Old John

Recipes 

I really am.......And, I've been brewing beer since 1993.

I go to the Brew Store, I pick up a couple or three cans of......
ohh....... 4# JB Traditional English Ale hopped malt extract (or anything similar, Brown Ale or Dark,whatever's handy)and a like number of 3# bags of plain dry Amber malt extract and three 1# bags of crystal malt and a pound of chocolate malt.. Occasionally, I get a 3# bag of drak malt extract for variety.
I also get a couple ounces of Willamette hop pellets, 1/2 oz. per batch for aroma..
That's about all I need to be happy.........
I can brew 3 batches of essentially 7# Beer. It'll be pretty mellow.

I crush my grain, 1# of crystal malt, sometimes also a 1/2# of chocolate malt added, in 6 qt. of cold water, bring to a boil, strain out grain & sparge with hot boiled water. Add sparging to brew-pot.
I add the malt extract, a 4# can of Hopped & 3# of plain dry extract, to pot,
bring back to a boil, boil 15 minutes, add the 1/2oz. of hop pellets, let boil a min. or 2 & shut it off. Let it sit a minute or 2.
Pour through a strainer into my carboy with 2 gal. of hot water to get hoppy stuff out, top off to 3 inch from the top with hot boiled water, plug & let sit to cool.

When it's cooled sufficiently, I add two 5 to 7 gr. pkgs. of Cooper's or other good yeast, poured dry, on top of wort. I use a simple blow-off tube in a bucket of water, for air-lock. It'll be bubbling in 20 to 45 minutes after yeast is addded.
It'll be done working in 5 or 6 days. I bottle with a level cup of corn sugar, boiled in a pint of water for bottle conditioning. That make's a nice head.
After a couple weeks or a month, in the bottle, it's good to drink..
It'll be a dark amber, brown, or dark ale, with a good mouth-feel, adequate strength, that clarifies well & looks good in a glass.

This has been pretty much my routine, for the last dozen years............
Cheap & easy, lazy man's brewing.
Have Fun!

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'Til Later...Happy Brewin',
Old John

BigKahuna

Recipes 

Actually sounds pretty expensive....compared to an AG batch of light cream or pale ale. The cool thing about brewing is that it lends itself well to whatever level of obsession you can afford...weather time investment or money...and you can spend a LOT of both!
Glad to hear that you're making yourself some good beer!

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JoMarky

Recipes 

The ingredients may be more expensive, but theres no extra expensive equipment involved. With that said I went AG with 87% efficiency for 100$

10 gal MLT with SS braid: 20$
7.5 gal Turkey Fryer: 60$
Corona grain mill: 20$

missing link

Recipes 

As far as time goes, your right not much thought involved, doesn't take much time and your happy with the results.

Over the course of a year, it would be quite a bit cheaper to brew AG based on the cost of ingredients, but then you have to factor in the value of your time, risk of screw ups or variation in your process and other factors that could cause you to ruin or miss the mark on a batch.

For me the satisfaction is going through all the steps of AG and getting it mostly right.

Linc

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Tap#1 = Beer
Tap#2 = Beer

THey change to often to keep up with the Sig.

Yooper

Recipes 

That's the great thing about brewing- we have people who have MacGuyver'd up systems for brewing big, and people who are happy with "kit and a kilo" systems. Most of all fall in between those extremes somewhere. It's YOUR beer. You can make whatever you want, whenever you want.

I'm never really satisfied with my procedure, and love tweaking things. That's my personality, though- I do it with cooking and all my other hobbies, too. When I have a beer, I am always thinking, "Great beer! But next time I think I'll............." (fill in the blank with FWH, MH, add a different grain, dry hop with a different hop variety, etc). That's why brewing suits me- I'm never quite "done" with it. I also brew many different styles, and like having at least two very different beers on tap at all times. If I have a brown ale on tap, the other one would be an IPA. If I have an Arrogant Bastard clone on tap, the other one would be a blonde, for example.

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Broken Leg Brewery
Giving beer a leg to stand on since 2006

flyangler18

Recipes 

Here, here.

For me, tinkering with DIY builds and fine-tuning process and procedure is almost (I say almost ) as fun and satisfying as enjoying a pint of a recipe I'm particularly proud of. There's immense satisfaction to having a recipe reach a perfect balance where you are (at least momentarily) through tweaking it.

I have the same approach in the kitchen when I cook- and a great reminder of why I love cooking and brewing as much as I do!

Old John

Recipes 

In reading I notice Everyone uses Two Stages.
I guess Everyon starts in a open bucket or other container.

Here again, I'm Lazy! I use 5 gallon carboys. I fill within an inch or two
from the top.
Then......
I use a simple Blow-off Tube, with the other end immersed in a bucket of water.
Yeah, I lose a quart or so, of beer, along with the fusil oils.
There is no secondary necessary. Primary & secondary, all in one.
I said earlier 5 or 6 days. But usually It is in my fermenter/carboy
for about 10 days to 2 weeks. Very Rarely longer.

I always end up with 48 to 50 bottles of good clear beer.
It's as Simple & Easy a process as I can make it. Makes me Happy.
Life is Good!

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'Til Later...Happy Brewin',
Old John

BigKahuna

Recipes 

Congratulations...>I don't like you any more.

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