Brewing Newbie

[GunnysGirl]

Hello! I found these forums while searching for brewing info online. I’m new to brewing and my boyfriend and I just drank our first bottles of home brew last night- done with a Northern Brewer kit from Amazon. Overall it didn’t turn out bad at all. I was mostly concerned that we would unintentionally mess up the sanitizing process and end up with bottles of penicillin. Thankfully that didn’t happen!

I look forward to talking with you all and learning about brewing!

 

[kartracer2]

Hello! I found these forums while searching for brewing info online. I’m new to brewing and my boyfriend and I just drank our first bottles of home brew last night- done with a Northern Brewer kit from Amazon. Overall it didn’t turn out bad at all. I was mostly concerned that we would unintentionally mess up the sanitizing process and end up with bottles of penicillin. Thankfully that didn’t happen!

I look forward to talking with you all and learning about brewing!

Welcome to the clan! Glad to hear your first brew was a success,

Here's to many more!
Cheers,
Joel B.

 

[T Murph]

Welcome to the madness we call a hobby. Tons of info here for ingredients, equipment and processes. Use caution as you are on the edge of a slippery slope into the rabbit hole of homebrewing.

 

[Sammy86]

Welcome to the community and obsession!

 

[ncbrewer]

Welcome from NC.

 

[JLynDub]

My biggest concern for my first batch is also sanitizing. Any tips??

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

Keep a bucket with some sanitizer solution at hand during brewday, can be prepared during wort boil, use a no rinse sanitizer. A spray bottle for thermometers etc is also good to have.
For your fermenting vessel, just pour a few liters of water mixed with the appropriate amount of sanitizer in it and give it a good shake for a few minutes, just remember to keep stuff touching the wort post-boil clean and sanitized and you will be fine. No need to overcomplicate things, to actually get an infection you need to mess up pretty bad on the hygiene part.

 

[GunnysGirl]

Good detailed advice from Erik!

I was just going to say wash your hands often and don’t multitask!

 

[ncbrewer]

I started a thread a while back about using a dedicated washcloth for applying Star San -Dipping washcloth in Star San . I was seeing what looked like soap come out of the washcloth when I squeezed it. The general consensus was that a washcloth might not be the best thing for applying sanitizer because they are breeding grounds for microbes, and because the washing machine doesn't rinse and spin dry thoroughly enough. I switched to paper towels.

For brew day, I use a turkey roasting pan with about a gallon of Star San solution.

Generally, sanitizing is relatively easy. Cleaning is more critical, and probably harder to get right.

 

[Nate R]

My biggest concern for my first batch is also sanitizing. Any tips??

Welcome to the hobysession!
And may i say.... is that a Wayfinder mug? yum!

So jelly....

 

[T Murph]

Welcome to the hobysession!
And may i say.... is that a Wayfinder mug? yum!

So jelly....

I thought it was a Straight To Ale mug.