Female brewers

[Geirfuglinn]

Hello all... I am a beginning brewer and very keen! I got a kit beer in a keg and another one in the fermenter, but am slowly trying to move over to more grain brewing as that seems to be the way to the better beer. Just reading through the forum here it seems that most are men. So I just wondered, are there any female brewers out there?

 

[GrogNerd]

there are a few, Yooper being one of them.

she's also an Admin here on HBT

and ye olden term for a female brewer is "brewster"

 

[unionrdr]

You can get really good or really bad beer regardless of brewing style. Attention to detail is the key. Each brewing style has it's own unique set of rules to follow. Learn those & you'll get good beer regardless. I do PB/PM BIAB & it's great fun brewing my own flavor complexities. And with the grains making up some 50% of the fermentables, I can add a 3lb bag of plain DME at flame out to get my OG where I want it & add some more flavors. Even a 3.3lb jug of plain LME for a bit different flavor set.

 

[RM-MN]

Hello all... I am a beginning brewer and very keen! I got a kit beer in a keg and another one in the fermenter, but am slowly trying to move over to more grain brewing as that seems to be the way to the better beer. Just reading through the forum here it seems that most are men. So I just wondered, are there any female brewers out there?

The reasons to go all grain are cost of ingredients and control over what ingredients go into your beers. Better beer isn't necessarily one of them as award winning beers are made with extract as well as all grain. Better beer depends more on the skill of the brewer and there are a few quick things that can go into this. Good recipes, the correct yeast and hops for the style, temperature during fermentation and good sanitation will help. Reading posts here on HomeBrewTalk and asking question will fill in the rest.

 

[Geirfuglinn]

Ok so brewster it is then Thanks for the response, I am glad to hear there are some brewsters out there. Just saw a lot about mancaves and disapproving wifes
I think I would like to be in control of what I make, but so far I am still rather clueless so lots of learning to do. Another reason to go all grain is that we live out in the French countryside without any homebrew shops around. My partner being a brit, goes to the UK regulary and can pick up stuff there. A big bag of grain would just go a bit further than some malt extract and yes the price surely is a factor as well....

 

[unionrdr]

Being in your location, a used wine barrel might make for some interesting beer aging! I've seem videos on Youtube about such things. Could be interesting:rockin:...

 

[Gareth68]

I have one friend who is a female brewer.....I haven't lured her onto this site yet, however.

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

When I first started on this site, I kept seeing SWMBO in posts. Took me awhile to figure out this was She Who Must Be Obeyed. So, you can just refer to HWMBO

As for brewing, I will second RM-MN. You can brew good beer with extract, partial mash and all grain. That's pretty much the progression I followed. Partial mash is a good way to learn about grain characteristics without a huge investment in equipment. BIAB is a good way to do AG with a minimal investment. When you make the jump to AG, you will want at least a 10 gal brew pot.

Beyond that (and sanitation, which goes without saying), the things that will make the most difference in the quality of your beer are 1) pitching the proper amount of healthy, pampered yeast, 2) good fermentation temp control and 3) patience. If you are into IPAs, it is also useful to learn all the different ways to utilize hops - first wort hops, late additions, flame out hops, hop stand and dry hopping.

One last piece of my $.02 is that usually less is more when it comes to recipes. I think every brewer in their first year (including me) tries to create a Banana Pineapple Cinnamon Peanut Butter Belgian Porter (or something equally out there). Take small steps and learn what you like.

Oh, and anything Yooper says is gospel. She rocks!

 

[Geirfuglinn]

Unionrdr, I would love to try some age barreling, have to look into getting my hands on a wine barrel. When we were in the US last year we visited Oregon. so many good beers all over there, Portland, Bend. We also visited Full sail and tried a barley wine that had been aged for a year in a bourbon barrel.... I still dream of that beer. If i could ever get anywhere near that, I would be happy

 

[Geirfuglinn]

Gareth, I think you should lure your brewster friend out here

 

[Geirfuglinn]

Hello Bluehousebrewing etc.. I had been wondering what SWMBO meant... my other half would probably quite like to be refered to as HWMBO I am ot sure I am ready for that though lol

But he is very much into this whole brewing project and will be part of it. He is very supportive and has bought up a guys brewery, he will be coming back with all this week. 4 corny kegs, lots of fermenters, plastic kegs, glass carboys, a wooden barrel. Line chillers, grain mill, mashtun. All will need to be cleaned thouroughly but I think I am all set up after that. Besides that we live in an old farm and have plenty of space Oh yes also boiler and today he got a 20 l burco boiler... Gotta hold him back at times

But cant wait to get all the stuff here. Next beer will be a recipe for an American amber ale as from J. Palmers book. After that an all grain kit I found with galaxy hops.

