Two Questions concerning home brews

Well first off....im so glad I have found this site. I am a college student and love nothing more than quality Ale's and when i found out about home brewing I went through the roof. I have two main concerns dealing with home brewing, before I go out and drop dollars on equipment.

1. I love great pale ale's, can i bring that same great taste to my home while making home brews, or is homemade beer more just for the sake of making it in your home then actual taste?

2. I have already done a decent amount of research and found out, and it was a killer that you are not suppose to drink your beer's from your bottles because the yeast will give ya mad gas. Well I love drinking beer from bottles and not glass's so is there a way to be able to drink the beer from the bottles?

Thanks

1. My favorite beer is pale ale also and I am currently drinking a homebrewed one that taste better than the majority of the ones out there.

2. If you are going to bottle and not keg you add priming sugar then the yeast will produce co2 known as bottle conditioning giving you carbonation. Buying a keg set and a beer gun or counter pressure bottle filler would do what you want but this gets $$$ but is the direction you will go if you stick with it.

Before I got a keg actually I still just use pint glasses to drink my brew.

I won't drink a beer unless it's in a glass. NOT PLASTIC!!

You can still drink the beer from the bottle, I've known a lot of homebrewers that do this! Personally, I don't like to drink the yeast sediment in the bottom because of "teh gasssss"!

If you are attached the the bottle . . . . . . you could keg and then bottle as mentioned above. There are also filtration systems that help you get the yeast out, but these (I believe) also require a kegging setup.

What is so great about drinking from bottles? IMHO, you lost the aesthetic pleasure of seeing your beer, enjoying its color and its aroma. Seeing a beer go into a glass, to me, is performance art at its finest.

Just my $.02

1. I love great pale ale's, can i bring that same great taste to my home while making home brews, or is homemade beer more just for the sake of making it in your home then actual taste?

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the reason most people get into home brewing is to be able to create beers that rival or even exceed anything you can get commercially.

If you're looking for a simple, inexpensive kit you can get them at any homebrew store or online for less than $100. I am so happy with the one I got (Deluxe Starter from Northern Brewer http://www.northernbrewer.com/starterkits.html ) and have brewed two batches with it already. I decided to go this route because I knew i loved beer and would love brewing even more. It didn't make sense to me to buy a cheap kit for $75, then another $175 later when I upgrade.

If you love beer, which you say you do - you will love brewing and watching it ferment! Its unbelievable!

homebrewer_99 said:

I won't drink a beer unless it's in a glass. NOT PLASTIC!!

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There have been a few times I've had to serve my home brew in plastic cups and I couldn't believe how much more foam was produced. Hey when you are at the park it just isn't convenient to bring glasses.
I agree that it is cool to pour your home brew into a glass so you can see the color and the head. You can also smell your beer and appreciate the malt and hop aromas. You can't appreciate good beer without seeing and smelling it before you taste it.

MSUpaintballer

Heh, I gave up tourny paintballing and decided to dive into a new hobby. Well here i am. This is a great site, mucho info on everything.

As for the drinking from the bottle. Well you may change your mind when you get into enjoying all the aspects of your beer. And pouring into a glass allows to to see your clarity and color, and get much more of the aroma than you normally would from the bottle.

*edit Sorry RichBrewer I guess I should read others posts before stating the same thing right underneath them

RichBrewer said:

I agree that it is cool to pour your home brew into a glass so you can see the color and the head. You can also smell your beer and appreciate the malt and hop aromas. You can't appreciate good beer without seeing and smelling it before you taste it.

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It's also quite amazing how different the head will be in different shaped glasses.

cweston said:

It's also quite amazing how different the head will be in different shaped glasses.

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and at different temps

mayday1019 said:

If you're looking for a simple, inexpensive kit you can get them at any homebrew store or online for less than $100. I am so happy with the one I got (Deluxe Starter from Northern Brewer http://www.northernbrewer.com/starterkits.html ) and have brewed two batches with it already. I decided to go this route because I knew i loved beer and would love brewing even more. It didn't make sense to me to buy a cheap kit for $75, then another $175 later when I upgrade.

If you love beer, which you say you do - you will love brewing and watching it ferment! Its unbelievable!

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I've made 9 batches so far with that kit. Numbers 10 and 11 will be made this weekend. That kit will take you where you need to go and then some.

I'll make this recommendation: don't go cheap on your brew pot. I bought a huge 22 qt pot from Walmart for $45 and it's the best investment ever. I do Partial Extract brewing and have yet to have a boil over. Totally awesome.

JimmyBeam said:

MSUpaintballer

Heh, I gave up tourny paintballing and decided to dive into a new hobby. Well here i am. This is a great site, mucho info on everything.

As for the drinking from the bottle. Well you may change your mind when you get into enjoying all the aspects of your beer. And pouring into a glass allows to to see your clarity and color, and get much more of the aroma than you normally would from the bottle.

*edit Sorry RichBrewer I guess I should read others posts before stating the same thing right underneath them

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Hey as far as I'm concerned thanks for re-enforcing my points. No apology needed.

MSUpaintballer said:

2. I have already done a decent amount of research and found out, and it was a killer that you are not suppose to drink your beer's from your bottles because the yeast will give ya mad gas.

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Not at all true. Many beer styles require that the yeast be suspended in the beer when you drink it. Hefeweizens (means 'Yeast Wheat' in German) and Belgian Wits are good examples.

If some one has gas from these beers, it may be due to the sheer volume consumed, or that they are used to drinking Millescoorsbud near-water beer and their system is not used to real beer.

Yeast or no yeast in a good solid micro or homebrew should not affect the amount of bottom coughs experienced.

So if this is the case, why do they say to not drink your home brew from the bottle but rather pour it in a glass?

Thanks for all the feedback guys

MSUpaintballer said:

1. I love great pale ale's, can i bring that same great taste to my home while making home brews, or is homemade beer more just for the sake of making it in your home then actual taste?



Thanks

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Nope. You can make it better!

MSUpaintballer said:

So if this is the case, why do they say to not drink your home brew from the bottle but rather pour it in a glass?

Thanks for all the feedback guys

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The yeast will always influence the appearance and taste profile of the beer. Some styles benefit from this (like a Hefeweizen) others would not - like a Czech Pilsner.

I live close to the Unibroue Brewery and go their brewhall quite often with my clients. Many of their beers are bottle conditioned and the debate among the regulars as to whether the beers should be consumed with or without the yeast is never ending.

Each to his own, I like them both ways.

In my opinion, any good beer should really be drank from a glass anyway, even commercial ones. The reason for this is that a significant piece of what we know as flavor is derived from the aroma of what we consume. A beer poured into a glass will (or should, anyway) develop a head which will release its scent into the air around the top of the glass, right under your nose. If you drink right out of a bottle, you completely cut you your nose out of the process, leaving out a major factor in tasting.

Most Germans like their Hefeweizen "mit Mefe" or "with yeast". I agree. Even when I carefully pour my beer into a glass to check the head, clarity, and aroma, I still swirl the yeast around in the bottom of the bottle and drink it. After all, yeast contains the worlds best source of vitaman b. Which just so happens to greatly reduce hangovers. So, when God gave us beer, he also gave us the cure for what beer could create. Just another bit of "beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.

Sneaky

One thing I can recommend is this -

As brewers, we support the community. Shop from your LHBS as muchas possible, ad kick Txbrewer some $$$ by dropping a dime or more on this board. For you and I, it's only $10. For him, it's $10 closer to not having to hold a legit job.

And ignoring the obvious....you can pour your brew into another bottle to drink it out of...leaving the yeast sediment in the first bottle.