My friends are brewing beer

[Jon Miller]

So that they have some sort of success, I am mostly working/screwing around/making unhelpful comments.

They have a beer making kit, and a kit with the malt/etc.

But if I am right, if they just use the stuff in the kit they will have a light beer without all that much flavor. Am I right?

I think they should put corn syrup or molasses into it and maybe some nutmeg or something.

What do others think?

JM
(This is their first time)

[Dinner]

There are loads of kits and pre-made malt cans for just about any type of beer out there. They aren't all that cheap though.

[Jon Miller]

Yeah, they got one of those.

But reading about it it will be just 'average'.

I at least wanted to get an interesting kit but he got some sort of english ale or something like that.

JM

[Dinner]

Look up Home Brewing Supply in your local phone book and go talk to one of the owners. I'm sure they can set you up with a nice beginners kit just don't get a big fancy thing until you know its a hobby you want to keep. The basics are pretty cheap and easy so start with that and see if you like it.

[Jon Miller]

We spent 80 for the brewer kit and 40ish for the beer kit.

I know you can go cheaper, but it is OK.

I am more worried about the beer kit, we have 3.3 lb of malt extract and I have read many put in more or add sugar/corn syrup/molasses.

JM

[Zkribbler]

The Great Zkribblo predicts:

1) Your friends will indeed brew beer.
2) It will be really bad beer.
3) The beer will be guzzled regardless.
4) Everyone will get very drunk.
5) Someone will vomit.

I has spoken!!

[Jon Miller]

I am pretty sure we killed the yeast. We augmented it with bakers yeast. I am certain it will be atrocious.

We also screwed up other things, but still that was the worst.

JM

[FrostyBoy]

My father does this. In his garage he has shelves of 1.5 litre coke bottles filled about 3/4 full of home brewed beer. You cannot leave it too long, it'll explode.

He uses a large barrel, loads it up with water, mixes in heaps and heaps of sugar, puts in the malt.

According to him, he likes it home brewed because it won't make him drunk.

[Dinner]

We spent 80 for the brewer kit and 40ish for the beer kit.

I know you can go cheaper, but it is OK.

I am more worried about the beer kit, we have 3.3 lb of malt extract and I have read many put in more or add sugar/corn syrup/molasses.

JM

You indeed over paid. For about $30 you can get a "Mr. Beer" brand starter kit with around 5-6 different cans of malt extract and a plastic fermentation vessel. It sounds like your $80 kits is much higher end then a cheap little Mr Beer though so if you folks stick with brewing (and eventually make your own malt instead of using extract) then you can no doubt use the kit you bought and bring your price per beer down A LOT. Yes, most of the malt extract cans come with some time of sugar added to boost the alcohol content and to make fermentation kick in faster but they're an easy way for the novice to get into the hobby and learn that it's not much different from baking bread (just add ingredients and go). You'll also end up adding a bit more sugar at bottling time in order to carbonate everything but don't add to much or you'll end up with a cidery tasting beer.

I am pretty sure we killed the yeast. We augmented it with bakers yeast. I am certain it will be atrocious.

We also screwed up other things, but still that was the worst.

JM

Sometimes fermentation is slow especially if the brew doesn't have a lot of sugar in it or if you pitch the yeast a bit early before the wort cooled down enough. That doesn't mean the yeast is dead unless the water is boiling. A stuck wort can be unstuck by adding a bit of sugar or yeast nutrient to the fermintation to help get the yeast going again but do not use baker's yeast because brewing with the wrong yeast can make the whole thing taste and smell bad. You might get lucky though and maybe the original yeast were already working That's half the fun of home brewing, finding out what you have at the end.

[Dinner]

My father does this. In his garage he has shelves of 1.5 litre coke bottles filled about 3/4 full of home brewed beer. You cannot leave it too long, it'll explode.

He uses a large barrel, loads it up with water, mixes in heaps and heaps of sugar, puts in the malt.

According to him, he likes it home brewed because it won't make him drunk.

The reason they explode is because he puts to much priming sugar when he bottles them or because he hasn't racked the beer long enough before bottling it. He shouldn't feel bad because most people make mistakes and that's part of the fun. Hell, when I tried to make English Scrumpy I made the mistake of filling the carboy to full so when I had a vigorous fermentation going so junk blocked the airlock and the entire thing went off like a volcano. I had apple junk caked on my ceiling and I swear **** was stuck to the drapes a dozen feet away. It was a mess.

You can easily let a brew sit in the fermentation container for two weeks as long as you did a good job sterilizing things and have a good fermentation lock in place. The benefit for doing it so long is that the fermentation slows tends to slow down at the end as there is less and less food for the yeast so a long racking time allows the brewer to be sure that all the sugar has been fermented. Normally, I'll do a two stage fermentation; one week to ferment in one carboy then I'll transfer everything except the loose junk at the bottom to a second carboy for another week to clarify the beer. Just make sure you sterilize EVERYTHING because that's the main reason batches go bad.

[MikeH]

Oerdin's an expert at alcohol exploding.

And cleaning fermented meat out of ceilings.

[C0ckney]

the boys and i are making cider this summer. it's a proper homebrew job, just some apples from our tree, a blender, a few demijohns and some yeast. it's only costing about £20 between a few of us. it's going ok so far although we're not sure how it will turn out.

[MikeH]

No meat?

[Dinner]

Oerdin's an expert at alcohol exploding.

And cleaning fermented meat out of ceilings.

I might be an expert at making messes but my cleaning up the mess leaves much to be desired. When I was trying to clean the ceiling off the ceiling popcorn started rubbing off because it had gotten waterlogged so there was a giant bare patch on the ceiling until my dad had his ceilings redone.

[Dinner]

No meat?

Says the guy who wouldn't even taste a proper scumpy.