Re-read what I wrote:

``The only beer I like is German beer in German pubs.''

I did not say that I tried all beers in the world, or that I dislike
microbrew beers. I said that the only beer I like is a certain kind of
German beer.  I do not know if I would like microbrews. What I wrote
does not imply that I dislike microbrews.

i

brian lanning wrote in alt.support.diet on Fri, 20 Aug 2004:

You don't say which country you are starting from, but if it is the USA,
could it be because portion sizes tend to be smaller on this side of the
Atlantic?

Hope so!  Enjoy, anyway.

I've been thinking of making my own beer, but I don't think I could
control myself.  One the reasons I got big was due to beer (generally
purchased after a meal of pasta/rice would cause my blood sugar to explode
then crash, leaving me depressed; but that's a different story).  I don't
think I could have a bunch of bottles of beer lying around.

Thanks, but please don't be.  Making beer at home can be quite a simple, yet
very enjoyable, experience.  You can buy malt extract in a can so you don't
have to worry about grinding up all the individual grains and doing it all
from scratch.  This method tastes nearly as good as "all grain" brewing and
still far superior to anything you'll be able to buy in the store.

Quick steps to do an extract brew:

Boil 2-3 gallons of water.  Pour the can of malt in.  Add some hops at the
appropriate time (all detailed in your particular recipe).  At the end of the
boil you may add some more hops depending on your recipe.  This is the only
time you may need to be very careful - watch the boil frequently!  If it boils
over, you have a sticky nasty mess to clean up!  I've done it - once.  Every
brewer will do it - once!  Pour the boil in to a carboy (big glass water jug)
and top off with cold water to make 5 gallons.  Make sure the temp of the
batch is under 100F and then add a yeast packet.  Slosh it all around real
good and put an airlock on the top of the jug.  In about a week it will be
done burbling away (yeast eating the sugars making alcohol) and you can now do
1 of 2 things.  If you are in a hurry, you can actually bottle it now and
drink it in another week.  Or, you can transfer it to another jug to let it
clarify and settle out some more for another week to two weeks - then bottle
it.

To bottle you need to be able to create carbonation.  To do this, you need to
give the yeast a little more food since yeast gives off alcohol and CO2 when
it eats sugars.  1/4cup of sugar in a little water boiled up (to kill any
nasties), then pour it in to another 5 gal bucket or bottle.  Siphon off the
beer in to this new bottle with the sugar to mix it up, then siphon from there
in to your bottles.  You can do either individual 12oz glass bottles or
plastic soda bottles work out very nice.  You can do the small ones or the 2
liter ones.  The advantage of plastic is you can feel them getting hard so you
know when the carbonation is at a sufficient level to drink.  No guessing like
you have to do with glass bottles (if you are in a rush that is).

This may sound like a lot and it truly isn't.  The total amount of man hours
involved in making a 5 gallon batch of brew is about 4-5.  Most of the time is
spent waiting..... Your first few batches can be killers because you know
you're supposed to wait a certain amount of time and you may be tempted to
cheat.  Don't.  Just wait and it will be worth it.  If you end up liking it
enough, you can run multiple batches at the same time while your beer is in
different stages of fermenting.  You can boil up another batch once you've
finished fermenting the 1st one and have put it in the secondary jug for
settling.  If you are dedicated enough and stick to this rotation, you can
easily produce 2 cases of brew every weekend.  I got in to a small rotation
like this to produce somewhere around 20 cases and then slowly tapered off and
now I just make a batch when I feel like it.

There are countless resources on the web if you are serious about trying it.
There is also a very active newsgroup rec.crafts.brewing if you want to do a
little reading there.

Since this is a diet group - be warned.  Making your own beer can be a serious
weight gainer.  That was one of my problems with my weight gain.  You have to
figure that each 12oz bottle is somewhere around 200 calories.

My husband brewed very tasty beer until the price of honey went up so
high.  Now he's making blueberry wine.