cbg96
Well-Known Member
Two batches in, a lot of review of this board, advice from good folks, and whatnot. The main points - some maybe a little redundant - I'm coming away with right now are:
1) Patience is a definite virtue. With beer, the passage of time is your friend. This applies to both fermenting and bottle conditioning.
2) Secondaries are not necessarily necessary. Fear not leaving things in the primary on the yeast cake for three weeks. The beer will not go bad, suspended stuff will settle out. For basic beer that doesn't involve late additions of stuff like fruit, etc, it doesn't seem to me that there's a need to rack to a secondary if you are just willing to let it sit in the primary long enough.
3) Fermentation can start a couple days after you pitch your yeast. No need to panic if the airlock is not bubbling right away or even a day after you pitch.
4) Yeast washing is easy to do. Check out the appropriate illustrated thread.
5) Dextrose is a must for bottle conditioning. Try substitutes at your peril.
6) Says-it.com plus any basic program from MS Paint on up will equal cool labels.
7) On labels, print on a color printer, copy on a color copier, cut 'em out. Put 'em on with the milk method. Remove by saturating the label with water, giving it a few minutes, then peel-slide it off. Easy on, easy off. Cheap and effective.
8) Star-san is your friend and very much worth the money.
9) Star-san in a spray bottle is bliss as far as ease of use and getting and keeping things sanitized.
10) My extremely basic set up cost me about $100 all told if that. I have a five gallon plastic bottling bucket, a six gallon plastic fermenting bucket with a little tap thingy at the bottom, a six foot length of clear tubing, a three piece airlock, a wing capper, a hydrometer, a container of star-san, a spray bottle, a 20 quart wort-cookin' pot for boiling, and that's pretty much it. Add ingredients and dang if I can't make good beer. The point - you can get very elaborate with the hobby, but you can also be very basic and get good results.
There's more to learn obviously but for a noob with limited gear, the big point I've come away with is the basics of brewing good beer are actually fairly easy.
1) Patience is a definite virtue. With beer, the passage of time is your friend. This applies to both fermenting and bottle conditioning.
2) Secondaries are not necessarily necessary. Fear not leaving things in the primary on the yeast cake for three weeks. The beer will not go bad, suspended stuff will settle out. For basic beer that doesn't involve late additions of stuff like fruit, etc, it doesn't seem to me that there's a need to rack to a secondary if you are just willing to let it sit in the primary long enough.
3) Fermentation can start a couple days after you pitch your yeast. No need to panic if the airlock is not bubbling right away or even a day after you pitch.
4) Yeast washing is easy to do. Check out the appropriate illustrated thread.
5) Dextrose is a must for bottle conditioning. Try substitutes at your peril.
6) Says-it.com plus any basic program from MS Paint on up will equal cool labels.
7) On labels, print on a color printer, copy on a color copier, cut 'em out. Put 'em on with the milk method. Remove by saturating the label with water, giving it a few minutes, then peel-slide it off. Easy on, easy off. Cheap and effective.
8) Star-san is your friend and very much worth the money.
9) Star-san in a spray bottle is bliss as far as ease of use and getting and keeping things sanitized.
10) My extremely basic set up cost me about $100 all told if that. I have a five gallon plastic bottling bucket, a six gallon plastic fermenting bucket with a little tap thingy at the bottom, a six foot length of clear tubing, a three piece airlock, a wing capper, a hydrometer, a container of star-san, a spray bottle, a 20 quart wort-cookin' pot for boiling, and that's pretty much it. Add ingredients and dang if I can't make good beer. The point - you can get very elaborate with the hobby, but you can also be very basic and get good results.
There's more to learn obviously but for a noob with limited gear, the big point I've come away with is the basics of brewing good beer are actually fairly easy.
