Chicago Newb Seeks Advice

Hello,

I am a beer enthusiast looking to get into home-brew. Like many uneducated people I have absolutely no idea where to start. I was wondering if anyone could help me get started. I have no equipment, and I'm looking to purchase my own supplies rather than buying an already put together kit. Perhaps I could come and watch somebody brew a batch or even strike up some sort of homebrewing apprenticeship. I live in the city of Chicago, there has to be someone from around here.

Thanks guys.

Check out Brew & Grow; they offer classes for $20 and a 20% discount on kits/equipment with the class.

http://www.brewandgrow.com/brew/brewingclasses/

Piecing together your own kit is great and all, but it will end up costing you a good deal more in the end. There's some things that every brewer needs. This kit has them, and is at a very steep discount right now. I suggest you jump on at least one of these to get started at a much more reasonable price than we did:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/great-deal-beginners-kit-though-midwest-livingsocial-com-385410/

What part of chicago? I like Brew Camp. There right off the Damon brown line. Its a small shop but the guys are real friendly, have everything u need, and offer classes for $20

I 2nd the Brew camp suggestion. That's where I go. They have classes, are very helpful, and pretty reasonable prices.

Im in Ukranian village. And the only thing is the classes happen to fall on days that are outside of my schedule, plus I don't want to have to wait until February 10th to start just the class, I want to start learning as soon as possible. Also I've heard that the classes can be a little counterproductive, whereas a lot of my friends are recommending I just go and watch somebody brew, or join a brew club like CHAOS or something similar. Thoughts?

Lethargicwalrus said:

Im in Ukranian village. And the only thing is the classes happen to fall on days that are outside of my schedule, plus I don't want to have to wait until February 10th to start just the class, I want to start learning as soon as possible. Also I've heard that the classes can be a little counterproductive, whereas a lot of my friends are recommending I just go and watch somebody brew, or join a brew club like CHAOS or something similar. Thoughts?

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Get "the Joy of Homebrewing" by Papazian and read it! It's a bare bones, entertaining read that will essentially tell you everything you need to know in basic form to get started.

Watching and helping someone brew is a great idea if you can find someone or as mentioned find a club near you and ask if you can attend a meeting to meet some local brewers!

duboman said:

Watching and helping someone brew is a great idea if you can find someone or as mentioned find a club near you and ask if you can attend a meeting to meet some local brewers!

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+1. Helping someone brew a batch (and then later go back and help bottle) is a great way to learn. That, combined with doing lots of reading on this forum, will take you a long way.

Brewers are amongst the most helpful and sharing folks you may ever meet.

Hi Lethargic,

I'm a member over at CHAOS, so I'm biased in that direction. I have had good experiences with both Brew & Grow locations, although I never could get their mill to give me consistently decent efficiency. No problem once I started crushing my grain at the club. The great thing about CHAOS for me is that a majority of the equipment you need for going all grain (mill, burners, pots, MLTs) is available for use at the club. I do all of my brewing at the club's brewhouse, which is great given that I have limited space at home.

The downside obviously is that you have to pay monthly to keep brewing at the brewhouse. It's worth it for me, but is certainly not for everyone. I suggest you check out our Open House on February 16, or come by our monthly meeting on February 10. Or you can just grab a Trial Membership and check us out any time somebody is brewing.

If you're really just getting started (i.e. you've never done a brew at all), I'm teaching a "Brewing 101" class next Monday evening (February 4), doing an extract plus specialty grains recipe. The class is free for CHAOS members (Trial Membership included).

I apologize if this sounds like I'm shilling for CHAOS. Like I said, it works very well for me. Feel free to reply or PM me with any questions.

-Adam

Adman it means a lot that you would mention this because I have been really looking into joining CHAOS. I am interested in coming to the brewing class, you mentioned that it is free for CHAOS members, I'm wondering two things. 1. Does that require me to sign up for the trial or 2. Does that imply that I could just pay the class fee and come not being a member.
Me being 100% new to this (I've never brewed anything, let alone touched equipment) I need all the help I can get. I think that in the long run it would be good to join CHAOS due to the knowledge and passion that, generally speaking, you guys have. I just also wouldn't want to be 1. a burden or 2. have to be continent on the brewspace they have. Anyhow let me know your thoughts, this forum is already helping me loads!

