New to this

Hey whats up guys, Im new to brewing and only started with a crappy Mr. Beer system but i definately want to upgrade asap. What should come in a kit that will allow me to start making some quality brew.Id like to spend about 100. Id like a carboy included in the kit. Also, i still have some of those crappy extracts that you get from mr. beer. Would/could they ever be put to some good use or are they hopeless? Thanks for the time!

 

$100 should get you a very good brew kit and some ingredients for your first couple of batches.

Find a brew-store near you and at least go visit before you order anything online. Its well worth the trip, and its an education in itself.

For $100 you should be able to get 6.5 gallon beer bucket, bottling bucket, carboy, airlock, syphon, hose, utensils, bottles, caps, bottle capper, etc... plus a kit or two. That should get you a good start.

 

At my local store, which has a website beer-wine.com has this kit listed for 148.

Deluxe Beer Brewing Kit includes:
7.5 gallon Primary fermentor, 5 Gallon Glass carboy, 2 Fermentation locks and 1 stopper, auto syphon and tubing, hydrometer, thermometer, bottle and carboy-brush, sanitizer, capper, caps, carboy handle, straining bag, excellent Book. Malt, hops, grains, yeast, water salts/crystals, priming sugar, Malt of your choice light, dark or amber.

That seems kind of expensive does it not?

Thanks!

 

It's in the ballpark for most starter kits, since it comes with an ingredient kit and glass carboy. The morebeer.com deluxe kit (similar things) runs $100 with no ingredients I think.

You could do cheaper trying to one-off things on craigslist but that can be a real pain.

 

$148 isn't out of line. If you can afford it, I say go get it and brew up tonight :rockin:

Be sure to read Papazian's book all the way through.

 

I see complete kits going on craigslist all the time, some even free but you have to be patient. If not, the kit is the way to go.

 

What about the mr. beer extract, is it useless at this point?

 

well not if you've still got the Mr Beer kit

even if you upgrade and get a new larger brew kit, I'm sure it will be just a matter of time before you can find something fun to do with the Mr Beer extracts

I wouldn't throw them away if thats what you're getting at. A Mr Beer Extract makes what 3 gallons or something ? 2 of them, couple pounds of Rice Syrup Solids or DME reuse some yeast and you're making beer - no need to let it go to waste.

 

Okay i picked up a nice starter kit at my homebrew store and got started! I added 2 3lb cans of amber malt, 1lb crystal malt grain, 1.5 oz of hop pellets (cascade) and regular ole brewers ale yeast. All went well! (no boil over) Went to the stage one bucket fermenter and inserted the air lock. I used cheap vodka in the airlock (i heard it works better and cleaner than h20) Fermentation started and it was bubbling good for about 12 hrs. Now it has been about 24 hours and the bubbling in the airlock has pretty much stopped. The SG was 1.042 and i just took the gravity and it read 1.019. So i am confident something happened but i just hope it continues. It is stored in a closer and i feel that it could be a bit warm. The temp is about 75-76. I have put some ice in a bag in the closet to hope to cool it a bit. NOt sure if this will work.

Any suggestions greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

 

Holy Smokes! It sounds like you made beer!

 

Yup, Sure did. Hopefully its okay. Would it be normal for bubbling to stop after just 12 hours? I will take another SG reading tonight and hopefully it shows some more fermentation.

 

Is it possible to be fully fermented in 2 days? The airlock has seemed to be completely stopped. Waiting to take a SG measurement now. Also, is it okay that the bucket is opened to take these measurements?

Thanks for your help!

 

it is possible it's "finished", but it's probably just that your bucket doesn't have a good seal. even if it is done, let it sit for another week before you rack (if you're going to secondary), and no matter what at least another 2-3 weeks before you bottle.

leaving the lid off for a bit is fine to take a reading. just make sure you sanitize everything that comes in contact with the beer.

let us know how she tastes and what the gravity is!

 

My local guys who sold me the kit said i should ferment in primary for about 3 days then rack to secondary for 7-10 days and then bottle age for about 3 weeks. Is this accurate?

 

nope. primary a week at least.

brew day -> bottling should be 3 weeks unless you're doing a hefe

 

Okay so yesterday we racked to secondary (7 days wait). I took a hydrometer reading about 3 days ago and it came up 1.018. The SG was 1.042. I took another reading when we moved to secondary and its still 1.018. Its a standard amber ale. The recipe says the FG should be 1.008-1.012. Is 1.018 acceptable? Will it fall anymore in secondary? Thanks for the help!

 

anyone have any ideas? thanks

 

Let it go a week (at least) in secondary, then take another reading. If at that point the hydrometer still reads the same, you're probably ok to bottle. Make sure though, when reading the hydrometer, that there aren't many bubbles or anything on the sides of it.

It's possible to have a slightly higher FG than you'd expect.

 

So i just got home and checked it. There hadnt been one bubble in the primary (bucket) for about 4 days. Now Its got a nice layer of foam in the carboy, and its bubbling again. Is this normal for it to start back up?

 

Just an update. The brews been in secondary since sunday and theres still some decent bubbling going on. I thought this was crazy since in primary, it bubbled for 48 hrs then stopped completely for 5 days. Now in secondary its been goin for 3 days with a nice ring. One thing that worries me though, there is a little bit of orange gunk floating on the top. Is this normal? Could it be mold? Thanks for all the help!

 

I've noticed that "fermentation starts up again when you move to the secondary" phenomena as well. I have no idea if its "normal" or not, but if it makes you feel any better my beers that did that turned out very nice.

I'm thinking that if this happens to us, it probably indicates that we were in too much of a hurry to get the beer in the secondary and we might have benefited by being a bit more patient, but hell I'm just getting into this myself so what do I know ? lol

I think the trick is to get a few batches completed and bottled so you're ahead of your consumption and then your perspective on letting the beer sit in the primary for another day or another week changes somewhat.

I'm slowly coming to realize that time is on your side when you make beer, patience pays off - its not a race.

 

Nope, all should be just fine. Racking it may have "awakened" the yeast--if your transfer was a little rough, oxygen reintroduced, made yeast happy and active--something like that. Quite normal if not an every brew occurance. As others have said, once the bubbling stops again, take a reading, wait 3 days, then take another reading to ensure it's truly done (if it is now near your target gravity) and only then bottle. Nice work, enjoy!!