DuncB
Well-Known Member
Down here you have to pay to dispose of a fridge or freezer so it's often cheaper to give it away than chuck it. But just the right fridge or freezer is difficult to track down but worth it if you have the time.
Congrats, you're now ready to join the obsession! Chances are you won't even regret it.Pulled the trigger and ordered the premium starter kit from more beer .
Than Pliny looks pretty complex for a first brew !! Lots going on there ! Seems pretty strong also @8% ABV. Don’t you need a temp control for fermentation - or a secondary for high ABV beers ?Congrats, you're now ready to join the obsession! Chances are you won't even regret it.
I just checked the kit order, "Pliny" is available too, and is an awesome clone from what I've heard.
Perhaps you can still change the order if you want?
Hazy is the only one that's OOS...
I don’t know if it’s been mentioned above, but what do you plan to use for a heat source? Full volume boils with a kettle that big might be a workout for a standard kitchen stove.Pulled the trigger and ordered the premium starter kit from more beer . I’m going to stick with extract brewing and tinkering until I figure out what I’m doing. The kit has some things I had wanted - a smooth plastic carboy 7 gal, a wort chiller, and an 8.5 gal stainless pot.
their starter recipes seemed odd - a hazy that was out of stock, a double ipa 8%ABV with a couple dry hops, an ale with a fermentation temp of 55-63, and the American Ale (I’m thinking they are steering everyone towards this one.
wish me luck !!!
Sanitize, sanitize, sanitize and keep away from oxygen
You always need to control your fermentation temps, low and high gravity beers alike. The yeast determines what the optimal range is, we like to keep it at the lower end of it. You have a cool place somewhere, low 60s, and fairly constant?Than Pliny looks pretty complex for a first brew !! Lots going on there ! Seems pretty strong also @8% ABV. Don’t you need a temp control for fermentation - or a secondary for high ABV beers ?
You could also use a growler or two and the balance in 12 oz.Do you have bottles? Or can you scrounge them up (friends)? You're gonna need 48-50 (12 oz) of them 3 weeks after brewing.
Do you have a local homebrew store?
There may be a few other (smaller) things you're gonna need.
One thing is missing from the kit (description): A siphon or racking cane to transfer your finished beer from the fermenter to your bottling bucket. I'd prefer a racking cane, stainless if possible, over an auto-siphon (due air intrusion).
Luckily dented freezers still make great beer! Hope you snap that up! It would make a great fermentation chamber for now, and you can turn it into a keezer if/when you eventually move to kegging.
Not necessarily. Nice to have I guess, but I don't have any temp control stuff and I only go to a secondary when the trub is so deep it is over the mouth of the spigot.Than Pliny looks pretty complex for a first brew !! Lots going on there ! Seems pretty strong also @8% ABV. Don’t you need a temp control for fermentation - or a secondary for high ABV beers ?
Congrats on pulling the trigger! I started brewing almost two years ago now - time flies when you are having fun and in a pandemic! lol. One thing Ive come to appreciate is that there are 1000s of ways to make wort ranging from cheap to super expensive. But I am glad I invested in good cold side equipment for fermentation (temp control & closed system to minimize O2) and packaging (kegging/keezer). regardless of how you make wort, these two areas are important. If you are interested, I have my fermentation system build in my signature. Spoiler alert - no fancy SS conicals lol. Now Ive done 47 brews since jan 2020 and I regret nothing on my fermentation setup. I also included a part list in my fermentation build thread. You could easily do it cheaper than I did as well if you get some things used, but I bought new everything.Pulled the trigger and ordered the premium starter kit from more beer . I’m going to stick with extract brewing and tinkering until I figure out what I’m doing. The kit has some things I had wanted - a smooth plastic carboy 7 gal, a wort chiller, and an 8.5 gal stainless pot.
their starter recipes seemed odd - a hazy that was out of stock, a double ipa 8%ABV with a couple dry hops, an ale with a fermentation temp of 55-63, and the American Ale (I’m thinking they are steering everyone towards this one.
wish me luck !!!
Sanitize, sanitize, sanitize and keep away from oxygen
Can you really carbonate beer in a growler? They're not made for that, to sustain much pressure.You could also use a growler or two and the balance in 12 oz.
Or 2 liter Coke bottles...Provided you can finish a growler in one sitting, friends make that easier.
Hmm, I'd say maybe but you make a good point.Can you really carbonate beer in a growler? They're not made for that, to sustain much pressure.
But (smaller) plastic (PET) bottles such as Coke, Mountain Dew, etc. are wonderful. Just keep them out of the light.
Or 2 liter Coke bottles...
Some growlers can be pressurized. I have two.Can you really carbonate beer in a growler? They're not made for that, to sustain much pressure.
But (smaller) plastic (PET) bottles such as Coke, Mountain Dew, etc. are wonderful. Just keep them out of the light.
