Stone Cold Lead Pipe Lock'd N00b Advice

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Yes, that vomity, curly, thick looking gunk at the top of your fermenter is normal. Your beer is not infected. It's called the Krausen...It will fall to the bottom of the fermenter later. Now quit opening the bucket every 5 minutes. Your beer is fine, and you keep letting out the co2 and run the risk of getting a real infection. Next time get a 6.5 gallon carboy to ferment in, then you can watch all you want. But cool your wort before putting it in there.
 
When in doubt, wait a week.

Use google site:homebrewtalk.com instead of the site search. Chances are somebody asked your same question earlier today (yes, i lernt this the hard way :) )

go to total beverage to get some good beer while you wait impatiently for your first batch to finish.

When in doubt, wait another week.
 
Alamo_Beer said:
You aren't going to save any money by brewing your own beer. It's about the fun/experience of it all.
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well if you don;t count the thousands you may spend on education/equipment then sure it is! ;)
 
Don't use a plastic scrubby or anything rough to clean the inside of your fermentation or bottling bucket. Scratching the inside could leave you open for bacteria. If you need to do more than an oxyclean or spray from a hose or faucet, use a sponge instead.
 
  • You will get conflicting advice from people. Brewing is a craft, and craftsmen often have differing opinions on the best way to do things.
  • Your own common sense is probably pretty good. Trust it.
  • It's actually fairly difficult to ruin a beer, so don't worry about it too much.
  • Don't get loaded while brewing your first few batches. It can seem pretty hectic the first few times around.
  • Age improves all homebrew. Have patience.
  • The hydrometer is your best tool for knowing when to bottle. Use it.
 
Time is your friend.

If there is still active fermentation (airlock activity, bubbling krausen, swirling yeast, SG still dropping), it's not time to rack, no matter what the instructions say about fermentation time.

If your beer is not carbonated, you probably didn't wait long enough.

If your beer tastes "funny," but not bad, you probably didn't wait long enough.

Have patience.
 
Buckets, carboys, and better bottles all produce good results.

Buckets: cheapest, but you can't watch the fermentation.

Glass carboy: fun to watch, more expensive, heavy, slippery when wet, dangerous if dropped.

Plastic better bottle = fun, similar in price to glass, safer than glass.

Plastic water bottle = permeable to oxygen, not recommended.
 
When in doubt, use a blow-off tube. Fermentation explosions are a pain to clean up.
 
A critical factor to making good beer is a stable and appropriate temperature for fermentation. Learn what your yeast needs and always pay attention to it.
 
If your tap water tastes good, then it will likely make good beer. If you have chlorine in your water, remove it with an appropriate water filter or with a campden tablet.
 
If you use glass carboys, don't ever put hot wort in them, and don't put them in an ice bath. The thick glass shatters easily under heat stress, and is extremely dangerous. To make them easier to carry, put them in a plastic milk crate.
 
It is relatively easy to oxygenate and ruin your beer once fermentation is complete. Always rack 'quietly' and expose your beer to as little air as possible until you actually drink it.
 
Sunlight and bright fluorescent light will ruin beer. Keep your fermenters and bottled beer in the dark. Always. Brown bottles are best because they add some protection from light.
 
Your yeast will need a lot of oxygen right after you pitch them so they can build themselves up for fermentation. If O2 isn't in your wort, you are putting your beer at risk of developing off flavours. Typical oxygenation methods include shaking the hell out of your carboy/fermenter for 3 mins, aeration pumps with an inline filter, or oxygenation kits that are sold by homebrew shops.
 
A solid how-to book is almost essential when getting into homebrewing. Two outstanding books that will last you a lifetime are "The Complete Joy of Homebrewing" by Charlie Papazian and "How to Brew" by John Palmer. A predecessor of the latter book is available online for free at http://HowToBrew.com.
 
When bottling, you really want to make sure your priming sugar is the correct amount and that it is thoroughly mixed into your beer in the bottling bucket. It has a habit of just sinking to the bottom meaning that some bottles will get little or no carbonation, and others will get so much they will ruin the beer and possibly explode!
 
