Anyone make their own beer?

Hey, @Prestonhight, welcome to the BeerAdvocate Homebrewers forum! My first post to this forum about 11 years ago was pretty much the same thing. Something like "Can you really make good homebrew?" I had hung up my boots about 15 years earlier because I had failed several times at brewing, but the folks here convinced me it could be done, and I'm still here doing it. Not every batch has been a huge hit, but I've had some good ones. Hope you stick around. Lots of good info passes through here. (In addition to the usual time-honored tradition of snarky internet commentary).

 

Yup.

Cheers!

 

Been brewing for 22 years...and too many good batches to mention! I've brewed some great IPAs, Berliner Weisses, Brett DIPAs and Imperial Chocolate Stouts over the past few years though.

 

It's not so much 'snarky' as it is a bunch of fun-loving brewing scientists without much of a hint of a bedside manner.

 

Yes, I brew beer. My "best best so far" is difficult to determine because I reliably crank out WORLD CLASS BEER in my basement using toilet braid lauters and plastic bucket fermenters. I pitch the whole starter because that's how the best beer gets made. Drinking "professionally made" beer is a convenient source of research and development and / or a well deserved punishment.

 

There is so, so, so much information and valuable resources available for the modern home brewer, it's amazing. You can make as good a beer as you want, all the information is available.

 

I started my first batch last friday. It was an awesome experience and can't wait to do the whole process all over again. I loved the smell and the hours spent in the kitchen and cleaning and sanitising. Although I think that with your first batch comes los of worrying later on. At least this is happening to me because I feel like a made a few mistakes that might affect my final product, though I hope I'm wrong. In the other hand my main concern right now is that my beer is turning it's first week of fermentation tomorrow and it's been a few days without the airlock bubbling nor seeing any action through the glass carboys. Anyone that can give my any insight or that would agree with what I said in the beginning?
Thanks.

 

It sounds like your fermentation is winding down now. Sit tight another week to allow the yeast to clean up after themselves and then take a gravity reading (assuming this is more than a gallon batch). Taste the beer from your gravity sample and you'll get a hint whether your mistakes may be a major problem. After three more days, take another gravity reading. If the second reading is close to the first one, and both readings are close to your recipe's expected final gravity, then you're clear to bottle/keg your beer. Good luck.

 

Thank you so much for the info. I'll be letting you know when I complete all the above. Thanks and really appreciated that.

 

Damn...I'm gonna have to get a house with a basement...

 

Damn I'm gonna have to get a toilet braid