Store bought Beer

I have recently started home brewing with my girlfriend who has done it for years.I enjoy the taste of alot of the brews we make but some of my friends asked when I was going to make normal beer which they mean taste similar to budweiser or miller. I am not sure what kind of beer this would be-philsner,lager, etc. any help would be appreciated and if you happen to know where to get the ingredience that would be a huge help also. Thank you in advance for any information you may have.

ginsu14 said:

I have recently started home brewing with my girlfriend who has done it for years.I enjoy the taste of alot of the brews we make but some of my friends asked when I was going to make normal beer which they mean taste similar to budweiser or miller. I am not sure what kind of beer this would be-philsner,lager, etc. any help would be appreciated and if you happen to know where to get the ingredience that would be a huge help also. Thank you in advance for any information you may have.

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Why would want to make a beer you can buy at wal-mart for $15 a case? Any who, there both lager's, if that help's.

Style: Lager
Ingredients: Water, Urine

Sorry, it had to be said. It may be easier just to get new friends.

I think if you search budweiesr clone, you'll get your info.

ginsu14 said:

some of my friends asked when I was going to make normal beer which they mean taste similar to budweiser or miller.

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Trying to make a homebrew like BMC (Bud, Miller, Coors) is actually pretty difficult since they have no taste at all. All three are lagers which are fermented at temperatures that are very hard for beginning homebrewers unless you have refrigeration, plus they use adjuncts (other ingredients, like corn & rice) to make it even lighter in color and flavor.

I would recommend AHS Gold Seal Cerveza which is a light mexican beer like a corona. For $24.99, they will hook you up with all the stuff you need to make it except the equipment. Great directions too!

Ok guys, give him a break

Welcome to the forums!

What I would suggest is, if you girlfriend is an experienced homebrewer you may want to try your hand at producing a German Pilsner. However, your friends still may not like it because it will be a single malt, hops and yeast. In particular the hop rates of a good Pils are usually significantly high that it will turn off many folks who like Budweiser, etc.

And I would say that brewing an excellent Lager is probably more of a challenge than brewing an excellent Ale. Pilsners are a great style for hot days after work and rather hard to make with excellence.

EdWort said:

I would recommend AHS Gold Seal Cerveza which is a light mexican beer like a corona. For $24.99, they will hook you up with all the stuff you need to make it except the equipment. Great directions too!

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Good call, Ed.

There's been a couple discussions over the last couple of weeks about clones for both Bud and Heinekin....In fact I think on the bud thread they're doing some sort of brewing competition using the same recipe, and there is a heiny clone recipe on the heneiken thread as well....

If you use the search function in the forum you should be able to find those particular threads (I believe they were both from last week, or no more than 2 weeks ago), and also people participating on there that might be able to give you and your GF plenty of advice if you guys are bent on attempting it...

Like a couple people have mentioned, it is surprisingly really difficult to brew that style of beer (which to me makes no sense...It's actually harder to make something that tastes to me bland and nauseatingly unpalatable....Than it is to make something rich and full bodied, like a simple ale....go figure.)

It's not personally my cup of tea, but you should be able to find some good info on those 2 threads I mentioned.

Good Luck!
And Welcome to our little piece of homebrew heaven!

+1 on what Edwort said, Do you have the capabilities to Lager for 4 weeks or longer at 42 degrees? + when you go to www.Austinhomebrew.com to look for the Cervesa there are several clones to Commercial beers that you may want to try they are all in Alphabetical order, Also I suggest you trying to make a steam beer your friends probably have never had one and probably will like it.

ginsu14 said:

I enjoy the taste of alot of the brews we make but some of my friends asked when I was going to make normal beer which they mean taste similar to budweiser or miller.

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You mean, I've been drinking ABNORMAL beer this whole time??

Seriously, I would just try to get them to keep trying my beers. A friend of mine who loves coors light and didn't like many ales just found out that he loves belgian tripels.

I think you just need to relax and make the beer you like. I mean, it's your beer. Maybe you could just keep a 6pack of that BMC swill in your fridge for people who like "normal" beer.

Benny Blanco said:

You mean, I've been drinking ABNORMAL beer this whole time??

Seriously, I would just try to get them to keep trying my beers. A friend of mine who loves coors light and didn't like many ales just found out that he loves belgian tripels.

I think you just need to relax and make the beer you like. I mean, it's your beer. Maybe you could just keep a 6pack of that BMC swill in your fridge for people who like "normal" beer.

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Is it because your friend needs a case of Coors to get a buzz? Then he drinks 1 of your tripels and gets Blitzed. :rockin:

I have friends who only drink light beer 3 months ago I got a 12 pack of heineken light for them to drink when they came over... I still have 8 left in my fridge. If you are brewing all grain, you can make a very lightly hopped lightly colored ale that can fool some of your friends with its light lager like charachteristics. Try this recipe for a 10 gallon batch.

14lbs of two row and 4lbs of gelatinized rice mash for 90 minutes at 152.

