Newbie to the site, havent brewed in 8 years.HELP?

Hello, I am new here, posted a brief intro etc.........

I brewed a fair amount in the late 90s, been out of it for whatever reason since then. I wasn't high tech. Started with a plastic kit from Brewand Grow when I lived in Mpls and graduated to glass carboys. I made some good batches, wheat beers mainly with fresh honey from a family members farm.

But, I dont know jack now, forgot or never learned it. gravity and such wasnt a concern, I used kits and/or packaged goodies. Never really started from scratch. I would love to progress beyond that but need to just get back into it easily.

I have a couple questions

I digAmbers,Bitters,IPAs as well as stouts.

What would be a good re-entry into brewing?

Our local store has a smaller selection of goodies. I just want to make a nice batch and remember what I forgot!

Any Ideas? Books? Thread on this site...........damn there is so much info here and I am knee deep in itQ!

TIA, Trent

I have just started brewing too, and I found lurking here to be quite helpful. Also, you will definitly NEED to check out this book. It is a great resource and a must read. It is also free, which rocks.

I found the kit that I used yesterday from AHB to be very simple, straight forward and easy to follow, and I would recomend them to anyone. They have great customer service.

Good luck and welcome back friend!!

Welcome back!

I'd say, go for a wheat if that is what you were comfortable with in the past. Just a straight up Hefe or something, perhaps an American Wheat as they are more forgiving imho.

Welcome back. I am like you. I brewed back in college in the early 90s and had not done it since. I got a homebrew kit for Fathers day and I am back in it.

I think you will find, like I did, as you grow and mature that the science of brewing makes more sense to you. I could not quite grasp gravity when I first brewed as I was simply excited to create alcohol. Buy a brewing kit like you had with the plastic bucket and all the accessories. Then buy an ingredient kit, like an american wheat and start brewing. I have an american wheat from a kit I bought at morebeer.com awaiting bottling. It was a simple kit and looks like it will turn out well. Good Luck.

Welcome back! I too had a long break and now am back it with a passion. All Grain is the way to go. This forum is full of information.

This link http://cruisenews.net/brewing/infusion/ will take you to an excellent overview with pictorials on making easy all grain beer.

All grain is HIGHLY recommended!

Welcome back to the obsession...

I'm not sure what equipment you have, but I'd recommend steering away from kits. Not that kits produce bad beer, just that I've found that one of the most rewarding things about this hobby is producing a beer from your own recipe. Along those lines, I'd suggest the following things:

• Complete Joy of Homebrewing (Papazian) or How to Brew (Palmer)
• Designing Great Beers (Daniels) -- a really great book that has goes into great depth on the ingredients, history, methods and variations for a lot of classic styles.
• Brewing Software: ProMash (what I use) or Beersmith. This is essential for making your own recipes, and I highly recommend one of them. Along with the obvious recipe and brew session features, you can also keep track of your inventory (and automatically delete items when a brew session is complete) and calculate everything you need to calculate.

Actual equipment, well, it depends on what you're intending to do. If you want to eventually go all-grain, then you'll need specific things. But that's all explained in the books, or here at HBT.

Cheers!

I wouldn't say a kit would be a bad thing to 'start back into the hobby' with. it'll let you re-learn the brewing/boiling process, sanitizing regimens, without having to figure out recipe formulation.

I would go for a higher quality kit...like Brewer's Best...rather than a cheap kit like Cooper's.
Get an extract batch or two under your belt. all that equipment can be used for Partial Mash brewing..which IMO is the intermediate stage. lets you tweak recipes, but doesn't require 100k BTU propane burners and a brew-tree to handle 10gallon boils.

I also second www.howtobrew.com - at least read the online version to re-educate yourself. Like you, I stopped brewing 8 years ago after a few bad batches (all my fault) ruined my pleasure of brewing. and i was a broke college kid that online book taught me stuff I didn't know before, and now my first wiezenbier after 8 years is almost done bottle aging and tastes great! (so great I've down'd almost a half case of green beer already!)

cheers bud!

EdWort said:

Welcome back! I too had a long break and now am back it with a passion. All Grain is the way to go. This forum is full of information.

This link http://cruisenews.net/brewing/infusion/ will take you to an excellent overview with pictorials on making easy all grain beer.

All grain is HIGHLY recommended!

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I've always been scared of All Grain since looking at all the pics you guys put up, but after checking this out it looks fairly easy! Looks like I'm heading to Home Depot this weekend! The wife thaks you in advance!!!!!!!!!!!

george

Thanks for the replies...................I looked at the only store that carries any supplies in town today and was bummed out. a dozen canned kits that look like they have been in stock since the last time I brewed. All of the hops laying out pn a shelf and nopt in the cooler like they used to be. The whole display (in a natural foods store) was about 4 feet wide stuffed in a corner. I feel I am going to have to order online!

smoke76 said:

I've always been scared of All Grain since looking at all the pics you guys put up, but after checking this out it looks fairly easy! Looks like I'm heading to Home Depot this weekend! The wife thaks you in advance!!!!!!!!!!!

george

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Good choice. All Grain is easy, yet can get as complicated as Yuri, our resident Rocket Scientist can make it.

welcome back! If you are going to go all grain, maybe start with a pale ale or an IPA. Easy enough and hard to mess up, especially the IPA if you are a hophead.

A stout is in my future. Then an Impy stout...........

Welcome back.

I've been brewing DME for 13 years.

AG doesn't scare me, but I just don't think the return on investment (ROI) is warranted.

surlytman said:

Thanks for the replies...................I looked at the only store that carries any supplies in town today and was bummed out. a dozen canned kits that look like they have been in stock since the last time I brewed. All of the hops laying out pn a shelf and nopt in the cooler like they used to be. The whole display (in a natural foods store) was about 4 feet wide stuffed in a corner. I feel I am going to have to order online!

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I order my stuff online, too. I highly recommend austinhomebrew.com, morebeer.com and northern brewer. I had great experience with AHB's customer service when I had a (small) problem and I've ordered from them many times.

You can buy an extract kit and it comes with steeping grains and all you need for a batch of beer and they come out really, really good! Shipping at AHB is a flat rate of $5.99 and shipping from morebeer.com is free if you spend $60.

Yooper Chick said:

I order my stuff online, too. I highly recommend austinhomebrew.com, morebeer.com and northern brewer. I had great experience with AHB's customer service when I had a (small) problem and I've ordered from them many times.

You can buy an extract kit and it comes with steeping grains and all you need for a batch of beer and they come out really, really good! Shipping at AHB is a flat rate of $5.99 and shipping from morebeer.com is free if you spend $60.

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Cool, I have family in Mpls and ordered a catalog from Northern today, I also have pals in Austin that I will see in a few weeks, might have them pick up an order for me. I also found lots of hardware I have broken or lost................time to invest