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jasebrooker

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Hi everyone.

I'm completely new to brewing and I really don't know where to start. Ive had a go at brewing mead but only the very very simple stuff. I have brewed a ready mixed 5 gallon real ale canned starter kit thingy but I would love to have a go at making my own real ale from scratch but I just don't know where to start. I've looked at the recipes on the forums but I don't even know what most of it means let alone how to follow it! Could anyone point me in the right direction?

Many thanks

J
 
I second gloatbrewing on that...if you find a local supply shop and/or a club you will find a lot of support and some of them teach classes for extract and all-grain brewing. Don't worry about what you don't understand now, homebrewers love to share their passion!
 
After reading I would suggest you look at pre-made recipe kits from places like northern Brewer, Midwest supplies or Austin homebrew and start with those.
 
I would recommend 2 things.

1 Buy How to Brew. It's not quite as accessible as The Complete Joy of Homebrewing but I found overall the information slightly better.

2 go talk to your LHBS. My awesome LHBS when you buy their beer making kits includes a 4 page how to brew instruction guide which tells you the steps. Books like How to Brew tell you the steps and why they work.
 
Once you're done reading the Complete Joy of Homebrewing (or at least done with the basics and beginner's section), check out the recipes here again. Don't be afraid to ask questions about them, and it's nice to get immediate feedback from forum users as well as from the original recipe creator him/herself.

Welcome to homebrewing! :mug:
 
Hi everyone.

I'm completely new to brewing and I really don't know where to start. Ive had a go at brewing mead but only the very very simple stuff. I have brewed a ready mixed 5 gallon real ale canned starter kit thingy but I would love to have a go at making my own real ale from scratch but I just don't know where to start. I've looked at the recipes on the forums but I don't even know what most of it means let alone how to follow it! Could anyone point me in the right direction?

Many thanks

J

Also if you want a good start, I'd say bang out some premade kits. There's tons of sources but I'd recommend your local home brew shop. Get fresh ingredients, if you get steeping grains it's best to have them crushed right before you brew.
 
If you are truly seeking a mentor, tell us where you are located. Maybe one of us "more experienced" addicts will offer to show you the ropes on a brew day and patiently answer your questions. After all, we were all beginners at one time.
 
Welcome to the forum. I stood in your shoes a scant six months ago, and still consider myself a newbie. I second the advice given above re. the books recommended. Once you have questions don't be afraid to ask them on the forum or at your lhbs. I asked (and continue to ask) basic questions that showed my real ignorance and have always been treated graciously here at the forum.

I also found the following inexpensive videos helpful insofar as they allowed me to see the process from start to finish:

Basic Brewing (for extract and partial mash brewing)

Stepping into All Grain (for all-grain brewing)

Best,

Steve
 
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Thank you everyone for all your suggestions :) I think I will carry on with the ready made kits whilst I pick up a copy of the books that have been suggested and go from there, seems like the most logical steps. I am located in Hastings, UK if anyone is around from there. I have found a home brew shop in Brighton so I'm popping in on Friday to have a chat and a look round.
 
Hi all.

So I visited my local home brew shop and got some bits and some advice. I couldn't find the book you all mentioned so I will try somewhere else, failing that I'll buy it online.

I'm going to do a few more kits as there are some good ones where you still have to do all the mixing but there is no boiling or crushing grain etc involved. The guy in the shop mentioned that to brew from scratch there are some pretty heavy start up costs, one of these is a water boiler. Now, I have a big electric tea urn kicking about, could I use this? I know you can do it on the hob in a big pan but I imagine that to be a bit of a pain.

Cheers everyone

J
 
Hi all.

So I visited my local home brew shop and got some bits and some advice. I couldn't find the book you all mentioned so I will try somewhere else, failing that I'll buy it online.

I'm going to do a few more kits as there are some good ones where you still have to do all the mixing but there is no boiling or crushing grain etc involved. The guy in the shop mentioned that to brew from scratch there are some pretty heavy start up costs, one of these is a water boiler. Now, I have a big electric tea urn kicking about, could I use this? I know you can do it on the hob in a big pan but I imagine that to be a bit of a pain.

