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The thing I like best about this hobby is the pride of ownership you get when you produce a damn good beer from your own efforts. However, a close second for me is the fact that I’m making my own damn good beer AND saving a boat load of money in the process. Surprisingly though, I’m reading...

I’m hearing that the kits requires a very large fermenter of about 7-10 imperial gallons (can’t find any info on their website to confirm this). I’d like to give one to my dad for a present to get him started (think baby steps here) and I`ve got a spare fermenter that`s the standard 6.5 gallon...

Agreed. For my first batch I dropped my 5 gallon pot into a 8 gallon one, coiled a hose around it and let er rip, which brought the temp down nicely. This second time around we just had a huge dump of snow and I thought, what the heck, I'd read about using a snow bank in John Palmer's 'how to...

Just made the wort for my second batch today, a nice wheat ale, and had a few unexpected surprises: 1. A tiny tiny fly flew into my covered fermentor where my 2 gallons of water were cooling. Didn’t notice until right before adding my yeast. 2. Thermometer shattered while sanitizing (and...

It's a great feeling isn't it. Congrats!

Congrats Cornraker! Keep us posted on how things go, and remember, patience is a virtue when it comes to brewing (not that I was able to resist cracking a few early).

I actually got out my new video camera and recorded the historic event. I don't think I've got any video of my son yet, but I've got my beer (and priorities?) recorded for posterity.

I just pulled a bottle of blonde ale out of the fridge to have another test of the 1st batch of beer that I’ve tried brewing. It had been chilling for 36 hours and conditioned in the bottle for just over 3 and ½ weeks. I poured it into an ice cold glass, saw lots of beautiful carbonation, a...

This was exactly my experience. Nice guys in my local shop, but even with my credit card in hand, explaining that I'm a first timer and me asking "Is there anything else I need?" they still still send me on my way w/o all the things I needed (things actually sitting on their shelves). Plus the...

I think that's the right attitude to take. As a beginning brewer, I'm starting to appreciate the importance of taking good notes, asking questions, and applying it all to my next efforts (batch #2 starts a week from today:)). GL with your next batch - let us know how it progresses. Ian

Hi Pixalated, I just recently did my first batch as well, also with grains. One thing I remember reading while doing my pre brew research was that it was important to be fairly gentle while sparging the grains - apparently giving them a really good smushing can also release some other...

Good Advice Chapa. I'm planning on cracking another over the hockey game tonight! I'll also take harry's idea and lookover my sugar levels(maybe I should be doing so by weight instead of volume). And GR, comments appreciated but as I mentioned, I did let it sit for several weeks at room temp...

Hi Chapa, I used 2/3 of a cup cane sugar for priming. I used the recipe that was recommended to me at my local brew shop: About 7-8 lbs pale malt extract, 1 lb wheat steeped seperately, plus various hops for the boil and finishing.

I just recently brewed my first batch of beer, a blonde ale. Overall I was very pleased with the beer's taste, but I was unable to produce any head and I'm wondering why this might be. I'll mention a few possibly relevant factors... I followed John Palmer's well known guide. The beer aged 12...