1st Timer

My 1st batch is in the bottle!

I have lot of questions though. I hope I can get help getting a handle on this. I don't want to make crap! Here are my questions:

1) My equipment is a starter kit from www.perfectbrewing.com, as is my 1st ingredient kit(too new to try a recipe). Is this a good place to be getting this stuff from?

2) What is a good place to get recipes from?

3) After a basic starter kit, what's the next big step for me, equipment wise?

Scubadude said:

3) After a basic starter kit, what's the next big step for me, equipment wise?

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Shortly after getting into the hobby I purchased a 6.5 gal glass carboy for primary fermentation. I did it for several reasons although the plastic primary was probly fine... One, I end up using my plastic primary bucket to keep my iodophor solution in... Two, the plastic will scratch and this could lead to contamination issues... Three, I was darn curious to see what was going on in there... Four, I have read many accounts where the lid blows off of the buckets but if I remember correctly *burp* *hic* I have yet to hear of a problem with a 6.5 gal fermenter.

Another investment soon after starting was a wort cooler. I built my own with 50' of copper tubing. This IMO is a must have (whether it is submersible or counter flow).

Lots of bottles...

B.C. powder (for the morning after)

Digital thermometer

Well, enuf for now... I'm going all grain so lots more equipment to mention but thats another chapter in the book.

2) What is a good place to get recipes from?

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The Beer Recipator

I wish they had a rating system like some of the cooking recipe sites have. I usually determine which style I want and then find several recipes at this site and compare them. Figure out the common ingredients and then pick a recipe which seems to be 'the norm' for that style.

DyerNeedOfBeer said:

B.C. powder (for the morning after)

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I've never had a hangover drinking my brew.

I'd have to agree, a glass carboy is a great addition.

The wort chiller is a good idea too. It cools the boiling hot wort down to yeast pitching temperature in a matter of 20-30 minutes. If you let it cool down on its own, it would take hours. Each hour your wort is left without yeast increases the chance that some nasty bacteria will start working on your wort instead.

I'm not familiar with perfectbrewing.com, but the setup I saw on their website seems like a good start. It might be worthwhile to brew a couple batches of "kit" beers before venturing into the world of recipies. Each batch will raise your confidence and have you wondering... "what if I did this?" That's what I found when I started brewing all-grain batches.

I'm a big fan of Charlie Papazian's book, "The Joy of Homebrewing." There's lots of information, extract, extract-grain and all-grain recipies, plus a great path for upgrading. Take your time and enjoy the batches along the way....

I just got done brewing my 2nd batch. This was an ingredient kit too. I tried a different idea for wort chilling. I got the idea from beer101.com's forums from a guy called Rhoobarb. His idea worked great, but I think the wort chiller is my next investment. Right now, from opening the ingredient box, to capping the fermenting pail is 3 1/2 hours. Anything I can do to reduce that time is gonna get my next dollar.

I think I want my next batch to be an ale. Any ideas on which one would be the most fun?

Also, Scuba LOVES to cook. That's how I got interested in trying this. Any suggestions where I can get good advice for beer/food combos? I don't want to spend any money on this as I'm now saving my descretionary funds for a wort chiller . Any ideas where I may find websites and free newsletters on food recipes and what beers go good with what is what I'm looking for. Good food getting washed down with good beer....mmmmm....I gotta go eat!

welcome to the madness. its been six weeks now since i started brewing, and i just finished brewing my 6th batch of beer.
BTW, we brew all grain
For equipment: (what we are using)
30 Gallon Aluminum Pot (for the boil phase, got it for 45 bucks at a restaurant supply store)
8 Gallon aluminum Pot (came with our propane turkey frier) used to heat H20 to temp for steeping our grains
Outdoors propane turkey fryer ($45 at Lowes, we brew in the garage)
5 Gallon coleman water cooler ($25 at Home Depot) heat H20, pour in, add grain, cover for 1.5 hours. instant wort.
china Cap ($35 at restaurant supply, big sucker) used to strain wort
bunch of 5 gallon home depot buckets. ($5 each at home depot) we use these for alot of stuff. one is filled with bleach water for sanitizer, one with rinse water. we've used two for fermenters once too cause we were concerned with blow off on the strawberry ale.
Wort chiller. home made with copper tube.

I also today built a bottle draining rack for cleaning bottles.

we get our stuff from home brew mart since its like five minutes from our house. for recipes, we get recipes off beer recipator and cats meow, then base the recipes we write ourselves off of those. only our first bacth was someone elses recipe. every batch since has been ours. and we only do all grain brewing, no extracts.