[ARCHIVED THREAD] - MO HTF beer thread (Page 1 of 2)
Posted: 1/29/2009 5:11:06 PM EDT
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We seem to have a lot of beer enthusiasts, and home brewers here. I figured an unofficial beer thread should be in order to make beer recommendations and brewing tips easier to find.
After my first home brew "Irish Red" debacle, I have placed an order for more kits. Irish Red Ale w/ White Labs California Ale 001 Simcoe Select IPA w/ California Ale White Labs 001 I still have an Oatmeal Stout kit from Midwest waiting to be brewed (and hopefully not messed up). Hoping to have the Irish Red ready to drink by March. Also, I just drank a Tall Grass IPA (KS brewery) and it was very nice. Would drink again! Picked up a sixer of Boulevard Irish Ale to try out as well this weekend, had one tonight. I think I prefer the Samuel Adams Irish Red a little more, and I'm sure my Irish Red will taste like crap compared to both. 
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Also, did anyone here every try "Mule Kick" Oatmeal Stout in the short time it was available? I first had it at Fox & the Hound in Independence, but all of the F & H around here had it. I loved it. Apparently it was a Budweiser owned brewery that made the stuff (big surprise for me, I hate Budweiser but my step dad is a driver for Bud and said it's so).
Then one day, they stopped carrying it at F & H, come to find out it got discontinued all together. |
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I like just about EVERYTHING Sam Adams puts out - except their "fruit infused" brews (i.e. Cherry Wheat, etc).
I've been on the Boulevard tour 4 times now. (No offense, of course!) but their wheat is still my least favorite. I don't know if they changed their recipe or my palette has changed over the past 7 or 8 years, but it seems a lot less "flavorful" now than it was when I first started drinking it. It definitely appeals to a large amount of people, so it is popular for sure. Their Smokestack series and seasonals are good. Damn, it's been about 5 months since I've been on a tour, it's high time for another! |
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Im drinking a Boulevard Dry Stout right now. First time I've had this brew and I like it, would buy again. But not one of my top favorites either. I like Boulevard, Im looking forward to getting up there to KC and taking their tour. Had a good bottle of Long Strange Tripel last night. Pretty soon Im going to get into the home brewing thing. Ive decided on a brewing kit from Midwest, and from what Ive read in the few brewing threads on this site they are a pretty top notch company to deal with. Would this be correct? Jason |
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Pretty soon Im going to get into the home brewing thing. Ive decided on a brewing kit from Midwest, and from what Ive read in the few brewing threads on this site they are a pretty top notch company to deal with. Would this be correct? Jason I would have to say YES ! They have a forum (which I post at) which can be very helpful to the nervous beginning brewer .. and experianced alike! |
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I'm going to take the Blvd tour in early March with some friends. I'm looking forward to it already!
I like a lot of the little microbrews, my current favorite is Rogue Dead Guy. I also like a lot of the flying dog line, and Blvd of course. I also like Sam Adams, pretty much any of them. I'm mostly a Ale, Lager, Pale kind of guy. Not too big on Stouts overall. |
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I brewed a new batch of Irish Red over the weekend (gave up hope on my botched batch and dumped it). I ordered the kit with the White Labs yeast this time. I also used the pot from a turkey fryer (wife forgot to pick up the burner part too from the MIL, so I had to do it on the stove) and it worked a lot better. Having a lid helped I'm sure, let alone having a "flat bottom". I boiled 4 gallons of water for the wort, instead of the 2.5 from the last brew. I had a buddy there with me this time, which helped a lot. I kept the fermentation bucket upstairs this time, it's about 5 degrees warmer. The air lock is venting pretty rapidly, once per second or a little faster. It took longer to start this time than with the dry yeast, which is what I had read.
I also picked up a new (to me) refrigerator for our kitchen and moved our current one to the basement as a beer fridge. Now I just need to wait to get it in bottles, got plenty of space for it. As soon as the Irish Red is out of the primary fermentation bucket, I'm going to brew one of the other kits I have. Can't decide on whether to do the Oatmeal Stout or IPA first. |
Light, schmight shootin dave!!!
Its folks like you that make it harder for me to even find my regular Busch long necks, or Original Coors Banquet. When the store cooler is loaded with busch lite and coors light.   
The situation has got me started buying Corona Extra (not a bad beer at all) I 'bout choked when I heard my DIL use the term "Bud Heavy". IMHO light beer is a mutant form that should be eradicated before it spreads further. And yes, I am a fat old man!!!! |
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Hopefully not! That Irish Red is still looking pretty bad  . Cloudy as a mother.My fist batch of homebrew was HORRIBLY bitter!! I read the instructions several times before I ever even filled a pot with water to boil. And NOWHERE did it say to remove the hops bags before pitching the yeast and letting it ferment. OH MY GOD was that some bitter beer. But I drank every last drop out of sheer stubbornness.
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well .. I don't agree with dumping a beer unless you are SURE its screwed .. but ....
White labs makes good yeast ... but it is VERY slow starting. I use Wyeast Activator packs almost exclusively (which do not require a starter). if ya got questions .. go to the MW forum .. we've got answers. OH .. we also have a "beer pass" |
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So my 2nd batch of Irish Red should be headed to the secondary fermenter soon (don't worry, I'll be gentile this time ).