Or 2 liter Coke bottles...
THIS ^ . As I stated previously, I started brewing roughly 6 yrs ago. I started with a couple extracts, and I've made this comparison before and no slam to anyone who likes extract brewing, hear me out and pay attention to what I show in parenthesis....to me its like saying you made soup but you opened up a can of Progresso , added water and heated it up. um, No , Progresso (Brewing supplier) made it (extract),put it (extracted malts in a can , LME) on a shelf and you opened it up and added hot water and salt and pepper( hops). Theres no learning at all. Once i made a couple "extract beers" , i was looking to the all grains and THAT is where i learned how to make beer. I chose a few grab-and-go made up AG kits when i lived near a LHBS , they come with instructions. Follow along with a good brewing book, might i suggest buying a copy of Charlie Papazians "the complete joy of home brewing" read it cover to cover, then read it again , only slower to understand the hows and whys. He simplifies the brewing process with common household utensils and explains it like youre back in science class. Get a few rock solid brews in under that book ...I have only skimmed this thread, but I totally agree with this^^^.
As a beginner (or seasoned veteran), there is nothing more simple than sprinkling a packet of dry yeast on your wort before you seal your fermenter. Excellent beer can be made with dry yeast and in my opinion, there are many more things to get proficient at before worrying about liquid yeast. I’ve been brewing off and on for nearly 20 years and I’m still intimidated by liquid yeast and don’t like the hassle quite frankly.
Chose a simple kit, be it extract or all grain from a reputable online supplier, follow and pay attention to each step, and enjoy your first beer in 4-6 weeks.
Sláinte
The Papazians book is 450 pages !! I’ve got a 5 and 7 year old - in addition to working full time. It would take me well over a year to get in that much reading !! I hope that I can find a book on CD version I can listen to on the way to work and backTHIS ^ . As I stated previously, I started brewing roughly 6 yrs ago. I started with a couple extracts, and I've made this comparison before and no slam to anyone who likes extract brewing, hear me out and pay attention to what I show in parenthesis....to me its like saying you made soup but you opened up a can of Progresso , added water and heated it up. um, No , Progresso (Brewing supplier) made it (extract),put it (extracted malts in a can , LME) on a shelf and you opened it up and added hot water and salt and pepper( hops). Theres no learning at all. Once i made a couple "extract beers" , i was looking to the all grains and THAT is where i learned how to make beer. I chose a few grab-and-go made up AG kits when i lived near a LHBS , they come with instructions. Follow along with a good brewing book, might i suggest buying a copy of Charlie Papazians "the complete joy of home brewing" read it cover to cover, then read it again , only slower to understand the hows and whys. He simplifies the brewing process with common household utensils and explains it like youre back in science class. Get a few rock solid brews in under that book ...
THEN buy the other book, "Designing great beers," by Ray Daniels. This guy takes you further into the rabbit hole of brewing. Theres way more depth and no actual recipe in sight , more like a guideline of how to make your own recipes, water profiles, styles of beer according to the region they came from. Hops selection, Yeast selection. pH. I found a lot of ah-hah "epiphany" moments in this book, and improved my brewing a great deal.
The last book i bought last year was "Brew like a Monk" if you like Abbey ales, Trappist beers. BIG malty beers. Get a few years of brewing under your belt then have a go at a monk beer. With the help of the first two books then reading BLAM ,I flat out nailed a Karmelite , first try without trying really. My wife is normally a Hefeweizen drinker (Ive brewed 5 hefs for her , "each one better than the last " in her words )but she went nuts over my version of Karmelite and said mine tasted better than what the actual monks made .
Never stop wanting to improve your brewing.
A couple years ago I made a Blackberry hibiscus sour , i have wild blackberry bushes around our house. I picked 6 lbs this year, that year i picked 8 lbs. I found locally sourced and grown wheat, grew my own hops and it turned out awesome, it matured into an almost wine-like hot weather pool-side refreshing beverage.
Its the confidence you get when you read, experiment and try. You will fail a couple brews but dont let those discourage you. Figure out why they failed and you'll be brewing some great beers. Could be something as simple as the water.
