Hi, brewers!

[Stavrogin78]

Hi folks!

Decided to finally get onto a forum and get the advice of people who know what they're doing. I've actually been homebrewing for about 4 years now, but I would hardly call myself experienced, as I've just done the same thing over and over. I've only ever brewed from kits, and only a particular kind, so I'm looking to branch out a little (the ones I've done were super simple, and yielded good results), and possibly experiment a little. Until this past week, I have only ever used the Brew House kits, which give you 15 litres of wort that you pretty much just top up to 23L, pitch your yeast, and go from there. I love what they've produced, but I know there's more to beer than just that. Just bottled a Coopers kit tonight, and as simple as I'm sure that kit sounds to the experienced folks, it threw me for a loop. So I'll have some questions...

Glad to be here, and looking forward to meeting you all!

 

[ncbrewer]

Welcome to the forum, and ask away.

 

[AkTom]

This is a good place to learn. When I started about 3 years ago, I read lots on the Beginers forum. Ask questions, you typically get a quick answer.
Cheers and happy brewing.

 

[Homercidal]

Welcome! Kits are fine, but if you want to really expand you might consider doing a Brew-In-A-Bag batch using grains.

If you can measure water, read temperature on a thermometer, and do some simple math on a calculator, you can factor the grain and water for All Grain brewing.

Also, the thing to remember about kits, is that while they may have different instructions, they are all really the same inside. The best thing is to read in the beginner area, and the extract area. There are some best practices that can be applied to any kit. Once you read up on them you can throw out the instructions and make up your own mind on what the best way to brew it.

Essentially, though, good kit brewing is about getting fresh kits, being clean, avoiding oxygen post fermentation, and fermenting at the right temperature.