Just a few questions..

I just picked up a copy of the book "The Complete Joy Of Homebrewing". I like Charlie's writing style, it's very friendly and non-pretentious. I didn't expect him to write in a pretentious tone, but I was preparing for a book that was slightly difficult to follow (as are some of the "learn to do xxx" books on the market). I was expecting to find that brewing beer required a huge amount of expensive equipment, but I was wrong (thankfully).

I'm kind of surprised how easy most of the equipment is to find. I managed to find some older glass carboys at an antique shop for 5$ a piece, and I have friends who work at a bar, so they have given me cases of grolsch (spelling ?) style bottles. I also was able to find an 8 gallon stainless steel pot with a dent in the side in the back of a bed bath and beyond. I went in and bought a lid the next day . I have read that some people do not like the grolsch style bottles for some reason (rubber rings being the issue I think), so since I am not any way knowledgeable about the brewing process I cannot think of a reason they should be any different.

If anyone has any ideas as to why a grolsch style bottle would be less viable than a regular pop cap style bottle please let me know before I potentially screw everything up and hate life or something.

Also, if anyone has ever drank the beer called "Cooper's Sparkling Ale" please let me know as I would like to brew a beer similar to it.

Thanks!

Nice score on the equipment....

everybody that I know that brews beer uses flip top bottles. I have 24 1 litre bottles I use on occaision. For the rubber seals, I use a very small dab of keg lube (food grade grease) rubbed into the seal after cleaning. Never had an issue with anything I've put in them.

never heard of Coppers Ale. Sorry

Ok, so I should be alright with the grolsch style bottles then. I know you can replace the rubber bits (gromits/rings/washers?) for fairly cheap. Some people have suggested www.midwestsupplies.com for my brewing needs, they sell replacement rubber bits for about 5$ per 100ct, so it should be pretty sweet I reckon.

Considering I have never brewed anything in my life, is there a difference between the beer in a can style kits, and extract brewing? I mean is there a big difference, or is it the same.

thanks

I'm an extract brewer. Never doan a kit in a can. I find extract recipes and either follow them to the letter, or make little modifications and expirment a little.

prolly didn't answer you question. I think they are pretty much the same. With a kit in a can, you are making beer. With extract, you are still making beer, you can adjust the variables a little more. Plus, you are usually steeping grains, too.

read and ask questions, grasshoppa. It will come........

Thanks ancient chinese kung fu brewing masta.

Wobblebottom said:

Considering I have never brewed anything in my life, is there a difference between the beer in a can style kits, and extract brewing? I mean is there a big difference, or is it the same.

thanks

Click to expand...

It is the same thing. Don't listen to the can kit instructions to use sugar as a fermentable. Use more extract instead.

also dont use the yeast taped to the can buy a packet of danstar nottingham yeast.

I trired Cooper's Sparkling Ale just last week actually.. sad to say that I found it to be somewhat boring. My first attempt at homebrewing was directed towards making a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale-clone... it came out way above expectations! So good luck in your attempts, just dump a truckload of hops in there and you probably won't be dissapointed.

Another reason some people don't like the Grolsch bottles is that they are green - green bottles don't protect your brew from the wavelengths of light that 'skunk' beer. Nothing wrong with fliptops in general though, I have a few cases of brown ones I use almost every other batch...

As for can extract kits v. extract brewing with steeping grains, there isn't much difference. You have more control in brewing extract "recipes". You can buy recipe kits from Midwest, AustinHomebrew, etc. and it will come with instructions and all ingredients necessary. Or you can find a recipe in the recipe finder section of the site (1/2-way down the board) and purchase your ingredients seperately. The cool thing about doing extract + steeping grain brewing (which is what most recipes and kits from Austin, Midwest, etc. are) is that you can slightly modify the recipes once you get an understanding of brewing in order to better suit your taste or give you something a little more personal - i.e. you have more control (then you get into all-grain in about a year or whatever and have ever more control!!)... At first I would just buy a kit or two from MidWest and brew them exactly according to the instructions until you get the process down!


Good luck!

I see.
I've been reading The Complete Joy Of Homebrewing, and I have to say I can't stress enough how much I enjoy the way that book was written, it has been very helpful in giving me a basic understanding of the theory behind brewing, and the process itself. I have a few dvds on homebrewing and they all pretty much say the same thing as far as the process is concerned with slight variations on certain steps like siphoning, and equipment, but I think this all boils down to personal preference. As for me, I prefer to follow directions to the "T" and then when I'm comfortable on my own, I will venture out and go crazy.

As for the grolsch bottles, I bought the brown 32oz ones from Midwest Supplies, so as far as the light spectrum issue goes, I'm not sure how brown bottles go. I prefer larger bottles mostly because you have to bottle less of them, and if I'm feeling particularly ghetto I can brown bag it, and feel nostalgic. I grew up in inner city Chicago (not the suburbs) and I will be in Minneapolis soon, so I plan on partaking in forced nostalgia.

Thanks for all the advice!

Wobblebottom said:

Ok, so I should be alright with the grolsch style bottles then. I know you can replace the rubber bits (gromits/rings/washers?) for fairly cheap. Some people have suggested www.midwestsupplies.com for my brewing needs, they sell replacement rubber bits for about 5$ per 100ct, so it should be pretty sweet I reckon.

Considering I have never brewed anything in my life, is there a difference between the beer in a can style kits, and extract brewing? I mean is there a big difference, or is it the same.

thanks

Click to expand...

I have a mix of Grolsh and Regular Bottles, and don't have a problem with the Grolsh (at least not yet :knocks on wood: ). I have a good backup of rubber replacment rings. I examine them before I bottle and just replace if I even suspect it's not 100%...Call me paranoid. I don't know what the pros on this board think about them though.

The only thing I don't like about flip-tops is trying to convince people to not throw them out when they are done sampling my homebrew.