Homebrewed Beer

[KarenS]

I did a search but nothing came up. Anyone here brew their own beer. My dad did it when I was younger, but I don't remember a whole lot except bottles blowing up one time and one batch that was so dark that no one would drink it! :) Then later some friends of mine in Portland were into homebrewing and I loved the stuff they made.

So DH and I are thinking about doing some homebrewing. If we can do it right, we're thinking about brewing a batch for BIL for Christmas.

Anyone? Suggestions, cautions, advice, stories? :)

Karen

[elladee]

No advice here... I haven't tried it myself. My uncle did one year and it was pretty tasty. I'd love to try it, but I can never seem to find the time. I hope someone has some good pointers for you. I might steal them, too.

Alton Brown did a Good Eats episode about it. Seemed pretty informative.

ETA: Looks like there's a beer episode, Amber Waves, in rotation right now (was this your inspirations?) It's shown again June 06, 2006 2:00 AM and June 12, 2006 7:00 PM ET/PT.

[myshel]

My BIL and sister do home brewing. They have a fairly serious operation going-- lots of equipment, trying different recipes, etc. My BIL gets a lot of his stuff through the Northern Brewer (http://www.northernbrewer.com/). I think they have some beginning kits there too. My sister just IMd me with a book suggestion: The Home Brew Bible (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060531053/sr=8-1/qid=1149602595/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-7025896-3832000?%5Fencoding=UTF8). Oh, wait... one more idea. My sister said that this store is in or around your area: Beer Necessities (http://beernecessities.com/).

And yes, they've had tons of recipes explode on them. :D

[KarenS]

ETA: Looks like there's a beer episode, Amber Waves, in rotation right now (was this your inspirations?)LOL. Busted! :)

Myshel, thanks for the links and the one to Beer Necessities. It's really very close to where we live. I think DH and I may go shopping this weekend.

Karen