Anybody make their own beer?

[Cheeta]

Just asking.

Been meaning to give it a try for years but never realy had the space.

Happened on an old friend from high school the other day and it got me thinking again as he used to make those home beers for the longest time and actualy was pretty damn good at it. Could put out a real nice light lager. Straight from the kit. Very little fine tuning required.

Missed my chance to ask him what brands he used and how you went about it. Seem to recall a conversation decades ago where he admitted his secret was that he mixed two malts together or something like that. Can't recall exactly. Been a long time.

Anyway. Think I'll give it a try. So any bits of advise would be much appreciated.

Beats gardening.

[Free kick]

I have. When I was in University. Myself and roomates used to brew our own in the residence. One time we even had the misfortune of having many of our bottles explode in our storage room while the brew was fermenting [8D]. Good thing the bottles were in a storage room, or someone could have been hurt [:I]. Its kind of a fun activity to do so yeah go for it.

Just one piece of advice. Give it time. I have found that home brew is really an acquired taste. I did not like the taste of it at the beginning but over time, I grew to like it. Its got a sweeter taste ( as I recall)than the beers you would buy and less carbonation. Also you have to pour it much carefully as it produces much more foam than than the stuff you buy in retail or in pubs.

[Former Champ]

I made beer with my Dad for years. At one time he and his neighbor had 9 batches on the go at any time. When times were hard, for about a year homemade beer was my only source of food.

The best thing about it is that you don't really need to mix, because there are 100's of different flavours. We made every kind of beer we could find.

I fell in love with stouts and porter's and stuff in Europe, and we got some pretty good results. And it kept me alive.

The biggest disagreement we had was that I thought you lost a lot of flavour when using plastic bottles. I only liked glass. I'd almost start up again if I had the room.

[Gordon]

I did for a while. Mostly Canadian lager and light. Brew Canada was the brand I used. Most are pretty good, I tried a few non-canadian and they worked out OK. Given your preference for Guiness, I am sure you can find a decent kit for that. My secret for success was to use honey instead of sugar which cut down on the sediment and had a nice taste. Also, any food quality plastic container is suitable, so you can pick up a large food pail for real cheap from a restaurant or Bakery and it works just as well as the "official" kits.

[Former Champ]

We used 'Confectioners sugar' which disolved way better, but I wish I had known about the honey idea then.