The Beer Thread • Page 190

I think I'll always prefer the atmosphere at the Brew Pub over the Ferm.

 

Anyone have any Toronto recs? Have mostly been at chain/touristy places for my time here but have one more night tonight

 

Bellwoods.

 

Hellz yeah. bout to head over that way for dinner so def wanna hit that up

 

Missed Heady again. Smh

 

Got Heady!!!!

 

Anyone try the Dogfish Head/Flaming Lips beer? Having one now and it’s pretty solid, I was expecting more fruit/tartness though.

 

Which breweries are the best to go to in Austin?

 

Gimme one

 

I unfortunately did not get to Bellwoods but ended up going to some mad cocktail bar instead.

 

Live Oak

 

I've had some cool stuff recently - Cantillon Iris (2007), Jester King SPON Blueberry & Pitaya, Propolis Pi, Allagash Shiro's Delight, Crooked Stave Sour Rose (which I found for $4.99/375 mL at a local grocery store), Epic Big Bad Baptista, and Rare Barrel Fields Forever.

I was really excited about Propolis Pi because I've been wanting to try a strawberry rhubarb sour for a while, and it was delicious.

 

Blue Owl Brewing for something right in town. Jester King for a bit of a drive, but worth it.

 

@Oddpac87 @bigmike Either of you have experience with No-boil kettle sours? I'm looking to brew one this weekend for a Blackberry Berliner style sour and am planning on doing 50/50 grist of pilsner malt and wheat and I'm not sure if I need to be worried about DMS or not. The info I'm finding online seems to be inconsistent.

 

going to start brewing with a few friends next weekend. not planning to be good at it or anything, but does anyone who brews have any advice or suggestions?

 

Finally hit up Half Acre's new-ish taproom/restaurant in Chicago yesterday and was solidly impressed. They had a bunch of weird stuff on tap like a 3.9% wild table beer (Life on Land) and a sub-4% coffee bitter (Coffee Kip) that was excellent. I also got to try a couple collabs that they did with Tired Hands - a 13% "quadruple" IPA called Heroic Dose and a light lager called Alpine Rain that were both good. I actually miiiight have liked Alpine Rain a bit more. The IPA was solid, but it had this acrid, cough-medicine taste at first that took a bit of getting used to. Possibly can chalk that one up to every other beer I tried last night being 5% or lower in ABV tho.

 

Start with an extract kit from either an online store, or better, a local homebrew shop and use a fairly simple style or recipe. Sanitizing and patience are key! Most kit recipes will call for transferring to secondary but that is mostly a useless step, you can just leave in the primary fermentor. The website Homebrewtalk.com is great and has a wealth of information. I'd be happy to answer any other specific questions you may have.

 

When you start brewing the first thing you need to do is ask yourself "Do I love cleaning?" If the answer is yes, continue. If it is no reassess.

 

I did one a couple years ago and was really pleased with the results. No DMS at all from what I recall. Milk the Funk has a recipe online that everyone on there seems to have good success with. The ones I made were 50/50 split and I just fermented with a berliner blend yeast that ECY makes. Planning on doing it again soon but I have no idea when that ECY strain will be available again, so I'm probably just going to sour with goodbelly and ferment with a saison strain or sacc trois.

 

thank you! I'm looking at northernbrewer.com now. is that someone you recommend or no? do extract kits usually come with the recipe/instructions?

 

Nothern Brewer is good. Yes they would come with instructions.

 

thank you! definitely expect to be pretty bad at this to begin with, so I appreciate all the help!

 

Good to know, thanks! I've been reading through a lot of Milk the Funk today, there is a ton of information there. My plan is to sour with Swansons Plantarum and then ferment with US-05 or maybe a clean German Ale yeast. Then add some blackberry puree I have.

Yes, Northern Brewer is very well known in the brewing community. They were recently bought out by Anheiser-Busch so if you hate them that's just an FYI. Jasper's Homebrew is my local shop that I go to and they have all their recipes online and I'm pretty sure they ship all their stuff too.

 

Original Gravity is my local homebrew shop and their attached nano brewery is Final Gravity. Its a great place.

 

welp. There goes Northern Brewer. I actively try to avoid AB InBev if I can. any recommendations on starter recipes from Jasper's Homebrew? do they have those extract kits that you mentioned earlier?

Sorry for all the questions!

edit: they have the extract kits. just looked. my bad!