I wish I had more time to make beer again. Its been about 7 years since the last time I made anything. My dad and I were talking about that a couple weeks ago. Said we should start making it again. Right now, I dont have the room for it.
When I was into making beer, we would make anywhere from 35 to 50 gallons at a time. All with 5 gallon buckets. At the house We were at about 10 years ago, we had a dedicated power source just for the 6 large hotplates and then had 3 turkey fryer setups that we used as well. Each bucket of beer makes about 48-52 bottles if I remember that right.
We would do this about once a month with a cousin and friend. I was more into perfecting my favorite blend at the time. They were more into "helping" me by mainly drinking what we had.
Most of the time, we used the kits and then added different grains or mix some of the kits to see how they would taste. Some were really good, some were horrible. But the process was a lot of fun.
My all time favorite that we made we called Hualapai Honey (pronounced Wall a pie). It was kind of like Honey Brown but the base was a pale ale and we used 2 different types of hops, honey malt barley, and a couple other grains and 20 oz of Honey from a friend of mine who lived in the Hualapai Mountians. We made this the most. The ABV ranged from 18% to 22%. All depending on how aggressive the yeast was and if it was my own re-cultured yeast or new yeast.
The more I talk about it, the more I want to get back into making it.
Now I am thirsty.