making beer at home

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is there any one out there that can give me any tips on home beer brewing... i'm just getting started..thanks for any help...

-- george (locnest@penn.com), November 20, 1999

Answers

There are many good books on the subject. Most of mine are British. There must be news groups / bulletin boards too. If you have a local home brew store, they'll have all the information. As a novice it's easiest to start with beer kits (about $10 and up for 5-6 gallons). THere are mail order places too (e.g. The Home Brewery 800-321-brew or 800-841-7404 classified in Countryside) but my experience is that thet're expensive. Make sure you have 5-6 gallon capacity in crown cork type beer bottles (i.e. most returnable long necks or imports, but NOT twist offs) before you start! Good luck

-- David C (fleece@eritter.net), November 20, 1999.

There are a lot of beer brewing sites! Here's a few

http://hbd.org/brewery/cm3/CatsMeow3.html

http://www.draftsman.com/draft3.htm

http://www.homebrewsupply.com/

http://www.brewguys.com/homepage.htm

http://byo.com/

One of them, I forget which, has step by step instructions for a simple beer.

Have fun!

-- James Lindstrom (jcrocket@alltel.net), November 21, 1999.


I have been trying to get rid of about 300 different sized brewing bottles myself. If anyone lives closed to phoenix AZ Email me and Ill give you direction or maybe meet half way

-- Rick wyckoff (wittey@aol.com), November 22, 1999.

I like the book "Joy of HomeBrewing" as it is recent, written by an American, so terms, measures, and supplies are familiar, and it is a very thorough book for a basic book. It is around $10, I think. The best thing to do is get supplies and equipment together and brew a simple batch, like a pale ale, maybe using a kit with all the ingredients, and just do it. Cleanliness is very important, but a batch of beer should be hard to mess up.

Jim

-- Jim (jiminwis@yahoo.com), November 22, 1999.


the previous responses have been very good - the best bet is a local store or club (Try your local fair) - the bottles I like best are champaign bottles - a few of them are too big for crown caps but most work and keep down the cost of caps - I prefer a bench capper, I have heard the the clamp on the bottle type are hard to work

-- kirby johnson (kirby@selco.lib.mn.us), November 23, 1999.


I have been making home brew for many, many years. As someone else has mentioned, there are a lot of websites. My favorite is Williams Brewing at www.williamsbrewing.com. They have a complete list of equipment and supplies. Once you have the equipment, and a little experience, you can branch out. Don't expect to brew beer a whole lot cheaper than you can buy it. The really cheap, and/or tasteless crap (and I include the big advertisers here, especially the "lizard beer") will probably be no more expensive. But if you want real flavor, home brew is outstanding.

-- Brad Traver (homefixer@mix-net.net), January 17, 2000.

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