I'm a big fan, obviously. Making beer already, some batches of wine are imminent. And who knows, maybe cheese next!
i've made some homemade "wine" that turned out more like beer.... was kind of disappointed. anyways, the next project is rum. as much of a deal as $19/half gallon is, i want cheaper, and custom flavoring.
Where are you getting your sugarcane for the Rum? If I were to try anything, other than yogurt, which I once made by accident , I would try for that sauerkraut or japanese Tsukemono pickles (which are almost the same thing, really)
no idea, but i'll come up with something.... oh, and fermenting sauerkraut makes some of the most disgusting "proper" food scents ever. sure does make or break a reuben though.
Yeah, you'd want to make the saurkraut out in the barn for sure. That's why kim-chi is put in a jar and burried.
FedEx just dropped off two 33 pound growlers full of light liquid malt extract. Found a place in Michigan that would ship it to me for $1.73 per pound! That means my costs on a average corny keg of beer has dropped to around 15 bucks. Lightly hopped, with cheap yeast, and few specialty grains. A big India Pale Ale or similar is still costing me 20-25 bucks or so per keg.
I've been pretty crushed at work lately so my brewing has been pretty infrequent. I've only done 3 batches since February: a Westy 12 clone, a Baltic Porter, and a Cali Common. I was planning on brewing a summer pale this weekend but I found out today that I'll be out of town for the next 10 days. One day I'll be back at it...
That sucks dude. I've been toying with doing a California common. Probably have to wait until winter though, so my temps are low enough. You fermenting at room temps, or do you have a fridge/freezer for lagering?
Hella delayed response here. 10 day work trip + a week of vacation = me gone for awhile I got a wonky, 30 year old chest freezer off craigslist for $15 that I ended up rigging up with a ranco controller. It worked pretty well until the freezer finally died a couple of weeks ago. 2 years a is a pretty good return on $15.
Yeah, I actually had made a space in my brew room for a fridge/freezer and BAM! My ex-wife went bankrupt, lost her house, and all of my daughter's crap is now stacked there. Turns out my next project is going to be wine, picked up an awesome wine kit deal on Groupon.
Well no, I didn't NEED a kit. But for $79 I got a 7.9 gallon fermenter, 6 gallon carboy, bottles, a corker, juice, and a whole bunch of other stuff. It was a hell of a deal.
