Intimidating brewing, sheesh (noob first post)

I'm sitting here on Christmas morning waiting for the family to get up, so why not visit the HBT.

I have to say the more I read, the more intimidating brewing beer becomes. There is so much info to digest. I have my kit in the Fed Ex pipeline, an Amber brew kit will be the first. Looking forward to cracking the first HB.

I know half my problem is inexperience, ok, all my problems.

I know its just brewin'.

I'd love to hear the basic of tips, perhaps things you guys take for granted that a noob should know.

Merry Christmas brewers!

Sanitize

Sanitize
Sanitize
Fermentation temp

best thing you can do is not to fret about, it's just beer and will taste good. read the instructions a few time before starting and if there something you don't understand post a question. make sure your fementer and anything coming in contact with your cooled wort is clean and sanitized. pitch yeast when it cooled to about 68 and try to ferment at around 65 +/- degrees. but most of all take your time and have fun.

Glynn said:

best thing you can do is not to fret about, it's just beer and will taste good. read the instructions a few time before starting and if there something you don't understand post a question. make sure your fementer and anything coming in contact with your cooled wort is clean and sanitized. pitch yeast when it cooled to about 68 and try to ferment at around 65 +/- degrees. but most of all take your time and have fun.

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This, we all over analyzed our first brew. It isn't rocket science. Relax, read the destructions and have fun.

+1 to all responses, but especially the "take your time and have fun" line. Give yourself plenty of time and do it when you're in a good mood, because it should be fun.

It's simple...assuming you're starting with extract. Heat water, stir in extract, boil, add hops, chill, pitch yeast, don't post about not seeing airlock activity...then do the bottling process when it's done fermenting.

It's easy. Sanitation is probably the most important thing. You can screw up a lot and still make good beer. If things aren't clean and sanitized, you'll get frustrated.

I found a few pale ales from Nov 2010 recently, my second batch ever, and a Brewer's Best kit, and surprisingly, they're good and people like them. As much as I can remember or see in my notes things ill never do again that did on that beer, it still worked out just fine.

Enjoy the process and have fun, you're making beer for crying out loud.

Hammy71 said:

This, we all over analyzed our first brew. It isn't rocket science. Relax, read the destructions and have fun.

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Yes, it is absolute imperative that you follow the destructions.

jsmoon888 said:

Sanitize
Sanitize
Fermentation temps

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This for sure, plus patience and having fun! It is an enjoyable hobby!

My first timer brewing advice-Ferment in a 62ish degree area for a couple weeks. My first beer blew the lid off the bucket and tasted like rocket fuel after it fermented at ~80 degrees.

Its boiling water and adding ingredients. You have instructions right there. It isnt going to be difficult and when you finish you are going to say "Huh? That's IT? I worried over THAT?" Seriously...just make sure you sanitize everything and you WILL make beer!

Merry Christmas and RDWHAHB!

The HBT Forums are filled with people of all levels of brewing experience. There are people who have never brewed, people who are just getting started, and plenty of folks who have brewed hundreds of batches.

The way I see it:

1. You can brew a really bad beer, which is likely a result of doing something very wrong
2. You can brew a solid beer, and even with a few mistakes you will have a nice drinkable brew
3. You can brew an awesome beer, doing everything correctly and maybe even trying a more advanced technique.

You will likely brew all 3 scenarios many times in this hobby! Don't worry about it, we all do it. Use this forum to brew better beer, but stick to the basics until you feel comfortable moving on to more advanced techniques.

For me, I read everything I could find. John Palmer's How to Brew was first, but now I have 8-10 books that I reference often. Enjoy!

Beer has been brewed since before grain was domesticated, with little more than rocks and fire. There is very little knowledge needed to make beer. The other fine points are part of making better beer. Relax and let the addiction to homebrew just flow over you--don't fight it. First day you'll know little more than how to boil wort, but before long you'll be talking about residual alkalinity, attentuation and extract yields like a pro. With your extract kit most of the details are built in for you. In time you'll learn to isolate each of these details for yourself and twist them in different directions. Enjoy!

Patience. Don't be bothered by the timeline in the instructions, give fermentation plenty of time to finish, let the beer settle for a few days, then bottle. It will be VERY hard but don't rush things.

Sanitation

Pitch enough healthy yeast

Ferment at the right temperature. This means the ambient temp should be 3-5 degrees lower than ideal fermentation temperature.



It takes a terrible recipe or major screw ups in brewing process to make bad beer if you do those three things.

Relax. It seems intimidating, but it really is not. Spend a lot of time here reading about brewing. There are also some good youtube videos that you can watch. Then read the directions that comes with your kit. Go over the steps. I even made a checklist to help me walk through the process. It is really pretty hard to totally screw up a brew.

A couple of important things that will ensure success.

Sanitize, sanitize sanitize, if you are not sure sanitize again.. Starsan is great

Get you wort cooled down to the proper temperature...Check out the recommended temp range dor the yeast you are using and try to pitch at the lower end of that range.

