# Beer and wine maker members



## Soapmaker Man (Jul 5, 2008)

Do we have any beer or wine makers in our family forum?  I've tried to make beer with a kit, it turned "skunky" on me.  

OK, how many make the good stuff?


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## digit (Jul 6, 2008)

Leowife and family do.   
http://soapmakingforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4610

"Skunky", huh? Maybe it can be used for rodent repellent or paint remover?    

Digit


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## calfax (Jul 6, 2008)

*Home brewing and soapmaking*

Hi,
   I have been home brewing beer for a few years now and have a 5 gallon batch system down pat.  Most of the little bitty beer making kits are no good for making drinkable beer.  They're novelty gifts at best.  You need a proper bucket fermentator system in order to be able to make decent stuff.
    For about $200, I purchased a homebrew kit from Williams Brewing Co with some extract brewing kits.  Extract brewing is the way to go and and you can make a very drinkable ale in about an afternoon.  The hard part is waiting the couple of weeks for it to ferment and age before drinking it!
    I recommend Willians Brewing Co and Seven Bridges Cooperative.  They're both in CA and provide good products and good customer service.  PM me if you need additional info.

    I started soapmaking about 9 mos ago and refuse to make "foo-foo" soaps.  I have been experimenting with hop oil as a fragrance, tho.  I also have met one soapmaker that makes a "Beer soap"....although he was using Bud Light.


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## IanT (Jul 6, 2008)

ok i have got to try this...


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## calfax (Jul 7, 2008)

*You won't regret it...*

Drinking beer you brewed yourself is is it's own reward.  Freshly brewed beer has an infinitely more complex and robust taste than any Bud or Miller product.  I wish you the best of luck.


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## luvmy3cats (Jul 7, 2008)

I have made my own wine (from kits) for 2 1/2 years now.  I've made 33 kits so far.  I did make a beer from one of those itty bitty kits on May 1 (National HomeBrew Day) and it turned out really well.  It was a classic english pale ale.  I bought grolsch bottles to put it in.

I needed a new "Non-Alcoholic" hobby (LOL) so I just started making soap a couple of weeks ago! :wink:


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## PixieWick (Jul 11, 2008)

as much as the idea of makin my own intrigues me .. i'll stick to budlite lol


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## happyday (Jul 12, 2008)

Before I found myself working full-time off the farm, we used to make about 20 gallons of fruit wines a year.  Nasty stuff!  So delicious that you're in a coma under the table if you don't have extreme self-discipline, LOL!

We've never messed with brewing beer, but we are blessed to live in an extremely rich and diverse agricultural area.  Among other things, there are about 500 acres of hops in my immediate neighborhood, and 3 hop kilns within a mile.  You absolutely wouldn't believe the way the air smells when they're cutting and processing hops in September!  Absolutely heavenly.  Very, very interesting to watch, too. 

If anybody's interested, check this website.  http://roadbrewer.blogspot.com/2007/08/ ... l-hop.html
Scroll down to the bottom for a picture of one of the hopyards I can see from my kitchen window -- for reference, those poles are 18 feet tall!


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## IanT (Jul 12, 2008)

PixieWick said:
			
		

> as much as the idea of makin my own intrigues me .. i'll stick to budlite lol


Noooo! Yuengling!!!!



> Before I found myself working full-time off the farm, we used to make about 20 gallons of fruit wines a year. Nasty stuff! So delicious that you're in a coma under the table if you don't have extreme self-discipline, LOL!
> 
> We've never messed with brewing beer, but we are blessed to live in an extremely rich and diverse agricultural area. Among other things, there are about 500 acres of hops in my immediate neighborhood, and 3 hop kilns within a mile. You absolutely wouldn't believe the way the air smells when they're cutting and processing hops in September! Absolutely heavenly. Very, very interesting to watch, too.
> 
> ...



that sounds awesome...you should buy hops from them and brew some beer up (or just take it out of the field ...go over and help em chop it for some of it lol)

wish i had one around me 

...and on a side note.. you know what hops is related to?? (the only other plant in its family.)


...used to be a bio major so i had to learn all these plants and stuff...well ....you research it! lol


Ian


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## luvmy3cats (Jul 12, 2008)

I bet it does smell SOOO good!  Where do you live?


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## happyday (Jul 12, 2008)

LOL, Ian, harvest is such a frenzied time, you just stay out of their way!  They literally cut vines 24 hours a day to get it done.  They have these open trailers that they pull down the rows.  There is a framework that sticks about 17 feet in the air with a blade on it, and another blade just a couple feet off the ground.  As they drive down the row, the bottom blade slices through the vines and the twine that they're growing on, then as the trailer moves underneath, the top blade cuts the twine at the top and the whole 16 feet or so of vine falls onto the trailer.  When the trailer is topped off they hit the road for the kiln where there are workers to hang the vines onto a conveyer track to go through the cone stripper.  We often see pieces of vines that have been spilled off the trailers along the road as they're hauling from the field to the kiln.  Not enough cones to brew with, but enough to stink up the kitchen if they drop some conveniently where I can hop out of the truck and grab some.  Depends, some years the road is littered and other years they have better drivers!  

3cats, I'm in the northern Willamette Valley of Oregon, about 40 miles south of Portland.


