SteveM
Well-Known Member
Hi, all - I am new to home brewing (eight months now, six five gallon batches done). I have been looking for a good home brewing site and I was pleased to find this one (through Google).
Here is my story on brewing. I was always curious about it, but not quite curious enough to go out and buy the gear. This past Christmas, I was given a brewing kit as a gift - pretty much everything you need, including a brew tank, another tank with a tap, a really neat pump/siphon, three cases of brown bottles, a hydrometer (which I have found little use for, in part due to its lack of precision) and a bottle capper, plus a book, a magazine and a few brochures. Plus a very basic starter kit, with instructions.
All of this was bought in a shop many many miles from where I live. I found the whole pile of stuff very intimidating and felt pretty clueless about what to do. It seemed like every bit of instruction from any source (remember the book, magazine, brochures, starter kit instructions) seemed to be contradicted by something from another source. And it ALL seemed to be in some other language - what are they TALKING about? Racking? I kept putting it aside in frustration, until ultimately I decided I could not put it off any longer. I am a Philadelphia area resident and I wanted to have some home brewed beer for the Super Bowl, so finally, a week or two into January, I decided to plunge in (so to speak).
The only consistent guideline I read everywhere was to sanitize everything as effectively as possible. After that, I was adrift, but I had spoken to a few people at work who had brewed some beer and they basically said, don't sweat it, just take the simplest set of instructions and follow them.
Darn, that sounded easy enough. I made up a batch, bottled it after two weeks in the brew tank, and a week later, in time for the Super Bowl, I had a passable lager.
This success spurred me on. I seached the internet for home brewing retail outlets and found one just minutes from where I live. Once my lager was gone, I drove on over - still winter, in blizzard conditions, people sliding all over the pavement, but I was going to get my next kit!
I spoke to the owner for a bit and told him of my experience to that point. He reassured me: "Sanitizing is critical, but don't worry over the other stuff, its only beer!" Duh! Of course! Why worry? It's BEER! What's the worst that can happen?
Since then I have brewed up maybe another five batches and have found a taste for Pale Ales. You can get great lagers all over - heck, I was raised on Yeungling Lager, which is a fine beer, leaving the national brands in the dust. But a great pale ale is not so easy to come by. I already have numerous stories to tell that will wait for another post (this one is about long enough, I think). The bottom line is that the pale ales that come out of my tank are without exaggeration the best beers I have ever tasted (but I am sure that this is a common experience for home brewers). And I have tasted some really fine ones, having had the good fortune to have a job that used to take me all over the world.
I've stuck with the two rules I learned first, and they haven't failed me yet: Sanitize everything and remember, it's just beer!
By the way, is it a sacrilege to say that here?
Oh, yeah, and after my first batch, I put that d**n hydrometer away!
I will be looking for some tips and tricks in the future, but for now I will just lurk and read, and maybe post every once in a while. Great site, thanks!
Steve
Here is my story on brewing. I was always curious about it, but not quite curious enough to go out and buy the gear. This past Christmas, I was given a brewing kit as a gift - pretty much everything you need, including a brew tank, another tank with a tap, a really neat pump/siphon, three cases of brown bottles, a hydrometer (which I have found little use for, in part due to its lack of precision) and a bottle capper, plus a book, a magazine and a few brochures. Plus a very basic starter kit, with instructions.
All of this was bought in a shop many many miles from where I live. I found the whole pile of stuff very intimidating and felt pretty clueless about what to do. It seemed like every bit of instruction from any source (remember the book, magazine, brochures, starter kit instructions) seemed to be contradicted by something from another source. And it ALL seemed to be in some other language - what are they TALKING about? Racking? I kept putting it aside in frustration, until ultimately I decided I could not put it off any longer. I am a Philadelphia area resident and I wanted to have some home brewed beer for the Super Bowl, so finally, a week or two into January, I decided to plunge in (so to speak).
The only consistent guideline I read everywhere was to sanitize everything as effectively as possible. After that, I was adrift, but I had spoken to a few people at work who had brewed some beer and they basically said, don't sweat it, just take the simplest set of instructions and follow them.
Darn, that sounded easy enough. I made up a batch, bottled it after two weeks in the brew tank, and a week later, in time for the Super Bowl, I had a passable lager.
This success spurred me on. I seached the internet for home brewing retail outlets and found one just minutes from where I live. Once my lager was gone, I drove on over - still winter, in blizzard conditions, people sliding all over the pavement, but I was going to get my next kit!
I spoke to the owner for a bit and told him of my experience to that point. He reassured me: "Sanitizing is critical, but don't worry over the other stuff, its only beer!" Duh! Of course! Why worry? It's BEER! What's the worst that can happen?
Since then I have brewed up maybe another five batches and have found a taste for Pale Ales. You can get great lagers all over - heck, I was raised on Yeungling Lager, which is a fine beer, leaving the national brands in the dust. But a great pale ale is not so easy to come by. I already have numerous stories to tell that will wait for another post (this one is about long enough, I think). The bottom line is that the pale ales that come out of my tank are without exaggeration the best beers I have ever tasted (but I am sure that this is a common experience for home brewers). And I have tasted some really fine ones, having had the good fortune to have a job that used to take me all over the world.
I've stuck with the two rules I learned first, and they haven't failed me yet: Sanitize everything and remember, it's just beer!
By the way, is it a sacrilege to say that here?
Oh, yeah, and after my first batch, I put that d**n hydrometer away!
I will be looking for some tips and tricks in the future, but for now I will just lurk and read, and maybe post every once in a while. Great site, thanks!
Steve