Keep the fermentation temp in the proper range for the yeast you are using. Fermentation will produce heat so a temp even a little below that range is good.

Give it plenty of time to ferment. Most kit instruction rush the fermentation time. They also often recommend racking to a secondary, which many here find not necessary.

After it is done, bottle it up and let the bottles sit at 70 degrees for 3 weeks to carb up. Put a few in the fridge for a minimum of 24 hours. Longer is better, but since it is your first brew you will have a hard time waiting.

Enjoy your beer.....

Repeat.


BTW welcome to the forum and this very rewarding hobby/addiction.

Seems like these guys got you covered...Just have FUN and keep it clean.

Just relax it's really easy read instructions through couple of times before you brew and the steps will flow like the beer will soon. MERRY CHRISTMAS/HAPPY HOLIDAYS to all of you hardcore brewers on here at this time......I'm going fishing!!!!

It's funny, when I first started learning how to brew it sounded super simple. That got me prepared to try it for myself. But then the more I read the more I realized how much there was to learn... The devil is in the details.

helibrewer said:

Patience. Don't be bothered by the timeline in the instructions, give fermentation plenty of time to finish, let the beer settle for a few days, then bottle. It will be VERY hard but don't rush things.

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+1 on that ! Leave it in the fermenter for 3 weeks. Easier said than done.

I just jumped into it feet first. Yeah sanitizing is of course important, but what hindered my few few batches was that fact that my digital thermometer was WAY off and my mash temps were all too low.

Making beer is easy. Nothing to it.

Making good beer isn't much harder but it takes a little practice and some reading.

Making great beer is what we all are trying to do, some do better than others.

Making great beer consistently is a bit more difficult.

I just started brewing over the summer. I was in the same boat you were. I never did it in the past, because I looked at it as too intimidating a process. My first beer was drinkable, but not really all that good. Mainly because of chlorine issues and letting the beer ferment at too high a temperature. Oh yeah, an impatience. Basically, I kegged at the bare minimum and kept tasting it every day. Pretty soon, just as it started to taste decent, it was gone.

I learned a lot from that, but mainly, I kept saying to myself, "Why the hell haven't I been doing this all my adult life?" It's literally no harder than making soup, you just have to do a little pre-planning and everything will turn out fine. I've already switched to all-grain brewing and am still blown away by how easy it is to make beer. (mind you I didn't say "Good" beer.) I like my beer, my friends seem to like it as well. But time, patience and practice seem to be a good combination to making good beer.

i would say relax. i was so uptight about sanitation on my first brew that i really didn't take the time to sit back and enjoy the process. RDWHAHB and everything will turn out fine.

If you can boil water, you can brew beer.

Sanitize
Follw the instructions
Enjoy your beer

When you read the instructions, remember that the hops are added with that # of minutes left in the boil.

Ie: 60 minute boil

1 oz cascade @ 60
1 oz cascade @ 5

would mean that one ounce goes in the kettle as soon as boiling is achieved and one ounce goes in when you have boiled for 55 minutes and have 5 minutes left.

Don't worry too much. It is only beer.

I cant reccomend John Palmers book "How to Brew" enough. If you dont have it the first edition is online for free. If you are using a packet of yeast you might want to rehydrate it before you pitch it.

I'm going to go against some of the advice given and suggest you stop reading. Seriously. Just print out some step-by-step instructions (if your ingredient kit didn't come with some) and brew.

Your first batch may turn out great, it may suck. But overwhelming yourself with info prior to brewing can cause your first brewday to be unenjoyable. And if you don't enjoy yourself why would you do it again (regardless of outcome).

I consumed way to much information during my first couple of batches, got overwhelmed, learnd some more and thought the old K.I.S.S. advice didn't apply to me because I "knew" so much. It wasn't until I got "back to the basics" that I actually started to enjoy myself.

Brew. Test. Report the results. Ask for guidance on specifics. Repeat.

Have Fun Clean and Santize. Tempurature control on primary. Take it easy and have fun. Everyone has parniods moments during brewing. Sit back and boil some hops.

While reading these forums gave me the help I needed for my first brew day, it also made me stress out about all the details. Bottom line, get the first one under your belt and start moving forward.

Remember that most of us manage to brew beer one handed and half drunk. Because that's what RDWHAHB means.

Being a new guy myself I felt intimidated as well. Despite a small boil over and having to increase my boil time and move my hop schedule because i used too much water. It was actually really easy. My best advice would be to be patient. It took about 48 hours for my airlock to start showing any real action. Use the basics and sanitize well. There is tons of information on here, but the way I see it...you won't become Sam Adams overnight. The people here are extremely helpful as well....even if it has been posted a million times and you have difficulty finding it...they always come through! My fermenter reaks of stinky goodness right now! And I owe it all to these great people here! You won't regret it!

