I am new to this thing called home brewing. I guess this "beer" stuff is quite popular! :rockin: Anyhow, I am new to the sport and love the site. I am a typical noob with a starter kit and a Mr. Beer Kit (received both as Christmas gifts) and have batches fermenting in both right now. Pale ale in the Mr. Beer, and a True Brew Malt Extract Amber kit working in the ol' bucket. I even bought my next brew kit (Wheat), which I am going to mix in some blueberry stuff for flavoring once I have bottled my first batch. I am, by no means, an expert, but I wanted to share a few things learned:
First off, read "The Joy of Home Brewing" even if you have gotten underway and have brewed some successful batches. I am sure there are other books out there that work fine too. I know I have read the thing a couple times and I pick up new bits with each re-read of a section.
Ask questions and don't assume. LBS can be awesome and they WANT to help. I asked the process of adding the blueberry flavoring and he told me the ins and outs of the particular product I was looking at, when to add, how much for less than over-powering results, etc.
Make a plan. Know where all your stuff will be before you need a place to set something down, pour this into that, or get something out of the way.
Wash and sanitize everything in your brewing area to get started. You don't want to reach for a spoon, funnel or anything else and think "crap, did this get sanitized???"
Take it slow and re-read the directions, before you start, as you go step by step, and afterwards to ensure your piece of mind. Its simple, but easy to jump ahead of yourself as you are excited to do it all. BTW, the smell of the wort boiling is stinky, warn your wife or significant other. Keep hops away from sniffing dogs, its poisonous to them but they don't know that.
Get a hydrometer and preferably don't break it by putting a sanitized item on it accidently. The glass is surprisingly thin (not that you plan to break it, just be careful).
Cool the wort enough. Use a thermometer. Its easy to want to jump to the yeast too quickly (I had yeast in hand before I realized I hadn't checked the temp)
I would recommend if you are a curious person like most of us, to start off with a glass carboy for fermenting. I have a bucket, and while its going fine, I would have liked to see the stuff happen. I didn't have bubbles in my well sealed airlock that I saw, but a quick peak after a couple of days showed me the gunk ring around the top so its working. Glass shows you what you are curious to see.
Don't confuse yourself with all kinds of "extras" such as secondary fermentors and processes that you won't be doing for the first batch. Start simple then build on your experience and knowledge.
I will be replacing my hydrometer this week so I can get some specific gravity readings to know when my beer fermentation is done.
When I get to bottling, I will pass on any tips you can only get from a first time brewer. Thinking outside the box is great, but only when you know and understand the process.
Catch you all soon!
First off, read "The Joy of Home Brewing" even if you have gotten underway and have brewed some successful batches. I am sure there are other books out there that work fine too. I know I have read the thing a couple times and I pick up new bits with each re-read of a section.
Ask questions and don't assume. LBS can be awesome and they WANT to help. I asked the process of adding the blueberry flavoring and he told me the ins and outs of the particular product I was looking at, when to add, how much for less than over-powering results, etc.
Make a plan. Know where all your stuff will be before you need a place to set something down, pour this into that, or get something out of the way.
Wash and sanitize everything in your brewing area to get started. You don't want to reach for a spoon, funnel or anything else and think "crap, did this get sanitized???"
Take it slow and re-read the directions, before you start, as you go step by step, and afterwards to ensure your piece of mind. Its simple, but easy to jump ahead of yourself as you are excited to do it all. BTW, the smell of the wort boiling is stinky, warn your wife or significant other. Keep hops away from sniffing dogs, its poisonous to them but they don't know that.
Get a hydrometer and preferably don't break it by putting a sanitized item on it accidently. The glass is surprisingly thin (not that you plan to break it, just be careful).
Cool the wort enough. Use a thermometer. Its easy to want to jump to the yeast too quickly (I had yeast in hand before I realized I hadn't checked the temp)
I would recommend if you are a curious person like most of us, to start off with a glass carboy for fermenting. I have a bucket, and while its going fine, I would have liked to see the stuff happen. I didn't have bubbles in my well sealed airlock that I saw, but a quick peak after a couple of days showed me the gunk ring around the top so its working. Glass shows you what you are curious to see.
Don't confuse yourself with all kinds of "extras" such as secondary fermentors and processes that you won't be doing for the first batch. Start simple then build on your experience and knowledge.
I will be replacing my hydrometer this week so I can get some specific gravity readings to know when my beer fermentation is done.
When I get to bottling, I will pass on any tips you can only get from a first time brewer. Thinking outside the box is great, but only when you know and understand the process.
Catch you all soon!
