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I've been brewing since the late 80's with ups and downs of interest. The past five or so years my spark has come from debunking the dogma and brewing as fast as I can. I now only brew 2.5 gallon batches and from start to clean finish take under two hours and my beer is as good as ever.
Anyways, I am looking into forced carbonation and something to ease the pain of bottling a 5 gallons batch (cleaning 50+ bottles, filling, capping, etc.) as well as the ability to take it to parties. Don't need a full keg but maybe a 1.5 gallon mini-keg. Anyone go that route?
I also have some 2L palla growlers on order, these supposedly can handle the pressure of bottle conditioning.
Anyways, I am looking into forced carbonation and something to ease the pain of bottling a 5 gallons batch (cleaning 50+ bottles, filling, capping, etc.) as well as the ability to take it to parties. Don't need a full keg but maybe a 1.5 gallon mini-keg. Anyone go that route?
I also have some 2L palla growlers on order, these supposedly can handle the pressure of bottle conditioning.
I used to bottle for first few years and it was quite tedious. Kegging is the way to go and spunding is the way to go for carbonation. Basically transfer your fermenting wort with some remaining fermentables to keg and allow to naturally carbonate but you do have to monitor your FG and transfer at right time. If you miss the transfer window then you can always add sugar or other fermentables when you transfer finished wort to keg. These two methods will also mitigate oxidation as the beer will pick up oxygen during transfer from fermenter to keg, which will quickly degrade your beer quality, as the yeast will use the oxygen during spunding ie. natural carbonation. Works great as the beer will remain fresh for a long time if done correctly.
You can transfer beer from keg to growlers for parties by using numerous homemade or commercial devices. I rarely even have to connect my CO2 tank to serve from keg if spunding is done correctly.
Anyways, I am looking into forced carbonation and something to ease the pain of bottling a 5 gallons batch (cleaning 50+ bottles, filling, capping, etc.) as well as the ability to take it to parties. Don't need a full keg but maybe a 1.5 gallon mini-keg. Anyone go that route?
I also have some 2L palla growlers on order, these supposedly can handle the pressure of bottle conditioning.
Have heard home brewing is a dying hobby and a lot of the stores have closed that sold the supplies.
I used to do it but with all of the craft beers out there now why bother?
Have heard home brewing is a dying hobby and a lot of the stores have closed that sold the supplies.
I used to do it but with all of the craft beers out there now why bother?
Most of the craft beer out there is poorly done and an oxidized mess loaded with hops to mask poor brewing processes. It is mishandled by distributors also so it is severely degraded by the time the consumer gets it. Depending on your location you may find some good local options available but a lot of us don't have good options except mass produced craft beers, which suck for the most part.
Also try to find a recently bottled German Lager or wheat beer in the US as most of it spent many months on a slow boat without refrigeration so it is a shell of itself. This beer is designed to be drank directly from the brewery and craft breweries in the US don't have a clue how to brew these delicate beers. The Germans know what they are doing with oxygen mitigation and processes. This is the reason I got into homebrewing as I enjoy the process and art that is required to produce these types of beers.
I've brewed several styles of beer but I like the dark Munich style beer most. I use the Vierka band yeast. I have friends who brew with grains but I don't want to mess with that. Next to the dark beer the German "golden" Pilsner style is second to it. I'm not into the British Ales & IPA's but I do like the brown porters on occasion. When I home brew it is usually during the cooler months to have enough to last thru the summer.
For my malt source I use the Munton & Fison (UK) dark liquid malt extract along with
a two pound bag of dark DME powdered malt extract in five gallons of water. I like the pelletized Hallertau Hops for use in this recipe. (no sugar used in any of this as it conforms to the 1500 ad German Purity law "Reinhetsgebot", meaning just water, malt, hops, and yeast)
It makes a beer you can get your teeth into. Yes, it is high in calories. What it isn't, is a malt flavored carbonated water that many today call beer.
The image below looks like what I brew. The head on it is thick as a meringue on a pie too.
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