Can I learn from your mistakes?

[Bob]

When it does comes to bottling since I will be starting off with that as I have dropped a good penny to get started and can't really move into a keg system yet, would it be more wise to go with a capping bottle or swing top? And also how do you feel about large capacity bottles such as growlers?

I prefer swingtops. Have for YEARS. Couple of reasons - they're larger than longnecks, so less bottles to fill. They're easy to clean and sanitize. You don't have to buy caps. They come with beer in them already.

I did the math on that once. It cost me 30% more to buy a case of new, unused swingtops at LHBS than it did to buy a case of Grolsch. NO BRAINER.

You can often also get free bottles from local good-beer bars. Make friends with the staff and ask them to save the Grolsch bottles.

Also, seek out the places which offer Sunday brunch. The cheap champagne with which they make their mimosas is American. Most American sparkling wine bottles will take a regular ol' crown cap. Some don't; it's a different diameter. But you can easily get the right crown caps (and capper fitting) from your LHBS.

Now, as to my advice?

1. Temperature control. Can you brew good beer without it? Sure. Most of the time. Temperature control - meaning both wort chilling and fermentation temperature management - are the key to brewing good beer consistently. That you have a wort chiller and swamp cooler already puts you well ahead of the majority of beginning brewers.

2. Keep it simple. When you start to develop your own recipes, or go looking for a non-kit recipe to brew, KISS. Homebrewers have a distressing tendency to needlessly complicate things. For example, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale has five ingredients TOTAL: Pale malt, Crystal malt, Cascades hops, water, and yeast. Some of the homebrew "clone" recipes I've suffered through tasting have upwards of five ingredients in the grist alone. None of them ever even resembled the original. Simple rule: Keep it simple. The more complicated it is, the more likely you're going to screw it up.

3. Realize that brewing is 90% janitorial. Everything must be clean and sanitary. "Clean" goes for your equipment and brewing area, also. A good rule of thumb is "If it isn't clean on the outside it can't be clean on the inside." Let me reiterate something noted above: If it isn't clean, it CANNOT be sanitary. And everything which comes into contact with your beer after the heat drops below 180F must be sanitary.

4. When you get your instructions out of the kit you bought for your first brew, post them here so we can laugh at them, tell you to ritually burn them and then walk you through proper brewing process. 98% of beer-kit instructions suck sh!t through tubes.

5. Pitch enough yeast. Learn how to use www.mrmalty.com and other yeast-pitching calculators. Do not trust what your instructions tell you (see #4, above). Hell, don't trust what many homebrewers tell you! One vial or smack-pack is hardly ever enough yeast.

6. Read and absorb. At the same time, learn source evaluation. You must be able to discern between good advice and bad. Sometimes it's not clear. Sometimes there's no clear-cut answer! But ask a question of six homebrewers and you'll get a dozen answers.

Welcome to the obsession...er...HOBBY.

Cheers

Bob

 

[Skep18]

Temp control to the middle of the yeast spectrum. Yeast website will tell you what that is. Cheap way is swamp cooler. Use an igloo cooler covered with insulation on top to keep temp control. Freeze water bottles and change them out; takes like 1 or 2 a day to keep 64F or up.

Let the beer sit in primary for 2-4 weeks, then bottle, the longer the better.

 

[MaxStout]

Things like proper sanitation and good temp control are universal; most of us can agree on that. But you will likely encounter several subjective and even controversial topics in the brewing community. Oftentimes there are two or more paths to take, neither of which is necessarily wrong, yet there will be polarized views, with staunch defenders on both sides. Like the old Windows vs. Mac debate, we have plenty of those here:
kegging vs. bottling
bucket vs. carboy
squeeze the grain bag vs. don't squeeze the grain bag
primary only vs. secondary
...and so on.

It's up to you to digest all this information from people with very differing experiences and opinions and find the path you want to take. Experiment a bit. It's a fun pastime. Welcome to the vortex.

 

[SRBrewWorks]

So it is here! Brew Day!

Ill be working on a nice Milk Stout that was developed by the owner of the local brew shop.

Here is the recipe I'll be following:

Adventures in Homebrewing Utterly Good Milk Stout

6 Lbs. Liquid Malt Extract
1 Lb. Chocolate Malt
12 oz. Crystal Malt 120L
8 oz. Flaked Barley
1 Lb. Lactose
1 oz. German Perle
1 oz. Kent Goldings
White Labs 004 Irish Ale Yeast

I'll kind of be using this thread as a journal of sorts to follow this first batch and I will post pictures along the way.

 

[Rhumbline]

So it is here! Brew Day!

...
I'll kind of be using this thread as a journal of sorts to follow this first batch and I will post pictures along the way.

I'm sure we're all going to be rooting for you.

If I can offer one more bit of advice, aside from the impression you might get from surfing the forums, it's really hard to screw up an extract brew. Sure, it might not come out how it was intended, but it will almost certainly be drinkable beer. (see notes above regarding sanitation)

I agree with most everything that Bob posted above, but I've had very good results following the directions that came with my kits. Maybe I am blessed with an unsophisticated palate, or maybe I lucked out by choosing AHS for my kit supplier but I've never been led astray by them. I hate to sound like a company shill but that's been my experience.

I sincerely wish you "Happy Brewing"

 

[SRBrewWorks]

After steeping and adding extract it started looking like stout.

 

[SRBrewWorks]

I went downstairs this morning to give my beer a check as I was having little activity in the airlock when I checked it yesterday afternoon. This morning the yeast are doing their thing in high form.