Cheers everyone

J

You can find John Palmer's How to Brew (vol. 1) online here - for free. Vol. 2 is quite reasonable and available from amazon.com. Charlie Papazian's book is good for the beginning brewer and is available in hard copy or as a Kindle version.

If you are going to do 5 gallon extract brews on the stove top then I recommend a brew pot capable of holding at least 4 gallons or 16 quarts - 20 quarts is even better. It's nice to have a lot of head space when you're you boiling wort. The first time that I brewed I used a 12 quart pot and let's just say that it's difficult to keep the wort in the kettle during boiling; transfer to your sink for chilling is also easier if you don't have to worry about hot wort slipping over the sides and searing your wrists and forearms, lol...

Your main concern is an extract brewer imho is sanitation. I cleaned eveything that could touch my beer and then used StarSan as a final step. If I was in doubt then I used StarSan again. Putting some StarSan in a plastic spray bottle is also good for those small parts that you're not sure about. I probably "oversanitized" my equipment because I was so rigorous about it (but then again there is probably no such thing as "oversanitization.")

I felt that I made every mistake that could be made, and fretted as everything that could go wrong did go wrong - and my beer still turned out great. Your's will too.
 
Hi everyone.

Thanks for all the help and advice so far. I have just got my first tinned beer kit going, all the froth that's appeared on the surface, do I scoop that off or just leave it? Also, I have ordered Joy of Home Brewing so I should receive that in the next few days :)

J
 
Oh ok that's good to know, so how will I know when fermentation is complete? I can't see any bubbles because the foam is obscuring the surface. I have a hydrometer but I can't work out how to use it and if I drop that in then it will disturb the surface foam as well
 
Oh ok that's good to know, so how will I know when fermentation is complete? I can't see any bubbles because the foam is obscuring the surface. I have a hydrometer but I can't work out how to use it and if I drop that in then it will disturb the surface foam as well

Forget the bubbles. The krausen (the foam) is an indicator that bubbling in the wort has taken place. As the yeast slow down, the krausen will drop (usually). If after 1-2 weeks the krausen has not fallen, then you need to take a sample from UNDER the krausen.

Get a turkey baster or wine thief or some such item. Sanitize it. Stick it in the beer (UNDER the krausen) and draw up a sample. Pour sample in the tube that came with your hydrometer. (I usually carefully place the hydrometer in the tube beforehand, YMMV)

Make sure you are reading the BOTTOM of the meniscus as shown here:

web6hydrometer.gif


NOTE that image is not showing specific gravity. You will look for the 1.020, 1.030, 1.040, etc lines and write down that number. The caption under that image is for winemaking, hence the Brix.
 
Surprised I didn't see it mentioned.

The best resource I've ever had is my local homebrew club. I went before I got close to my first batch and was amazed at how much knowledge was available. And I saved boat loads of money with cheap/free dusty equipment that the club members had graduated up from.

They had a library that I just borrowed all the books listed here from, and the club members invited me over to walk me through the finer points of brewing.

Plus, there is lots of tasty beer to sample!
 
If after 1-2 weeks the krausen has not fallen, then you need to take a sample from UNDER the krausen.

When I take a sample from beer with kraeusen, I've just been sampling pretty much from the top, which includes a little kraeusen. It seems ok, but am I fooling myself? How does the kraeusen affect the reading?
 
I found the premade kits to be relatively safe beers. So I started reading old posts and other members recipes. My lhbs has a recipe database and the prepare all the ingredients fresh. I then add my own ingredients for flavors and such. I'd say brew a few batches and then start experimenting. Read some literature on the subject and you'll find what grains and hops are best for most beer types.
 
ncbrewer said:
When I take a sample from beer with kraeusen, I've just been sampling pretty much from the top, which includes a little kraeusen. It seems ok, but am I fooling myself? How does the kraeusen affect the reading?

Not to be flippant but the best advice most of use have ever received is RDWHAHB (relax, don't worry, have a homebrew). A few floaty bits aren't going to skew your readings too horribly. One of the main reasons for taking the readings in the first place is to check to see if fermentation has stopped. So, as long as you're not collecting too much detritus you are good to go. Just use the readings you get and as long as they don't change for two or three days fermenting is done.
 
