new Beerman in town!

[newbeerman]

New to homebrewing,

Was gifted a kit and am looking forward to trying out my first batch of lemon wine.....i know the name is Beerman buuut I made wine......

I saw cashmere crooner as a single ingredient beer and thought single ingrediant stuff would be a good start... somethin i can do with requires....a 5 gallon jug and carboy...i do have the hydrometer and airstop...and basically everything to make a simple lemon wine.

Of course I'll have to get hops and I assume yeast for a beer - I am brand new here and learning - I'm looking for a simple and easy receipe that leans towards my pallet.

To give more insight on what I'm looking to lean towards...I also enjoy what's listed below. I can't say that my pallet enjoys strong ipa or hoppy flavors.


Likes:
Busch ice
Cashmere crooner
Coors

Other more involved flavors are
Belgian moon
Shock top

What I tend to not purchase is strong ipa and hoppy flavors


I am not looking for exact clones, just throwing out some names here so that someone might be able to suggest something that leans towards my preference.

Thanks lady's and gents.

 

[WBB]

Looks like what your looking for what they call a SMASH, single malt and single hop. I would start out with some good old American 2 row and just pick a hop, maybe mosaic or something and let er rip.

 

[mongoose33]

I do a SMASH with Maris Otter malt and Styrian Celeia hops. It's a lighter beer but still flavorful.

 

[newbeerman]

Looks like what your looking for what they call a SMASH, single malt and single hop. I would start out with some good old American 2 row and just pick a hop, maybe mosaic or something and let er rip.

Do I have what's needed for a smash? You'll have to be very layman's with me as I don't really know what American 2 row refers to. I've literally wanted to but never looked into making beer as it always seemed $$$$ to start. Now that I have a few things I realize I could have done some stuff on the cheap side and learned earlier.

 

[WBB]

Well what do you have in your kit?

 

[MaryB]

Lawnmower beer.. many recipes, all lighter and refreshing.

 

[AZCoolerBrewer]

The bucks come in whe you want to make bigger volumes. My gear cost less than a hundred dollars and I have made around 250 beers over the last two years. Thing is, the effort and time I’ve put into this is worth far more than the beer I have gotten out of it. Don’t get me wrong, I have made some delicious beer. It’s just that if all you are looking to do is make good, cheap, copious beer, then the way I do it isn’t the way to go.

You should figure out what your goals are and then work to that end.

Good, cheap copious beer will require you to keg. I find it cheaper and easier to buy decent beer. The beer I make is meant to be amongst the best beer I have ever had and so large amounts and my expense is secondary. My goals are not necessarily the goals of others on this forum.

Find your goals. Have fun!

 

[Sammy86]

New to homebrewing,

Was gifted a kit and am looking forward to trying out my first batch of lemon wine.....i know the name is Beerman buuut I made wine......

I saw cashmere crooner as a single ingredient beer and thought single ingrediant stuff would be a good start... somethin i can do with requires....a 5 gallon jug and carboy...i do have the hydrometer and airstop...and basically everything to make a simple lemon wine.

Of course I'll have to get hops and I assume yeast for a beer - I am brand new here and learning - I'm looking for a simple and easy receipe that leans towards my pallet.

To give more insight on what I'm looking to lean towards...I also enjoy what's listed below. I can't say that my pallet enjoys strong ipa or hoppy flavors.


Likes:
Busch ice
Cashmere crooner
Coors

Other more involved flavors are
Belgian moon
Shock top

What I tend to not purchase is strong ipa and hoppy flavors


I am not looking for exact clones, just throwing out some names here so that someone might be able to suggest something that leans towards my preference.

Thanks lady's and gents.

Sounds like American Wheat Beers are right up your alley!

I would go through the recipe section on the site and find some beers that interest you and go from there.

For your reference:

DME=Dry Malt Extract a condensed powder of fermentable sugar that you add to water to make wort.

LME=Liquid syrup that you add to water to make wort.

2 Row= Base Malt used to extract sugar from grain to make wort.

Maris Otter: British base malt used to extract sugar to make wort.

As you read you’ll pick up on the terminology I believe there is a glossary around here somewhere

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Glossary

Hope this helps and good luck!

 

[mongoose33]

The bucks come in whe you want to make bigger volumes. My gear cost less than a hundred dollars and I have made around 250 beers over the last two years. Thing is, the effort and time I’ve put into this is worth far more than the beer I have gotten out of it. Don’t get me wrong, I have made some delicious beer. It’s just that if all you are looking to do is make good, cheap, copious beer, then the way I do it isn’t the way to go.

You should figure out what your goals are and then work to that end.

Good, cheap copious beer will require you to keg. I find it cheaper and easier to buy decent beer. The beer I make is meant to be amongst the best beer I have ever had and so large amounts and my expense is secondary. My goals are not necessarily the goals of others on this forum.

Find your goals. Have fun!

IMO, very good advice. You may even find your goals change over time. Mine have.

You can do this for, as AZcb has done, for relatively little money. Or you can, over time, pour a lot into it. I'm much more the latter. I've upgraded almost everything I started with, except my long-handled spoon.

Most of what I've spent money on are more for consistency or convenience. But you can accomplish a lot of it with just a little cleverness and research into how people do it.

