Buying my first kit today!

This afternoon I'm headed to the local brew store in Longview and buying my first kit! This is tougher than being a kid on Christmas Eve! I'm brewing Saturday with a buddy of mine who's been doing this for about a year so hopefully the first brew will come out decent for me. I'm leaning towards a Nut Brown Ale but haven't made my final decision yet! There's a lot riding on deciding which beer to brew first......

Congrats!! IMO. You don't need the secondary bucket in the beginning unless you plan large abv and really choppy brews. Put the $ toward a nice large stainless steel pot. Get pbw and starsan for cleaning and sanitizing. Upgrade to an autosiphon, makes siphoning easier.
BTW, is this an equipement kit or an extract beer kit? D'oh

I'm going with an extract kit to start off with. Going to get a few under my belt first before I move up

hoopdogg315 said:

I'm going with an extract kit to start off with. Going to get a few under my belt first before I move up

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Good plan. Take notes and nail down the process. Process pretty much stays the same when you move to brew in a bag or mash tun all grain. Have fun. Enjoy your finished product and congrats.

hoopdogg315 said:

This afternoon I'm headed to the local brew store in Longview and buying my first kit! This is tougher than being a kid on Christmas Eve! I'm brewing Saturday with a buddy of mine who's been doing this for about a year so hopefully the first brew will come out decent for me. I'm leaning towards a Nut Brown Ale but haven't made my final decision yet! There's a lot riding on deciding which beer to brew first......

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Wait! You have to choose just one? Maybe you should choose 2 kits right away.

Welcome to the hobby. I started with a stout without knowing that stouts take longer to get good than lighter color beers. Your nut brown should take quit a bit less time to mature than my stout but a lighter color will be quicker yet.

haha, can't afford both right off the jump! Wifey won't allow it.

and i'm not stuck on the brown ale, how did the Stout turn out??

better yet, any suggestions on what my first brew should be? I obviously I don't want a Miller/Coors/Bud light, otherwise I would just buy that. I love craft beer. I am not a big IPA fan, but all others I'm a fan of.

I just bottled an Irish Red Ale yesterday. It has a beautiful reddish orange color, tasted and smelled great (even though it's flat), and fermented in about a week, although I gave it 2 in primary and ut came out pretty clear.. I can't wait to write the review here in a month or so after it carbs!

My First Brew Was Brewers Best English Brown Ale. I have brewed it 4 times now adding to and changing it here and there. Its a great brew to start with. I think the kit was right around $35.00. Takes about a good 2 months to really get done but very worth it. And yes welcome to the Hobby!!!

I'd say do a pale ale as a first brew. They are the most common,yet most improvised beer out there. They take less time than stouts & strong ales.

Good stuff, happy brewing.

If I can make a recommendation and of course this is just my humble opinion:

If you can slightly customize your equipment kit then I recommend asking for an upgrade to a bench capper over the hand capper. I've used both and was incredibly disapointed (and somewhat frustrated) by the hand capper. It's slower and doesn't create a seal that I'm confident with. That's just my opinion though and others might disagree.

thanks Andy! I'll look into that this afternoon.

I used the Red Baron wing capper for the first couple years. Then it seemed that the bell had stretched out a bit. The caps started leaking under pressure & higher room temps. So I got the super agata bench capper. Seems better & faster so far.

welcome to the addictive world of Home Brew. its all down hill from here.

I'll second the suggestion of the pale ale for your first brew. It will hit its peak flavor long before the stout, yet its hops can cover mistakes you might make fairly easily. My stouts tend to get really good about 3 months after bottling, much to long to wait for your first brew.

I've used my Red Baron capper for well over 1000 bottles and it still caps them just fine. You have to watch that the bell doesn't unscrew and mess up the adjustment. Snug it up good before you use it.

thanks guys! i'll post pics of the kit that i get this evening.