Anyone make their own ale?

[hoosier girl]

YoteTrapper,
In reguards to the blackberry wine recipe you asked about...
My friend who passed the recipe on to me just finished a batch and he cut the sugar down to 12Lb in 5 gallons instead of 15 Lb. The wine turned out terrific. I already have one batch started, but for the next batch, I'm going to go with less sugar.

 

[jkm]

I have been making our family beer for the last 10 -15 years.
I make about 10 gallons a year. five gallons at a time.
The best book to read is the
The Complete Joy of Homebrewing Third Edition book. on amazon used.
Beer takes at least 30 -45 days to age before its drinkable,,, "green beer" is young beer.
I age my beer 90 days.

I am using the Tap a Draft system,, I moved from the hassle of bottles. Be sure not to lose the tap a draft washer,like I did last week.
tap a draft cost me about $50-60 for start up and it does eat the cartrigeses, but is so much faster than bottling......


I use a very simple system, and brew/ferment in a bucket.... works like a charm, the key to beer is absoulte cleanlinees.

beer is fun to make, and not that much work... stove time about 1 1/2 hours, be sure and follow the directions and not burn the stuff, or under cook it,,,, filling the tap a draft pigs, 30 minutes with clean up.

read the book and find an on line supplier, or local brew shop and get away from the kits,,, the quality of the kits is not high. the brew shops appreciate it if you read the book first, so you understand the process.
I do not grow my own hops,,, I live in oregon and until this year, hops were cheap and local.

hope this helps all wannbe brewers
cheers