Comments on: Homebrew: Sweet Nectar of the Gods

By: Massage Marketing

Massage Marketing — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 14:37:02 +0000

That is excellent. Home brew doesn’t sound like complicated. Thanks for making this simple.

By: Robyn M.

Robyn M. — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 00:54:48 +0000

Making wine at home isn’t too hard, but depending on where you live, you’re probably not going to get real “high quality” wine. Wine and beer differ in one kind of odd way: beer is all about technique and the combination of ingredients chosen. Wine, OTOH, is already good or bad before the grapes are even picked–technique is secondary (important, but secondary). So, unless you live in an area that can grow wine grapes, which are not all that common in the U.S., you might be disappointed by what you get. You’re certainly not going to get a lovely shiraz out of your standard red table grape.

Having said that, an easy way to get around this problem is to not use grapes, but use other berries or fruits to make wine. It’s not so much that blackberry wine will be superior to grape wine, but your palate won’t expect certain things out of blackberry wine, so you might be happier with what it is. I hope that makes sense!

Or, enjoy your husband’s beer! I certainly enjoy mine! =D

By: sekhmet

sekhmet — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 18:30:35 +0000

Mead is another great homebrew, and if you can keep a hive, it’s infinitely renewable. Right now we have an apple mead brewing made with apple juice we pressed ourselves from our neighbor’s apples.

My partner & I brew beer from kits, but also hope to learn all grain brewing. A neighbor grows barley, so we just need to learn how to malt it We grow 4 kinds of hops that we dry in a dehydrator then freeze. Our local brew store isn’t very good, so we order from http://www.northernbrewer.com/ and http://www.breworganic.com/

Cider is a very versatile homebrew. We planted a small orchard with a couple of cider apple varieties. http://www.treesofantiquity.com/ is a great source for old-fashioned apple tree varities. We’ve done cider using ale yeast that was dry and potent. I want to try adding Cascade hops next time to see if it tastes like apple beer….

Another household favorite is nettle braggot. Braggots are a hybrid brew using both honey and barley malt. The nettles add an herbal, medicinal quality that we hope is good for us – http://seventrees.blogspot.com/2008/04/nettle-braggot-seven-trees-style.html

By: Home Beer Making As a Hobby

Home Beer Making As a Hobby — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 03:52:54 +0000

[...] Homebrew: Sweet Nectar of the Gods Even the micro-brews weren’t as good as a nice Shiraz. That is, until my husband got aboard the Peak Oil train with his new home-brewing hobby. Homebrew Zen (See the yin-yang?) My husband got a beer-brewing kit for Christmas… [...]

By: Marc

Marc — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 00:31:34 +0000

For some, an even easier solution is cider… can’t get much simpler.
Needed:
1) A gallon of no-preservative apple juice (in a glass jug, hopefully, you’ll re-use it for the next batch) — anywhere from $4 to $8/gallon. Quality is not as important, actually.
Air-lock (about $3 at a home brew store)
Packet of yeast (wine, ale, beer, or cider, maybe $3 from home brew store)
8 weeks.
Patience (see the “8 weeks” part)

You can make just about any type of cider: sweet, dry, still, effervescent, carbonated, flavored, straight, with spices, with peppers, with other juices, etc.

And, if you suppliment the sugars, you can get a dry apple wine.

It’s very easy to find instructions on line, and it’s so simple, even *I* did it.
Yields will be just a little less than the amount of juice you start out with (yeast falls to the bottom and you syphon off the good stuff on top afterwards), and proof will be anywhere from 10 to 36 proof (about 5 to 18% alcohol).

It’s really that simple, and it can be much more involved if you decide you like it.

And, there’s also always the “making apple cider vinegar”, if you like.

By: risa b

risa b — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 15:21:05 +0000

>how hard it is to make homemade wine?

Not hard at all. The key is to keep everything CLEAN, so as to prevent “flowers of wine” — the other problem, of it all turning into vinegar, well, vinegar can be useful …

By: Rachel

Rachel — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 02:20:30 +0000

My hubby homebrews too. He started in 2001 and now does brew from grain instead of extracts. Wait until you get to that step – the beer tastes even better!

We also invested in a keg system a few years ago. It saves time brewing (because most of the hard work is bottling) and the beer lasts longer.

I agree that homebrewing is the ecological and economical answer!