When I take a sample from beer with kraeusen, I've just been sampling pretty much from the top, which includes a little kraeusen. It seems ok, but am I fooling myself? How does the kraeusen affect the reading?

The answer as I understand it is; the yeast and stuff don't affect the reading. They are slightly less than neutrally bouyant and simply float around WITH the hydrometer.

The sugar content is (more or less) what makes the hydrometer float, because it intergrates into the wort/beer and causes the wort/beer to actually be denser and heavier, thereby lifting the hydrometer up.
 
The answer as I understand it is; the yeast and stuff don't affect the reading. They are slightly less than neutrally bouyant and simply float around WITH the hydrometer.

The sugar content is (more or less) what makes the hydrometer float, because it intergrates into the wort/beer and causes the wort/beer to actually be denser and heavier, thereby lifting the hydrometer up.

So is the purpose of taking the sample from UNDER the kraeusen to minimize disturbing the beer, rather than for accuracy?
 
'Joy of home brewing' arrived in the post today, I'm VERY excited!!! :D
 
So is the purpose of taking the sample from UNDER the kraeusen to minimize disturbing the beer, rather than for accuracy?

Neither. It just keeps the sample tube from being all nasty looking and hard to read. The krausen is just a bunch of foam with yeast and proteins mixed.

This reminds me I have a Cream Ale with US-05 in the closet that needs a reading. Need to get the in the keg and settling out ASAP!
 
Hi everyone.

So it's nearly time for me to bottle my first ever batch! I managed to get some bottles for free from a local pub (saved a bit of cash there!) and I have my bottling bucket all set up, I've also ordered some starsan so I can make sure everything is sanitised properly. So now I'm good to go I have one last question before i bottle, that is;
According to the destructions I need to put half a teaspoon of sugar in each bottle. Now, I'm going to just mix all the sugar up in some water, put it in the bottling bucket then rack my beer into it. My question is how do I know exactly how much sugar to mix up? My bucket has measurements on but they're not great. (So far on about 3.75 gallons) but there are no increments between the gallon marks. I don't want beer bombs but I don't want to mix to little. What would you all suggest?
 
There are some great online priming sugar calculators out there. Here's one: http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/priming.html

Here's my take on priming: I like to use just slightly more priming sugar than suggested. As in, when you measure out your amount, don't worry if you use a little extra. Above all else, most ales will require a full three weeks of conditioning in a warm (room temperature), dark location. Inside of a cardboard box on a top shelf of a disused closet is a perfect spot. Bigger beers will require longer conditioning time. So, if you open a bottle in a week and it's flat, remember, told you so. Be patient and let them go the full three weeks. Then, put one or two in the fridge for a full 48 hours and let them chill cold. Cold temperature beer can absorb more CO2 than warm beer, so a good cold crash will help carbonate CO2 trapped in the necks of the bottles. Remember, you can let them warm back up to whichever serving temperature you like, but you might as well get all that CO2 into the beer FIRST before you do that.
 
Ah ok, not heard of chilling them like that so I'll look into that. I'm going to do a bit of math (volume of a cylinder) to get a rough idea and then go from there. If I'm better off waiting 3 weeks I shall need to look into more bottles as there's no way I'll be able to wait until they're all gone to start another brew :)
 
Hi everyone.

I thought I'd let you all know how I'm getting on! My first batch is now done and bottled, now for the hard part, waiting!
There have been a couple of things I have noticed that I will try to change when I do my next batch that I was hoping to get some advice on. I planned for 34 bottles but in reality I only got 27 due to the amount of sediment at the bottom. As I planned for 34 bottles I added enough priming sugar for 34 bottles so I'm hoping I don't get bombs! How do you guys figure this in to your priming sugar calculations? Also, can you go straight from fermenting bucket to bottle? I have a bottling bucket which I transferred to but I figure it would make sense to just ferment straight into that, wouldn't cause a problem would it or is it better to rack it anyway?
Any who, thanks for all the advice and help, I think I will have to go and get some more bottles as there is no way I will be able to wait upto a month before getting another brew on ! :)

All the best,

J

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The priming sugar should still be close enough. I would, however, suggest that you get those bottles in the dark ASAP! Clear bottles left in the light produce skunked beer.
 
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