This is my dh's favorite site.

http://www.highgravitybrew.com/

 

A good one is www.northernbrewer.com

I bought my DH a starter kit for his birthday, a few years ago. Haven't been to the beerstore since.

 

I just sent this thread to my husband- he will be thrilled. He has wanted to make his own beer forever, and I would love to make my own wine. I imagine you can customize your recipes quite a bit and save a lot of $$$ from buying it at the store over the long haul. Is this true?

Thanks,

Lauren

 

I just sent this thread to my husband- he will be thrilled. He has wanted to make his own beer forever, and I would love to make my own wine. I imagine you can customize your recipes quite a bit and save a lot of $$$ from buying it at the store over the long haul. Is this true?

Thanks,

Lauren

Yes. If you make a lot of it and produce your own raw materials.

If it's just a hobby, factor in the cost of equipment and supplies and you could be paying a lot more than buying it in the store. Then there's also time expended on doing it....

Do it for the pleasure of doing it and making it with your own efforts.

It's like fishing. Pay $3.99 for a pound of catfish fillets. Or Spend $20 for a rod and reel, $30 for gas to drive out to the lake, $1 or two for some chicken livers for bait and spend a whole day and maybe catch nothing. Or at it's most basic - a hook, a line, a jug and a worm. Either way, you need to spend time.

If the fishing is good and there's no limit, yeah you can save a lot of money.

Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day.

Teach him how to make beer, and ...........

 

As basic as I can get with wine anyways is 2cups of suger to 1 package of yeast, plus your favorite frozen drink. I get halfways results. Some batches turn out fine, & others totally bomb.

I think a good part of it is the yeast, Ive used bread yeast & it can work,not very well though,for a high alcholhal content

Plus wine has to be stored at a certain tempratue for a certain amont of time.

Ive heard of this stuff called turbo yeast,from england that basically promises to turn your wine to moonshine in 48 hours..

Ive never tried brewing beer, just wine, & their can be some variables involved

Everything must be clean. Ive heard flouridated tap water can kill, a good batch, I generally only use distilled water, & that was before I heard about the flouridated water aspect.

Making your own wine can be quite satisfying & easy, & the recpes can be endless, & cheaper in the long run.

Im just about ready to fire up a few more batches

 

Thank you so much. I've printed out the information from the sites and am off this afternoon to a local supply store...I so appreciate the speedy responses.

 

I just sent this thread to my husband- he will be thrilled. He has wanted to make his own beer forever, and I would love to make my own wine. I imagine you can customize your recipes quite a bit and save a lot of $$$ from buying it at the store over the long haul. Is this true?

Thanks,

Lauren

You can indeed save a lot of money. Of course there are a number of different "levels" of brewing. To save the most $ you need to go to 'all-grain mashing' which is a bit of a process. We have our costs to under 25 cents a pint, buying barley in 50# sacks and making our own extract.

I recommend starting with a kit to see if it is enjoyable to you. If you are used to commercially made beer, it can take some getting used to...

Homebrew has more flavor.

 

There are some good starter kits on ebay - search for "homemade wine kit". I keep looking at them, but haven't gotten one yet. One of those things that I really want to do, but don't want to spend $$ for it. I've made some basic wine in a crock I have, with just frozen berries, sugar and yeast - it turned out okay, but nothing to write home about!

 

Seriously, if you want to make good wine, you NEED to use wine yeast. It is cheap to have shipped and the results are far superior. Anything less is a waste of fruit, IMO.

 

There are some good starter kits on ebay - search for "homemade wine kit". I keep looking at them, but haven't gotten one yet. One of those things that I really want to do, but don't want to spend $$ for it. I've made some basic wine in a crock I have, with just frozen berries, sugar and yeast - it turned out okay, but nothing to write home about!

Please check your crock for lead glazing. The alcohol will get the lead to your brain faster than pickles. Go to a bakery and see if they give you or sell you a food grade polyethylene 5 gal pail with a lid, like cake icing comes in. You need it for primary fermentation with the lid loose, then after the first racking (7-10 days at 80 deg F., an air lock can be fitted to the lid ( air tight)for secondary fermentation. I found a 5 gal stainless steel steam table container with a bottom drain pipe at a flea market for ten bucks.

