Making beer at home...

Back in the early 90's, while at lunch one day with a number of people from the Naval Medical Command in New Orleans, they all started talking about their personal recipes for home-brewed beer. I asked why most of them brewed their own, and they answered that in the late 1950's and early 1960's, they were involved in research with rocket sleds in Utah. That was the only way they could get beer in Utah back then.

How about whiskey making? How hard is it to make palatable whiskey? 😉

While it is legal to make beer or wine (for personal consumption) it is illegal to make whiskey without a license. With that being said I have known several people who had stills in the north Georgia mountains. Mostly corn mash, sugar and water. Unless it is aged in "burnt" barrels it will be "White Liquor".

Andy

http://www.ttb.gov/spirits/faq.shtml#s7

:beer: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer:

Better to stick to the beer...

http://homedistiller.org/designs.htm

http://www.coppermoonshinestills.com/id28.html

Hope this helps,
DDSM

I think it would fun to have a real still but not practicable if you stay within the confines of law. Geez I thought this was a free country.

Whiskey maker has got to be one of the coolest jobs on the planet.

I've got to get started because I can make 200 gallons of beer per year!

If you fly me out there, I'll show you how to make some good homebrew!

Beer in Utah

With the notable exception of Prohabition (1920-1933) beer has been VERY MUCH availble in Utah. The first breweries in Utah date to the mid 1850s, and even Porter Rockwell built one.

Growing up in Utah in the 1950s & 60s, I don't recall any shortage of beer anywhere. Some counties were "dry" on Sunday, and a few towns in or near Indain Reservations (like Blanding) didn't allow it's sale at all, but these were pretty few and far between.

Granted...3.2 beer isn't REAL beer (IMO), but it beats soda pop.

🙂
Loyal

I brewed my own beer for a few years. It is a really neat hobby. Don't get into it thinking you will save money, you just drink more beer. After a while the novelty wore off and I realized I could never make mine taste as good as my favorite micro brews.

If you are ever in the Atlanta area you have to try a Sweetwater 420 Pale Ale. It is about the best thing going here in the south. They do not pasteurize it so they can't ship it very far.

If you can't find it at this place a home brewer doesn't need it!

http://www.williamsbrewing.com/

They had a slighty fermented corn beer in Colombia that was good.

I have several friends that brew beer and wine and do a very good job of it.

The wine maker I have been and it takes time and patience much as the beer. Good clean equipment is a key and room to put it while it works.

My grandfathers and down the line were into making corn whiskey and my uncle has some of that old equipment. There are a few shine makers around, oh yeah, that I have heard of.

I remember all those unlabeled bottles my dad and uncles were drinking from and the mountain of gallon jugs behind grandfather's shed that we got sodapop money to wash as a kid.

Whiskey Taster would be a better job.

DO NOT USE CORN SYRUP OR SUGAR!!!!

The malt extracts are the fermentable sugars. Corn sugars produce a thin, flavorless beer and are CHEAP. That's why they are so prevalent in such wonderful examples of beer as Bud, Miller, Coors, etc.

I've been pulling out my old recipes and thinking about brewing again.

I’ll probably adapt one of my all grain recipes to an extract version for my first brew or two. The malt extracts that are available now are far superior to the ones on the market when I was brewing.

Perhaps we should get together.

You better get that little porch finished first, or you may have "trouble" keeping things square..... 😉

Ian, is right.

The number one thing you must do in homebrewing is keep everything sanitized!!!...bacteria love sugar!!!...keep them out!!!

Grandpa was stationed in New Guennea back in the day. He and a friend operated a homemade still in a closet. When they had KP duty, they would sneak anything they could find to brew moonshine to sell to the other soldiers. He said you could use just about any fruit. They even used potatos. He sent the money home to my Grandma to help her out while he was gone. He was scheduled to be transfered to Japan. Once he was situated, he was able to bribe someone to ship his still to Japan. Unfortunately, the ship sank on the way.

He never told me that until he was very old. I thought it was funny, because my other grandpa, who was from Florida ran moonshine as a kid for his older brother and uncle.

JRL

Dave-

From a non-expert ...............

Tried a number of recipes.

Found that beer was not my forte.

Had bottles explode as teh final yeast had not yeasted !

Suggest Root Beer is a definite thought.

As stated, KEEP IT SANITIZED !

Cheers

Derek

Reminds me of a song:

"Well my name's John Lee Pettimore
Same as my Daddy and his Daddy before
You hardly ever saw grandaddy down here
He only came to town about twice a year
He'd buy a hundred pounds of yeast and some copper line

Everybody knew that he made moonshine
Now the revenue man wanted grandaddy bad
He headed up the holler with everything he had
It's before my time but I've been told
He never came back from Copperhead Road..."

Making beer at home...Dave used to make it, but best

idea is to purchase the Coopers pack. Coopers are a family brewer in SOZ and they decided 30 years ago to fight fire with fire and produced a great all in one home brewing recipe kit, that has all ingredients required with their method of brewing. They export around the world and have drunk Coopers ale in Austin and 'Vegas,it is in LA. Suggest that your first foray is to find the COOPERS kit and brew it. You will like the result.

PS Check the cooper's web site for location distributor in US.

RADU

I do not think that was completely un-common to tell you the truth. It would be interesting to learn how many did not return from the swamp....JRL