Hi all,
I am pretty much new to brewing but I have done three batches with the use of beer kits thus far. The first went horribly wrong as I as following the recipe from the brew kit. I have since gotten the book 'how to brew' by John Palmer and it has helped a lot. The second batch I did was a stout that turned out ok. In the third the batch I think I knew exactly what I was doing and planned all the steps ahead. I got a pretty decent batch of Australian Pale Ale brewed from a coopers kit.
Recently, I travelled to New York in vacation and I was able to visit a brew store in Brooklyn called Bitter and Ester. The guys there were super helpful and we able to get me moving towards the next stage of brewing. I was introduced to specialty grains the diff varieties of hops. They said that brewing from kits alone and hopped malt extract really does not add the character into the beer and that I would be amazed by the difference of steeping some grains and adding the buttering and aroma hops.
I bought my supplies and now I am ready to brew the first batch of beer that was not necessarily a prepackaged kit. Very excited about this and can't wait to taste the beer.
I visited a couple brew pubs while in Brooklyn Covenhoven and Bierkraft. Great beers and I would recommend these places to anyone visiting New York. If I can get my beer anywhere close to those I would be grateful.
Sorry about the long introduction. Looking forward to exploring the forum and learning some new stuff in terms of brewing.
I am pretty much new to brewing but I have done three batches with the use of beer kits thus far. The first went horribly wrong as I as following the recipe from the brew kit. I have since gotten the book 'how to brew' by John Palmer and it has helped a lot. The second batch I did was a stout that turned out ok. In the third the batch I think I knew exactly what I was doing and planned all the steps ahead. I got a pretty decent batch of Australian Pale Ale brewed from a coopers kit.
Recently, I travelled to New York in vacation and I was able to visit a brew store in Brooklyn called Bitter and Ester. The guys there were super helpful and we able to get me moving towards the next stage of brewing. I was introduced to specialty grains the diff varieties of hops. They said that brewing from kits alone and hopped malt extract really does not add the character into the beer and that I would be amazed by the difference of steeping some grains and adding the buttering and aroma hops.
I bought my supplies and now I am ready to brew the first batch of beer that was not necessarily a prepackaged kit. Very excited about this and can't wait to taste the beer.
I visited a couple brew pubs while in Brooklyn Covenhoven and Bierkraft. Great beers and I would recommend these places to anyone visiting New York. If I can get my beer anywhere close to those I would be grateful.
Sorry about the long introduction. Looking forward to exploring the forum and learning some new stuff in terms of brewing.