 

http://www.eckraus.com/

 

Any of you out there wanting some used equipment? I used to brew my own bear and wine a while back but once I got married I guess I stopped. I've got everything but the big bottles. Corker/capper, wort chiller, funnels, testing equipment, air traps, books and even my own recipies. If anyone's interested, I'll post a more complete listing and put pictures out on the web somewhere.

 

I order my yeasts , enzymes and carbouys from E.C. Kraus www.eckraus.com and have them delivered to my door. They are competively priced to the health store in Huntsville where I used to purchase supplies.

I thought the glass carbouys would have been way more expensive but what little savings in shipping I got by driving to huntsville for carbouys ( $14) was in reality only a savings of a few dollars after figuring the cost of 3 gallons of gas to go get them and the 4 hours of my time were worth more than three or four bucks I saved driving to the health food store, so I now buy my carbouys from kraus also.

You can find award winning wine recipes at www.jackkeller.net

A blend of his tomato and jalepeno wines is a pleasurable sipping wine that words cannot describe and if you like bourbon mixed with water, Jacks corn wine recipe bulk aged for 2 or 3 years in a glass carbouy with charred oak chips floating in the jug produces a wine that is just like a shot of bourbon mixed with a couple ounces of water added only no mixing is required and as a homemade wine , it isn't illegal spirits distilling.

 

Making decent beer and wine is not hard, but just throwing everything in a jug is leaving too much to chance. For the amount of work, you'll put into it, it's well worth doing a little reading and learn how to do it right. It's kind of like canning- there are certain rules you follow if you want good results. One way to make a strong wine (if you're so inclined) is to chill proof it. After my wine is finished and cleared, I freeze it in plastic jugs. Once thawed, it settles out the minerals which natural settle out after years of aging. That's how factory made wines are drinkable so quickly. But if you freeze it, and pour the remaining liquid part into bottles, you get about half as much wine- but it's twice as strong! If I wanted to get drunk that bad, I'd just add some cheap vodka to regular wine.

 

First off, you only have to pay for the Equipment once.
I've been using mine since 1991.
I have 20 cases of re-cycled long-neck Beer bottles.
And, 10 cases of Champagne bottles I use for Mead.

I am a lazy Brewer. I brew from Malt Extract.
It's lots less work than Mashing.
Lets see........
$27.00 for 6# of Dry Malt Extract.
2 oz of Hop pellets at $2.50 is each another $5.00.
A 14 gr. pkg. of Beer Yeast another $2.00.....
A tsp. of Irish Moss for finings, helps the settling....15 cents.
That's $34.15........for 8 six-packs.

A good Brown Ale or Sam Adams, at WMart is $8.50 a 6-pack.
That's.......$68.00.

DSW & I both love the Smell of the Malt & Hops cooking.
I am retired.......I have the time.
I brew a bit. 9 batches this year, so far.
That's 45 gallon. And nearly an equal amount of Mead.
I have a few DFriends who stop by once in awhile.
It's a nice Homesteding Hobby.

 

I do use a pound & a half of Grain, in my Brews.
Usually it's a Pound of Crystal Malt & a half pound or so of
Chocolate Malt.....Maybe a couple ounces of Roasted Barley.
Specialty Malts add $2.00 or so a Pound, to the Cost........
Still not bad.........Good Beer, too.

 

Yes.
It's like fishing. Pay $3.99 for a pound of catfish fillets. Or Spend $20 for a rod and reel, $30 for gas to drive out to the lake, $1 or two for some chicken livers for bait and spend a whole day and maybe catch nothing. Or at it's most basic - a hook, a line, a jug and a worm. Either way, you need to spend time.

Ain't that the truth!

I think unless you are raising your own fruit for wine, or buying your supplies in bulk, it costs a little bit more to make than it does to just go buy it.

For my birthday last year I received one of those starter kits with the carboy, plastic pail, and all the little do-dads that go along with wine making. The bases are so expensive for wine making that everything is still sitting in a box in the spare room. And I'm still making fruit wines on my counter in gallon jugs.

That being said it is still a fun hobby. One that has taught me a few things about yeast and fermentation that carry over into other areas of my homesteading life.

 

As basic as I can get with wine anyways is 2cups of suger to 1 package of yeast, plus your favorite frozen drink. I get halfways results. Some batches turn out fine, & others totally bomb.