Lethargic (or do you prefer Walrus?),

You need to be a brewing-level member, which currently includes Trial Members (during the trial period, obviously), Apprentices, and Brewers. There's no class fee (you need to buy the ingredients, a grain bag, and a fermenter/lid, though!), just the membership fee.

Also, as somebody else in the thread mentioned, homebrewers LOVE to talk shop. I doubt very much you'd be a burden to any homebrewer you talked to about getting started.

Hope you can make it to the class!

You should have some kind of pot to boil 4gallons of water, that at least a 5 gallon pot and you need a ferementer. Stop by a LHBS and buy a brewers best ingredients kit (any ingredients kit). There now you can brew!!! Watch some youtube before you start and do what the kit tells you.

I paid $20 bucks for an all-grain class from a local brewer that I found out about from a friend. I was an extract brewer at the time and after watching him brew one ag batch of beer I saw just how easy the transition would be. Best $20 I have spent so far on homebrewing.

I would throw a word of caution out there, I saw an earlier post that said to read this forum a lot, well, I would apply what you read very judiciously, especially if you are just starting out. You might be better served by getting information from a lhbs store that you trust, or a homebrew club. Just because you read a well written post doesn't mean the guy knows what he's talking about. Myself included. This whole post could be bs.

Check out CHAOS you will like it and its not too far from you. I was a member up till recently, only left because I'm in Jeff Park its a bit of a drive to get there and I only can make it there once in a while. That said the guys there are all great and have a wealth of knowledge.

Jon73 said:

I would throw a word of caution out there, I saw an earlier post that said to read this forum a lot, well, I would apply what you read very judiciously, especially if you are just starting out. You might be better served by getting information from a lhbs store that you trust, or a homebrew club. Just because you read a well written post doesn't mean the guy knows what he's talking about. Myself included. This whole post could be bs.

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Probably on the right track, but I've been given all sorts of odd information from LHBS members. They also have a good reason to upsell you equipment you don't need.

There's some very good books out there. I'd recommend those over LHBS owners.

thadius856 said:

Probably on the right track, but I've been given all sorts of odd information from LHBS members. They also have a good reason to upsell you equipment you don't need.

There's some very good books out there. I'd recommend those over LHBS owners.

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Not to sound like an a-hole, but I guess I should have over-emphasized the word "trust" in my reference to LHBS's. The store here is run by a very solid guy and I trust his word. He has, on a couple occasions, told me not to buy a particular product because it didn't suit what I needed.

Not to start a huge debate, but I have The Complete Joy and The Homebrewers Bible, and neither one are a substitute for talking to somebody that has actually done it. The one thing I find completely infuriating about brew books is the recipes. Usually half the damn book is filled with them instead of going into more detail on the process' themselves. In the Bible you get about a paragraph on mash thickness and about 100 pages of recipes. Hard to justify the money.

My .02

Jon73 said:

Not to sound like an a-hole, but I guess I should have over-emphasized the word "trust" in my reference to LHBS's. The store here is run by a very solid guy and I trust his word. He has, on a couple occasions, told me not to buy a particular product because it didn't suit what I needed.

Not to start a huge debate, but I have The Complete Joy and The Homebrewers Bible, and neither one are a substitute for talking to somebody that has actually done it. The one thing I find completely infuriating about brew books is the recipes. Usually half the damn book is filled with them instead of going into more detail on the process' themselves. In the Bible you get about a paragraph on mash thickness and about 100 pages of recipes. Hard to justify the money.

My .02

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One important note to all this and also not trying to start anything:

In this hobby there really is no right or wrong, you can talk to 100 brewers from home to commercial and get 100 opinions on the what is thought to be the best way to do something.

The fact is that one thing may work for you and your process and something come rely different will work better for someone else.

It is up to you as the brewer to take in the information and apply it to what you do and how it may or may not work for you.

I am friends with many brewers both home and pro and we all make great beer but really none of us goes about any of it in the same way. Yes there are some consistencies but no two of us are the same