First Post... No Gear .. 3 Questions

Hey group!

I've pretty much wasted the entire day today building and re-building online shopping carts and reading this forum... If I had a little extra cash I'd probably have made the purchase already.. but alas.. I must wait till payday so I can keep my wife

After reading quite a bit I still have a few questions...
here they go..

1. Would It be a bad Idea to buy more than one Extract Kit with my initial gear/equipment purchase? how long will these things last? morebeer.com has free shipping on orders over 59 bucks so I figured I'd save some shipping and get two.

2. with the two extract kits i've looked at there are two offered yeast options. Safale and then a White Labs yeast thats seems to be specific to certian beer types.
How much difference will the white labs make and is is either of them more difficult to use/keep alive than the other?

3. After looking around quite a bit I seemed to settle on morebeer.com...
anyone have any recomendations about other online brewshops? no local ones here in my area....

Thanks!
will

waskelton4 said:

Hey group!

I've pretty much wasted the entire day today building and re-building online shopping carts and reading this forum... If I had a little extra cash I'd probably have made the purchase already.. but alas.. I must wait till payday so I can keep my wife

After reading quite a bit I still have a few questions...
here they go..

1. Would It be a bad Idea to buy more than one Extract Kit with my initial gear/equipment purchase? how long will these things last? morebeer.com has free shipping on orders over 59 bucks so I figured I'd save some shipping and get two.

Click to expand...

not an issue... get 2 -- as soon as you finish making the first one, you'll be itching to get another one started anyway, so you might as well have it on hand.

2. with the two extract kits i've looked at there are two offered yeast options. Safale and then a White Labs yeast thats seems to be specific to certian beer types.
How much difference will the white labs make and is is either of them more difficult to use/keep alive than the other?

Click to expand...

assuming you have a refrigerator, neither is more difficult to store. the safale is a dried yeast that comes in a little pouch that can be stored at room temp. the white labs is a liquid yeast culture that comes in a tube that should be stored in the fridge. some say the liquid makes better beer...but i've never done a side-by-side comparison between the two. IMHO, this is an excellent place to save money on your first brew -- just get the safale.

3. After looking around quite a bit I seemed to settle on morebeer.com...
anyone have any recomendations about other online brewshops? no local ones here in my area....

Click to expand...

northernbrewer.com and austinhomebrew.com are fairly common, i think... austin has free shipping over $60 also.

Thanks!
will

Click to expand...

you're welcome

Morebeer extract kits are good. I bought 2 kits to save on shipping and brewed them about 8 days apart. If you buy 2 kits that use the same liquid yeast then after the first batch is transferred to secondary then you could reuse the yeast for the 2nd batch. Liquid yeast seems to be the preferred and better option for yeast and Safale is a good choice for dry yeast.

I'd say start with dry. Like Lou said, you'll still make good beer. Later, once you're hooked, we'll start talking about liquid and starters, etc.

and yeah, buy two if you can afford it, you'll be ready to make another one as soon as you taste your first one.

Welcome

If you're going through Morebeer, you may as well get 2 kits so you get the free shipping. Shipping isn't all that cheap so you may as well spend a little extra now so you're putting that money toward beer!

waskelton4 said:

1. Would It be a bad Idea to buy more than one Extract Kit with my initial gear/equipment purchase? how long will these things last? morebeer.com has free shipping on orders over 59 bucks so I figured I'd save some shipping and get two.

Click to expand...

If you're buying gear AND ingredients, then reaching the $60 free shipping threshold is definitely not an issue.

Maybe strategically, it'd be better to get the gear and ingredients for the first batch now.

Then next time you order, get ingredients for 2 or more batches, which will put you over the $60 threshold again.

Fantastic!

Thanks for the replies everyone..

I'm looking forward to the big purchase...

I'll make sure to keep in touch..


Cheers!

Will

I was going to start on thread similar to this, but since it's kind of on topic...

Does anyone think an IPA kit I got in 1998 is still good?

Blasphemy I know, and I know I'll have to replace the yeast. The hop pellets were vac sealed tho...

Yes, I KNOW I'm an embarassment....



Ize

Ize said:

I was going to start on thread similar to this, but since it's kind of on topic...

Does anyone think an IPA kit I got in 1998 is still good?

Blasphemy I know, and I know I'll have to replace the yeast. The hop pellets were vac sealed tho...

Yes, I KNOW I'm an embarassment....



Ize

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WTF have you been waiting for?!?!
anyway, i'm not sure LME lasts that long... if it's DME, it should probably be ok, but i don't think they make kits with DME...

Lou said:

WTF have you been waiting for?!?!
anyway, i'm not sure LME lasts that long... if it's DME, it should probably be ok, but i don't think they make kits with DME...

Click to expand...

LOLOL... In order of appearance: Divorce, Job, Wedding, Move, Kid (#2), Job Change... In other words, mayhem....

I'll check the kit tonight and get more specific on the ingredients...

I don't want to hijack the thread, just threw it out there.

Good Luck Will! I've been reading these boards for three weeks now, and I've remembered much and learned much much more. Because these guys know their stuff... :rockin:

I am honored to be in their presence...

Ize

Welcome aboard, will!

I'll just echo what has already been said. If you can afford it, pick up two kits. You'll probably be wanting to brew your second even more then your first, so be prepared Go ahead an go with the dry yeast for now (the Safale.) You can worry about liquid yeasts and all that later. Dry yeast will give you good results with less work and let you get comfortable with the process first.