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So, I've been enjoying the finer beers and it all got me to wondering just what it takes to brew you're own beer. What kind of equipment?
It's like lots of other hobbies. You can get as far into it as you want to. I brew starting from malt extract, which is a sweet, sticky syrup that some purists poo-poo. But I don't want to get into it farther, doing my own mash, and such. So what I have is: A big soup kettle for boiling the wort, two food-grade plastic buckets, and some other assorted stuff: tubing, racking cane, capper, hydrometer, and such. My process is somewhere in the middle of the complexity scale, because I want to be able to control my process a little more than the prefab canned mixes allow, including the choice of yeast and hops, as well as the specific gravity of the wort, and the types of sugars present for fermentation.
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Where do you get the ingredients?
I buy mine at a local place that caters to this hobby. I'm sure that you can buy online, but I don't because I don't have to.
Let's see...here's one:
http://www.austinhomebrew.com/ Enter 'homebrew supplies' into Google to see more.
[quote[Are there special temperature needs?[/quote]
I'll assume that you mean to ferment. Yes, there are, but they aren't very hard to conform to if you are making ales. Lagers are harder, because they ferment cold, and unless you can dedicate a refrigerator to it, it's kind of hard to make lagers. But ales will ferment at room temp.
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How much beer comes in one batch?
My batches are 5 gallons. This is a little over 2 cases.
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How long does it take to brew?
Alas, only the yeast knows that. But about two weeks to ferment (some batches go longer, some finish earlier), and then at least two weeks in the bottle. The longer in the bottle (to a point), the better. It will change as it ages in the bottle.
You can be drinking it a month after you start, but two months is better, IMO.
Hope that helped.
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