Amen, Braj! Start simple. Be sure you enjoy it and want to continue and go from there.A lot of good things here and a lot of way over the top for a beginner. You did good, buy a kit. and try it. If drinkable or not, buy another kit. I would go extract for a few brews, then get a bag and a few adjunct grains and. to partial mashes. If that is fun and you want to move to all grain, then spend for that. There are WAY plenty of yeast varieties that will make good beer at 70 to 78 degrees. Pick an ale yeast . I just did a stout using dry yeast. Follow their simple directions and they work. A good book such as Palmer's is good thing to have. 90 percent of the equipment listed in the prior three pages are nice, but totally unnecessary. Stir plate? really? talking about kegs? Really? buying fridges or freezers? really? Cute devices that track your ferment temp? NO. Simple kit, plastic fermenter, boiler, thermometer and hydrometer are really all that is necessary. And the hydrometer really isnt either. then you do need some bottles, and capper. But the most important thing is sanitation. Clean twice and sanitize well. Starsan or idophor. But things must be clean to sanitize. This one thing destroys more beer than anything else. Toys are nice, I just spent in past 2 months about $1000 on this hobby moving to electric all in one. I cut my brew time by over 2 hours. And the mess went to almost zero. One container to clean vs two. (or three if you include the heated water tank.) And as my allgrain system was outside, I had to clean before and after each brew. PITA. I'm getting rid of it to anyone who wants Ss converted kegs and propane.
And Have fun.
Well Papazians book has a lot of good info for those just starting and it is written at a time when we didn't have all the fancy equipment we have today so it focused on pressing into service standard available household items. And guess what, you can still brew that way today.The Papazians book is 450 pages !! I’ve got a 5 and 7 year old - in addition to working full time. It would take me well over a year to get in that much reading !! I hope that I can find a book on CD version I can listen to on the way to work and back
I think I am planning a similar path as you though. I plan to start with extracts and learn as I go - be it in book form or internet research. Then on to Partial mash before going to all grain. This will allow me to get into brewing and decide personally which equipment I would like based on my experience. There’s a bunch of books on sale at Better World Books - a local company that guy huge buying and selling used text books . I’ll probably get a couple and see if they have any of your recommendations.
Thank you for sharing your journey and guidance to a noob like me. I’ve got so much good advise from all of the awesome ppl here . It’s getting close to time for me to jump out of the nest and learn to fly on my own
Cheers !
Another option is podcasts. There are a lot of them out there but for beginners (and seasoned veterans) I think Basic brewing radio is a good place to start. I think they have over 10 years of podcasts to go through. And very rich in info. Check them out!I hope that I can find a book on CD version I can listen to on the way to work and back
I have a couple deep fry burners - 1 from a fish fry kit and a Turkey burnerGood that you bought the starter kit with an 8.5 gal kettle. You will be able to do full volume brews (not having to add water after the boil), and a kettle that size will be perfect if you want to venture into 1-vessel brew in a bag (BIAB).
Will you be brewing on a stove top? If so, some electric stove tops will struggle to bring 5 gallons to a boil. Do a test: put 5 gallons tap water in the kettle and see if your stove top can bring it to a boil. See how long it takes. Better to know now, before you're doing an actual brew. You could get an electric bucket heater to assist the stove top.
If you want to go propane, look for a turkey fryer on Craigslist, FB Marketplace, etc. You could probably pick one up for $25 or so.
I have a couple deep fry burners - 1 from a fish fry kit and a Turkey burner
honestly that book is an easy read, all 450 pages. sit your kids down and read it to them , lol. im not sure if a audio book will get you the same results, theres charts and pictures you'll need to see to understand the content. i think i read it in 3 days. i couldnt put it down. other thing, i do NOT like extract brewing. i tried partial , didnt like that either. if any extract is in my beer, it all tastes the same. i go all grain and i brew my best beers. have your water tested . or buy bottled spring water. do not buy purified drinking water or distilled, nothing in it.The Papazians book is 450 pages !! I’ve got a 5 and 7 year old - in addition to working full time. It would take me well over a year to get in that much reading !! I hope that I can find a book on CD version I can listen to on the way to work and back
I think I am planning a similar path as you though. I plan to start with extracts and learn as I go - be it in book form or internet research. Then on to Partial mash before going to all grain. This will allow me to get into brewing and decide personally which equipment I would like based on my experience. There’s a bunch of books on sale at Better World Books - a local company that guy huge buying and selling used text books . I’ll probably get a couple and see if they have any of your recommendations.
Thank you for sharing your journey and guidance to a noob like me. I’ve got so much good advise from all of the awesome ppl here . It’s getting close to time for me to jump out of the nest and learn to fly on my own
Cheers !
never knew there was basic brewing radio existed...im on pandora on a regular basis , i wonder if they have an I-heart radio station on there.Another option is podcasts. There are a lot of them out there but for beginners (and seasoned veterans) I think Basic brewing radio is a good place to start. I think they have over 10 years of podcasts to go through. And very rich in info. Check them out!
So now that someone mentioned cleaning, rinsing, sanitizing, drying, filling, and capping every time I brew - I’m thinking Korny keg ! Ball lock.
Anyone have tips on hose sizes ? Or odds and ends that make things easier ?
after watching a few videos, I’m guessing Ima need:
Keg
CO2 tank (size - with and without force carbing)
Tubing, clamps, barbed fittings (sizes ?)
Regulator
Liquid and gas ball valves - do they normally come with the tank ?
Tap ?
Secondary regulator ?
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