Ambient temp around the primary is 66 degrees F. Yeast are happy, beer is becoming beer, and my hobby is going smoothly so far.

 

[JimRausch]

I've used the crown cap bottle since I started and have capped well over 1000 bottles. Don't let the keggers talk you into kegging unless you are ready for that and are prepared to drop a chunk of change only to be severly limited. Limited? Sure, how many taps can you afford, how many kegs? I have 14 varieties of beer in bottles and can choose from among them for the kind of beer I want to drink. Can you afford that many taps?

I'm with RM-MN 100%. I actually enjoy the whole bottling process, and definitely enjoy the variety. Also, when I want to gift my friends, it's alot easier to give them a mixed sixer than a growler.
Granted, I'm only coming up on my 2-year anniversary this Christmas. Ask me again after 10 years, maybe I will have changed my tune.........

 

[speeddemon190]

I went downstairs this morning to give my beer a check as I was having little activity in the airlock when I checked it yesterday afternoon. This morning the yeast are doing their thing in high form.

Ambient temp around the primary is 66 degrees F. Yeast are happy, beer is becoming beer, and my hobby is going smoothly so far.

Thats great news. try to keep the fermentor in an area about 60* ambient air temp. The Fermentation process can raise the temp inside 5-10*. Adventures in Homebrewing is where I get all my stuff, Great store and you can call them anytime you need advice.

One thing I will tell you is forgot those grain bags they have. Go to lowes/home depot and get a 5 gallon paint strainer bag. 2 in a pack for less than 5 bucks. These bags are much stronger and you can eventually move up to BIAB after your comfortable with extract brewing.

Its really hard to screw up beer, I had a beer which i accidentally boiled the steeping grains becuase my bag broke and i didnt filter out the grains. I also had to use a different sugar to prime since I had an issue with the sugar that came with the kit. THe beer turned out fantastic. i had to let it sit alittle longer in the bottle before drinking, but it was a huge success and everyone in my family loved it.

RDWHAHB

 

[SRBrewWorks]

Ok so after yesterday's wonderful the second bubbles in the airlock today is quite a different story. They have pretty much ceased. I'm not sure if fermentation is stuck or what it is. I plan on giving it a few more days then checking gravity. It has been in the fermenter for 3 days now. We'll see and hope for the best

 

[RM-MN]

Ok so after yesterday's wonderful the second bubbles in the airlock today is quite a different story. They have pretty much ceased. I'm not sure if fermentation is stuck or what it is. I plan on giving it a few more days then checking gravity. It has been in the fermenter for 3 days now. We'll see and hope for the best

Not much to worry about, that's kind of how ale yeasts work. I'd give it a mimimum of 2 weeks since you know that fermentation started. Have you read this article? It tells a bit about yeast and how they act. http://www.brewgeeks.com/the-life-cycle-of-yeast.html

 

[SRBrewWorks]

Ok excellent. Now what do you guys think Secondary or No Secondary? I was just wondering if a secondary would make this beer better since it is a Milk Stout and Im looking for that thick creamy texture. Also Im trying to have this beer ready for when I have about 20 people at my house for Thanksgiving.

 

[jrgtr42]

First, relax about the airlock activity... it's not a absolute indicator of activity.
Depending on your starting gravity, the heavy primary fermentation may be over. Still, don't touch it, things are still happening in there.

My recommendations are partly repeats of things others have said, but still.
Sanitization is key. Cleanliness is next to beerliness.
Temp control. You should be good with that yeast at 66F. temps inside are probably around 70. Getting it down a few more degrees would be best.
Make yeast starters. It's not hard - boil a quart of water and about a cup of DME, add a dash of yeast nutrient, cool, put into old (clean and sanitized) growler with airlock or a foil cap tightly wrapped around. give a swirl whenever you wald past it (needless to say keep in in a dark cabinet or something) There are people who will say that you need a stir plate and flasks and so forth - maybe later, but this is a down-and-dirty way of doing it. Make this a day or 2 before brew day.
Bottling is a pain, but a good way to go. I use bombers instead of 12-oz - it's half the work. I just save ones from commercial beers I drink, rinse them out well after emptying them. I don't even bother getting the existing labels off, they'll eventually come off themselves.
Lastly, relax, don't worry, have a (home)brew. You will end up with beer. You may make mistakes and it may not be world-class out of the gate, but you will learn and dial in the procedures to your equipment and it will get better.
Oh, yeah, last thing, do a full boil as soon as you can, you'll get better beer that way. Wait until after thanksgiving and get a propane turkey fryer rig. Under $40 at the big-box hardware stores. Maybe less on craigslist.

 

[Dontdropthebeer]

How is this looking?

 

[Rhumbline]

How is this looking?

I can't quite put my finger on it... but there's something missing.

 

[Dontdropthebeer]

If that's directed at me, I was asking OP about his beer he wanted ready for thanksgiving.

Not forgetting to include a picture myself.

=)

 

[SRBrewWorks]

Ok guys here it is. I have attached a picture of the Mad Mick Stout as I've called it completely finished. I am trying the first glass right now and it is delicious. Malty and slightly hoppy with a great texture to it. I am quite impressed with it for being my first batch. It could stand for a bit of a jump in alcohol content but overall quite nice.

 

[SRBrewWorks]

Not sure why that came out sideways

 

[Dontdropthebeer]

Nice! Enjoy!