I want to go to the next step of brewing

[Jack-A-Roe]

I've made several brews using the kits. What is a good next step for home brewing. The guy at my Home Brew store seems to push the kits too much I think. Also does anyone know of a good on line store for ingredients for brewing?

 

[Yooper]

Well, kits are good if you have a certain style in mind but no recipe. But if you have a recipe, then you can buy your ingredients separately. I like Austinhomebrew.com, northernbrewer.com, morebeer.com, and midwestbrewing. I've ordered mostly from austinhomebrew.com because I can order ingredients in whatever increments I want- at some of the others, if I need an ounce of black patent, I have to order a whole pound. They also have a flat rate shipping, so it's not such a big expense for shipping.

Look over our recipe database, and see if anything looks good. Otherwise, those online homebrew stores have great kits like clone recipes of your favorite beers. That's what I used to do- find a beer I liked and buy a clone kit.

 

[Revvy]

Welcome...

Well, you could try your hand at designing your own recipes. You could also brew some of the recipes on here.

If your kits were extract only, you could do extract with grains....You could also look into doing counter top partial mashes. There's many options.

As to online retailers there's several...Austin Homebrew Supply is one of our members. There is also Northern Brewer and midwest supplies.

 

[eljefe]

There is a very comprehensive list of on-line suppliers here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=701

I have used Austin Homebrew and Midwest Supplies and have been very happy with both.

IMHO, the next step if you want to try something other than extract brewing is to try partial mash kits. It is the next logical step to all grain. Another option would be to search for recipes on this site or in books that use extracts or partial mash as their primary ingredients.

Depending on what equipment you currently have, moving to all grain may require an investment in additional equipment. You can also search the DIY section to build some of the items which should save money.

 

[SavageSteve]

Finding recipes and buying individual ingredients is a good way to learn more about the different ingredients and why they are used. This can also help you learn more about the different styles and their defining characteristics.

I find that one of the big benefits of some of the online stores is the ability to get fresher ingredients, and this can be an important next step in brewing as well.

 

[Jack-A-Roe]

Thanks for the info. Two of the kits used grains in them. Pretty easy to do. The recipe data base looks like a good place to start. I like the idea of having to put the ingredients together myself. Where is the DIY area?

 

[Grinder12000]

After kits I have gone to recipes and then mini mashing instead of steeping.

HOWEVER - nothing wrong with kits. You can always tweak them with slightly different grains and yeast and hops.

I really don't know if I'll go to All Grain but . . . . . . .

 

[Revvy]

Thanks for the info. Two of the kits used grains in them. Pretty easy to do. The recipe data base looks like a good place to start. I like the idea of having to put the ingredients together myself. Where is the DIY area?

Download a free trial of beertools or use the free online program http://beercalculus.com/recipe and learn how to use it, and plug in various recipes into it.....You'll get an Idea of how various ingredients and amounts affect things like bitterness, color and alcohol content. There will come a time when buying ingredients alone where your shop/retailer won't have a certain ingredient or hop variety, they, if they are good, will reccomend a substitute of some sort. If you plug the numbers into a program, you'll be able to adjust for your original recipe...

For example, your recipe calls for an ounce of certain hop to get a total of a certain IBU...You are given a substitute that is a little stronger...you run the numbers in software and see that you'll only need 3/4's of an ounce of that hop to match the ibu's of your recipe...

Playing around with a calculator while looking for recipes helps you get a handle on what various things do to each other...