All things fermentable...........

[Steve2md]

So, I'm an avid home brewer. I brew beer, wines, Meads, Ciders, etc. Recently, I've begun to dabble in distilling, for, erm, experimental lawn mower fuel....Boy does my mower like corn likker......

Anyone else a brewer/distiller? I'll answer what questions I can about all of it, and share some recipes if folks are interested. Stills are easy to make as well, and I can teach you a few easy tricks to get started if ya want...This non growing season weather has caused me to divert my attention to other hobbies......

 

[Michibacy]

I don't delve into experimental lawn mower fuel, but I do like to brew myself some mead and cider/cyser. I have a few gallon carboys, some air locks, a few funnels etc that I use ONLY for brewing. Clean with warm bleach water and steam clean them (using the steamer on my espresso maker).

I wouldn't mind brewing a beer sometime but it is a lot more time consuming than mead.

I've tried making wine before but it requires a lot more stability than mead.

I've got a mead that is 12.5 months old (11 months bottled) that is pretty good (ancient orange recipe) and a cyser that is coming in at 29% with the hydrometer. Nice deep brown color, tell tale hints of almost a brown sugar taste to it.

 

[Steve2md]

Those sound delicious! Careful when you try beer...you'll be hooked and banned from the kitchen if you don't clean it up well...lol
Beer is easy to do. Start with one of the canned "kits" with pre hopped malt extract. Instead of using the sugar the instructions call for, use a second can of extract. It's pre hopped, so you only need to boil for 20 min or so, just long enough to get everything mixed up well. Dump it into your bucket, top off with cool water, pitch yeast, add air lock...2 weeks later, siphon into bottles with a little priming sugar and cap em. give it 14 days or so in the closet and BAM!! 52 bottles of tasty homebrew!!!!!!

 

[BarG]

Those sound delicious! Careful when you try beer...you'll be hooked and banned from the kitchen if you don't clean it up well...lol
Beer is easy to do. Start with one of the canned "kits" with pre hopped malt extract. Instead of using the sugar the instructions call for, use a second can of extract. It's pre hopped, so you only need to boil for 20 min or so, just long enough to get everything mixed up well. Dump it into your bucket, top off with cool water, pitch yeast, add air lock...2 weeks later, siphon into bottles with a little priming sugar and cap em. give it 14 days or so in the closet and BAM!! 52 bottles of tasty homebrew!!!!!!

Is it any where close to budweiser?

 

[Michibacy]

BarG, I think it depends on how you brew it. Different strains of hops , yeasts, temperatures, length of brewing etc. as for wine, I can make a white zinfandel that tastes like "White Owl" brand, or I can use a different strain of white grapes on accident that alter the tastes completely.

Even in mead, using different kinds of honey changes the tastes (standard clover honey compared to apple honey)

Leverhead, I've been looking into different ways to store my mead. I would love to track down some oak barrels (right now they're aging in the flip shut gasket-lock bottles (1 liter), looks pretty but there is something about that oak know of any?

 

[BarG]

An interesting subject. What is best barrel for aging tobacco, Old whiskey barrels?
http://mastergardenproducts.com/howbarrelsmade.htm

I can't see the olden day barrel makers using these now tried and true methods. I would love to know a simpler process for a quicker medium size barrell for not fermenting but more for planters . White oak is abundunt here.

 

[Steve2md]

I might try a used Bourbon barrel for aging your tobacco in, could make for some interesting flavor. For a Budweiser clone, use the lightest colored beer kit you can find. instead of a second can of extract, substitute the sugar with "rice solids" (rice sugar and bits) available at your home brew store. Substitute the ale yeast with a lager yeast. You'll get something pretty close to a bud.

 

[DonH]

BarG, I think it depends on how you brew it. Different strains of hops , yeasts, temperatures, length of brewing etc. as for wine, I can make a white zinfandel that tastes like "White Owl" brand, or I can use a different strain of white grapes on accident that alter the tastes completely.

Even in mead, using different kinds of honey changes the tastes (standard clover honey compared to apple honey)

Leverhead, I've been looking into different ways to store my mead. I would love to track down some oak barrels (right now they're aging in the flip shut gasket-lock bottles (1 liter), looks pretty but there is something about that oak know of any?

Oak barrels are very expensive though. A cheaper alternative is to put oak chips in the carbohydrate after the last racking. Not as picturesque but you get he oak flavor. You probably knew that...

 

[Michibacy]

Don I've heard of the oak chips but haven't tried it, I've used the oak extract but that just tastes funky

 

[Jitterbugdude]

Is it any where close to budweiser?

Once you make your first batch of beer you will probably throw away all the beer that's in your fridge. The worst tasting home brewed beer is still 100 times better than any fancy store bought beer. I used to brew a lot of beer but gave it up.. I was drinking way too much of it and getting fat. Now I only make mead. Usually about 5 gallons per year

 

[Michibacy]

What kind of mead do you make Jitter?

 

[Jitterbugdude]

I just make straight mead.. pure honey. I like my mead really sweet so ... it's really sweet. I used to make maple mead which was a mix of maple syrup and honey. The taste is out of this world but so is the price of a gallon of maple syrup so I went back to just regular old mead. The honey is free...

 

[Michibacy]

New phrase alert: When life gives you honey, make mead.

 

[BarG]

New phrase alert: When life gives you honey, make mead.

Rephrase: when life gives you Honey, give her some back.

 

[Michibacy]

Ah perfect BarG!

 

[johnlee1933]

Is it any where close to budweiser?

No way. You need horse piss to make that. -- J

 

[SmokesAhoy]

I've dabbled in all the above, stopped distilling since i moved cause well its illegal , stopped beer because like mentioned above its a pain, I do mead, cider and wine now. Agree with Mich, jaom is a good mead recipe. I do a nice heavily carbonated drink now, half wine, half cider that is nice.

 

[Michibacy]

I'll have to try that smokes. If I don't back sweeten my mead it can be over powering if you're not up for it, a mix of that and cider wouldn't be half bad!

 

[Knucklehead]

Leverhead, I've been looking into different ways to store my mead. I would love to track down some oak barrels (right now they're aging in the flip shut gasket-lock bottles (1 liter), looks pretty but there is something about that oak know of any?

Whiskey barrels - bigbonner posted this link somewhere else. he uses them to make Perique:
http://www.lexingtoncontainercompany.com/Wood-Barrels.html

 

[Steve2md]

My personal favorite for mead is orange blossom honey and lavlin EC1118 yeast. ferments out clean and leaves some residual sugar. Toss a split vanilla bean in the primary and you have an orange creamcicle mead...mmmmmmm