  • If you are new here and you have a question, look in the stickies first.
  • If it isn't there, do a quick search before you post because chances are it has already been asked and answered before.
  • If not, fire away -- lots of expertise is here to help.
:mug:
 
Things that will help you get a good response to your thread.
  • Make it easy to read.
  • Use something that at least resembles correct grammar when typing a post. Capitals, full stops (Periods) and paragraphs always help.
  • Use a descriptive title.
  • Post in the correct forum.
  • After you give the relevant information make it clear what your question is.
 
olllllo, delete this after reading it. Perhaps a better thread title is:

Quick tips and advice for beginners

When I read "Stone Cold Lead Pipe," I almost ignored the thread entirely.
 
Yuri_Rage said:
olllllo, delete this after reading it. Perhaps a better thread title is:

Quick tips and advice for beginners

When I read "Stone Cold Lead Pipe," I almost ignored the thread entirely.
Click to expand...

I was thinking the same thing, this is a great thread...It seems to have everything on the most oft asked questions and threads started by people new to brewing, or worried about their beer.

Maybe "Noobs read this before starting a thread!"
 
o DO NOT try to "Add more alcohol" to your 1st-5th batches. Brew them as-is and enjoy them! You have to figure out what you're doing first, before you can modify your process second.

o If you have a crazy idea for your 1st-5th batch, and you 've already 100% decided you're going to brew it that way, then don't ask the "Should I?" question in the first place. Just brew it how you want to, let errors occur, and then learn from them, or else search/ask the "How do I?" part of your question instead.

o If you're looking for a homebrewed beer that is "accessible", and can help you get your friends into drinking new beers other than Light American Lagers, then you are probably looking for EdWort's Haus Pale Ale, EdWort's Bee Cave Kölsch Biermuncher's Litehaus (Boulevard) Wheat clone, Biermuncher's Centennial Blonde, Biermuncher's Aberdeen Session Haus Ale, or Orfy's Hobgoblin, among many others. Extract versions of these should be accessible with just a little bit of reading. Please don't make a new thread unless you're looking for something specific.

o If you're looking for something, please search first, post second. Try searching through both Google and HBT, both search boxes are right there on the site. We're not asking you to do this because we're mean, or want to "teach you a lesson", we're only asking because we shouldn't have to "re-invent the wheel" every day, but instead build upon what we learn.

o Just because a recipe is written for all-grain doesn't mean you can't use it. You can find conversion tools to help you by searching both this site and Google, and are very good practice for familiarizing yourself with what "makes" a recipe go together.
 
olllllo -- perhaps you could just keep this thread for reference/posterity. But un-sticky it and create a new stickied-thread that summarizes the essential elements of this thread. It will probably be easier in the long run than modifying this one anyways.
 
chriso said:
If you're looking for a light-tasting beer that is "accessible" enough for your BMC drinking friends to enjoy, then you are probably looking for EdWort's Haus Pale Ale, Dude's Lake Walk Pale Ale, Biermuncher's Centennial Blonde, or one of a handful of other common, easily searchable recipes. Please don't make a new thread to ask what you should brew, unless you're looking for something specific, not just something "accessible".
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This one requires an edit. Dude's LWPA is a hop-heavy IPA, not a light BMC-friendly beer. It's great, but not in that category.
 
Maybe I'll unsticky this one. Then move the succinct posts to a new stickied thread with a better title.

The point of this was to take the negative energy of the double secret probation thread (;)) and just post the advice here.

Once again. I'd like to keep it very simple. No more paragraphs of info. Just a sentence or two. Nothing controversial or complicated.
 
Don't let your roommate stick his finger in it "to see if it tastes like beer yet."

Seriously, stop trying to prove yourself the second coming of Jesus H Anheuser-Busch with your vanilla honey rose pineapple porter with a 2 pound boost of dextrose. For the first couple batches, just try to follow the recipe.

If you're in a hurry, hefeweizens are a good way to go. They can be ready in about a month.

Another way to hurry up a beer and get it done quickly is to keep the gravity low. Less alcohol = less fermentation time = less conditioning. Shoot for about 3.5-4.2%ABV and the beer will be finished quicker. But generally there is no shortcut to good beer. Even these beers will benefit from a bit of aging.
 
Never rush a beer. Let the beer tell you when it is ready to rack, bottle, or drink. Rushing a beer only creates problems that would not have existed had you just waited. Once fermentation has begun, it is never a big mistake to wait a week before acting, and it usually is the right thing to do.
 

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