Brand new to brewing. Some basic questions.

So the first videos I stopped upon was the craigtube series. I later read that all canned brewing results in a garbage product. I don't have the money or space for all grain brewing.. so my question is what would be an easy and efficient way to produce a quality batch? What style of brewing? And are there any kits or guides you could recommend me for that style. Forgive me if my terminology is off. I'm very new to all of this. Thanks

-Anthony

Try midwest, northern brewer, austin brewer for kits for starters. And people can make crappy all grain batches of beer just as well as those who do poorly with extracts.

This is probably one of the best places to learn. I also found midwest's faq section to be a great help. I spent about 2 months reading first and thinking over my set up to get started.

Frankly you can get good beer (read: drinkable and sharable) from canned kits. But you will get better beer from extract, then extract with steeping grains, etc. etc. Or it'll give you more control, and thus you get to find your niche.

But the suggested retailers above should get you going, unless you live in Canada

Focus on getting fresh kits. Use bottled water instead of tap. Keep your fermentor in the proper temp range. These three things will help with any style of beer made from a kit.

Canned kits will make decent beer if you don't add the sugar they recommend. One can will do a 9-10 liter batch of good beer normally. When they recommend doing a 19 liter batch using several extra kilos of sugar along with one tin, then you'll get some butt ugly tasting brew.

In your place I would go with extract w/steeping grains.
It doesn't require more equipment than kits and result will be better, plus it will give you more pleasure since you'll create your own recipes.

More about:
http://www.howtobrew.com/section2/index.html

"Use bottled water instead of tap"

This is going to depend on where you live. If your tap water tastes good, it will make good beer for the start of the boil. Use bottled spring water to top off your five gallons with. Avoid any bottled water that has been stripped of it's mineral content.

I love Craig's videos too. Have a Cooper's Stout going right now. Just go slow. Sure start with the canned kits. Use 700g dry malt extract and 500 dextrose (corn sugar) like Craig reccommends and get that down really, really good as far as technique and sanitation before you move on. The canned kits make decent beer and are a good way to master the basics, so do it for a while to get your technique down before moving on. No sense in investing in a lot of additional equipment or doing more complicated recipes and wasting money if you don't have good technique and sanitation practices. I'm going through the beginner process right now too, so keep in touch and maybe we can help each other out.

Dry malt extract and steeping grains if you cant go AG..You just entered a hobby that is much like herpes..once you get it you cant get rid of it..cheers

beerbeerbeer123 said:

Dry malt extract and steeping grains if you cant go AG..You just entered a hobby that is much like herpes..once you get it you cant get rid of it..cheers

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:fro::fro:

That's quite the interesting choice of analogy

I'd say stock up at northern brewer if you can, Ive gotten some delightful extract kits from there for sure. The shipping is a little expensive for one kit, but that doesn't really move much when you keep adding to your order. I stocked up from the get go, and certainly do not regret it. Id say this is actually cheaper, based upon my local home brew supply prices.

I started with canned kits too. After a couple, I went with "brew house" kits. Much the same as canned, but it's a bigger package, and the wort is real all grain wort. You can get into all grain pretty cheaply. I assume you already have the basic fermenter kit (fermenting bucket, hydrometer, carboy, etc) if so you can do all grain with a basic turkey fryer kit and a Voille bag ($20). Do a search for BIAB that's how I brew and I love it.

fearlessbanana said:

So the first videos I stopped upon was the craigtube series. I later read that all canned brewing results in a garbage product. I don't have the money or space for all grain brewing.. so my question is what would be an easy and efficient way to produce a quality batch? What style of brewing? And are there any kits or guides you could recommend me for that style. Forgive me if my terminology is off. I'm very new to all of this. Thanks

-Anthony

Click to expand...

Are you sure about the highlighted statement? Really sure? I started all grain (and continued it) with the 5 gallon boiling pot I used for extract and added a paint strainer bag and a cheap grain mill (closest LHBS that has a crusher to use is 150 miles away). I just do half size batches in that 5 gallon pot. Search for BIAB, learn a bit about it and you can do all grain batches starting today.