I'm drinking a home brewed Irish Stout right now and have some home brewed Classic American Lager in the fridge. Me and my neighbor buddy have brewed 3 beers and 3 Apfelweins since November.

Beware of "jacking", as in making colonial American style Apple Jack cider. It's roughly considered a form of distillation; freeze distillation, although distillation is not the best term for it. The technique can leave behind harmful, unhealthy alcohols and is illegal in some places.

Beer making is not too difficult or space consuming, especially from extract recipe kits. I'm off to bed soon, but watch this space.

I've made both beer, ale and wine (apfelwein being my fave)

Not sure if anyone knows this, Dax certainly would, and LM. My hometown of Frankfurt/Germany, is the ApfelWein capital of the world. Every pub or tavern usually has a home brew, especially the smaller older ones.

Mixing this wine with a sparkling mineral water is the local favorite. It's simply called a 'spritzer' and about 50/50 apfelwein and spritz. Delicious.

Most of the ApfelWein sold commercially in Germany is very dry, and you need to ask for a sweeter one, if desired. Conventionally, when you order a 'spritz' you will be served a dry 50/50 .. but you may also request a different mix. i.e. 75/25 etc. You can also request a non-sparkling variety of mineral water. Very good as a thirst quencher, but it's potent. Far stronger than 3-8%. Most likely more like a true wine .. about 12%.

I'll go for a Pils, or 'Dunkle' (dark) brew.

Years ago, I used to mix apple juice and club soda 50/50 and really liked it. Little did I know that it was a 'spritz'. I thought the taste was somewhat similar to beer.

I was trying to give the kids something to drink besides so much sugary Kool-Aid. I might try that with the grands.

Anything to keep kids from Sodas or Sweet drinks.

Drank tons of apfel with spritz when I grew up.

Yum. On special occasions I got the real Apfelwein.

Big yum.

The 'apfel with spritz' you drank as a lad, was that a 50/50 mix? I'm going to buy some juice and club soda next time I go to the store and see how the boys like it. I might try to find a wine kit soon, as well.

We'll see how Aint does with his project.

First, I make a "starter".

A "starter" is a concentrated food source for the brewing yeast. It gets them started. I'll be using dry lager yeast. It's dehydrated yeast cells (microorganisms) that feed on sugars, starches and other fermentibles to produce alcohol and carbon dioxide. The starter re hydrates them, bringing them back to life in a sense, and gets them to start feeding, converting food into alcohol and CO2 and reproducing so that I'll have more than the package supplies. The more and more active yeast cells will result in a more complete fermentation which means more flavor and a higher alcohol content. A starter isn't necessary. I just like to make one.

Take a few pints of water and bring it to a boil. Add brown sugar and some Malt Extract. I'll be using dry malt extract for this beer, a Bavarian Bock. The type of beer is another good reason to make a starter. This one should be at or above 5% alcohol by volume. Boil for a few minutes while stirring to get it all dissolved. Next, cool this mini wort to 70 to 70 degrees F. Do it quickly by placing the pot in ice water. Don't get the water in the wort though. Once it's cool, pour it into a glass jar or bottle. I use an empty fifth of Jagermeister. It should be 1/2 to 3/4 full. Then, add in (pitch) the yeast. Cap and shake you're having a fit. This will mix it all together and aerate it. It will begin to ferment in a few hours producing CO2. So much that it could blow off the cap or maybe even break the bottle. We need a way to vent that CO2. I put a rubber stopper with a hole in it into the bottle mouth and put an airlock in the stopper. Let this sit in a cool dark place for at least 24 hours. It can be kept for 3 days.

Wort, what we just made, is the liquid made from adding the malt extract to water. This liquid will have some starches and a lot of sugars from the grain and barley used to produce the malt extract.

That malt extract is the kit supplied shortcut made from "mash". Mash is the boiled liquid strained from malted grains and barley. Mash can be made at home. Using a kit with dry malt extract or liquid malt extract is just easier. I used liquid malt extract last time. This time I have dry.

Basically, this starter in a mini beer that we will add to our bigger wort after it is made tomorrow.

Do you use a hydrometer to verify the alcohol content of the starter?

No, it's too thick and bubbly for that.

Okay, how do you find out the alcohol level?

Okay, so I heard it's a hell of a lot easier to make a dark beer over an Ale...

You have any success making, say, an IPA?

Or do you just make stouts?

What's your style?