 

[MaryB]

My homebrew is far cheaper than buying a decent beer(Heck even mediocre like Fat Tire is $1+ a bottle). And my go to house ale everyone loves is far tastier! Yes I keg, 4 kegs cost me $125, $100 for a 20 pound CO2 tank, $50 for 3 Intertap beer faucets, I had an old fridge I could use for the kegerator plus it gives me extra freezer space during holidays(filled with ice otherwise)... once you have everything it can pay for itself in under 2 years and you can keep on cranking out really good beer!

The bucks come in whe you want to make bigger volumes. My gear cost less than a hundred dollars and I have made around 250 beers over the last two years. Thing is, the effort and time I’ve put into this is worth far more than the beer I have gotten out of it. Don’t get me wrong, I have made some delicious beer. It’s just that if all you are looking to do is make good, cheap, copious beer, then the way I do it isn’t the way to go.

You should figure out what your goals are and then work to that end.

Good, cheap copious beer will require you to keg. I find it cheaper and easier to buy decent beer. The beer I make is meant to be amongst the best beer I have ever had and so large amounts and my expense is secondary. My goals are not necessarily the goals of others on this forum.

Find your goals. Have fun!

 

[AZCoolerBrewer]

@MaryB I think you are absolutely correct. Good cheap beer requires a little bigger investment up front and kegging is almost a necessity. It is possible to make it work bottling, but the work to do it that way is to me more effort than it is worth.

My personal goal is to make a great beer for myself and my wife that tastes better than standard craft and gives me pleasure creating and executing my plan. I believe that MaryB’s goals and mine are not far from each other, but also are clearly not the same. Brew on MaryB! My beers cost me probably around as much as the more expensive craft like Founders or Sculpin. 1.75 to 2 dollars a bottle. Keep in mind, I count EVERYTHING, from the half a roll of paper towels I use brewing and bottling, to the extra airlocks I have to buy because those effers are fragile as eff. It may be ugly baby syndrome, but I loooove drinking my homebrew.

 

[madscientist451]

Brew what you like. If you like shock top, brew a clone and change it up on re-brews to suit your taste. Extract versions have been discussed here on HBT:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/possible-shocktop-blue-moon-extract-clone.360448/

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/blue-moon-clone.65328/page-31

Note you don't have to brew full 5 gallon batches, you can cut recipes in half and brew more often get more experience and have more variety. Smaller 3 gallon kegs will fit in a regular refrigerator. And getting set up for small batch BIAB or just extract brewing is pretty cheap.

 

[whovous]

The minimum requirements for a regular beer are water, yeast, hops and either malted grain or malt extract. Recipes for any of the four ingredients can get complicated (yes, water can get very complicated!) but they do not have to be complicated.

You say you like Cashmere Crooner, so I suggest you start with cashmere hops and whatever water comes out of your tap. That gets you two of the four ingredients needed. Choose a single grain, preferably barley but not so-called "crystal" malt barley. Add yeast and you have a simple recipe. Once that makes sense to you, you can try switching up the ingredients.

 

[Jtk78]

Welcome to the hobby. It's a lot of fun and rewarding.

Buy yourself a book called "Brewing Clasic Styles" by Jamil Zainasheff and John Palmer, two of the most respected people in this hobby. It contains 80 recipes that are extract based with conversions to using actual grain. It's a great book that explains the style, gives you the information, and contains a couple laughs. I reference it more than any other homebrew book I have.

 

[newbeerman]

Thanks everyone. I've decided to start with simple things like hard lemonade and hard cider. When I have a few bucks I'll upgrade what I need to brew a good beer.

Thanks for the warm welcome

 

[MaryB]

Save where you can! My brew rig is the junkyard special, only new parts were some unistrut rail and the 3 burners, and of course kettles. Main base used to be a 3m AV cabinet that was sitting in a junk auction. $5! 4 cans of spray paint $30, scrap lumber, shelf standards I use for lumber racks so had them... propane tanks I had for the garage heater and from when I had a gas grill.

My main ale I do in 11 gallon batches

16 pounds Golden Promise $25
3.5 pounds Victory $4.20
.75 pounds Extra Dark Crystal $2

2 oz Perle @ 60min $2
2 oz Hallertau @ 5min $2

2 packets Nottingham Ale $8

So ~$42 in ingredients, maybe $5 in propane call it $50 a batch with misc like a few paper towels(I mainly use washable kitchen towels). Call it 50 cents a glass give or take with a little CO2 used to carbonate. Friends have growlers with C2 cartridges and picnic taps so I brew often, well they brew too if they want beer and I supervise. Keeps me under the 200 gallon limit! They supply ingredients and bring their own propane, pitch in on CO2... or bottle if they need some for a party. I probably brew 150gallons of that recipe a year for myself and family!

It doesn't take long to pay off equipment costs when you are saving 50 cents to a $1 on a beer!

@MaryB I think you are absolutely correct. Good cheap beer requires a little bigger investment up front and kegging is almost a necessity. It is possible to make it work bottling, but the work to do it that way is to me more effort than it is worth.

My personal goal is to make a great beer for myself and my wife that tastes better than standard craft and gives me pleasure creating and executing my plan. I believe that MaryB’s goals and mine are not far from each other, but also are clearly not the same. Brew on MaryB! My beers cost me probably around as much as the more expensive craft like Founders or Sculpin. 1.75 to 2 dollars a bottle. Keep in mind, I count EVERYTHING, from the half a roll of paper towels I use brewing and bottling, to the extra airlocks I have to buy because those effers are fragile as eff. It may be ugly baby syndrome, but I loooove drinking my homebrew.