New guy wanting to get started

Hello everyone! I have been thinking about brewing my own beer for some time now, but after talking with a friend about it, I'm just about ready to take the plunge into yet another hobby. I have a few questions about getting started. I'm looking at http://www.midwestsupplies.com/products/ProdByID.aspx?ProdID=3316. I think that has just about everything I need. I can get a 5 gallon or larger kettle locally, but it will be aluminum. I haven't seen anything stainless in that size. What are your thoughts? I'm also going to be brewing in an apartment. For those who are in the same setup, other than storage and fermentation space, is there anything else that really causes any pains in the process? I plan on picking up a couple of books before brewing anything. I like to do as much research as possible before jumping into anything. Lastly, any words of advice to help yet another new guy? Thanks (and sorry for being long winded)!

Kris

Hey Kris - welcome to the fold! You're going to have a lot of fun, and you'll enjoy beer a lot more.

As for an aluminum kettle. . .

There are a lot of claims that have gone around that aluminum isn't as "good" as steel for brewing. They're explored in detail on this thread. I can't tell the difference between steel and aluminum pots from the final product, so I use an aluminum pot myself.

As for "anything else that really causes any pains" . . .

(1) Check out Revvy's thread on bottling, which might give you some good ideas.

(2) There's a lot of good info around the site on ways to get a siphon started. Some people swear by them. For myself, I find that an autosiphon is the quickest, easiest way, and it's a very inexpensive piece of equipment.

(3) Also, be aware that - contrary to the directions you'll get with a kit - most of us are adding extract (if you choose to use it) late in the boil: just five minutes before flameout.

(4) And consider investing in something to control your temperatures during fermentation (to keep them at about 60F). Hitting your temperatures and keeping them constant is one of the most important things you can do to make your beer turn out great, but for many people it's also one of the hardest. So build a fermentation chamber for your garage, or a swamp cooler for your basement, or even just invest some time crawling around your house looking for cool, constant, yeast-friendly temperatures.

As far as brewing in apartment I don't live in an apartment but brew in doors. I do full boils on a stove and it works for me. I imagine you will start out doing kits or partials so you should be fine. As for fermentation just find a spot where you can monitor the temp. and maintain it as consitent as possible around 68 degress is perfect for most ale yeast. It doesn't take up all that much room until you get three or four batches going. Then you'll start looking for a house with an "extra brew kitchen" Welcome and Good luck this fourm is a great asset.

As for books get "How to Brew" by John Palmer and "Brewing Classic Styles" by Jamil Z. and John Palmer. One will teach you the process and the other is full of excellent recipes. I have yet to be disappointed by any of the BCS recipes. Good luck to you and welcome to the addiction!

That's a great kit to start with, BTW. That's exactly what I purchased and I really like the Better Bottle carboys.

Aside from a brew kettle you'll also need to pickup a good sanitizer (that kit comes with a cleanser, not the same thing). I recommend StarSan for it's ease of use and long shelf life.

The first "upgrade" item you might look into is an immersion wort chiller. You can find DIY plans online to build one out of 3/8" copper coil from any hardware store.

Cheers!

+1 on How to Brew as your first book, and you can even find a web version of it (google it).

For me, the first upgrade item to get is an auto-siphon (which that kit has). I'd also recommend Star San or some other 'no rinse' sanitizer as a worthwhile investment. On the other hand, I don't know if you need the kit with two carboys if you're loking to cut costs.

In an apartment, you may be limited by the strength of your stove. Even then, you can still do "partial" boils.

Save beer bottles (not twist offs), or scrounge around for them.

Welcome! I got into the hobby/obsession about a year and a half ago and I've slowly expanded my equipment as needed. There are a couple of 'extras' that I wouldn't be without.

+1 to an Immersion Chiller. Brings your wort temp down from boiling to pitching temp in just a few minutes, as opposed to an hour or more.

+1 to an autosiphon. I'd never go back.

I recently purchased a jet bottle washer which works on bottles and carboys, so eliminates the need for brushing out all those bottles before sanitizing.

For a sanitizer, you could also look into Iodophor, which I use exclusively.

Oxiclean Free is great for removing bottle labels and cleaning buckets and such after fermentation.

Wow! Thank for the quick replies! I didn't even realize the kit didn't come with a sanitizer. I'll add that to the list. I had planned on buying How to Brew. I've been reading the first edition online, which has answered some questions, but I like having an actual book to reference. I'm not sure that I need two car boys right off, but if I get into this deep, which I think I will, it will be nice to have them. I'll have to get bottles too, which shouldn't be too hard since I have some friends who love to drink.
As for the boiling, electricity is included in my rent, so I'm not worried about running the stove all day if need be. I usually keep the place on the cool side, probably between 67 and 70 and have a fairly good sized closet I put use for fermentation that is away from windows and such. Keep the good info coming!!!

Kris

The kit says it comes with an auto-siphon so that's good, but I would disagree with others who recommend the chiller. While it might be a good piece to have, I think it's one more item to figure out than you need from day one. If you can put your kettle in the sink then the sink/ice/water method should work fairly well. After you get comfortable you can upgrade to a chiller. I just got mine and I'm struggling with it a bit. Plus I regret the one I purchased.

That kit is a bit odd to me since it has two 5g secondary fermenters. I would think just having one to start would be plenty. You could also argue that having two primaries is better since it's up for debate whether you need the secondary at all and with another primary you can brew again quickly.

But I will say that the first enemy you face is time. When starting it takes forever to get to results. Having more than one batch going at the same time helps with that. For example, you can brew your first batch, learn from what you did, read up some more, think about it, then brew your second batch and hopefully do better. Then you have some time to brush up on bottling and bottle the first. You again maybe learn more and read more for the second batch. But you now could start the 3rd batch too. Research some more and wait a bit and you might be ready for tasting the first.

Welcome. I brew in an appartment and have no problems with space. I use an enamel pot and, if you're careful, you shouldn't scorch anything. Remember to clean everything including the kitchen and especially anything that will touch the beer and you should be fine.

all great advice here. The only I'd like to add is that, if you can, get a kettle that's about 8-10 gallons. I went from a 5-gallon kettle to and 8-gallon kettle and now I'm at 10-gallons, all within the span of a year, and I'm only still making 5-gallon batches.

Just an FYI. It is illegal to make beer over 1% ABV in Japan.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homebrewing#Japan

I brew in an apartment. I boil just fine on an efficiency style electric stove. My only issue is that my big pot won't sit on the big burner. It does however straddle two of them
. My smaller 6gallon pot fits pefect in the stove. I've had no issues getting 4gallons to up to boil. Still working at the kinks on late extract additions.

I do love my wort chiller hooked to my sink. Not essential but a very nice upgrade.

+1 starsan and autosiphon. You also want a vintator to sanitize bottles. Until you make that plunge a squirt bottle of starsan made with distilled water lasts months.

The biggest issue I currently face is the 6 cases of brew needing to be drunk which isn't really a bad problem to have.

I was thinking about starting out with a smaller batch my first few go around. A 2.5 gallon just to get the ball rolling. As far as the no home brew in Japan thing. It is one of those overlooked laws by the police, like lane splitting on a motorcycle. As far as the brew goes, as long as you aren't selling it or making ridiculous amounts, there shouldn't be any issues. On top of all that I'm not actually living in the Japanese community, so I don't have to worry about the police knocking on my door.

Kris

Smaller batches are fine, though you're going through the same amount of work as you are for a 5 gallon batch, so keep that in mind. Get friends to save bottles. Keep good notes, so that you can replicate the good batches and get people on HBT to troubleshoot the bad ones.