Newbie here!

I have a starter kit arriving tomorrow. I am looking forward to this new passion.
I’m looking for helpful tips on what I should know and helpful info on how to learn more about brewing?? Thanks!

 

Welcome to HBT and the hobby !
I would say make sure you clean everything and sanitize. You cant sanitize without cleaning first. I'm assuming your doing an extract kit . No matter what the instructions say dont do a secondary. Theres only a couple exceptions which are racking over fruit or long term storage. No matter how bad you wanna look dont open your fermenter. Make sure you temp is right for the yeast . Keep it out of the light and a gravity check by hydrometer is the only way to make sure it's done and safe to bottle . Which kit are you doing?

 

You've come to the right place. Let us know if you have any questions about the instructions. Sometimes they're not completely clear.

Just remember that despite small frustrations and uncertainty you'll experience, in the end you'll get beer. Even this first time. You may even get lucky and make good beer right out of the gate, but either way it'll be beer, and it'll be yours.

 

I am new to this myself. I have a Brewer's Best American Cream Ale kit in the carboy fermenting as we speak. I have two issues that came from this first batch that I am looking for help with. Maybe these are good topics for the OP as well so you don't repeat my mistakes
First, I think that I filled the carboy up too high after I added my wort, because foam is bubbling through the airlock. Is that normal and will the beer be okay if i just replace it with a new, filled and sanitized airlock?
Second, this sounds really stupid, but the one thing I forgot to purchase was a hydrometer. I feel like the beer should still be close to what Brewer's Best estimates the ABV to be at, but is there a way to figure out the ABV without the OG? I may not worry about it on this one since these kits seem to have a high success rate. Thoughts?

 

I went with the Northern Brewer 1 gallon Kama Citra IPA.
Not knowing which kit might be best I went with this one to try out the 1 gallon size (for testing) and the fact it came with a few bottles for bottling.

 

If it was me, and i was doing it over again, i woukd skip the $5-$10 hydrometer and instead get a $20 to $30 refractometer (from amazon). You will need distilled water ($1.25 a gallon) to calibrate, and will need a spreadsheet (free- morebeer.com) to adjust, but it only takes a few drops.
Just my $0.02 worth.

 

Sanitation and fermentation temperature are the two keys when starting out. Keep your fermenting beer in the lower end of the yeasts comfort zone and let it do it's thing. And of course keep everything "grandma" clean. If you wouldn't eat of from it don't use it in your brewing process.

Search Blow Off Tube. Real common issue,keep a close watch on your beers temperature. They really like to ferment hard and fast if they get a little too warm, causing off flavors.

 

Nice ! Should be a good beer . One thing to keep in mind is o2 induction is bad after fermentation , especially with hoppy beers. Either way your making beer and I'm sure 1 gallon will be drank swiftly lol

 

i believe if you have both a refractometer, and a hydrometer...you can

 

Done. Just ordered one. Thanks!

 

I think my temp is good. It is in the my basement which is at the cool end of the temp scale that the yeast recommended. Also dark. I did see some posts about the blow off tube so that may be my next route.

 

If your fermenting a 5 gallon batch in a 5 gallon carboy then a blow off tube is your friend.

 

One other quick question... would it be good to stick with these kits for a few more batches? It was really easy and convenient. Or should I venture out and try a recipe from another source?

 

Its all personal choice. I'm sure theres a lot of different ones out there. I've done tons of the Brewersbest when I first started , their kits are good imo and they have a large variety as well.

 

No way to get ABV without knowing the OG with the usual tools (refractometer or hydrometer), since ABV is determined by those devices as the difference in gravity (G) before fermentation OG vs. after fermentation FG. You could use your FG measurement and what OG was SUPPOSED to be (the target OG). But ABV is a calculation (whether you do it yourself or leave it to an ABV calculator app of some sort), so "garbage in, garbage out" applies. Having said that, if your FG ends up being about what the kit said, that's a good sign, and plugging in the target OG SHOULD give you a ballpark estimate.

 

I've found with those kits the OG and the FG are pretty dang close and within the parameters it says . I've never had one that was off . I'd say it's almost impossible to not hit the numbers unless you have a stuck fermentation or added the wrong amount of water

 

This is the exact response I wanted LOL. I bought a refractometer regardless so, I will play around with it once fermentation is done. I did find an article online with a formula that will get the ABV with a FG from a refractometer and a FG from a hydrometer. Not sure how accurate it is but I may try that just for grins.

 

Hey, could you post the link to that website? I'm very curious.

On a couple occasions I've taken FG readings with both the refractometer and the hydrometer (the hydro reading being the most reliable as its readings are not altered by alcohol like the refract's are), just to see how accurate the refract readings are. I have found sometimes they are spot on and sometimes off "significantly". Anyway, if I can find in my brew log if I ever actually wrote down both FG readings, we can see how accurate the online calculator you found is, at least based on my data.

 

You still need to make certain the fermentation is complete before you bottle, you dont want bottle bombs .

 

My 2 cents is to do a few more kits to get more familiar with the process and the tools you need to brew. I was able to learn about fermentation temps, sanitation and bottling and have good beer.
Btw, to get bottles all you have to do is tell a few friends that if they get you a 12 pack of empties you will give them a free six. Boom you will suddenly have 8 cases of empties. Only cost me a case of beer.

 

"Approximate ABV and Original Gravity from current Brix and Gravity converter"
https://www.northernbrewer.com/pages/refractometer-calculator​

 

I can't believe I've never heard of this until now!

I have a cream ale that's finishing up, so when it's ready I'll do both a ref. reading and a hydro reading, plug it into the calculator, and post the results/accuracy of the calculator. I'm sure it'll work as expected, but hey why not.

 

OK, here's what I found doing two FG readings on my cream ale.

Hydro: 1.010 (I use a finishing hydrometer, so I'm confident this is a precise measurement)
Refract: 6.0 brix (beer is clear; nice crisp line. so again, a precise measurement)

According to the NB calculator that estimates OG/ABV based on the two FG readings:
OG: 1.047
ABV 4.74%

According to the formulas B&B IM'd me (http://www.woodlandbrew.com/2013/02/abv-without-og.html):
OG: 1.0478
ABV 4.95%

Actual:
OG: 1.050
ABV 5.26%

Based on this alone, I'd say that both are as advertised: an estimate. Not necessarily meant to be a substitute for taking OG readings, but if you forget to measure OG, it's probably better than purely guessing at it based on your historical efficiency numbers and such (unless you've really got that dialed in). And in this case, the formulas worked a little better than NB's calculator.

EDIT: I should also mention that, as luck would have it, I took OG readings with both a hydrometer and a refractometer on this brew, and the measurements agreed, so I'm also confident in that OG measurement. OK, I'm off to work for Pete's sake!...