Official Alcohol Discussion Thread!

[DaMexiRican]

Can we get a sticky for this?

What do ya'll prefer to drink? Beer, Wine, Hard Liquor, Wine Coolers? All of them?

I only drink Beer and Hard Liquor. Mint Mojito is about the only thing close to a wine cooler I'll drink though LOL

 

[darczap]

I'm so jealous looking at these delicious brews. I'm on antibiotics for strep throat, so I can't drink

 

[Off_contstantly]

So, the first batch was a success! The first bottle was a little over carbonated and had a bitter hops after taste, but the next one was really smooth and very tasty. I picked up my next kit this weekend as well, an Irish Stout. I'll probably throw some in chocolate when I rack it to the 2nd carboy.

 

[Illiciter]

Congrats on your first batch! I bet it tastes great!

<geek>

Bottle variation huh?

Review your priming methods.. over carb in one bottle and not the other means when you mixed your priming sugar it wasn't thoroughly mixed when you went to bottle the beer so more sugar got in one bottle over another. Also, when racking from primary to a bottling bucket sediment avoidance is important because sediment will add "flavor" to beer, period, no matter the quantity so make sure you control that to your desired effect. Think of bottles/kegs like mini carboys. Yeast and adjuncts settle out faster in a bottle than in a keg due to volume and depth, by the way. Just FYI Samuel Smith uses large shallow slate fermentation tanks just for this reason. Clear it up faster, make the yeast stop working sooner to preserve desired taste. Their Oatmeal Stout is hard to duplicate because of it. edit: and the slate fermentation tanks... whatever.

</geek>

beer is really good.

 

[MacDaddyOJack]

Your addiction has started off congrats!

I made a coffee stout the day after christmas, when I went to check on it the next day, it had blown the airlock off I even used a 6.5 gallon carboy, never had that happen before. I've never even seen the foam go all the way up the neck of the 6.5, it was crazy! Didn't lose much beer though, and it was still fermenting like crazy so I think it was fine. CO2 is heavier than air anyways so I assume it was blanketed by the CO2 production. Ill taste next weekend when I rack to the secondary.

 

[MacDaddyOJack]

A short story for those who care to read

So the GF and I just moved to a new place in richmond. We have several new grocery stores around so we went into one called Whole Foods today. I typically avoid the place because its about 99% organic and that automatically comes with a huge markup for no real reason.... and it attracts a TON of hippies! I had intended to just pop in really quick. I am adding some chicory to my newest coffee stout next week when I rack to the secondary. My GF loves Dogfish Head chicory stout and I figured this place would have some. Chicory is a root that tastes a lot like coffee, but has no caffeine. So as I'm searching around, success! I found some chicory for my new brew. I also happened upon the beer aisle on the way out but had forgotten one important thing: hippies also love craft beer.

This place was stacked, tons of stuff. 4 different kinds of Founders (but no KBS ) I had to get out quick, we have spent a ton of money already on our new place, cant go for a huge beer haul right now... However, I did notice a special offering from Dogfish Head that I have never even heard of before. It is called Burton Baton. It's a oak-aged imperial IPA, and it's friggin' wonderful Big hoppy nose with a unique smoothness from the oak, this stuff is incredible. The 10% alcohol is completely undetectable. Unfortunately, it was the last pack... And at $16.50 for a 4-pack, I won't be getting it often, but man... its good! If you guys happen across it in the near future, GET SOME!

 

[Off_contstantly]

I haven't had anything from Dogfish Head, but I'll have to keep this one in mind if I run across any.

So batch #2 is in the bottles. This batch went a lot easier than the first. I was able to get 6 more bottles out of this batch. I also got a little bit of a taste before bottling. It tastes like Guinness with a stronger coffee flavor. I can't wait to try the final product.

Up next will probably be an Irish Red followed by a Maibock or Belgian White.

 

[MacDaddyOJack]

You're already thinking of trying a bock what are you goin to do for temperature control? I did an oktoberfest last summer and I dont have a spare fridge for temp control so I kept rotating out frozen water bottles. It worked okay.... got stuck at about 1.03 and I had to leave it at room temp to finish up but the end product was still pretty darn good. I probably wont do another lager until I have some temp control though

 

[Glen-BoB]

happy friday! startin early with a Propeller Porter.

