New Brewer

Hey everyone, another new guy here. I have been wanting to start brewing for a while now and my neighbor finally got me to take the plunge. Here to learn as much as I can and hopefully give something back.

Jake

Welcome.

We are here to help. This thread will show up on my list so if you have ???'s I can help and I check almost everyday. I have done both extract brewing and all grain so feel free to ask away.

Where are you from, each area of the country tends to have different water quality issues.

What water do you use? Well, treated domestic, bottled water...etc. and where do you plan on finding ingredients? Extract or all grain? Oh yeah, what kind of beer do you like?


Cheers!

Below I attached a pic of a nice clear beer I brewed. With good technique one can achieve nice results!

Cheer jake. I hope your home brewing goes as well as mine has. Best advice I can give is sanitize. I personally like starsan. It's a no rinse. Cheers

Thanks for the cheers guys.

I am at Vandenberg AFB on the Central Coast of CA. I grew up and stil call Ohio home.

As for water, the base is on well water at the moment. They do well water for part of the year and city water the majority of the year. On my first brew (IPA) I used the from the tap, treated well water. That was almost 2 weeks ago, last Sunday I brewed Janet's Brown Ale and used bottled water. The Brown ale is going to handed out after the birth of me second son, which should be around the first of the year. Hopefully it turns out good, if not I dont know what i am going to do.

Hoplife......that is a clear beer. How did you get it that clear?

Hey Hoplife, u gotta take the photo sooner next time. That beer looks flat brother!

Just bustin balls, super clear, looks good.

Getting clear beer isn't really all that important. But if in the case above it was a brew that used corn as an adjunct to the mash I think that leads to less color in the beer which makes it seem extra clear. Also, this beer was not super cold, that is cheating a little bit.

In terms of process, make sure that you have a good strong boil, don't be afraid to use a whrirfloc tablet in the brew. Take good care of your yeast. I always make a starter. Ferment at appropriate temps. Chilling the beer quickly also helps a ton. I strongly prefer counterflow chillers and plate chillers to the concept of immersion chilling. I believe the quicker the beer loses temp the better cold break one can get. A plate or conter-flow only needs a few seconds of contact to perform cooling, whereas the immersion chiller may need 10-30 minutes.

After that It is just a matter of patience. I wait for a solid yeast cake to be visible in the bottom of the carboy, then I rack to secondary for 2 more weeks, longer for a big beer. After that, in bottles or keg for about 2 weeks and they should be optimal. In general, I expect to drink a beer 6 weeks to 2 months after brewing.

Don't stress the details too much, one thing at a time and keep having fun.

Sanitation is still the most critical detail of all. Or maybe the yeast. Both really.