The recent post about the Tin Whistle Brewing Co. got me to thinking. Are there any homebrewers out here in whistle land? If so:
What’s your favorite brew? Mine, personally, is anything cold and cheap.
My friend and I got the price of beer down to about 80 cents a gallon (now if only we could turn it into regular unleaded…) I like my ales but my lagers will knock your socks off on a good day.
If you do brew… how many times have you invited friends over to “sample” just so you could convienently try out some new penny whistle songs on them?
As you might guess from my name, I’m a homebrewer. Used to be that is. Making whistles takes up too much of my so called spare time these days. I do miss it though and keep promising myself to start another batch sometime soon.
I don’t care for cheapie beers, either commercial or homebrewed. I don’t drink a lot-- rarely more than one, so I can afford to drink good beer. I tend to like full bodied brews, with lots of hop bitterness and aroma. My favorite commercial domestic brew is Sierra Nevada’s Celebration.
My alltime favorite brew is a Belgian called Duvel. It is definitely full bodied, but is not especially hoppy. The Belgian beers are a whole world unto themselves…
I’ve been brewing for about 15 years. I’ve settled in to about a dozen recipes that I make regularly. Oktoberfest, pilsner,dark, and helles lagers. Bitter, pale, sort-of amber, and Christmas ales. Weisse/wit biers; straight and raspberry weizens; geuze and raspberry lambics. Of these the Oktoberfest and raspberry weizens are generally the best; I still haven’t gotten the hang of the witbier.
My favorite commercial beers on any given day: Hoegarden (Belgian witbier), Belhaven (Scottish ale), Anchor Steam (San Francisco), Pislner Urquell, Dos Equis (Mexican amber lager), Taj Mahal (Indian lager), Sierra Nevada pale ale (California).
I’ve been homebrewing since I was in high school. Back then, it was a sneaky way for me to get booze without having to illegally buy alcohol. Being a voracious reader, I ran into a simple mead recipe in the Foxfire series of books (which, if memory serves, were a series of books with tehcniques for country life self-sufficiecy)
These days, I don’t brew that often, but I like to still make meads and ciders 2 -3 times a year.
I have made homebrew for about 10 years. The setup I bought had a Cooper’s kit in it, so that is what I have used ever since.
I make wine, too, I have a grape vine, rhubarb plants, and my neighbor has an apple tree, so I make about 10 gallons of grape/rhubarb/apple wine per year, too. I have my own labels, in French, which seems to fool some people, but those who read French get a good laugh, because the label goes on and on about how bad the wine is.
I’m not a homebrewer but probably should be. I’ve been enjoying good beer long enough to want to try my hand at making it myself. Top of the line favorite is Guinness, and I also enjoy various ports and stouts.
I’ve been a meadmaker for nearly ten years now, which kinda sorta puts me in with the homebrewing crowd – mead has been a part of the homebrew movement for as long as Charlie Papazian has been making Barkshack Ginger mead. Current projects that I want to start soon are a blueberry melomel, pomegranite melomel, and a traditional mead using a really nice wildflower honey from a former beekeeper I know up north.
Oh yeah, one of our dogs is a beer lover too. Guinness is his favorite, but he’ll drink other stuff too. Seriously! I did a taste test once, put a saucer of Guinness and a saucer of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale in front of him. He went for the Guinness.
I’m careful with the dog – a quick slosh in a saucer, just barely 1/4 cup, if that. Man’s best friend is his dog, especially when both like the same beers, but I’m not into getting the dog inebriated. Seems too much like animal cruelty to me!
I have found the most amazing brewery. Coming out of Quebec is the Unibroue brewery and everything I have tasted from them has been incredible. If you like belgian beers, just about anything from them is incredible and a completely different experience in beer drinking. Y oumust try their Ephemere and their Blanche de Chambly.
Although I tend to stay away from microbreweries despite growing up next to a few (Sierra Nevada and not too far away from the Mendocino county brewery).