Boil for 60 minutes with 2 oz of galena (i think this is what i used)

Chill and ferment using a large starter of american ale yeast, try to keep it fermenting at the low end of the ale range. I put my carboys in a bucket full of water and fermented close to 60 degrees.

It came out light, with very little hop bite and drank very smoothly, there was some ale spicyness, but unless you fully lager that is what you get it did a decent job of fooling my BMC friends.

I also fooled them with this extract recipe 10 gallons that I actually lagered: I thought it was horrible, but they drank it down... go figure.

Full boil add 2lbs of Extra light DME to the boil along with 2 oz of cluster for 60 min. At 15 minutes left add 1 oz of stryan goldings and 6lbs of extra light DME and 4 lbs of dextrose, (that's right corn sugar adjunct). Cool and pitch bavarian lager yeast, primary fermentation at 52 for 14 days and lager for 6 weeks at 34. When adding the yeast don't forget to spill half of the yeast on the floor and add a feather to your brew for good luck.

My answer to that question is, I brew what pleases me. I'm happy to serve Yeungling's, Guinness, Coors Light or whatever else someone wants when they come over if they prefer it to my beer. If you try to make a beer for someone else's taste, you will find that you did an awful lot of work [edit - and spent a lot of money!] to make a product that will probably be unappreciated. And when you are done, you will hear something like this:

"Gee, the color is a little off, coz you know I really don't like 'dark' beers, and the flavor is not quite right, and it seems a little cloudy, and why bother with putting it in a glass? Can you put it in a can?"

For my last batch I sort of would have preferred that fewer of my friends liked it. More for me!!!

Seriously, get new friends. I have 6 new friends coming over- I've known none of them for over a year. We're sampling 25 beers (3oz samplers) in one night. One tried a few of my homebrews and they lit up his world and he's a good beer convert. Another one went from BMC to Blue Moon and now extols the greatness of Blue Moon (man is he ever gonna be in for a treat!), another one is a hot chick who only likes BMC, but always compliments me on my IPA's and browns and other beers that she's sure she isn't going to like when I first pour them. Another is a skinny German girl who drinks Corona and says she loves German beer. The last is a 20-something drunk who slams BMC and Camo 211 like there's no tomorrow. I think his eyes will be opened as well...

The idea is that I'm taking most of those folks out of their comfort zone and they're going to taste all these crazy beers without any safety net. There will be no BMC at my house.. but there will be PLENTY of different beers in different styles from all around the world. Anybody who can't find something they really like isn't trying too hard and will be considered a tool for their lack of effort. And anybody who finds a few beers they really like will get a list of other beers they might want to try.

Hey, not everybody likes every beer- I'm not really a fan of IPA's. But if you don't find the taste of BMC objectionable, you ought to be able to find a real beer that you like.

I agree with SteveM

In the immortal words of Rick Nelson,"ya can't please everyone, so ya, got ta please yourself".

My boyfriend likes lagers like pilsners, and ales like witbiers, hefs, and blondes. We did the AHB Gold Seal Blonde Extract kit, and used distilled water if that makes any difference. It's very light, and incredibly clear, and has light floral notes. Very refreshing, and it's a little like a lager like bud or miller, but with more flavor, but still light.

TheOceaneer said:

Style: Lager
Ingredients: Water, Urine

Sorry, it had to be said. It may be easier just to get new friends.

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It's not often that I laugh out loud when reading but this one got me.

ginsu14 said:

I have recently started home brewing with my girlfriend who has done it for years.I enjoy the taste of alot of the brews we make but some of my friends asked when I was going to make normal beer which they mean taste similar to budweiser or miller. I am not sure what kind of beer this would be-philsner,lager, etc. any help would be appreciated and if you happen to know where to get the ingredience that would be a huge help also. Thank you in advance for any information you may have.

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Making an American light lager is great for the challenge but there isn't really much more reason to make one other than the satisfaction of doing it yourself. For how inexpensive it is in the stores, I doubt you could make it much cheaper than just buying it. If you feel it necessary to have this stuff on hand then I'd say just keep a twelve pack tucked away or kindly suggest to them that they bring their own.

TheOceaneer said:

Style: Lager
Ingredients: Water, Urine

Sorry, it had to be said. It may be easier just to get new friends.

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This made me LOL as well.

If you cant lager, but have a cooler and some ice bottles, try a Kolsch recipie. These are really light and tend to get more of that lager "crispness" that your BMC friends may be looking for.

Despite everyone saying get new friends, keep the ones you got. If they don't like your beer then there is alot more of the goodness for you! Just tell them to bring thier own next time they come over

I think a lot of people missed Home Brew Rule #1.0 DO NOT brew to please your BMC friends. This is like trying to find a vintage French Bordeaux that will please a Boons Farm drinker.
I brew for me. If you like it...BONUS! if not...that's fine too. I didn't make it for you. Hell my SWMBO LOVES brewing...HATES beer.
Fine with me.

Hey man! What u got adaginst Boones Farm?? it's the best booze evar!