New. Where to begin
- Thread starter kramer09
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Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:
I started with a mr.beer kit that I got for fathers day along with a how to home brew book. That worked well for me, they are fairly inexpensive and give you a taste of what home brewing is about. You can then see if its something you really want to get into.
or you can get a decent kit for about 80 bucks online and that will start you out with everything you need.
Happy brewing!
or you can get a decent kit for about 80 bucks online and that will start you out with everything you need.
Happy brewing!
ravhawk2000
Well-Known Member
When I started, I got a good starter brewing equipment kit from an online store like Midwest Supply. That way you can get all the basics you need to start, plus a bit of insight on the basics to get started. Plus you really should get a book like How To Brew by John Palmer. But if you have a local homebrew store nearby, they can help direct you also.
How to brew is an excellent book, but I'd argue that an LHBS is far better than an online store, to start. They should lead you through the brewing process, showing you all of the equipment they're selling you and what it's used for, at least if they know what they're doing. I regularly see folks getting 'the talk' at my LHBS while picking up a starter kit.
HootHootHoot
Well-Known Member
Kramer09, Welcome to the wonderful world of Brewing! First let me say keep this website book marked. This is a great resource to learn about all kinds of things with brewing.
I'll let you know what I did along the way and what I learned, you can take from it what you want.
I purchased "Homebrewing for Dummies" book before I read anything. This is very basic and speaks simple English to an inexperienced brewer. I have not yet bought "How to Brew" by Palmer, although I hear it's a great great book. After I started brewing, I also bought "Designing Great Beers" This book offers you the ability to understand the brewing process more and transfer into self created recipes and all grain brewing.
I purchased a starter kit from NorthernBrewer.com (I have a local one so I just went there, $7 shipping on any order though- it's worth it). I bought a 5 gallon kettle, 6 and 5 gallon Better Bottle plastic carboy, Bottling bucket, cooling coil, all the siphones, blow offs, air locks I needed as well as my hydrometer. Some StarSan sanitizing solution and some cleaning solution I can't think of the name, but it's very powerful and basically digests the grits left on my carboy. I agree that if you have a local brew store you should go there and they can show you how to use everything.
Note: In hindsight, I should have bought glass carboys. I did make a switch recently.
Best place to start is find a kit that you like. Austin Home Brew has some good kits, as does Northern Brewer. Brew an extract kit and slowly make your way up to partial mash or all grain. Some people stay at extract, which is fine.
If you can't brew with someone who is already brewing, then your best bet is to grab a kit and follow the directions exactly. As you get used to it you'll want to try other things such as all grain and designing your own recipes. BeerSmith is an excellent computer program that helps with this.
If possible, I would recommend to start with a smaller batch. A full 5 gallon batch will give you 48 beers. This is great if you drink a lot, but when I first started I brewed 4 batches before I even got through 1. The excitement to me was trying new things and brewing more beer. Most kits will only be for 5 gallons though, so you may be SOL.
Good luck with brewing!
I'll let you know what I did along the way and what I learned, you can take from it what you want.
I purchased "Homebrewing for Dummies" book before I read anything. This is very basic and speaks simple English to an inexperienced brewer. I have not yet bought "How to Brew" by Palmer, although I hear it's a great great book. After I started brewing, I also bought "Designing Great Beers" This book offers you the ability to understand the brewing process more and transfer into self created recipes and all grain brewing.
I purchased a starter kit from NorthernBrewer.com (I have a local one so I just went there, $7 shipping on any order though- it's worth it). I bought a 5 gallon kettle, 6 and 5 gallon Better Bottle plastic carboy, Bottling bucket, cooling coil, all the siphones, blow offs, air locks I needed as well as my hydrometer. Some StarSan sanitizing solution and some cleaning solution I can't think of the name, but it's very powerful and basically digests the grits left on my carboy. I agree that if you have a local brew store you should go there and they can show you how to use everything.
Note: In hindsight, I should have bought glass carboys. I did make a switch recently.
Best place to start is find a kit that you like. Austin Home Brew has some good kits, as does Northern Brewer. Brew an extract kit and slowly make your way up to partial mash or all grain. Some people stay at extract, which is fine.
If you can't brew with someone who is already brewing, then your best bet is to grab a kit and follow the directions exactly. As you get used to it you'll want to try other things such as all grain and designing your own recipes. BeerSmith is an excellent computer program that helps with this.
If possible, I would recommend to start with a smaller batch. A full 5 gallon batch will give you 48 beers. This is great if you drink a lot, but when I first started I brewed 4 batches before I even got through 1. The excitement to me was trying new things and brewing more beer. Most kits will only be for 5 gallons though, so you may be SOL.
