When I help a guy at work brew we spend alot of time cleaning everything to keep the stray bacteria away. We normally brew a 50 gallon batch and then a smaller 15 gallon batch. Always good stuff. He made an excellent Irish Red not to long ago.

Brewer, your plants need water.

the sterilizing comments remind me of an episode of Myth Busters where they tested to see if bacteria from your toilet can migrate to your toothbrush. It can and it did, in a very short period of time. Keep this in mind when you choose a place/room to homebrew, it sounds like the most critical part of success.

"free floating bacteria" and "wild yeast" make this sound like a jazz music thread

good point spike. try to avoid brewing in bathrooms, outhouses or rest stops.

Well my beer fridge is giving up the ghost so lagering will have to wait.

Anyone ever tackle the Russian Imperial Stout or Barley wine. After sampling the Deschutes Brewing Co. Mirror Mirror Barley wine my curiosity for Old/Strong ales has really gotten to me. Now I just have to figure out how I can msh the 10-12 lbs. of grain they take.

A lot of my friends tried or do home brew at home point or another and 99% of them make what I consider to be "homebrew swill". Tastes "green", "raw", and always tastes like "homebrew" to me.

Interestingly enough, they ALL seem to think their beers are *good*, etc, etc.

Here's what I've learned so far about home brewing from the 1% that continually make a fantastic home brew:

a) Sanitation, sanitation, sanitation.
b) Forget the bottles (Unless you are Brewer).
c) Cornelous Kegs only.
d) Keep your recipe's simple, stupid.
e) if and when you actually make something that doesn't taste like "home brew", don't pretend you think you know what you are doing and "move on" to more complex beers, as all you're going to make is crap.

The few people that I know that make a really *good* home brew all use cornelius keg and C02 systems. No bottles. They are meticulous, and very adamant on the sanitation bit.