Newbies!

Hello Everyone,
My buddy and I are venturing into the world of home brewing. We are for the sake of DIY and maybe making a decent enough beer that maybe everyone would like. Unfortunately we have no clue what so ever of what we are doing Haha. My wife got me a (Brooklyn Brew Shop) starter kit from William Sonoma for father’s day because it is something that I have always wondered about.
We are set to make our first batch with the ingredients that have come along with the kit, so this one might turn out ok, but for future is there any advice or anything that anyone recommends a good way to get our feet wet in to this hobby or where we can turn to? Thanks

-Brett & Cory

My best advise, pick up a book and start reading! Start with " the complete joy of homebrewing" by Charlie Papazian. Make a few batches, then if you get the HB bug, you'll want to get your hands on any piece of written material that exsist about brewing. You can go as simply or as complicated as you want to go. Are you happy with just mixing ingredients and fermenting? Great. Look no furthur than extract. Do you feel like you want to take it further? Awsome, the sky is the limit when you learn all-grain.

Have fun most of all!

Hello and welcome to the forum!

I found these forums, as well as this site : http://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html
to be excellent resources. Good luck, and we look forward to your first thousand questions, heh.

Best, first recommendation I could make is to get THIS book and read it. This is how many got started, how I got started. This forum is also a tremendous resource...the search feature can generally clear up any questions you may have in a hurry. Heck just Googling most beer related questions will almost certainly turn up resources on HBT.

Another thing I wish I had done was to find a local club and rooted around for a local mentor BEFORE I jumped into my All Grain setup. It would have saved some pain and more dollars. I can't complain though as the learning experience has been rewarding.

+1 on "Complete Joy..." also check out John Palmer's book, "How to Brew". There is a ton of literature out there and you will want to read it all. This website is one of the best sources for info. Main thing to remember is if you do good you get beer, if you do bad, you still get beer. Relax and don't worry about every newbie mistake you make. Your beer will probably come out fine! Good luck and welcome to the obsession!

Invest in some good sanitizer, and MAKE SURE EVERYTHING IS STERILE!

That's probably the most important part.

Enjoy!

lextasy23 said:

Invest in some good sanitizer, and MAKE SURE EVERYTHING IS STERILE!

That's probably the most important part.

Enjoy!

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Not trying to be a technical boob here, but you need to make sure everything that comes in contact with your beer (after it has cooled) is sanitized, you do not need everything to be sterile.

You succeeded in being a technical boob. The fact that you had to preface with that, means you know you are.

Sterilization is a term referring to any process that eliminates (removes) or kills all forms of life, including transmissible agents (such as fungi, bacteria, viruses, spore forms, etc.) present on a surface, contained in a fluid, in medication, or in a compound such as biological culture media. Sterilization can be achieved by applying the proper combinations of heat, chemicals, irradiation, high pressure, and filtration.

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StarSan (or any other sanitizer) sterilizes brewing equipment, by killing bacteria with use of a chemical.

lextasy23 said:

You succeeded in being a technical boob. The fact that you had to preface with that, means you know you are.

StarSan (or any other sanitizer) sterilizes brewing equipment, by killing bacteria with use of a chemical.

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Well ok, your right I am a technical boob. However you are incorrect. Sanitizing gets rid of "most' bacteria and such, while sterilizing gets rid of ( all) bacteria and such. StarSan cannot sterilize.

Just want to make it clear that's all.

HAHAH! Welcome to the forums, I love this because Celticway is correct and is also being a technical boob. Basically, you can get as much or as little information here as you want. Yes, pick up starsan, do not go with bleach... I did that for months and the amount of washing it took was ridiculous. Also that book is excellent. What did you get in your kit?

Haha! Classic. The point is to have fun.

Ugh you know what I meant, boob.

Oh ya, and use the search function here. Surprised a thread titled 'Newbies!' made it this far without mentioning that lol.

I just didn't want the poor guy thinking he had to stick everything in an autoclave .. Now that's funny I don't care who you are!

Thank you everyone for all the help.

asterix404 said:

What did you get in your kit?

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1 gallon glass fermenter
3 piece chambered airlock
screw-top stopper 12" laboratory thermometer
4' clear plastic tubing
tubing clamp
racking cane
sanitizer

YankeesIT said:

Thank you everyone for all the help.



1 gallon glass fermenter
3 piece chambered airlock
screw-top stopper 12" laboratory thermometer
4' clear plastic tubing
tubing clamp
racking cane
sanitizer

Click to expand...

I assume that you made a typo, and that your fermenter is bigger than 1 gallon. Also, are you in a position to add some equipment to the kit? I don't see mention of a bottling bucket, hydrometer or bottling wand. What type of sanitizer did they provide?

PIGMAN said:

I assume that you made a typo, and that your fermenter is bigger than 1 gallon. Also, are you in a position to add some equipment to the kit? I don't see mention of a bottling bucket, hydrometer or bottling wand. What type of sanitizer did they provide?

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no typo, 1 gallon. http://brooklynbrewshop.com/store/1-gallon-beer-kits

we are just going to use the kit for now and then add to it or purchase the rest of the equipment we need

that one gallon fermenter will make a good yeast starter jug when you join the big boys makin' them thar 5 gallon batches.

That shop sells 1 and 5 gallon batches. There's a thread on here somewhere about them. I was reading through their instructions (I passed the link on to my dad and wanted to make sure all the equipment and the instructions were adequate before I did so, and they seem decent enough) and the 1 gallon kits instruct to bottle by siphoning from the carboy into a pot w/ priming sugar and then siphoning from the pot into bottles. The 5 gallon kits come with Starsan, hydrometer, auto-siphon and bottling bucket. The 1 gallons do not, and come with a "packet of sanitizer" (I'm guessing C-Brite). Both have tubing clamps instead of a bottling wand.

That said, the bottle-by-siphon method is messy and much tougher than it needs to be, but it can be done. If you can for this batch, I'd picked up a bottling bucket w/ a spigot and a bottling wand. I'd also pick up a hydrometer- it's the only real way to know that fermentation has finished. Otherwise I'd give it at least 3, maybe 4 weeks to ferment so as not to risk fermenting in the bottles and risking explosion (and even then I'd still recommend a hydrometer just to be safe). If the bug bites you (and it usually does) I'd definitely pick this all up prior to starting a second batch.

I'd also add replacing C-Brite (if that's what they gave you) with Starsan. I've used C-Brite before and it works ok. Never got an infection, but even at their "no rinse" dilution I could still taste the chlorine. I believe it's bleach based. Never had that problem with Starsan.

Ohrumphf - Thank you so much

I think those Brooklyn Brewshop kits are a nice way to get into brewing with very little equipment, and their directions are good. And, they start you off right away making all grain beer.

I agree however that a bucket with siphon is much, much nicer than siphoning into bottles. You really don't need to buy ready-made bottling bucket though. For my small batches I use 2 gallon home depot plastic paint buckets to ferment in and bottle from. I just bought a spigot at my Local brewshop and added it to the bucket. Then just use the same hose they provided and add a bottle filler to it.

For a one gallon batch, you probably don't want to use a hydrometer, unless you do it with a wine thief that will allow you to put back your sample. Otherwise you're giving up too much of your precious beer.