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Abraham wrote:Another place to smoke great cigars and enjoy an adult beverage: The Smoke Ring, either one.

I'm going to have to check them out... the one in Webster is practically in walking distance of my place. Except that its Texas and in the summer so no walking except to/from the car

timdsmith72 wrote:I've been brewing for....... Geez...... 11 or 12 years now. It's a great hobby.
Little unsolicited advice. If you can, start kegging. It's so much easier than bottling. Some people enjoy bottling. I wasn't one of them.
Number one most important thing is fermentation temperature control. Can't stress this enough.

Also, be sure you pitch enough yeast. Don't want to stress those little buggers. (Unless you're making a Belgian beer. Then a little under pitched is ok. Sometimes even tastes a little better.) Learn how to make a starter for when you need it.

Appreciate the advice - I've never minded bottling myself, I almost enjoy bottling now that we found the EZ-Cap bottles

I do want to get into kegging, but I decieded to put the money I was saving up for a kegerator into new brewing equipment(been using the starter equipment for 4 or 5 years now). So I'm hoping my financial adviser(wife) will allow us to get one maybe for Christmas, but if not it's not a huge loss.

Got temp control down, for a long time I just used a nice dark/cool closet, but recently found a cheap wine fridge that I was able to convert/make into a temp controlled fermentation vessel.

Most of my beers I've brewed were extract recipes(just upgraded to all grain - have 2 batches under my belt at this point) and they all used ale yeasts so the packs of yeast were enough. I am learning/researching/etc the yeast side of things alot more these days, looking to get into reharvesting my yeast, but I'm not quite there yet knowledge/confidence wise. Plus after just purchasing all of the other equipment it, getting stuff for properly harvesting/re-pitching the yeast, may be a tough sale's pitch to my financial adviser. Slowly but surely I'm getting there though

Update: So the Double Choc Stout came out amazing. It ended up needing about 4 weeks in the bottles to get great(it was already good at about 2 weeks, but its just been getting better with age). I'm down to my last 5, trying to save them and try 1 each week to see how long it needs to go before it's truly ready.

I've got another batch of Double Choc fermenting now (along with an IPA and Irish Red).

WildBill wrote:

Pariah3j wrote:Brewed me a batch of homemade stout this weekend. Now to wait the 6-10 weeks to drink it

Anyone else here on the forums a home brewer ? Any favored recipes ?

Your title got my attention. I see that you live near Nobi Public House.
A few months ago I had dinner there and ordered a Samuel Smith's Organic Chocolate Stout.
It looked very interesting so I tried it and really enjoyed it. You may want to try a bottle to compare to your own.
I have never seen it in Spec's, but never looked too hard. It is worth trying.
The same brewery has a ginger beer which I didn't care for much.

I used to work in a winery, so I have made plenty of wine,
I have never been much of a beer drinker, so I never tried to make my own.
I think the economics of home brewing are similar to reloading ammo.
You don't spend less money, you just get to shoot or drink more for the same price.

Its funny that you mention Samuel Smiths Organic Chocolate Stout- its what inspired me to do the double choc stout... Btw Specs on Bay Area does have it, its in the cooler.

Your correct about it being like reloading ammo - it just enables more drinking. The other side effect is most home brew has a better taste then commercial beer.

@Caribe I'll have to try some - I like cigars but I've never really known/learned which ones were worth/decent.

Caribe wrote:

Pariah3j wrote:Brewed me a batch of homemade stout this weekend. Now to wait the 6-10 weeks to drink it

Anyone else here on the forums a home brewer ? Any favored recipes ?

When is it ready ?? I'll bring the cigars !!!

Just racked it to secondary fermentation tonight... Should be bottling in the next 2 weeks and its supposed to be ready 4-8 weeks after that.

allisji wrote:
I think they were with the Mashtranauts club.

ETA: The TBR stuff comes in a growler. I know they sell it at the HEB on HW96 and the one on 646. I've never tried it, but they have events at the brewery that I've always wanted to attend. It's hard to do those type things with kids at home.

Thanks - I'll have to look into the Mashtranauts Club.

I'll have to keep an eye out for the TBR stuff, I typically don't look at the growlers very often.

RoyGBiv wrote:

aCoffeejunky wrote:I've come across some really good Porters and Stouts at the gas station down the road from my house...shocker.

My favorite place to browse for beer is at a Valero station in Colleyville. "Great Minds..."

The stop and robs with walk in coolers are starting to stock a better selection then just Bud and Silver bullet, but they still don't have a huge selection(at least none of the ones around my house). If you haven't been there and there is one nearby, Spec's has just about anything you can want, and if they don't alot of times they will order it for you.

I've have had the Java Stout from Santa Fe - I really enjoy it, just wish they had it in a bottle. My favorite stout right now is 'Samuel Smith's Organic Chocolate Stout' - its what led me to try making the double chocolate stout. The Samuel Smiths can be found at Specs(only place I've found it around here so far).

I'll have to keep an eye out for the TBR stuff, google image searched them and I don't recognize any of the labels, so I don't think I've seen them at my local HEB yet.

Do you know if the homebrew club is still around ? That sounds like that could be interesting/fun.

RoyGBiv wrote:I took up home brewing back in the 80's, when the only beer you could buy in the supermarket was American Ales and lites. I like my beer meaty and flavorful. Double Stout sounds perfect. When the micro brew revolution hit in the 90's and I could spend $7-$8 for an excellent 6-pack, I gave up brewing my own.

No recipes to share, but the best tip anyone ever gave me was using 1-litre, screw-cap, plastic bottles instead of bottling in glass. Easy to find, easy to clean, much faster to bottle liters instead of 12-ounce bottles and 1-litre was the perfect quantity. I could finish one over a few days and not have it go flat, or it was plenty enough to share with a friend or two.

Oh... and... You'll get 80% of the finish quality after about 1-2 weeks.
I liked to bottle a few smaller bottles for sampling during the aging process. Strictly for scientific purposes.

Have fun!

I still enjoy myself some micro/craft brews - but 30 bucks of ingredients for approx 50 bottles of quality beer is well worth it. And yes, the beer is ready to drink after about 2 weeks in the bottle( and I will sample 1 or 2 for scientific purposes as well ) - but it is recommended to let it rest/finish for 4-8 weeks.

Brewed me a batch of homemade stout this weekend. Now to wait the 6-10 weeks to drink it

Anyone else here on the forums a home brewer ? Any favored recipes ?