New to the brew. Got tips?

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jelowry

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My name is Jordan and I'm new to the craft beer thing about 6 months and now its become a passion. I am getting ready to make my first purchase on a home brewing kit, even thinking about going to school.

Anyone have any tips for someone like me that is just starting out in the craft beer/home brew area?
 
For the first time brewer, I think the easiest thing to overlook is fermentation control. Mainly because kits don't really give you enough good information on it. Make sure you pitch enough yeast and keep it in the lower end of the optimum temperature range. If you are doing an Ale, no temp control in a 70 degree room will make your beer ferment too hot.

Weather it's a couple of ice packs and a towel wrapped around the ferementer or a swamp cooler set up, make sure you keep the beer itself in the mid 60s while fermenting.

There are obviously a ton of other things to learn to perfect your beer, I just feel this is the one thing that all the instructions fail to give you any real detail on, yet I feel it's the reason most homebrewers first beer isn't very good.
 
Be meticulous about sanitation, pitch the correct amount of viable yeast at the right temperature, and ferment at the temperature range of the specific yeast you are using for an adequate amount of time. If you do these things, and use a solid recipe, I promise you'll have beer that rivals commercial beers.
 
Brew a lot. Clean a lot. Read everything you can get your hands on. Don't get discouraged if what you make isn't exactly like the pro made stuff at first. Don't get too big of a head if what you make tastes better than the pro made stuff. If you like it thats all that matters(who cares really about ribbons or medals). Wave bye bye to your extra money until your kit is complete(it never really is). Hold on to a "mistake" batch, sometimes time makes greatness out of mistakes. Don't ignore the wife(husband whatever) too much.

Relax, don't worry, have a beer.

=edit=
Oh yea, and much like taking a dump, don't forget the paperwork(documentation).
 
For the first time brewer, I think the easiest thing to overlook is fermentation control. Mainly because kits don't really give you enough good information on it. Make sure you pitch enough yeast and keep it in the lower end of the optimum temperature range. If you are doing an Ale, no temp control in a 70 degree room will make your beer ferment too hot.

Weather it's a couple of ice packs and a towel wrapped around the ferementer or a swamp cooler set up, make sure you keep the beer itself in the mid 60s while fermenting.

There are obviously a ton of other things to learn to perfect your beer, I just feel this is the one thing that all the instructions fail to give you any real detail on, yet I feel it's the reason most homebrewers first beer isn't very good.


Agree with this wholeheartedly. These 2 points made my homebrew go from a 50-50 proposition to consistently good. You'll get tons of recommendations out there, but rarely with order of importance. Pitching enough yeast and ferm temp control (outside of the basics of sanitation, etc.) are key to creating great homebrew.
 
Don't take the kit instructions too literally. A lot of them have outdated or not-quite-correct information written. Check some of the introductory threads around here for some good pointers. And yeah, temp control and sanitation are key. Welcome!
 
Be patient! On my first first brew, I decided to take a taste test at like day 3 and it was awful and I thought I ruined it. 3 weeks later it was fine, but still very young. Now I do minimum 2 weeks primary, 2 weeks secondary, 2 weeks bottles. Not a perfect science, just use that as a frame of reference.

And buy the best kit you can afford. If you have a local brew shop, use them. Mine completely rearranged their kit for me because I wanted to do 3 gallon AG batches, not 5 gallon extract. Places like Northern Brewer and Midwest Supplies are great and cheaper, but you don't get the service that a local place will give (hopefully). Also, you don't have to pay shipping and you help out local business, if you're into that kind of thing.

And read!!! A few months ago, I knew the words wort and hops. Now, I could have a 3 hour conversation with a fellow brewer without running out of topics, and I still have only learned the tip of the iceberg.

Welcome to the lifestyle!

P.S. All the stuff the other guys said, too. Sanitize!
 
Like others said, read a lot! There's tons of great information on this site and all over the web.

I highly recommend this book (free to read online): http://www.howtobrew.com

It's got a lot of really fine information, and I was able to make a really tasty first beer using Palmer's guidance. Good luck to you!
 
Thanks guy! I'm really excited to brew my first batch! Can't wait! I will let you all know how it goes. Thanks for all the great advice
 
Keep good notes on what you did. For instance, If you're working out your sanitization process, include it in the description until you "do it the same each time" It'd be a real shame when your next beer gets a blue ribbon and you can't recreate it. Make a brew day checklist so you don't forget to do something. Adjust the list until it's second nature.

Oh, and make sure you close the bottling bucket valve before you rack your beer over from the fermenter. Don't you DARE ask me how I know this!!!
 
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