Home Brew/ Homemade Beer

[Caje]

Is there any reason glass bottles I find in the bushes couldn't be cleaned and sanitized? Haha

The bottles you buy at brew store tend to be thicker and sturdier then many bottles you will buy or find in the bushes.

[Caje]

If you guys decide to keep doing it I suggest buying or making a 5 gallon kegarator, bottling is the worst part and kegarators are awesome.

[whoisjohngalt85]

The bottles you buy at brew store tend to be thicker and sturdier then many bottles you will buy or find in the bushes.

I saved a couple growlers from the last time I got beer from a brewery and used those. Ended up using a couple soda bottles I washed out too. I actually found that it was easier to know when carbonation was done by the firmness of the soda bottles.

[whoisjohngalt85]

If you guys decide to keep doing it I suggest buying or making a 5 gallon kegarator, bottling is the worst part and kegarators are awesome.

Whoa, they are awesome. This one looks amazing http://www.kegworks.com/haier-kegera...bNK9ie4kEoYw&=

I want that in my kitchen.

[bigmike55]

Oh, gotcha. You better petition your governor to cut that out! Your state's missing out on a booming microbrewery industry.

IPAs are awesome. My absolute favorite is a stout, though. Or a porter. Love my dark beer.

Alabama has two pretty solid grassroots organizations currently trying to change the restrictive beer laws. One is working mostly on the homebrewing restrictions, but has not been sucessful yet. The other is trying to change the terrible laws on buying beer. A few years ago they removed the law that banned beer above 6% and recently passed something to allow for taprooms. However, we still can't buy beer in containers larger than 20oz., so no 22oz. bomber or growlers. The microbrew laws are still way too strict (and confusing to post here).

Dark beer used to be my favorite when I was in my mid 20s, but I'm a hop head now. Unfortunately, my favorite breweries (Stone and Dogfish Head) do not distribute here.

[Gorlox22]

The bottles you buy at brew store tend to be thicker and sturdier then many bottles you will buy or find in the bushes.

Oh I had no idea. Cool, I'll check them out on my next trip to the LBS.

[whoisjohngalt85]

Dark beer used to be my favorite when I was in my mid 20s, but I'm a hop head now. Unfortunately, my favorite breweries (Stone and Dogfish Head) do not distribute here.

That's definitely a trend I've noticed with people.

Dogfish Head is fantastic stuff. Sucks it's hard to get by you. Can you cross state lines to get it?

Brooklyn Brewery is a local favorite of mine. They have a huge room where you can go to try all their beers for like $3 a cup. They have crazy-high-alcohol stuff too. Only drawback is it's in Williamsburg, Brooklyn so all the terrible hipsters overrun the place. But if you drink enough their vegan presence stops bothering you.

[Caje]

Whoa, they are awesome. This one looks amazing http://www.kegworks.com/haier-kegera...bNK9ie4kEoYw&=

I want that in my kitchen.

I started sophomore year of college and ended up using my old dorm fridge to make it.

And if you are like me the first time you try to hook everything up and get it working you end up with a lot of pressurized beer spraying everywhere .

[whoisjohngalt85]

Quick update. I couldn't resist; I opened one of my home-brewed bottles today to try it. (I've got four so I'll let the other three cold-condition).

It was surprisingly not too bad. Definitely over-carbonated (I probably added too much sugar during bottling). But the buzz was fantastic ha. Nice hops character to it as well. This was the Bombay Bliss IPA from Mr. Beer.

[sheriffpony]

What state do you live in? I thought it was federal law that banned it until 1979.

Alabama. We just got beer over 6% in 2009. And we still have container size laws.

Edit: And I just saw bigmike55 already said all that. Where do you live mike? I'm up in Huntsville, so I get to drive to Nashville for Stone/Dogfish and most everything else we can't get here.