First question from a newbie + introduction

This being my 1st post here I better introduce myself.

Rod Melotte from Columbus Wisconsin. A young 54 years old (meaning I like alternative rock and think my life is great . . .except my left knee clicks a little golfing).

I did not discover beer until actually a few years ago thinking all beer tasted like Miller and Bud and frankly - that taste SUCKED. Until I started trying Micro brews and fell in love with the Brown Ale style of beer. WOW - it's actually GOOD.

So now I'm LOOKING into making beer.

One problem - ALL of our water in Columbus is softened. However here is the odd thing. After letting the water sit for a while, in a blind taste testing, I could not tell the difference between our "good" water and the tap water.

I was totally floored. Can this be?? I've always considered my taste buds better then average.

So here is my question. For a beginner is this a problem?

If I spend $150 to get a beginner outfit, can I make a beer that is drinkable? I have tried wine making in my past and I never had very good luck. Yea - it was wine but who wants to drink something that is only OK.

Will newbie beer be only "OK"? or will I have to serve my time and upgrade, learn the trade and maybe in my 4th or 5th batch have something better then "OK".

One thing I worry about. If I can make good beer . . . I'm a VERY obsessive guy and I can see this being a money pit with books, more equipment and so forth LOL

Comments? Opinions??

You can buy a starter kit from your local Homebrew Store, or buy one online, buy an extract kit, and make very good Beer the first time out. Just be sure to read some of the posts in this forum category, and you'll be just fine. Water hardness and pH are more of a factor when doing all-grain batches than with Extract, because the Extract was made with water of the proper hardness and pH.

Money pit? Ya definitely!

Water is one of those things you can obsess over or you can just roll with it. The short of it being that if it's good enough to drink, it's good enough to brew with so I say jump in and get started! I do all grain brewing in my apartment and the water in the whole building is softened, my beers turn out great.

Welcome to HBT!

Pick up "The Complete Joy of Homebrewing" before buying any equipment and get a feel for what your about to get into. Your first beer you make will always tastes great!

Go to howtobrew.com and read Palmer's book. It's online and free. It was a great guide for me. I spent about two months online here and reading online before I started I my first batch is great!

The first batch I made was a recipe I created for a Northern English brown ale; I was aiming for something along the lines of Newcastle (draft). It came out great -- not identical to Newcastle, by any means, but great. Yes, you can make very good beer from the start and, more importantly, you can adjust the recipe until you get exactly what you want. The only problem for me is that I keep wanting to try something else, so rarely make a similar batch twice. Of course, I'm only a few batches in (I've brewed nine batches), so that could change with time. I expect eventually I'll have a house beer that I keep working to improve and then others where I rotate the style.

As to water, I'm not crazy about the local water supply so I always use bottled water (just Wal-mart spring water); I'm brewing extract with steeping grains, so haven't worried about adjusting the chemistry. If I ever go all grain I might look more into the water chemistry.

Rick

I don't think it has to be a money pit. You can get virtually all information online. If you can resist the temptation to buy new toys then you can also keep the cost low. It is very easy to fall into the trap of "I need <x> to improve my brewing" when really you just need to concentrate on your technique more than anything.

My tips to a new brewer (being one myself pretty much) wanting a palatable first brew is to keep the temperature within the correct range (65F to 70F max) and to stay away from the corn sugar and use malt as much as possible.

If you made wine, you may have some of the stuff needed to make beer. You can get get by pretty inexepensively. I would buy with a pale for fermentation with cover and airlock, a bottling pale, some tubing and a bottle filler. I have actually used a carboy, autosiphon and tubing only also to fill bottles. Not the best, but it wo

I started with a basic brewers best kit, a brewers best english pale ale kit, and a large canning pot. I had a 5 gallon jug for camping and I bought water in that plus 2 extra gallons at the store.

WOW - thanks guys. My plan is to purchase the Deluxe kit here

http://wineandhop.com/CatalogBeer/beerKits.shtml

If I could suggest one thing - look into using Better Bottles instead of glass - less dangerous, lighter and cheaper to mail. Just my opinion...

Grinder12000 said:

WOW - thanks guys. My plan is to purchase the Deluxe kit here

http://wineandhop.com/CatalogBeer/beerKits.shtml

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It looks like a good kit. If it was me, I would see if you can get a kit with better bottles instead of glass. I have glass, but wish I had a lighter vessel to use. Better bottles were not available in any of my local shops when I started brewing. I still use plastic today and also glass on occasion for my primary. GLASS WITH 5 GALLONS OF BEER IS HEAVY!


There are guys and gals on here who have used nothing but plastic for years. You also do not need a secondary, but it is useful if you brew a lot or want to age beer for awhile. It keeps your primary open. Some do not use a secondary at all. They let the beer sit for 3-4 weeks in the primary with no ill effects on the beer.


Have fun! :rockin:

As long as you pay attention to your sanitization and work on your brewing process, and use the freshest ingredients (No matter whether you brew Extract w/grain, Partial Mash, or All Grain), have patience, and more importantly, learn to relax and not worry, you will make great beer.

