BEER!

Gluten intolerance?

I know next to nothing about the condition, but I do have a friend who has developed colitis and the gluten in beer exacerbates it (nausea, cramping, etc.).  He has to follow a pretty strict diet to keep things flowing the way they should, and sadly enough beer is no longer on his menu.

I presume if that is your issue you would also have troubles with other gluten foods like standard breads, etc.

Omission isn't a true "GF" beer. There was a huge hub-bub about it from the GF brewers/drinkers, as it can send some folks that are really sensitive to the can with a quickness. There are lots of other GF beers and breweries out there, though - it's really starting to come around now, with more than just the typical sorghum/rice/sugar beers that are cheap to crank out. You can actually get malted spelt, as well as a bunch of other GF grains in not only a base malt, but also in crystals and biscuit/brown/blacks.

There are a few great GF beers out there, I'll plug the local boys from MKE, Lake Front Brewery (awesome brewery and great beer), as well as Dogfish Head. The Abita GF I tried was good too. Lots of options, but if you don't like beer there's nothing at all wrong with that.

Love me some scotch neat too! Must be single malt...


Tony -

If you just want to try it, go with an extract kit that has steeped grains. It's easy to do on a stove top as you'll only be boiling 3-3.5gal, then adding water after the fact to "top up" to 5gal in the fermenter. All the kits are about the same if you're looking at an IPA style beer - just depends on what hops you get (or if you want to add MORE hops to the base kit), where it kicks your tail is on the shipping depending on where you are. I'm not sure where in the US you are, so if you want you can PM me and that'll help focus a bit.

Best thing to do is find someone local that knows what they're doing, and see if you can tag along for a brew day. I love doing that up here now, I've already introduced 4 people to brewing - they get to see the process, see what happens when you make a mistake, how to correct for it and not panic, have fun, and I even send them home with some goodies. Last guy got a half a pack of yeast, 2oz of homegrown hops, an airlock and a bucket to ferment in. I don't care - he loved it and was so excited to brew on his own, I think his wife's about ready to kill me now. HA!

If you're talking about getting the whole she-bang (fermenters, bottle capper, caps, tubing, sanitier, etc), then HOLD ON - you don't need all that crap to make beer (trust me). I can get you a list of stuff you need, and it's not that expensive - most of it you've probably already got. Those premade kits are full of crap you'll use once/twice and hate, then they just hang out and collect dust. There is some things you need to buy, and some of it costs more - I can hear it now, "2.25 a foot for silicon tubing?!""Yes. Get the damn tubing." - than what you'd expect, but in the end it's worth it if this is a hobby you'll keep for a bit.

PM me if you've got questions.

MMMmmmmmmmmmmm Beer!

You have excellent taste.

Now if you'd said the 18, well, then you'd have outstanding taste.   

Oh no, I have outstanding taste, but only an excellent wallet....   I hate myself for trying the 30, now my 12 tastes cheap...

Laughing and right there with you, brother.