I'm just finishing off a keg of my very own dry hopped IPA. Pure awesomeness. You can never have too much hops. Any beer lover will agree.

As for the beer being too sweet. It's not "sweet" at all. There should be no residual sugar left over from the fermentation process. Unless you got a hold of a bad batch. Unlikely though.

My vote nastiest brew is some of that non carbonated crap put out by Sam Adams. Worthless.

 

Can't have too much hops - can only leave the hops in too long. Most beer kits suggest around 1-2oz of hops but the last one my friend did had over 7oz of dry hops from the brew store, and then a 5gal ziplock of fresh hops grown in a garden put in at 15min intervals. If you leave the same hops for the full 60-90min it can get a little bitter, but still awesome.

Rogue is odd.. I really like most Rogue brews on tap, but the same beer on tap will taste like the worst crap in the bottle - that is the confusing part. I was at Rogue in Portland for Christmas and tried 28 beers - most were great, bought some bottles and actually ended up pouring them out... I really like the SF Rogue stop in Northbeach - it's a sweet pub with nice people. Had enough brews there last week to feel saucy, grabbed some bottles to take home (we were gonna make some beer, so need beer for that haha). We rode to my friend's place, let the brews chill while we got some food (they were already cold, but we had a 15min or so ride). We came back, popped the tops on the same brews we were chugging at the brewpub - and it was absolutely undrinkable. Tasted thick of tannins and just badness. I don't get it.

Really looking forward to finally making my own brews though - getting a setup from morebeer in a couple days now that I have gone through the process a few times with friends. We are going to brew a bunch of stuff and then mix/match. We are shooting to get 3 different IPAs, a wet-hop pale ale (my goal), and then a lager and a wheat for the ladies. I have a small fridge ready to become the lagerator.

 

If youre in SF, you should just pick up teh parts from SF Brewcraft and take the classes... That place is the best and the people there are so helpful.

 

this thread makes me want to rethink home brewing

 

I was actually considering selling off my equipment. I just don't have the time.

Oh, the Sam Adams Triple is a beer you have to try once if you can find it. After that... never again. It's like soy sauce in a beer bottle. Eh, less beer than spirit.

 

unfortunately time, money, and space are the reasons why I never got into it.

 

I brewed in an apartment. It isn't that bad. Space/money aren't the problems. It's free time. I had a propane burner to cook on, but it's at the ex's parent's and quite frankly I don't need it back that bad.

 

so i guess beer is harder to make than wine? i've made a lot of wine...and have thought about beer.

 

Not hard. Just time consuming. At least the initial portion is. After that it's a lot of waiting.

 

It takes about 2-3 hours initially, and then 8 weeks waiting until its potent.

 

Yeah so far all our beer has been brewed in small 1br apartments. We picked up everything at SF Brewcraft so far, but I am picking up the rest of what I need at MoreBeer on San Antonio in Los Altos later on today. Have to steal my wifes car as no way is all that stuff fitting in my MR2. But yeah, it's not too hard - just takes a lot of time and you got to pay attention in the first stages. Pretty fun though. Interesting smells.

 

if you are referring to this:


it's a Liqueur... not really a beer.

and yes it's disgusting.

 

I love rouge, they brew one of the best beers I've ever had. The hazelnut brown ale, you gotta try it before you hate on rouge