 

[Wreck]

Looks tasty GB .... Hey what is that Corona Familiar ??? Anyone know ... Rick? Is it just a diff bigger bottle or is it a diff taste altogether?


I finally tried Modelo Negro and Dos XX amber like 2 weeks ago.

 

[49ergirl]

Looks tasty GB .... Hey what is that Corona Familiar ??? Anyone know ... Rick? Is it just a diff bigger bottle or is it a diff taste altogether?


I finally tried Modelo Negro and Dos XX amber like 2 weeks ago.

Did you like Modelo Negro??? I loves it

 

[MacDaddyOJack]

Did you like Modelo Negro??? I loves it

This is about the only mexican beer I can drink, I absolutely hate corona....

I won't turn down a Dos Equis gold label either though

 

[Horhay]

IM GOING TO OCTOBERFEST!!! I booked my tickets over the weekend. I will be in Germany from September 23rd to October 7. Going beer tasting! Will make my way to Amsterdam and hopefully Milan too.

 

[Off_contstantly]

IM GOING TO OCTOBERFEST!!! I booked my tickets over the weekend. I will be in Germany from September 23rd to October 7. Going beer tasting! Will make my way to Amsterdam and hopefully Milan too.

Something like this is on my bucket list. That is really cool.

 

[Horhay]

Something like this is on my bucket list. That is really cool.

Yeah probably wouldn't happen so soon, but my buddy is in the military and he is stationed outside of Munich. He is an officer so he gets to live off base and has plenty of room to stay. He mentioned he has tasted over 60 beers already so I love beer and I said a hell why not. Found tickets very cheap, $1000 round trip direct flight from LAX to Munich.

---------- Post added at 11:38 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:35 AM ----------

Looks tasty GB .... Hey what is that Corona Familiar ??? Anyone know ... Rick? Is it just a diff bigger bottle or is it a diff taste altogether?


I finally tried Modelo Negro and Dos XX amber like 2 weeks ago.

Does it come in a brown bottle? I think that's different than the regular Corona.

Try some Bohemia, that's another dark beer of ours. Similar taste to Modelo Negra. If you spot Estrellita/Estrella around pick some up!

 

[splax23]

IM GOING TO OCTOBERFEST!!! I booked my tickets over the weekend. I will be in Germany from September 23rd to October 7. Going beer tasting! Will make my way to Amsterdam and hopefully Milan too.

I wanna go too!!!!

 

[Glen-BoB]

I'm goin in 2012 but going about a month early for Oktoberfest

 

[Off_contstantly]

This is one of those things that sound dirty, but really isn't. Has anyone ever used a party pig? I'm thinking about picking one up one of these days.

 

[MacDaddyOJack]

Ive never used one but if you dont drink it all in one sitting then its toast. You can't rechage that container with CO2 after you drink half of it so I do't think I'd want to try it. It's great to share your homebrew, but its so much more painful when you have to pour some out!

 

[Off_contstantly]

I picked up my next kit, and I'm going to start playing with the end results. My next batch is going to be a wheat beer, but I'm planning on adding some cherries to the secondary to make it a cherry wheat. Any suggestions on how much I should add? I found a recipie for a cherry stout that Charlie Papazian talked about. It called for 3lbs of sour cherries and 2lbs of another kind of cherry, but 2 more lbs of sour cherries could be substituted in their place. Should I stick to the 5lbs or scale back a little since a stout is heavier than a wheat?

 

[MacDaddyOJack]

I would only do a pound or two and cut them up first. You could even squeeze the juice from them before adding it all in there but I think that 5 lbs would be super overkill for a cherry wheat. I'll be brewing this weekend too, making a big IPA 4 different kinds of hops, all of which are over 10% alpha acids - MMMMMmmmmm, goin to be so bitter

Sad story last saturday though. I had previously drank 2 beers that evening and went to grab a refill. As soon as I pulled the tap on my IPA, it just gurgled at me :eek: So I move to the other tap (coffee stout) and I had enough luck to get a full glass, but at the very end of the pour, that tap gurgled at me too!!! I now owned an empty kegerator and I hadn't kegged the newest batch yet. I put my new ESB in there on sunday but I'm a sad man until this weekend when it will be carbonated