Homebrews (Of the Adult Beverage Variety) and general drink thread.

[Lord Shardok]

I was just kinda curious. Does anyone else make their own alcoholic beverages here? I've been an amateur mead and wine maker for a few years now, but I don't really have many people that I can talk to about it.

One of my greatest successes was a black cherry melomel (A mead made with both honey and fruit) and a rather sweet apple-pear wine.

What kind of thinks have you guys made? Or if it's not your thing, what kind of drinks do you prefer overall? :smallbiggrin:

[Flickerdart]

My roommate got me the Brooklyn Brew Shop kit a while back, and I made the All Day IPA that came with it. I suspect I did it wrong, because the result is very drinkable (as opposed to normal IPAs). I have a maple stout mix I'm going to try next, but I haven't even considered doing non-prepped recipes yet.

[Lord Shardok]

My roommate got me the Brooklyn Brew Shop kit a while back, and I made the All Day IPA that came with it. I suspect I did it wrong, because the result is very drinkable (as opposed to normal IPAs). I have a maple stout mix I'm going to try next, but I haven't even considered doing non-prepped recipes yet.

Good luck with the maple stout. I love that stuff. With non-prepped you just need to follow the instructions very carefully. It takes practice, but soon enough you'll be pretty good at your craft.

[Winter_Wolf]

I don't brew, since I haven't any of the resources (time, equipment, space, money) but I do quite enjoy mead. It's been my experience that making a large enough batch to make selling it on tap somehow ruins the flavor. Zombie Killer from a bottle? Delicious. From a bar tap? Not so much. Still drinkable but I'd rather pay the premium and retain what made it into one of my go-to choices.

i know a guy that was a pretty avid brewer before he had kids, that fellow took sanitation to a pretty high level. Serious chemicals I'd maybe heard of as industrial agents and didn't know were even available without some kind of permit. I be the never had a contaminated batch, though. My dad tried brewing once, but it was undrinkable. Probably contaminated, and closer to poison than booze, I expect.

[Lord Shardok]

I don't brew, since I haven't any of the resources (time, equipment, space, money) but I do quite enjoy mead. It's been my experience that making a large enough batch to make selling it on tap somehow ruins the flavor. Zombie Killer from a bottle? Delicious. From a bar tap? Not so much. Still drinkable but I'd rather pay the premium and retain what made it into one of my go-to choices.

i know a guy that was a pretty avid brewer before he had kids, that fellow took sanitation to a pretty high level. Serious chemicals I'd maybe heard of as industrial agents and didn't know were even available without some kind of permit. I be the never had a contaminated batch, though. My dad tried brewing once, but it was undrinkable. Probably contaminated, and closer to poison than booze, I expect.

Brewing beer can get pretty expensive and time consuming, but if you wanted to try a hand at making mead, it can be both cheap and not take a lot of time.

http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/small-batch-fermentor

This is a cheap 1 gallon carboy. I would recommend something more expensive, but this would be good to get started. Really, the most expensive thing is the honey. For a 1 gallon carboy you might need about $15 USD of honey, but the other things you would need are cheap enough. There's also plenty of instructions online for different types of meads and wines.

[golentan]

Not alcohol, but I make my own sodas sometimes including with Champagne Yeast (it gives a better carbonation than using a soda stream or a syrup + club soda in my opinion).

[William Bonney]

I prefer stouts and good lagers, though I don't brew myself. I have a buddy who brews an IPA and a pub ale. I'm tired of seeing everybody and their cousin with a new IPA that tastes like bitter soda water. My buddy's pub ale is good, though. I feel like if you aren't focusing on bitterness and hoppiness you can make a more full-bodied beer for the occasion. Ales and lagers for summer, stouts for winter, etc. Wheat beer, I hate. Yuck. I'll take a Trappist- or Trappist-styled ale, though. Chimay Cinq Cents or La Fin du Monde. Belgium and Canada, respectively.

[MrZJunior]

I like to make cocktails, specifically Tiki drinks. The latest one I made involved two different varieties of rum, three or four fruit juices, two different forms of sweet syrup, and a few other ingredients.

[Ravens_cry]

Ah, the many ways of making and eating yeast crap.:smallcool:
Never done any homebrew in this sense, but I've wanted to try, and I have book with, among other things, information on wine making at home. (It also includes information on home book-binding, how cool is that?!)

[Tentreto]

Don't mix drinks myself, but a local farm near me is a brewery, and makes a good amount of cheap good beer, which the village shops sell.
When I move, I'm taking a keg with me.:smallsmile:

[Bulldog Psion]

My wife and her parents (who live in Kazakhstan) make their own red wine. She has no facilities to do so here, though. That stuff is incredible -- the flavor, the velvety smoothness ... I could drink it by the gallon and still plunge onwards recklessly towards alcoholism. :smallbiggrin:

Generally speaking, I like red wine overall. Never could stand beer. I'd like to try making my own wine someday, but who knows if that particular dream will ever see reality.

[Flickerdart]

My wife and her parents (who live in Kazakhstan) make their own red wine. She has no facilities to do so here, though. That stuff is incredible -- the flavor, the velvety smoothness ... I could drink it by the gallon and still plunge onwards recklessly towards alcoholism. :smallbiggrin:

Generally speaking, I like red wine overall. Never could stand beer. I'd like to try making my own wine someday, but who knows if that particular dream will ever see reality.
If you're ever near lake Ontario, you should make your way to Inniskillin Vinyards and try their sparkling red ice wine. It's the best I've ever had.