As a new Home Brewer myself you have come to the right place. This is a great group and quick with answers.

Hey I know how you feel. My first batch is sitting in primary and I hope to bottle it next weekend.

I'm worried I've done something wrong and worry I won't pick up the common sense stuff along the way.

I think it's a lot of common sense stuff (sanitation, etc.) combined with acquired knowledge. For instance, the instructions that came with my brew kit made no mention of exact boil & fermentation temperatures or gravity readings. Therefore I didn't have a thermometer or hydrometer when I brewed up this batch. I do know, but still don't know how to read the hydrometer.

I guess we'll learn, one batch at at time.

When I was gettng started, I read the posts bout how people had messed up their batches, but they usually turned out OK in the end. Go head and read those while you're waiting. Should ease your nerves.

All you're doing is boiling large amounts of water and hucking stuff into it at certain times throughout the boil. The yeast do all the work.

Oh... and be really really clean.

Give it a shot!

Gary

Good stuff, thanks.

Sanitize, seems to be the big thing, I plan on using Starsan. Back in '94 when I first/last brewed I used B brite. This stuff seems to be a huge advancement, not gonna fear the foam.

Vinator, anyone use it. Seems to be a great way to sanitize then hang the bottles on a tree.

I'm gonna ferment in my basement, temp seems to run from 62-66, through out the day/night. Does that sound good, safe range?

scrapes said:

Good stuff, thanks.

Sanitize, seems to be the big thing, I plan on using Starsan. Back in '94 when I first/last brewed I used B brite. This stuff seems to be a huge advancement, not gonna fear the foam.

Vinator, anyone use it. Seems to be a great way to sanitize then hang the bottles on a tree.

I'm gonna ferment in my basement, temp seems to run from 62-66, through out the day/night. Does that sound good, safe range?

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I love my vinator. I don't have to dunk the bottles in a bucket of sanitizer and the vinator gets the entire inside. (I've watched with some clear bottles). I don't have a tree so I put the bottles in the dishwasher upside down on the pins that stick up. Then I set the bottling bucket on the counter above and fill the bottles over the dishwasher door in case I spill some beer. (who am I fooling, I always spill some)

If you cool your wort to the low 60's before pitching the yeast your temperature range should work fine. Want to make it better? Set your fermnter in a tub of water. That will help dampen the temperature swings and keep your yeast from getting too warm.

THE best thing you could do is to find an experienced brewer in your area. Not the guy who has made 5 batches now and is your friend, but the guy who has brewed for 5-20 years and who has some accolades behind him (read BJCP credentials or has won numerous awards brewing himself. I wish I could have had that kind of help starting out. Now I volunteer my time to get a new brewer started as I can help them not screw up 50 things in the first 10 batches they make. The first few beers will be drinkable and MAY actually keep this new brewer going instead of giving up after hours of work and a few bad batches. So my motto is "Brew with an Experienced Brewer for your first 3-5 batches", especially if you are attempting All Grain right out of the gate.

Remember to plan before brewing and then just have fun. Have some good craft beer on hand and once you hit a boil, pop some brews open. Not before ! (ask me how I know ) Good luck, this forum will provide you the answers to almost anything you could imagine. Cheers !

My first batch turned out to be one of my best. Follow the instructions to the T, don't drink too much while doing it is probably the hardest part.

Plan, Plan, Sanitize, Sanitize, Sanitize, and then Sanitize again.

There are some horror stories on this site about brews gone wrong but trust me there are a lot more brews gone well, excellent, and sometimes even perfect.

When the beer turns out perfect, the brewer is too busy drinking a fine homebrew to post so you don't hear much about it.

Good luck and enjoy.

jtkratzer said:

It's simple...assuming you're starting with extract. Heat water, stir in extract, boil, add hops, chill, pitch yeast, don't post about not seeing airlock activity...then do the bottling process when it's done fermenting.

It's easy. Sanitation is probably the most important thing. You can screw up a lot and still make good beer. If things aren't clean and sanitized, you'll get frustrated.

I found a few pale ales from Nov 2010 recently, my second batch ever, and a Brewer's Best kit, and surprisingly, they're good and people like them. As much as I can remember or see in my notes things ill never do again that did on that beer, it still worked out just fine.

Enjoy the process and have fun, you're making beer for crying out loud.

Click to expand...

Thats a memory, my last brew in '94 I had concerns about no airlock activity and called the brew store all panicky, lol.

To keep with the theme...

-Keep a spray bottle of starsan solution handy on brew day.
-Also keep a spray bottle of water handy (to knock down the foam and prevent boil overs at the beginning of the boil)
-Start collecting brown bottles (non twist off). Rinse with dawn after emptying and dry upside-down before storing. Soak in a solution of unscented Oxyclean for a day or two to help remove labels and clean the bottles.

I'll always be there for ya, pal (it's ipodguy)...

About the vinator - I got a NB gift card and that's going to be my next purchase. They look like they do a great job.