Good luck with brewing!
dcodd87
Well-Known Member
Google Midwest home brew groupon. Really great deal to start!
Doesn't look like it's avail now, but if you can give it 1-2 months, I'm sure it will be avail!
Doesn't look like it's avail now, but if you can give it 1-2 months, I'm sure it will be avail!
ludomonster
Well-Known Member
Brewing Classic Styles is also another great book. It has 80 recipes that have won awards. There's a bit in it about the basics of brewing, the equipment and the ingredients. Notably, it contains a diagram that I call the "Hop Wheel," which is a chart that shows how hops relate to each other by characteristics. The Brewing Network contains podcasts discussing many different aspects of brewing. I would skip the Mr. Beer. The kits you get from either a LHBS or supplier will have stuff that you will continue to use as you develop and upgrade your brewing system. If you buy a Mr. Beer and stick with it, you'll end up getting this kit anyway.
prrriiide
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Start here. Get a handle on the process, then you'll know what to buy. But a good starter kit will suffice for your first few extract kits.
Find a local homebrew club and hang out.
Welcome to my addiction.
Find a local homebrew club and hang out.
Welcome to my addiction.
Midwest has a basic starter kit for $64. But If I remember right,ther groupon added some stuff. Midwest also has things that you can add to the basic kit,same as Northern Brewer. It's a good kit to start with either way.
I think many homebrewers start in a similar way.
MmmmBeeeerrrr
Member
Want to know what to invest in huh???
Well, the easy answer for me is:
It depends on several factors.
Several years ago I told my wife to not get me a beer kit, well on my last b-day there was a big box sitting in the living room. So I dove in and started reading everything I could find. I'm not big on the Ales so I started reading everything about making lagers. I delayed making beer (to make lager) and my wife was getting impatient waiting for me to make use of my gift. I bought a freezer that could hold four corny kegs, got the temperature controller put together, SS brew pot, eventually found the kegs, 10 hops plants are on the way, blah blah blah.....
Well on the 22nd I went and bought the ingredients to make Irish Stout (till I figure out my plan of attack for the lager) and it's sitting in the freezer in the big bucket hovering around 68F (started minimal bubbling yesterday).
Anyway, if you get the kit with buckets you'll probably use it, you could check craigslist for a good deal - just make sure the plastic buckets aren't scratched up inside and inventory everything. I don't want to mess with glass carboys so I got the kegs to ferment/secondary/serve in.
So:
Are you wanting to get started quickly? Get a kit and get started.
Do you have someplace cool to put your primary? If not look into what you need to cool it.
What kind of beer do you want to make?
How long are you willing to wait for your beer (are you patient)?
Are you going to use dry yeast, liquid yeast - will you be building/buying a stir plate?
Learn the difference between sanitary and sterilized.
Have fun learning and improving the process.
If I had planned on getting into this - I wouldn't have got the kit - I 'think' I could get by with the corny kegs to use for the primary, secondary, and skip the bottling. I don't know though, I may bottle the 20gal so I can get the next 20 going. Like I said - I'm making stout till I hammer out my process. Reading though, will answer your questions.
Well, the easy answer for me is:
It depends on several factors.
Several years ago I told my wife to not get me a beer kit, well on my last b-day there was a big box sitting in the living room. So I dove in and started reading everything I could find. I'm not big on the Ales so I started reading everything about making lagers. I delayed making beer (to make lager) and my wife was getting impatient waiting for me to make use of my gift. I bought a freezer that could hold four corny kegs, got the temperature controller put together, SS brew pot, eventually found the kegs, 10 hops plants are on the way, blah blah blah.....
Well on the 22nd I went and bought the ingredients to make Irish Stout (till I figure out my plan of attack for the lager) and it's sitting in the freezer in the big bucket hovering around 68F (started minimal bubbling yesterday).
Anyway, if you get the kit with buckets you'll probably use it, you could check craigslist for a good deal - just make sure the plastic buckets aren't scratched up inside and inventory everything. I don't want to mess with glass carboys so I got the kegs to ferment/secondary/serve in.
So:
Are you wanting to get started quickly? Get a kit and get started.
Do you have someplace cool to put your primary? If not look into what you need to cool it.
What kind of beer do you want to make?
How long are you willing to wait for your beer (are you patient)?
Are you going to use dry yeast, liquid yeast - will you be building/buying a stir plate?
Learn the difference between sanitary and sterilized.
Have fun learning and improving the process.
If I had planned on getting into this - I wouldn't have got the kit - I 'think' I could get by with the corny kegs to use for the primary, secondary, and skip the bottling. I don't know though, I may bottle the 20gal so I can get the next 20 going. Like I said - I'm making stout till I hammer out my process. Reading though, will answer your questions.