I brewed it 2 Saturdays ago, and it started fermenting a week from yesterday. Is it ready to go to the carboy now? How long should I leave it in there before bottling? 7-10 days? |
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So my 2nd batch of Irish Red should be headed to the secondary fermenter soon (don't worry, I'll be gentile this time ).
I brewed it 2 Saturdays ago, and it started fermenting a week from yesterday. Is it ready to go to the carboy now? How long should I leave it in there before bottling? 7-10 days? First .. your hydrometer is your friend .. its your window into your beer .. it will tell you when the time is right. What kind of yeast did you use? Have you taken a gravity reading? Gravity readings should be taken and NOT returned to the batch. If you are at your final gravity (make sure by taking 3 consecutive readings and they all come out the same) then you are good to secondary (you want the bulk of fermentation to be done in primary) and if you are not overly concerned with clarity or don't have a secondary .. you can leave the beer in primary for 3-4 weeks and transfer to bottling bucket and bottle! |
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Some close friends and I finished off the Hophead IPA and Wheat Beer kegs. We are waiting on the Irish Stout to finish fermentation. It's about 1 week away from the kegerator. do you mean MW HopHead IIPA? That is one of my favorite recipes! I will offer my services to dispose of all that ruined HHIIPA for you! 
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Well my 2nd batch of Irish Red has been in the secondary carboy for a week now. How long should I leave it in there before bottling? I'm hoping to have it ready by St Patrick's Day.
I also brewed an Oatmeal Stout Saturday evening. It didn't start fermenting until Tuesday, but it's rolling now. Gasses every 1-2 seconds. Then I've got an IPA to do...once I get some bottles free, that is. |
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About a week or two in the secondary is good to go, in the secondary you are looking for a little bit more fermentation, and mostly clarifying.
I kegged the Irish that E1CM and I did last Wednesday, E1CM should be dialing down the pressure today... Eric? 12PSI... Then a couple more weeks or so of aging and it will be drinkable... |
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Some close friends and I finished off the Hophead IPA and Wheat Beer kegs. We are waiting on the Irish Stout to finish fermentation. It's about 1 week away from the kegerator. do you mean MW HopHead IIPA? That is one of my favorite recipes! I will offer my services to dispose of all that ruined HHIIPA for you! That's the one. It was most excellent....we finished the keg in 2 days. Happy brewing! |
| This thread inspired me to get off my arse and get the rest of the equipment and supplies needed to brew a batch. So last weekend, I went to http://www.wineandbeermaking.com/ and got everything. The people here were very nice and helpful, tolerating all my noob questions. My cousin and I are brewing a dark irish red after my sons b-day party on saturday. |
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This thread inspired me to get off my arse and get the rest of the equipment and supplies needed to brew a batch. So last weekend, I went to http://www.wineandbeermaking.com/ and got everything. The people here were very nice and helpful, tolerating all my noob questions. My cousin and I are brewing a dark irish red after my sons b-day party on saturday. so how'd it go? |
| Well...I posted about it in the other post, but I checked it when I got home and it's for about an inch of head, maybe a little less visible through the bucket. Its happily bubbling away about every second. I used wyeast liquid yeast with the activator pack thing in it, it took about 12 hours before it started bulging the fermenter but no bubbles (its kinds thin gonna replace it after a couple uses) then about 18-24 hours it started bubbling away! hopefully it tastes as good as it looks. The recipe came from a book I bought at the beer store that has 180 microbrew clone recipes from around the country and a few from canada. I'll post the recipe when I get the book back from my cousin who is picking up the ingredients for a ESB pale ale. The one we did ended up being an Irish ale very similar in looks to Smithwycks Irish ale and not a red like the buy at the store thought. But its OK because Smithwycks is one of my favs. |
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This looks too complicated.....does it stink up your house at all? 3 keys to making good beer SIMPLE SANITATION PATIENCE FOLLOW A RECIPE IF you can do those you can make beer! If you do your boils inside on the kitchen stove .. yeah it smell like boiling hops and grains for a day or so (I like the smell). Smell from fermentation .. never noticed any. |
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It smells like a bakery, sorta.  I like bakeries...... 
Is there a website you would suggest to look at a beginner setup of sorts.......? Midwest Supplies These guys are great to deal with! They also have a forum on the page where you can ask questions and get answers ... all about beer (and wine). |
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Back from the dead...
So it's been about 10 days since I bottled my Irish Red...sampled it a couple days ago and it's good to go.........so my first batch of home brew is well under way of being consumed. I have an Oatmeal Stout that should be ready to bottle sometime this week, and then an IPA kit to brew after that. Guess I should start picking out my next recipe kits. |
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Forgot to ask, when you bottle, how far do you fill it? just past the bottom of the neck? kinda .. do you have a bottle filler? the ones seen HERE fill the bottle when the tip is pushed against the bottom of the bottle. once you let up the flow stops. fill the bottle to the very top and remove and the amount of beer displaced by the filler will give you a perfect headspace on your beers. are you bottling today? 
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| Yup, thats the one I have. Will it hold the syphon for each bottle? I assume it will. I tasted the portion I drew off to check the gravity. even for flat, green beer, It tasted pretty good. I think it will turn out nicely. Its very dark in color, but it doesn't taste as heavy as I would have expected. |
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Yup, thats the one I have. Will it hold the syphon for each bottle? I assume it will. I tasted the portion I drew off to check the gravity. even for flat, green beer, It tasted pretty good. I think it will turn out nicely. Its very dark in color, but it doesn't taste as heavy as I would have expected. you have a bottling bucket right? |