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## happyday (Jul 12, 2008)

Oh -- and Ian, I didn't know this, but a quick google tells me that hops are the genus Humulus which is in the cannabidacae family.....HMMMMMM!  V-e-e-e-e-r-r-r-r-y interesting!   8)


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## IanT (Jul 12, 2008)

happyday said:
			
		

> Oh -- and Ian, I didn't know this, but a quick google tells me that hops are the genus Humulus which is in the cannabidacae family.....HMMMMMM!  V-e-e-e-e-r-r-r-r-y interesting!   8)



your on your way to detectivehood 


 8)


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## luvmy3cats (Jul 12, 2008)

I have 3 cats too!  All SPCA adoptees.  The newest is Charlie a Ragdoll.  I got him in January.  No more for me.... I would bring them all home if I could!  I live in St. Petersburg, FL.  I bet Oregon is beautiful.  I haven't been that far yet.  I am going to San Francisco in October though!  Can't wait for that!


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## Bigmoose (Oct 14, 2008)

I make my own beer and love it.  There are for the most part 3 types of brewing you can do.  Extract, all grain, and a mix of the two.  I am a all grain brewer and have been for many years.  I have played with adding many different things to beer.   Some with great success and not so much with others.  At my daughters request I made a root beer beer once.  Never again!  I have brewed beers with jalapinos, pumpkin, apples, potatoes, coffee, and a few others I can't think of right now.  I have entered 2 home brew contests and won one of them.  I entered a Porter and took first place with it.  I made a coffee stout recently that was very good.  Now before I leave you I will give you a recipe that I created that is interesting and to my suprise very very good.

8 lbs. Maris Otter grain
8 oz. Crystal L-10 grain
8 lb Russett potatoes
Cascade hops 6.2 HBU  60 min.
Cascade hops 4.5 HBU  15 min.
White labs Califorina ale yeast

NOTES   Standard single step mash.  I ran the potatoes thru a cheese grater and put enough water to cover them plus 2 inch and cooked till soft.  Strain and when cooled to about 155 deg. I add to mash.  I hit 1.052 OG and had FG of 1.005.  ABV 5.9%

To anyone wanting to learn I reccomend the following book.  "How to brew" by John J Palmer.

Have a great day and a good beer!

Bruce


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## Danimal (Jan 22, 2009)

I'm late to this topic (and new to this forum), but I make wine -- mostly fruit wines, but some grape. Anyone know if there's a wine FO I can get for my soap?


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## alwaysme07 (May 7, 2009)

Count me in the home brew.


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## alwaysme07 (May 7, 2009)

There a forum for this at www.brew-wineforum.com ,it is from Mid West Supplies.  Their address is www.midwestsupplies.com . There so much information on there


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## ewepootoo (Sep 17, 2009)

I made beer from those cans of Malt extract for 10 years until one day I traded my old open top stainless beer barrel for one of those store bought plastic kits and it never tasted the same after that. My father in law taught me how to brew it in an open tub covered by a towel and then syphoned off with a hose. I camped regularly in the mountains and started bringing back spring water to brew with and the beer was fabulous, so fabulous that I now do not drink at all as I had my lifetime quota by age 50.


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## Guest (Sep 18, 2009)

Danimal said:
			
		

> Anyone know if there's a wine FO I can get for my soap?



www.peakcandle.com has Cabernet Grape, but it's defined as not
wine, but the juicy, sweet, fresh cabernet grape BEFORE made into wine.

You've seen beer soap? People make wine soap as well.
Guess you could use Grapey=grape and call it concord wine.


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## alwaysme07 (Sep 19, 2009)

> I made beer from those cans of Malt extract for 10 years until one day I traded my old open top stainless beer barrel for one of those store bought plastic kits and it never tasted the same after that. My father in law taught me how to brew it in an open tub covered by a towel and then syphoned off with a hose. I camped regularly in the mountains and started bringing back spring water to brew with and the beer was fabulous, so fabulous that I now do not drink at all as I had my lifetime quota by age 50.





That is how I start my wines then syphon into carboy with air-locks.


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## slipperywhenwet (Jan 17, 2010)

I'm new here and pleased to find brewers, too.

I still use an old food grade plastic pail to brew in (about 7 days for a 19 l batch), then siphon into a stainless soft drink canister .. the type that was used for restaurant use many years ago .. age a week or so then hook up to CO2 and dispense through the door of my beer fridge.

Simple enough and very reliable, quality brews.


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## retropants (May 21, 2010)

I too make fruit wines, dangerously delicious, you have to be very careful, or you'll be under the table in no time! My favourite so far is damson, this will be my fourth year. The dandelion raisin wasn't so great, more like sherry!


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## kelleyaynn (Jan 27, 2011)

I make wine from kits, and have for about two years now.  I also make cheese, vinegar, can tomato sauce and salsa, pickles......

I buy almost all my kits from Midwest Supplies.  They are great. With good prices.  

I really enjoy being able to drink a wine (that tastes good!) that I can say "I made myself."  And unlike beer, it is MUCH cheaper to make wine than buy it commercially.  My husband has made beer, and it isn't that cost-effective. 

The only downside to making your own wine is the wait until it has aged enough. Red wines especially.  It is hard to keep away from it until it is really good.


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## alwaysme07 (Feb 12, 2011)

My favorite wine is blueberry, oh so good.


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