Does it look difficult and time intensive? Did you buy a kit, and where? I'm interested too in trying to make a nice lager or even a dark stout.
Used to brew. Stopped due to time contraints, in fact I plan to start again soon. Couple of points: DO NOT buy one of those kits with corn sugar! Only use real grain. Get a Corona grain mill or similar. Get a couple of Carboys (glass if you can find them). Also, when I first started I used bottles. Thats a real pain in the ass. Get a soda keg (Pepsi, Coke) to store the finished beer in. An extra 'frig would be good too, for making real lagers. Use liquid yeast. In fact, if you get some test tubes, you can culture your own yeast with the liquid, so that cuts down on cost. Finally, you want to use both real hops and pelletized (looks just like rabbit feed). You can make a number of different beers using the same barley and varying the yeast, mash time, hops etc. (ei. toasting some of the grain to get a darker beer). You can probably find most everything local, if not, online for sure. There are some other things like a wort cooler. You can find tons of info on the net. Good luck, its a fun hobby. PS. There may be a brewing club in your area.
Agree. Stay away from corn syrup crap. Disagree on this. I've always just used food grade 5 gallon plastic buckets. They CAN cause problems with sanitation if you use them for other things and scratch them, which alows bacteria to get into the scratch.... So: 1- don't use them for anything other than beer making. 2- use a REAL sterilizer on your eq, and don't rely on dish soap to do the job. Matter of fact, the bucket is a great place to sanitize all your transfer eq. +10... Bottles are a pain in the ass. An option that I use is a mini keg called a party pig. http://www.partypig.com/. read details there about it. Agreed, but I never got one and so just made steam beer. Just as good.... Good points but not necessary, IMHO.... Absolutely. Very useful. My boil kettle is about 6" bigger in diameter then my fermentation bucket. So after I am done with the boil and transfer into the bucket, I wash the kettle and set the bucket inside it. Then I stick a hose inside the kettle and just trickle cold water and the heat transfers from the bucket into the water, which then spills out onto the ground and is replaced continually with fresh cold water. Very effective and eliminates the need for the copper coil and associated sanitation perils, lol. I would also recommend that you get a large propane cooker and do it outside. Inside on the stove can be a pain... and if it boils over you WILL be in the doghouse with the wife, lol....
fck it i'll just buy another 30 pack bud light problem solved for a day or two edit: the Adderall now is just kicking in.. whoa