I think a good part of it is the yeast, Ive used bread yeast & it can work,not very well though,for a high alcholhal content

Everything must be clean. Ive heard flouridated tap water can kill, a good batch, I generally only use distilled water, & that was before I heard about the flouridated water aspect.

Making your own wine can be quite satisfying & easy, & the recpes can be endless, & cheaper in the long run.

Im just about ready to fire up a few more batches

2 cups of sugar probably isn't enough to achieve a higher alcohol content. Most of the 1 gallon recipes I have come across use about 4 cups of sugar. (Too much sugar for my taste buds.) Also if you are reaching for a higher alcohol content you want to add your sugar gradually. Your yeast will only convert so much to alcohol before it neutralizes the yeast. They say champagne yeast will give you a higher alcohol level as well.

When I first started I used bread yeast 1/2 tsp per gallon jug, and got some pretty strong wine. Adding extra yeast isn't going to do anything for your wine except make it taste yeasty. The biggest difference I notice when I switched to wine yeast was the fizziness increased. It was more fun to watch ferment and drink.

You really need to add some sort of citric acid to your wine. 1/2 a cup of lemon juice or citric acid blend to help prevent bad yeast from taking over.

I use tap water all the time. It was distilled water that I heard cautions about because you need some of the minerals and distilled water has them taken out. Just be sure to pre-boil your water and it will be fine.

 

Once set up with your equipment; you can figure about $2.00/bottle of wine.

 

I never buy distilled water for making my wine. I just use two of my carbouys, a drilled plug and a length of racking tube. Fill a carbouy with tap water and set it in direct sunlight or in a cardboard box solar oven, plug it and insert the rack tube to the collection carbouy sitting in the shade and let the water solar distill.

I can distill 5 gallons of water for musting in 2 sunny days with use of no utility power.

 

Distilled water is not good for wine and beer making; the yeast needs certain minerals to thrive. I use bottled spring water- it has minerals, but not a chemical taste from being over-purified, like our city water has. Basically, if you like the taste of the water, use it. Good well water is probably best.

 

A 'starter kit' is for beginners.

It is not for the purpose of making beer or wine cheaply. Rather to help a beginner to learn about the hobby.

After you have become experienced with using the syrups, after you have all of the equipment, after you have mastered laboratory cleanliness; then as you get into buying grain from local farmers, or honey from your local beekeeper, etc, then you begin to see how cheaply you can make really good booze.

In the last few years the price of stills has dropped a great deal too.

And recently they have developed the new 'turbo-yeasts' which we have been playing with.

 

Distilled water is not good for wine and beer making; the yeast needs certain minerals to thrive. I use bottled spring water- it has minerals, but not a chemical taste from being over-purified, like our city water has. Basically, if you like the taste of the water, use it. Good well water is probably best.

Crushing a multi-vitamin and mixing that into the wort can help if you suspect that your water has too few micro-nutrients for the yeast.

 

as far as wine making , I have never added yeast. Same with mead.

I always just depended on the wild yeasts that are present, though sometimes they can give off results, though for me few and far between.

I have made some great wine, have not got to the beer yet, though I would use a good yeast for that Im sure.

never use a bakers yeast ever, you will not be pleased with the results.

I was looking at some water jugs at walmarts a few weeks ago, five gal with a spiggot and a breather hole. I was thinking they would be perfect for brewing. visit the hardware and find a barbed fitting that would screw on to the breather hole some tubing and fasion your own air trap, let it brew standing up when its done working gently tip it so the sediment isnt disturbed to much and open the spiggot.

one other thing I would like to get are the cornelius kegs, there used on fountain drink machines, five gal capacity, you can brew in them and even hook them up for your own draft system instead of bottling. a lot of guys set them up in a series so they can transfer the different stages between them.
you can find them pretty cheap sometimes.

 

Distilled water is not good for wine and beer making; the yeast needs certain minerals to thrive. I use bottled spring water- it has minerals, but not a chemical taste from being over-purified, like our city water has. Basically, if you like the taste of the water, use it. Good well water is probably best.

Adequate minerals to support proper working is generally attained through the fruits used to prepare the must. If the must is working, the mineral and sugar levels are adequate so use of distilled water has no effect other than preventing a harsh flavor too far removed from the natural flavor of the must base.