Anyway, thanks for the reply, a friendly bunch of people here

 

[LittleWings]

I have made some meads and ciders so far and I am a lady... go team
I hope to venture further out into the brewing world and have a little bit of anything ferment-able going eventually.

 

[Pappers_]

Welcome, Geirfuglinn! There are lots of women who brew and lots of women who are members here at HBT. Because we're all semi-anonymous, its hard to tell sometime, until you get to know folks better.

 

[Geirfuglinn]

Thank you Pappers, you are right of course it will take time to get to know people here. But I am glad to see some brewsters around

 

[Geirfuglinn]

Sounds nice Little Wings! Wewojld like to try some whisky at some stage in the far furute...

 

[chickypad]

Yes, welcome! As Pappers said there are a number of us here but with user names it's not always obvious unless you go to the profile page (speaking of user names I have to ask - is that really Icelandic for dodo bird or is google translate way off?!?).

Even though my LHBS is pretty close by I end up making very few trips just by keeping a basic inventory. With the grain mill you can easily store in bulk, as unmilled grain kept cool and dry will last for a long time. Same with hops stored properly, many of us buy in bulk for the year when the new harvest comes out. Since you're on a farm you may even want to start growing your own, there's a whole forum on that. Yeast takes a little more planning if you're going with liquid. You can get around that by learning to wash and store, or what I often do which is to make an extra large starter and save some back to store for next time.
Happy brewing!

 

[Geirfuglinn]

Hello Chickypad! Pleased to meet you You did your homework. Geirfuglinn is actually a great auk, an extinct bird, looking much like a pinguin and a dodo. I have been using this nickname for about 20 years now after writing an essay about the bird for a cultural course within Scandinavian studies, which i was studying at the time. I have also loved in iceland for a bit over a year thus

Exactly what I was thinking to have grains for a while. My partner actually goes to the UK about 5 times a year, so probably enough to keep me supplies. I already have a supply of hops (cascade, centennial, mount hood, willamette and galaxy) but coild have more.
i have been thinking about growing my own hops, but read they like more of a moderate climate and it can get quite hot here, I should look that forum up too.

I have also been thinking about that yeast thing, will ahve to look closer at that. So much to learn still.
I got a weird beer in that keg now. Made from some Coopers kits that had been lying here too long. Dark ale and stout together boiled with cascade hops and some added sugar. I thought it would be very hopeless. but saw it as a trial. It is strangely enough not totally unpleasant... Stouty with chocolate notes and very hoppy finish, seems very alcoholic too. Will do better in the future... I hope

 

[sky4meplease]

My beers got a lot better when I quit using R/O water for dark beers and well water for light lagers and pilsners.
Water was huge for me and it took a half a dozen batches to figure that out.
I thought I would mention that since you say you reside in the French country side. Not sure what your water source is like. Maybe more of an issue when you move to all grain.
Sorry for the off topic response.

 

[Melana]

Welcome!

 

[Geirfuglinn]

Hi Sky4me, Sorry bit I am not familiar with all the terms used yet. What is R/O water?
I think you might be right about the water here. I actually don.t drink our tap water straight from the tap, ok for tea and stuff. So far, but of course only done kits, I have used tap water for the boiling parts and bottled water otherwise. Dont know yet what I will have to do here when mashing.

 

[Geirfuglinn]

Thanks Melana!

 

[RM-MN]

Hi Sky4me, Sorry bit I am not familiar with all the terms used yet. What is R/O water?
I think you might be right about the water here. I actually don.t drink our tap water straight from the tap, ok for tea and stuff. So far, but of course only done kits, I have used tap water for the boiling parts and bottled water otherwise. Dont know yet what I will have to do here when mashing.

R/O water is reverse osmosis water, water stripped of it's mineral. This can be good for extract brewing since the extract has already gone through the mash but with all grain you likely will need to add back some minerals needed in the mash. Your bottled water may be what you will want for mashing or your tap water might be fine. If it is treated with chlorine or chloramine you can remove that with campden tablets.

 

[Geirfuglinn]

Hi Rm Thanks for your reply. Our water always smells a bit like chlorine, so those campden tablets might be the way forward. We will see... so much new stuff to try. Making the amber ale I want to make a starter with Wyeast and later wash and harvest the yeast. pfff All fun though.

 

[yeahfairly]

When I first started on this site, I kept seeing SWMBO in posts. Took me awhile to figure out this was She Who Must Be Obeyed. So, you can just refer to HWMBO

I don't think that works both ways....... at least not in my house!!!!!


