If you are one, what's the best thing you've ever brewed? The worst? The most unusual?

I home brew, though I haven't done any for a while.

We have an amber ale recipe that we developed that's our favorite.

My one and only attempt at a stout was a disaster.

Ever do anything on the more unusual side? Like sours, fruit beers, etc.?

I haven't yet, but we're planning to try chocolate and coffee this year.

I haven't brewed any beers, but have brewed my own hard cider. It comes out very crisp, not like the overly sweet commercial ciders. The process is fairly simple, but takes 4 weeks to produce a batch.

I use a 3 gal carboy for the fermentation cycle which makes 40 12-oz bottles. It's a stretch to make 40 bottles last a month until the next batch is ready.

I've had some great hard ciders while traveling out of Utah, however the selection even at the DABC is quite limited.

A commercially produced hard cider from Julian Cidery (naturally in Julian, California) buy it. Best I've ever had.

To make your cider stronger use the super strength wine yeast.

And add a cup or so of rolled oats and mix in well.

Also, a cup of dried mixed fruit, perhaps a jar of honey.

Boom!!!! Goes the alcohol.

It makes scrumpy cider.

Thanks for the tip. I'll give that a try with my next batch.

1) A truly delicious Barley Wine, which some of my brewer buddies compared to Rochefort 10.

2) A Belgian Tripel, infused with sweet basil. Perfect with Italian food.

3) A cherry-infused Brown Ale. It eventually turned out pretty good, but required so much tinkering that I eventually dubbed it "Frankenbeer".

My sole disaster was a Red Ale that imploded a glass carboy on my kitchen floor...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/27/2016 05:51PM by helamonster.

My stout was not that kind of disaster. It just didn't taste very good.

I frequently make ginger ale using yeast and a fermentation process. Also Root beer. Same thing.

I've brewed a few batches. Best: pale ale; worst: a failed batch of pale ale. Intersting and not to bad: black and tan--fancy name on the package . . . Tasted like a typical porter.

Perennial problem: the steeping and boiling make the house stink . . . Wife pissed!

Sorry . . . Meant "too" rather than "to." I always make typos and hate every one!

I fear the label led you astray. A black and tan is a beer cocktail made by layering a dark (usually a stout) over a light beer. You can't just brew one beer and call it a black and tan.

My girlfriend and I brewed a chocolate stout last year with the help of "Lets Brew" on Stark st in Portland. Super nice people and had a great time. We were just talking about doing it again and trying it ourselves at home. We have purchased what we didn't already have but thought we would go through them one more time. Was a lot of fun...

I have a "Fresh Squeezed" clone fermenting right now. I'm still pretty new at all grain brewing, so nothing fancy or out of the ordinary as of yet. I need to get a solid handle on the process before branching out. This one does have a dry hop addition 5 days post fermentation, and that's a first for me!

Here's a video we made the first time we tried home brewing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKWzOa698i4

Zulily has several Mr. Beer and other beer kits on sale.

The best thing we made was Mead. YUMMY! Not beer but fabulous!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/29/2016 10:48PM by verilyverily.

My husband is an exmo who brews beer. He hasn't made any since we moved back to Germany, but I think my favorite one by him was a Scottish cocoa stout he made.

We didn't bring his equipment because home brewing used to be illegal here, but it no longer is. Maybe it's time he picked up the habit again.