Ooh! Thanks for reminding me!! I made some ginger peach mead nearly 10 years ago, and I still have a couple of bottles sitting in the basement. This is a pretty dry mead, with just a hint of peach (from real peaches) and a tiny amount of cinnamon and clove. It’s much like a dry champagne.
Send him over and let him foist those Duvels on me!! Also,we have about 4 really good brewpubs in the Albany area.
I found boiling beer to be a problem, so I got an outdoor propane burner. As much as I love the finished product, boiling beer does not smell all that great. The burner eliminates this, and is MUCH faster.
Speaking of which, I might have mentioned this pipe-contraption thingy (with holes…hmmm) that he had made to fit into the bottom of a cooler to make a mash. If there’s another chiff gathering I’ll have to remember to bring it along for inspection.
Wow, a little more response than I expected, although I don’t know why because beer and whistles just seem to go together.
To brewerpaul, sure, the price of my beer is low, but I wouldn’t nec. call it cheapie in the degrading sense. It still tastes like it should, but its cheap because we buy all the grains in the 55 pound sacks and grind them at home.
To vomitbunny, nice name. Kegging is the only way to go. My friend and I get our 5 gallon kegs on “extended loan” from the Dr. Pepper distributer and can store about 14 of them in an old ice cream freezer.
To Lost-in-North-Dakota, great idea about the labels.
We had a vineyard and winery until this past spring. If I never see another grape or press or rack another tank it’ll be wonderful. I do love the wine though. Just not the process.
Anyone know a source for Woopecker’s Cider? (love that stuff too)
Tonight Ive got to brew up a “toddy” for my flu. It seems that 's the only thing giving anyone any relief from the bug that’s going around.
I say leave it to the brewmasters and I’ll be the drinker. Many fine brewpubs about here as well as local labels in bottles. Right now I am enjoying the seasonal special ales about, like Sierra Nevada Winter Ale, Pyramid Snow Cap, one called Jubilale and a few others. During the rest of the year, I am partial to Red Tail (brewed near the Weekenders’ parental family compound in Mendocino Cty), Boont Amber Ale (very fine and reliable and they take away the stuff that gets old from the store, unlike anybody else). From afar, I have had a few good brews from Portland Brewing Co. IF ITS FRESH, the RedHook IPA is a very fine flavor, but ya gotta read the box for date. I prefer it over their more popular ESB.
Doggone it, Weeks - you made me thirsty, too. I’ve tried 'em all but the Jubilale, and concur: there are some fine microbrews out there.
I wasn’t a brewer, but a brewer’s assistant - my dad went through a several year long brewing phase that started when I was in high school and ended sometime after I married - made me an (odder) duck at college when my friends wanted Cheap Beer and I wanted Good Beer. Gave me at least a slight claim to sophistication, however unmerited.
Other good ones to add to the list: North Coast’s Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout (motto: “Never Say Die!”), Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Barleywine (look for it in Feb or March - they brew one batch a year, so grab it when you can), Anchor Liberty Ale, Anchor Porter, Anchor Foghorn Barleywine, Sierra Nevada Porter, Sierra Nevada Stout, Sierra Nevada Summerfest, a whole laundry list of Rogue brews . . .
I make wine, too, although only from concentrate. I have crushed a few grapes, but my wife, the wine drinker, just doesn’t consume it at the pace I consume beer, so it’s not worth it to do the full process.
Can you not get Woodpecker there? Not sure where Castlewood is, but I would think you’d be able to find it in Bristol, Lynchburg, etc. I’ve seen it in Charlottesville, and there are many varieties of Woodpecker and Woodchuck available up here, even in neighborhood stores. My BIL worked for Woodchuck for some time, I got a lot of free cider in those days.
Current projects that I want to start soon are a blueberry melomel, pomegranite melomel, and a traditional mead using a really nice wildflower honey from a former beekeeper I know up north.
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