Welcome aboard....

 

[podz]

Another reason to go all grain is that we live out in the French countryside without any homebrew shops around. My partner being a brit, goes to the UK regulary and can pick up stuff there. A big bag of grain would just go a bit further than some malt extract and yes the price surely is a factor as well....

Interesting that you would need to bring malted grain back to France from the UK, given the fact that a whole lot of the malt used by French and German breweries is actually produced in France i.e. you live in a major malt producing and exporting country.

 

[Geirfuglinn]

I suppose it depends on what styles you want to go for. We like American styles and IPA. Besides that, many things just are more expensive in France. I have now found a French online shop though, they have some base grains, but their yeast selection is very small. We will see along the way.

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

Yeahfairly, in my house we've come up with an alternative to SWMBO or HWMBO. We now have SWLMB - She Who Loves My Beer The only order I usually must obey from my wife is, "More IPAs!".

 

[Yooper]

I suppose it depends on what styles you want to go for. We like American styles and IPA. Besides that, many things just are more expensive in France. I have now found a French online shop though, they have some base grains, but their yeast selection is very small. We will see along the way.

I buy Fraco-Belges vienna malt and others for my APA and IPA. They make a great pilsen malt, a pale ale malt, Munich malt, and lots of crystal/caramel malts. I don't know if that would be less expensive for you than it is for me, but I would assume so since it's imported here. It's a very high quality malt that would allow you to make any beer styles. There are some great UK malts as well, for making British pale ales primarily, and I did just buy a sack of UK maris otter yesterday.

 

[Yooper]

Oh, by the way, many of the females on this forum don't have an avatar or a name that says "I am a girl!" on them. Just looking through this thread, one woman has a picture of a car, one has a license plate, one has a dog, and so on.

I think it's great that we're just brewers here, and that gender isn't at all a factor. While many of us have become great friends, the fact is that we all have brewing in common and are at different stages from beginner to expert gives us all a great sense of camaraderie. After all, we're here for the beer!

 

[Geirfuglinn]

Hi again Brewhouse, I do like that one HWLMB... hope I can get to that stage

 

[Geirfuglinn]

Hello Yooper, boss woman
You are right, of course it does not matter male or female, I just got curious after seeing many posts featuring disapproving wifes
In France it is sometimes difficult to find stuff, in the UK they sell malts from everywhere, not just British ones. Anyhow I have looked into it a bit more and I may try and get some grain here. I can get big bags of pilsner, amber, vienna, and smaller of others. A bag of Pilsner would cost me 38 USD, dont know about postage yet. How much do you pay for a bag like that in the US?

I think it will be worth for me to reuse yeast, for anyone I suppose really as it pushes the cost down...

Thanks for your answer, I am looking forward to this new adventure

 

[Yooper]

Hello Yooper, boss woman
You are right, of course it does not matter male or female, I just got curious after seeing many posts featuring disapproving wifes
In France it is sometimes difficult to find stuff, in the UK they sell malts from everywhere, not just British ones. Anyhow I have looked into it a bit more and I may try and get some grain here. I can get big bags of pilsner, amber, vienna, and smaller of others. A bag of Pilsner would cost me 38 USD, dont know about postage yet. How much do you pay for a bag like that in the US?

I think it will be worth for me to reuse yeast, for anyone I suppose really as it pushes the cost down...

Thanks for your answer, I am looking forward to this new adventure

Here, bags of UK or French grain run about $75 for 55 pounds. I can find deals by buying in bulk, and just paid $55 at one store. That's not so common though.

Cheaper US base grain is usually $40-50 per sack, 50 pounds.

Shipping is very expensive, so I do a road trip and pick up several sacks at a time.

For most beers, you'll want pale malt whether French or Belgian or US or German, etc. You probably won't need big sacks of amber malt or anything like that, just base grains. You will want some caramel malt/crystal malt, and maybe one or two others depending on what you're making. for example, if you're making a stout you'll want something different for specialty grains than you would if you're making an American pale ale.

For IPAs and APAs, those are super simple grainbills. Just base malt, with a pound of crystal/caramel malt in them for the most part. There are variations of course, but you could easily get by with that.

 

[podz]

I think it will be worth for me to reuse yeast, for anyone I suppose really as it pushes the cost down...

I reuse yeast for 3-4 times, but not more than that because it starts to mutate and change flavors.

Best thing to do is buy a 100-pack of centrifuge tubes with caps and then make up a starter, wash your yeast, fill your tubes and freeze them. Each tube can be used to make a new starter and you don't get the generational mutations that you do with reuse.

