a lot more to know than I thought.

[richmcd]

Just a quick 'Hello' from Canada.

Started doing homebrew a couple of months back with marginal success. Any success I did have I am pretty sure came from reading and re-reading posts on this site. It is a surprisingly tricky hobby with some pretty high stresses.

Currently brewing extract with specialty grains, hope to move to all grain soon along with kegging.

Thanks for all the info you guys put out there for all us noobs.

Currently have made:
brewers best red ale; bottled
brewers best robust porter (added vanilla beans fermented in spiced rum prior to racking to secondary) bottled
sam adams summer clone; modified recipe from this site. bottled but suspect
sam adams summer clone; recipe from this site; in primary

I ended up doing a second batch of the sam adams because the first was awful....but that will be a topic for another thread.

Thanks again and sorry for the long first post!

 

[passedpawn]

The rabbit hole is deep.

The fact that there is almost an endless amount of things to try and learn makes homebrewing one hellaciously cool hobby. And in the end you have beer.

Welcome to the forum Rich.

 

[kh54s10]

How much you need to "know" depends on how technical you want to get. If you stick to kits there is not too much you need to know. If you experiment you need to understand more. Or if you are really into it you can learn all the biology and chemistry involved in brewing beer.

The degree of need to "know" is up to you.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[IslandLizard]

You've come to a good place here at HBT. Read up on anything brewing and learn from others. Better than taking a class.

Nothing wrong with extract and steeping grains. Brew a few to get the basics down until the process becomes second nature (e.g., boiling, steeping, hops additions, chilling, juggling yeast, fermenting, racking, packaging, sanitation). Do a few partial mashes, by putting the mash in a large pot in a preheated, turned-off oven to keep the mash temp consistent for an hour. In short time you'll be making all grain beer with all the bells and whistles of dry hopping, fruit additions, aging, etc.

One of the foremost techniques to master is controlling fermentation temps toward the low side of a yeast strain's range. Without that it is difficult to make good beer.

Welcome to this addictive hobby!

 

[Cyclman]

Welcome to the hobby, and the group, from CO

I think kits are a fantastic way to master the basics of brewing- sanitation; chilling; growing / oxygenating / pitching yeast appropriately; temp. controlled fermentation; dry hopping; adding fruit.

Once you have that down, BIAB on an outdoor burner / full sized kettle is a minor cost to step up. Then, you can literally brew any beer you would like to.

 

[Homercidal]

Welcome!

Yes, there can be a lot to know and some of it can be very technical, but almost all of it is completely understandable and useable by the average person. It just takes time and experience to get the basics down and be able to advance to the more challenging aspects of the hobby.

The big things to keep in mind are:
Sanitation
Fermentation temp control
Patience
RDWHAHB

 

[richmcd]

Doing a bunch of reading on fermentation control. I think that that may have been the issue with the first batch of sam adams clone. (phenolic/plastic flavours) Fermentation temps I think got to mid-high 70's on that one. Trying some different options now without resorting to third fridge.