Howdy from NC :)

Just getting into the hobby; been reading HBT a couple hours a day, for about the last 2 weeks. As well as read the first good bit of Palmer's "how to brew"-- the entirety of section 1 minus the lager part, as well as some of section 2. (I get bored at work, LOL)

So, I've been wanting to homebrew for a long time. Been kinda intimidated every time I started researching it. Recently got ahold of a Groupon for 1/2 off a starter kit from American Brewmaster.

Cruddy thing is, I actually called them up and they said i had to do the "book appointment" thing, and the first opening for the 2-week window starts on 6/25.

It's gonna probably be another good week or two before I can start brewing, but I've already got a good start. I've already paid for the starter kit via Groupon, and I've already ordered 2 extract kits from NB (Chinook IPA and Caribou Slobber), as well as a bottle tree, priming sugar, and star san. I acquired off the fleabay a stainless 18" spoon, 5gal brew kettle, as well as floating thermometer for my swamp cooler setup. (got 2 rope totes from wally-world)

Gonna pick up the following extras when I go to grab my starter kit:


auto siphon

2 fermenters (plastic, without spigots)

extra airlocks

thermometer

bottle washing jet

"vinator" bottle rinser

bottling wand (springloaded)

bottle caps


Not sure if I'm forgetting anything, so please let me know.

I'm very excited to start my new obsession-- err, hobby

I'm brand new here and to homebrewing as well. I'm from Raleigh, NC and I get all my stuff from American Brewmaster. Everyone there is super helpful and I have heard one of them say good things about this site [when I mentioned it to him]. By the way -- their extract kits (the normal kits you and I will be making beer from) are amazing. They contain printed instructions that are incredibly easy to follow.

Other people can help out with this, but I also have the nylon hops bag and use it as a strainer to strain the steeping grains and hops from the wort that is to go into the fermenter.

Make sure you have a hydrometer.

Personally, I have a clip for my autosiphon. It makes it so you need one less hand in the siphoning process. Super helpful.

On all of my beers that I've done, for paranoia reasons -- for the first few days I use a blowoff hose from the fermentation bucket into another bucket slightly filled with water. The second bucket is filled with water to create a lock. This way any excess foam that comes out of the fermenter goes into the other bucket instead of into your airlock (or worse). After day 3 (or longer, depending on how fast it is still going), I switch to the airlock. I like the S lock because you can hear them anywhere in the room (it's really neat when guests come over! [just make sure the fermenter can have no light hit the beer itself])

I'm currently on my fourth batch of beer and this thread here woulda been super helpful to have known on my first batch:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/stone-cold-lead-pipe-lockd-n00b-advice-54362/
Read through all of these!

Welcome guys. Also in Raleigh here and agree that the guys American Brewmasters are awesome. Did you guys hear about the home brew competition at the NC state fair this year? check out http://ncbrewerscup.org/2012/06/nc-state-fair-adds-nc-brewers-cup-competition/

Welcome from New Bern, NC. Enjoy the journey.

naga77777 said:

Not sure if I'm forgetting anything, so please let me know.

Click to expand...

oh, and get some hose / tubing to connect the autosiphon and the wand. I also have some hose / tubing for the blowoff. (On my very first batch, I didn't know that I was supposed to use the airlock. I only saw [older] pictures using blowoff, so that's what I used. Good thing too, because I had 5 gallons of beer fermenting in a 5 gallon glass carboy. Apparently, had I only had an airlock on there, things coulda gotten really ugly.)

Thanks for the warm welcome, guys

I did see that there was going to be a beer competition at the fair. I was extremely excited to see that! However, not so much excited that us regular folks can't be "honorary judges", LOL.

I actually went by American Brewmaster today to pick up my kit I bought with the Groupon. Purdy cool store and employees. Met up with a friend, and he took me to his office nearby to show me his brewing stuff. I actually got to smell that sweet smell of fermentation. Put my nose to the airlock, and WOW. Can't wait to smell that in my own house.


I'm very much excited to start brewing. I've already started building a 38DD MoF Chiller. Hopefully I can get it finished, and skinned in plywood before Sunday (my anticipated first "brew day")