Newbie question

Hi there I am very new to making beer. I have made a lot of wine and love experimenting and now I'm going to give the beer making a try. I thought I'd start with a kit, so I have one now, it's a "blonde" beer. I have read a few threads where people are adding different spices and flavors to their beers but i think they are making theirs from scratch. So my question would be can I add lime or lemon juice to my beer kit or because it's a kit should I just follow directions exactly for my first attempt?

If you think you know more than the professional brewers that put the recipe together, go ahead; if not, I wouldn't meddle with it

I'd recommend sticking with the recipe & focus more on the process of making beer versus wine. After a few batches under your belt, you can get a little more adventurous. To start, it'd be better for you to focus on things like sanitation, brew day steps, proper fermentation temps throughout, etc.

Thank you!

Fresh Lemon zest and it doesnt take much. Use organic and wash well like i was told. You expierament as much as you want do not listen to half the people here they play with kits and bud that aint a home brewer thats a part exchanger. If ya can read you can brew a kit. Want a challenge brew your own. Now get in there and expierament! Just my two cents

Edit: and im not saying kits are bad just dont limit yourself.

thanks to you lol

I agree with mtk. Make that beer your own. That advice doesn't come without the warning though. Do the research. Make sure you are doing it correctly. I also agree that you need to learn how to change hats to brewing beer vs. wine. Get your process down. Learn about fermenting beer (temps, etc). Focus on cleanliness and sanitation. But please don't lose creativity and your want to do something different. That's what I LOVE about this hobby. Working on a green olive ale soon.

MedicMang said:

Working on a green olive ale soon.

Click to expand...

Strange how that sounds interesting and nasty at the same time :cross:

I have found that people either love or hate the idea of green olive beer. Kind of like the opinion of green olives as a whole. People either love the **** out of them or they can't stand them. I'm on the loving side.

When brewing a kit, I am aiming to duplicate the intended beer mostly to test my own process. That being said, I do believe in creative brewing, and after tasting the finished brew I may wish to make a second batch for the purpose of experimentation. Hell, my friends and I can suffer thru occasional strange flavors in the name of great progress. Cheers

Thanks for the responses I have another ?

My beer kit says after 5-6 days fermentation should be complete beer clear and to bottle and carbonate. A few days ago was 6 days and all bubbles were gone but it was cloudy so I left it and today went to check it and it's foamy as ever. Any ideas why? I moved it when I checked it the first time. Perhaps I stirred up some yeast back to action?

dmcl700 said:

Thanks for the responses I have another ?

My beer kit says after 5-6 days fermentation should be complete beer clear and to bottle and carbonate. A few days ago was 6 days and all bubbles were gone but it was cloudy so I left it and today went to check it and it's foamy as ever. Any ideas why? I moved it when I checked it the first time. Perhaps I stirred up some yeast back to action?

Click to expand...

5-6 days is not long enough IMO. I will usually check for FG and then go another week or two for the beer to clear an settle nicely. It started foaming again because you knocked and stirred up the vessel and it is off gassing, or still fermenting to finish.

Most people on here recommend 3 weeks before bottling, most beers finish before that, but if you are not in a hurry it's better to let the yeast go, they'll clean up some of the off flavors and the imperfections and the beer will clear more.

Was it a dry yeast or a liquid yeast? A lot of times kits don't really even start fermenting for over a day, so my opinion is 5/6 days is way short. Catering to a consumers short attention span/high product turn around rate, is not conducive to good beer.

If you really want clear beer you can "cold crash" it for about 3 days before you bottle it. That is, bringing the temp down below 40, it will force a lot of the yeast and protiens out of suspension before you bottle it.

On my first brew, I split the batch, bottled half by recipe and made a minor addition to the other half. That way I was able to compare the two and know exactly what difference I made.

Right ON thanks for the replies it helps a lot!!

I'm going to wait, let it clear a bit more a couple weeks .. And "cold crash" (thank u as i have heard the term and had ideas but have never been told for sure)