Welcome!

Grinder, you are in good shape. The guys at the wine and hop shop are great, and run a really nice business. They have a lot of experience and can help you. I suggest buying and reading How to Brew and the Complete Joy of Homebrewing. It will be worth your time.

Now, not to be a downer.... but you will not make great beer the first time you brew. It will be OK, as you put it, and it will SEEM awesome because you will have made it. However, I think a lot of homebrewing over-hype their beers. Professional brewers who dedicate their lives to brewing have a hard time making a GREAT beer. So if you go into homebrewing expecting your first batch to be a world class beer, you will be disappointed.

That said, you can make very good beer on a consistent basis and have a ton of fun doing it! I think this is the best hobby in the world. It can be as complicated or as simple as you want it to be, and at the end of the day you have a delicious golden (black, brown, red,...) beverage to enjoy. It also offers the do-it-yourselfer in you a chance to come up with all sorts of projects. This is a great community with a lot of knowledge. So are the people at W&HS. Use both and read those books!

Welcome to HBT!!!

LOL - just what I need another project!!

Thanks Boerderij - that was the kind of comment I was looking for.

you will not make great beer the first time you brew. It will be OK, as you put it, and it will SEEM awesome because you will have made it.

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As a definitive, I disagree. Not touting my first batch nor my abilities because most have not turned out "great" even in my mind -- good, very drinkable (for the most part), but not really great. However, the first one hit my target and tasted great and there's no reason anyone else can't do the same.

Rick

Rick_R - explain to me your dates that you have.

Does Gone mean . . . .drank?

P=Primary fermentations vessel and the date is the date it went in
S= Secondary fermentaion vessel
B= Bottled
R= I am not sure about...maybe Racked?
and Gone, means it dead, empty, drank and all gone.

I am on my second batch of beer. My first batch was an English bitter that came out absolutely fantastic. I used a basic equipment kit that included a secondary--glass carboy. My wife already had a 20 qt. stainless pot. I love this woman!

If there was one thing I would have changed, it would have been to wait longer after bottling. This beer took literally 4 weeks to carbonate. I was so anxious that I opened about 10 between the 10th day and 4 week mark. I did drink these, but turns out they were much better with age.

Anyway, most of the beer was consumed at a party, 4 weeks and 1 day after bottling. It was defnintely a hit. I held back 8 for myself--these have been bottled almost 7 weeks now. I had 2 over the weekend, and they are even better now. The carbonation is definitely matured, the flavor is even better, and the beer is clearer.

Things I have bought beyond the basic equipment kit:

A "thief" for taking samples
45 bottle tree
Bottle washer
Oxy Clean (Free)
Star San
Bottle sulfiter (shoots sanitizer up into the bottles)
Floating thermometer

Overall I've found homebrewing to be thoroughly rewarding and enjoyable, not to mention that people (friends, family, acquaintences) seem to take great interest in it and definitely want to try the finished product.

Enjoy!

Grinder, Welcome!

One of the neat things about this hobby is that it can be as simple (A few buckets, bottles, a few feet of tubing and a hydrometer) or as complicated (Steam-jacketed kettles and PID-controlled recirculated infusion mashing systems) as you and your budget will allow. A basic kit from a good homebrew shop will get you on the road. Don't sweat the tiny details yet. Buy what you need, read the first few chapters of Palmer (www.howtobrew.com) and dive in. There are really only three things you need to get started:

Sanitation
Patience
Curiosity

Exercise all three, and you'll be on your way.

Rick_R - explain to me your dates that you have.

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Sherpa_FE was close: Primary, Secondary, Bottled, Refrigerated, Gone (as in, darn it, there's none left).

Rick

Man, there is some good advice in this thread already. Grinder, you look to have the knack of getting some damn fine sense out of the internets .

The only thing I'll add is that the water I have is soft as sh*te. I talked to a local microbrewer about this, and he said that that kind of water is great for malty beers. I prefer really hoppy brews, so I tend to add a little Burton salts when I make mine, but even when I don't the beer still tastes fine. So brew away, don't worry, relax, and (when it's finally ready) have a home brew!

neilb said:

My tips to a new brewer (being one myself pretty much) wanting a palatable first brew is to keep the temperature within the correct range (65F to 70F max) and to stay away from the corn sugar and use malt as much as possible.

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As a total noob I have no right to be giving advice, but my homebrew kit came with The Complete Joy of HomeBrewing and an ingredient kit. The book very clearly says to use all malt if possible for best results, and the ingredient kit came with half malt and half corn sugar. I had no other option so I brewed it that way, but ever since then it's been "fermenting" in me that my first batch could have been better.

Grinder, you look to have the knack of getting some damn fine sense out of the internets

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LOL - I have a blog that has 1000 unique readers a day - I seem to know how to get people interested.

Thanks for all the advice 0 looks like Thursday I'll make a purchase.

Welcome to the funderful world of fermentation!!!

Nothing really to add to what's already been discussed except when in doubt...give a shout.

I swear there's someone on-line here from somewhere 24/7...