Hello from Winchester Mass ! good beer here I come

[illnastyimpreza]

alright...I bit the bullet and finaly decided I have had enough of buying off the shelf ale and lagger. I find myself as well as my friends constantly critisizing every beer we sample. It is time to dive into the world of brewing myself !


first off, what is a mash and lauter tun ?


I would like to find out the best way to start brewing.... where is a good place to find everything I need to build my own brewing kit?

 

[eager_brewer]

Look around in your are for a local homebrew store. For me the closest one is 2hrs away and I drive there every week. Also read the Wiki here. I started there a few weeks ago and found it very helpful. Welcome to the forum!

 

[Zymurgrafi]

Welcome also from NE VT,

All depends on how complicated (how much money you want to spend) you want to make it. If you start off with extract brewing it is simpler time and investment wise. Dive right in to all grain it can be more expensve equipment wise but less expensive ingredient wise (or more, so many variables!!!)

Take your time and read read read. There are MANY ways to do things, and many opinions. Take your time and figure out what makes sense to you.

Most important. Have fun (oh, and be patient)!!!

 

[MA_Brewer]

Another New England-ah! Welcome.

http://www.howtobrew.com/

This is a tremendous resource (2nd only to this site, of course )

 

[LouT]

Welcome, neighbor! There's great info on this board and on the internet, and while the local homebrew store in Woburn is mainly a mail-order/internet place they can be pretty helpful. If getting yourself set up to brew for the first time, it'd be good to talk to some folks on this board about what you want to do before you invest (if you know you would like to do all grain brewing soon, for example). Also, there are some great equipment kits at the various internet HBS sites - Northern Brewer, MoreBeer!, Austin Homebrew, etc.
Heck, you're close enough to me, and several others, you might be able to get some tutoring or come watch/help one of us make a batch...

 

[Glibbidy]

Greetings from Southern Vermont! Welcome aboard and good luck. Sounds like you got some reading to do on this here hombrew subject.

 

[illnastyimpreza]

so many replies ! thanks guys.... I've spent a few hours this week on the forrums checking out everything from....begining brewing....to different brew machines people have created. Its crazzy how awesome of a project some of these homemade brewing machines are !

I figure I will try to create my own brew barrel.... I'm leaning twards one of those coleman camping coolers.... whata u guys think?>

 

[LouT]

Good first project if you are itching to build something. But if you just want to get started with basics before going whole-hog (all grain) you can get some basic equipment for brewing extract beers and just about all of it will also be used later if you decide to go all grain. Sorry I didn't recognize your username in the PM you sent me, but you may want to update your profile with a little more info - the town would've triggered my memory if it was in your profile or PM. Anyway, do you know if you want to brew all-grain or partial mash right from the start? If not sure, you may want to keep your eyes peeled for a good sized brew pot and piece together an equipment kit -- or keep a good eye on craigslist. I bought a good amount of stuff from CL in January once I decided to get back into brewing. I already had a hydrometer and fermenting bucket and a bottle capper, but in the CL deal I got 3 kegs, a bunch of pinlock and balllock connectors, a carboy, a bucket, a CO2 tank with dual gauge regulator, and a bunch of misc small stuff. I've only bought about $700 more stuff since then!! (built homemade kegerator, bought extra carboy, brew supplies, wine thief, auto-siphon, tubing, clamps, connectors, etc. etc.)
I'm pretty set on equipment for now unless I decide to go all grain -- but if I can get some carboys on a good deal I'd like to have several more. Particularly the 6 gal size, since I want to do some wines and they need 6 gal.

 

[the_bird]

Greetings from the far west!

I'd agree - start off making some extract beers, you can make some damn fine beers that way. I quickly "graduated" to all-grain so that I could have more control over the process, but it helped me out tremendously to start with extract.