We like to think of ourselves as home brew alchemists....we have a passion for microbrews and craft our own beer.....anyone out there brew at home?
yeah...but never heard people ranting and raving about "homecrafting" before. it always has and always will be homeBREWing to me! thats what my daddy did when i was little, its what i like to do now, and until i stop drinking its what i'll like to do when i get older as well
I've brewed ale, a couple of times. Just made up the recipes, they were/are drinkable but not great. Still have a couple bottles, that I'm letting age, as they do now taste better then when I first made them. Would like to figure out a good recipe for a honey wheat ale.
oh come on i said nothing rude. people go on and on and on about homebrew and how much they love it. the people who pursue this hobby are extremely enthusiastic. they rant and rave about it. i've just NEVER heard it called homecrafting. take it easy there
right now i've got a really nice homebrew of which i'm trying to save the last few bottles. its based off of the recipe for "Itsok Kolsch" by charlie papazian in his book "the joy of homebrew" i did alter/improvise the recipe a bit though. i beefed up the malt content, using a total of 6lbs DRIED malt extracts rather than malt extract syrups. i also was unable to get extra light malt extract at the particular store i purchased supplies from, so i used regular light malt extract in addition to the wheat. it came out a bit darker as a result - about the color of dark honey. and i only used tettnang and saaz, instead of the three types of hops. other than that, the recipe is essentially the same. its surprisingly light bodied and refreshing despite added malt, and has a lot of lovely fruity esters. its not a proper kolsch, i know, but its a perfectly delicious summer ale made with a kolsch yeast... it does remind me somewhat of a hefeweizen in the esters...of course its not quite dead-on, not being fermented with the right yeast for that style, but its reminiscent. i'm quite pleased.
mead is a winelike beverage made from fermented honey, as i'm sure you know. as i understand, its a fairly straightforward beverage to make. -several pounds of honey -water -yeast (there are yeasts made specifically for mead, but many people also use champagne yeast when the mead yeast isn't available) now if you want to go beyond the regular, plain, unflavored meads there are a number of varieties of other types of mead. metheglin is mead flavored with spices. melomels are made with fruit, including cyser which is made with apple juice and pyment which is made with grape. some people even make mead with both fruits and spices. i've never made my own mead, but my father made some once and it took him a VERY long time. i dont know if such a long fermentation is ordinary, but he took about a year to make it. i was a child at the time and as such did not consume it, but he still remembers it fondly. he actually (accidentally) ended up making a sparkling, carbonated mead, and he and my mother both absolutely adored it. a sparkling (or quick) mead isn't innapropriate, but he was actually shooting for a still mead. he didnt care; it was a beneficial mistake.
My homebrewing partner and I consider it a craft! All our friends wait impatiently for our next beer. We brew only all grain beers, using organic malt and hops. I get sad when I run out of my supply and have to purchase retail.
