature as quickly as possible to avoid an infection. Transfer the wort to your fermenter and then add or "pitch" your yeast.

4. This sits and bubbles away for a week or two depending on the style of beer you are making. You may transfer the beer to another container halfway through to get it off all the dead yeast and stuff that settles out of your beer.

5. Lastly you bottle or keg it and either add sugar or force CO2 in to carbonate.

Those steps can be as easy or as difficult as you want to make them. Once you have a batch or two under your belt it becomes very easy to add in the other little extras and you can start playing around. Pale Ales are very easy top make and are what most people start with. The two major pitfalls always seem to be someone adding a ton of hops, this stuff is strong and then not getting the carbonation right. But hey if no else will drink your ultra-hoppy flat beer that's just more for you!
And you could hear me screaming a mile away as I was headed out for the door....


MolBasser

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Quote
There's a style of beer from Belgium I believe that is fermented in the open air to purposely get infections, they usually add a lot of fruit to the beer too.


I think your speaking of Lambic.  I can't stand it either.  Lactobacillus infection is key for that style.

The good thing about beer infections (beer is actually made by infecting wort with yeast) by bacteria is that there aren't any that will get you sick.  You may spit out the beer and gag on the flavor, but they won't get you sick.

I've lucked out so far and never gotten an infected beer.

MolBasser
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"The Science of Fishing"
Relax, Don't Worry, Have a Homebrew!
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promethean_spark

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I freeze distilled some prickly pear wine a buddy and I made, it tasted too medicine-like to really drink and I hoped that converting it to prickly pear brandy would help.  It didn't make it any more drinkable, but it did make it about 40proof or so and cut the volume down to 1/4 to 1/5 of the original volume.

AFAIK freeze distilling isn't illegal, it's the use of a condenser that is illegal.

I don't think freeze distilling would work with beer to make more potent beer though, because it removes the vast majority of the water.  When I did it I froze a 2l bottle full, then flipped it to drain into a tupperware in the freezer, left overnight and collected what dripped out.  You could freeze distill beer and add it back into more beer to make more potent beer.  That's alot of work when you can just top it off with skyy though...
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MolBasser

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No need to freeze distill beer.  You can make barely wines up to 18% alcohol.  Beyond that, just buy liquor....

MolBasser
2006 Kayak Connection Father's Day Champion
"The Science of Fishing"
Relax, Don't Worry, Have a Homebrew!
  :happy10:


 

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