So, you could buy 4 of your favorite yeasts and do 25 tubes each. Doesn't take a whole lot of space in the freezer...

 

[Geirfuglinn]

Thanks for the advice podz! I think i will do the yeast washing as mentioned in the sticky of my Wyeast, which should give me a few more brews

 

[Geirfuglinn]

Hi again Yooper. I just found that on the French site ( bieres du monde) I can get the delivery for free on an order over 120 pounds ( where for a 55 pounds bag it was 20 usd). Thought thatw as pretty cool Sounds like I can gett he malts cheaper here, as I said 38 dollars for a 55 pound bag, the fre postage makes it pretty cool! So I will be placing a big order with them, thought to get 2 base malts, pilsner and pale ale. And. then of course some speciality grains. I saw they have Munich 15 and 25, never seen those 2 mentioned, always just Munich malt.
I will wait a bit though before I place the order, so I am sure to get all I need. Still need to see my brewing equipment which is coming Tuesday. Right now I only have a plastic keg and fermenter, but come Tuesday.... that will all change
Thanks again for your advice. I have seen some of your beer recipes and am thinking of having a go at them.

 

[Yooper]

Hi again Yooper. I just found that on the French site ( bieres du monde) I can get the delivery for free on an order over 120 pounds ( where for a 55 pounds bag it was 20 usd). Thought thatw as pretty cool Sounds like I can gett he malts cheaper here, as I said 38 dollars for a 55 pound bag, the fre postage makes it pretty cool! So I will be placing a big order with them, thought to get 2 base malts, pilsner and pale ale. And. then of course some speciality grains. I saw they have Munich 15 and 25, never seen those 2 mentioned, always just Munich malt.
I will wait a bit though before I place the order, so I am sure to get all I need. Still need to see my brewing equipment which is coming Tuesday. Right now I only have a plastic keg and fermenter, but come Tuesday.... that will all change
Thanks again for your advice. I have seen some of your beer recipes and am thinking of having a go at them.

That's great news, that you can get your malts at a good price.

When you're ready, you can order what you need. I'd check out a few recipes, to see which grains you'd be likely to need.

I assume you know that grains must be crushed, but I thought I'd point that out again so that when you get all your things together you make sure you have a way to crush the grain. I have a barley crusher, designed for brewing grains, but there are other options out there as well. A "corona" style mill can work well.

As far as equipment, some brewers go with "Brew in a Bag" (BIAB) to make it easier on equipment purchases. We have a forum for that, if that may be something you're interested in.

 

[Geirfuglinn]

Hi again Yooper. Yes thatw as exactly what i was going to do, check some recipes and look what grains I will most likely need. I can always just get 2 bags of pale ale malt if it is more likely I will use that one all thetimer ather than Pilsner/ blond.

With the equipment my partner will come home with on Tuesday is also a Valley mill for crushing barley A mashtun, boiler, cooker etc. So I think we should be all set up after that

 

[podz]

With the equipment my partner will come home with on Tuesday is also a Valley mill for crushing barley A mashtun, boiler, cooker etc. So I think we should be all set up after that

Hand crank will wear you out! Here's some more advice: remove the motor and a few pulleys plus pulley belt from a broken clothes washing machine and use it to power your grain mill. These are really nice motors because they are usually "universal", meaning that they can operate on either AC or DC power. Mount the whole thing on a piece of wood and put an on/off switch on it. This is really, really easy to do. If you want to get even more "cool", fix it up so the grain mill can be unmounted and replaced with a meat grinder. Old, hand crank meat grinders can be found pretty cheaply. Then you can grind your own meat for making sausage!

 

[Geirfuglinn]

Thanks for the advice podz! My partner is already thinking of ways to put a motor on the mill. I just let him do the grinding and I am sure a motor will be on it soon enough. Will pass your advice on to him... he is one of those people keeping old stuff around in case he may need a part from it. I think we have an old washing machine. A few months ago he managed to fix the fan and aircon in my car by using something of an old breadbaker.

 

[Yooper]

Thanks for the advice podz! My partner is already thinking of ways to put a motor on the mill. I just let him do the grinding and I am sure a motor will be on it soon enough. Will pass your advice on to him... he is one of those people keeping old stuff around in case he may need a part from it. I think we have an old washing machine. A few months ago he managed to fix the fan and aircon in my car by using something of an old breadbaker.

I hand cranked for years. It's not too bad with only about 10 pounds of grain. I now use my little drill, and for 25 pounds of grain it's really quick and easy.