Has anybody brewed their own beer? Was it pretty good or disgusting?

Answer 1

I'm an avid homebrewer. Ignore the other post - homebrewing doesn't involve 'chemicals' except to the extent that barley, water, hops, and yeast are chemicals.

It's a rewarding hobby which can be as simple or as complex as you make it. Unlike home winemaking, homebrew can be completed and ready to drink in as few as 3-4 weeks, though some styles improve with longer fermentations and aging. I recommend asking your local homebrew supply store for starter supplies, or head to morebeer.com. Do NOT make the mistake of purchasing one of those Mr. Beer type kits, the results are ... other than beer. A great resource is the venerable Joy of Homebrewing, by Charlie Papazian.

Answer 2

Making your own beer is not that hard and can come out very very good ones and if you do one thing and that is keep all your brewing equipment sterile as if you do you can not go wrong.
a suggestion is to look for a local brewing store in your area if there are none in your area,
there are quite a few good ones online who will help get you set up
also see if there a local brewing guild in your area
also save your bottles (non twist tops) and buy the bible which is charlie Papazain complete joy of home brewing
once you get you first couple of batch's done it will be time to try and clone some beers and one thing I found is some of the beer may be better then the beer it was cloned from especially with beer from distant country's as most beer do not travel long distance that well ( one reason IPA style was created as beer sent to India on rolling ships tended to deliver some very distasteful beer so it was found by increasing the level of Hops made the beer much more stable.

one thing I did was to move into kegging which eliminated the pain of bottling

Answer 3

It can be fabulous, I've both brewed a bit at home and tasted other homebrews. Just go for decent equipment and be very careful to keep everything sanitary during the making of it. And if you choose to bottle in plastic, don't use V8 bottles. They clean out just fine, you don't have to worry about contamination if you soak them in a 10% bleach solution for about 20 minutes, but the ridges on the bottle allow the beer to expand while it's fermenting-it bulges the bottle and reduces the amount of carbonation you get in the end product.

There are good websites that sell homebrew kits, but if you have a local homebrew shop I would recommend it. You'll both be able to ask questions to an experienced brewer and you'll be supporting local business :)

Answer 4

With a little pratice anyone can make GREAT beer or ale. I used to make my own for about 4 years and won two awards at the San Diego county fair. It's a bit of work but a great hobby.

Answer 5

ive been brewing beer for 7yrs now and its the best beer you will ever taste!! then again ive tried some of my pals beer that they made and it was disgusting

Answer 6

As a homebrewer, I provide man or woman names to my batches (even as i think like it), so there is little uniformity there. regardless of the reality that I do have some highly good recipes that I repeat each so often--one specifically is termed Penultimate Porter.

Answer 7

beer involves too many chemicals, but i do make my own batch of

wine every year, it has a light refreshing flavor and a nice aroma to

it. costs quite a bit though.