Recently, we were introduced to the world of home beer brewing and winemaking by a lifelong friend, Chet and his wife Amy. We are still quite new but we have a few batches under our belts and thought it was time to share our experiences, good and bad.

If you are contemplating brewing your own beer or making you own wine, let me caution you that it is a very addictive and not so cheap hobby. But like most things in life, if it is worth doing, you should do it right. At the time of this blog post, we have six beer and three wine batches in our cache of experience.

As with everything, you have to weigh the risk/reward ratio to see if it is within your personal perimeters. We are finding that you can produce wine at a much cheaper price per bottle than you can purchase at your favorite package store. The beer is a little more pricing that purchasing craft beer at the store. Later, we will give you a breakdown of cost per bottle for those who are interested.

Our beer batches include x2 Lemon Summer Wheat, Scottish Wee Heavy, Texas Pecan Coffee Stout, Big Iron Coffee Porter and another that I don’t remember (our first intro batch was just the bottling process on Chet & Amy’s batch).

Our wine batches include a Chilean Malbec, an epic failure Merlot and a bottling of Chet & Amy’s that I don’t remember what it was.

The latest attempt was this past Sunday where we were joined by another longtime friend that we have recently been reconnected with, Scott. I am calling it B-DAY. We were brewing two different batches simultaneously. Scottish Wee Heavy & Big Iron Coffee Porter.

Sanitation

Sanitation is paramount to a successful batch of hooch, whether is it beer, wine or spirits. You’ve gotta make sure you are killing any bacteria that would cause problems later. Sanitation is ongoing throughout the prep, brewing and bottling process. When in doubt, sanitize!

It’s time to get to work!

Scottish Wee Heavy 20th Anniversary

I heard good things about this recipe kit from the fellas at Home Brewery, so I wanted to try it out. It is a Scottish Ale with a rich copper color with smooth yet smokey malt flavor. The roasted barley and peat smoked malt should give this ale a fantastic flavor. Can’t wait to try it out! https://www.homebrewery.com

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Chuck’s Onion Burgers

This is a long process so we had to plan lunch around the batches. We wanted something good, but needed it to be pretty easy. Chet decided he would attempt his brother Chuck’s recipe for onion burgers. I have not had Chuck’s onion burgers, but Chet did a fantastic job! I thought I heard Chet say his was better than Chuck’s, but I might not have 😊. http://harterhouse.com/index.php

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Big Iron Coffee Porter

Being new to home brewing, we have only used pre-made kits. While they have turned out ok, just using these kits will not transform you into a Brew Meister. They simply do not push your brewing skills beyond elementary levels. Those kits are as simple as putting water in the pot, steep the grain bag, add malt. As long as you follow the instructions, they are pretty much dummy proof.

In order to get fully immersed in the brewing process, we needed to make the mash, sparge then boil. This is where Chet, Amy & Scott provided their experience and knowledge. After some debate, the Big Iron Coffee Porter recipe from Show-Me Brewing was unanimously chosen. This batch was a last minute decision, so Scott picked up the grains and hops on his way out. https://showmebrewing.com

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Hurry Up & Wait

All is set, now it’s just letting the yeast feed on the sugars to let the natural chemical reaction happen. This will take about 14 days.

…more to follow.