Homebrew resources

[Etcetrah]

What's up, brewfans?!! On Ep. 3, I mentioned putting up some links for any budding brewmasters out there. Of course, the best place to go for information and advice on getting started is to your friendly local brew store. However, since many of us don't have that available, here are some websites I have visited that helped me out.

First, for lots of general advice and recipes, Homebrewtalk.com is a great forum and very friendly to rookies.

www.homebrewtalk.com/

Also, Brew Your Own magazine and website is a really good source of information.

www.byo.com/

Once you decide to take the plunge and buy some supplies to get started, these three websites are the best I've found so far. I've ordered from all of them and been well pleased.

MoreBeer
morebeer.com/

Austin Homebrew Supply
www.austinhomebrew.com/index.php?osCsid=0ddbecdf35d91ccac81c502cd4800381

Midwest Supplies
www.midwestsupplies.com/

Once you get into brewing and want to monkey around with your own recipes, there is a great free brewing calculator called Beer Calculus available here:
beercalculus.hopville.com/recipe

That should be enough to get you started. If you are already a brewmaster, please post and let us know where you get your information and supplies.

Good luck, have fun, and remember, give a man a beer and he'll drink for a day, teach a man to brew and he'll drink for a lifetime!

-Kevin

[heychadwick]

Does anyone know if there is a good lager or even pilsner that one can brew from home? Oh, I know you can brew a lager or pilsner, but they always come out not like I want. I don't like hoppy and I love green bottled beers. I'm thinking Grolsch, Pilsner Urquel, etc. Most brew pubs I find in the states can't brew a lager to save their brewery. Oh, they are better than Bud, but what isn't?

I understand I'm highly picky.

[Etcetrah]

Jim, that's an excellent question! The answer is unequivocally yes and no.

There are, on the websites I've listed and elsewhere, kits and ingredients to brew lagers in that same style, but there is a catch...

The yeast that ferments lagers (pilsners are lagers, too) requires cold temperatures (45 - 55 F) and several weeks to finish. For me and a lot of homebrewers, there isn't a good (or easy, cheap, etc.) way to maintain that sort of environment for the length of time necessary. Which is why I have only brewed ales thus far. Maybe the brew pubs feel the same way?

Another thing that may be working against you is that beer in green bottles is not as protected from UV degradation as beer in brown bottles. In addition, there might be some changes that occur to the beer during the shipping period from across the ocean. In other words, the beer in the brew pubs is too fresh!

That said, I had a Pilsner Urquell recently for the first time in a long time. Very tasty! I can see why you'd want to reproduce that!

-Kevin