Important tips

[Br3wM3]

Hello brewers! So I just recently bought a 5 gal starter kit and have been reading up on home brewing. After a good amount of research, I wanted a little advice on what needs to be done to make a quality brew in my first batch. As I have yet to start my first batch, I wanted a few tips or suggestions from experienced home brewers to help guide me through my first batch.

I appreciate all help and look forward to learning throughout the process in this new hobby. Thanks!

Cheers!

 

[BigCrazyAl]

If your kit is an extract kit then the directions should be fairly straight forward in the kit. One thing to note is when they say to add your hops at 60 or 15 minutes for example, this means time from the end of the boil. Since a typical boil is 60 minutes, the 60 minute hop goes in right away and the 15 minute hop goes in 45 minutes later.

Make sure you sanitize very well. There's a difference between being clean and being sanitized. Everything that touches the cooled beer after the boil will need to be sanitized to prevent issues during and after fermentation.

After you pitch your yeast, make sure the fermenter is in a temperature stable environment within the yeasts recommended range. I feel like 65 F is a good target temp for most ale yeast but check the package. To further keep the temp stable, placing the fermenter in a water bath is good to act as a heat sink to pull away excess heat and keep the beer temp stable.

Place the fermenter somewhere you don't mind getting dirty just in case something happens like overflow or clogged airlock. Chances are that won't happen if your fermenter is 6+ gallons capacity.

I recommend giving fermentation 3 weeks minimum for all beers before bottling. Transferring to a secondary is not necessary unless you're aging it a LONG time or adding fruit or something.

If you have a bottling bucket and auto siphon, practice the transfer from your fermenter to your bottling bucket with water to get your method down before trying it with beer. You get one shot and aerating it with splashing and bubbles isn't good at that stage.

Know how much priming sugar is needed for the beer style and dissolve that in 1-2 cups of water and boil at least a few minutes. Put that in the bottling bucket first after cooled and rack the beer on top. Gently stir with a sanitized spoon if necessary. Have at least 50 sanitized bottles and caps ready to go before starting bottling.

That's all I can think of. Good luck! It will be beer and you will learn how you do things in a way that works for you. I'm just giving recommendations based on what works for me.

 

[Br3wM3]

If your kit is an extract kit then the directions should be fairly straight forward in the kit. One thing to note is when they say to add your hops at 60 or 15 minutes for example, this means time from the end of the boil. Since a typical boil is 60 minutes, the 60 minute hop goes in right away and the 15 minute hop goes in 45 minutes later.

Make sure you sanitize very well. There's a difference between being clean and being sanitized. Everything that touches the cooled beer after the boil will need to be sanitized to prevent issues during and after fermentation.

After you pitch your yeast, make sure the fermenter is in a temperature stable environment within the yeasts recommended range. I feel like 65 F is a good target temp for most ale yeast but check the package. To further keep the temp stable, placing the fermenter in a water bath is good to act as a heat sink to pull away excess heat and keep the beer temp stable.

Place the fermenter somewhere you don't mind getting dirty just in case something happens like overflow or clogged airlock. Chances are that won't happen if your fermenter is 6+ gallons capacity.

I recommend giving fermentation 3 weeks minimum for all beers before bottling. Transferring to a secondary is not necessary unless you're aging it a LONG time or adding fruit or something.

If you have a bottling bucket and auto siphon, practice the transfer from your fermenter to your bottling bucket with water to get your method down before trying it with beer. You get one shot and aerating it with splashing and bubbles isn't good at that stage.

Know how much priming sugar is needed for the beer style and dissolve that in 1-2 cups of water and boil at least a few minutes. Put that in the bottling bucket first after cooled and rack the beer on top. Gently stir with a sanitized spoon if necessary. Have at least 50 sanitized bottles and caps ready to go before starting bottling.

That's all I can think of. Good luck! It will be beer and you will learn how you do things in a way that works for you. I'm just giving recommendations based on what works for me.

I really appreciate all your help! Like I said I have done a good amount of research but I appreciate the first hand knowledge and experience of someone. I will definitely use these tips to make sure my first homebrew can be successful! Thank you!

 

[ancientmariner52]

Ask 3 brewers a question, you'll get 5 opinions, minimum. Patience and a sense of humor will get you through, though. Keep asking questions and focus on the basics. You'll get beer. Good luck.

 

[mulletmaster]

One thing that would have been good for me to know on my first few batches is that it is ok for the wort to sit overnight before pitching yeast. This will allow the temperature to stabilize and get to pitching temps, this time would be reduced if in a bucket or cooler of water as previously mentioned (aka swamp cooler). Just do not transfer hot wort to a glass carboy as they can crack from thermal shock.

 

[ncbrewer]

There are some safety issues with brewing. This article discusses some of them:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/brewing-safety.html

 

[PADave]

Sanitation, control fermentation temps., and don't touch the fermenter for at least 2-3 weeks. Don't try to do too much at first, learn the basics and go from there. Read books, learn, there is tons of info out there.

 

[Gnomebrewer]

Make sure you have somewhere to keep the fermenter at a steady (constant) temperature in the correct range for the yeast you're using. Avoid temperature swings.
What's your 'starter kit'? Extract, All-Grain, Partial-mash or Pre-hopped tin? If it's a pre-hopped tin that you just add water and yeast to, get rid of the yeast and buy a better one.

 

[Kaz]

As everyone is saying, fermentation temperature control may be the best thing to work on. I know that my brews really took a turn for the better when I stopped relying on room temps.

 

[Br3wM3]

It is an extract kit! And thank you for the advice.

 

[tomwhit19]

i felt the same way going into my first ever brew from an extract kit, did what i thought was plenty of reading and prep work ahead of time, found out as we got into it we werent as prepared as we thought we were, first brew day for me went probably close to 6 hours, dont let that worry you, itll be fine, our second brew day we shaved 2 hours off from our first mainly due to better prep work and having an idea of the next step before that step came up in the process, just follow the instructions from the kit and all will be well and you will have beer, have a few while youre brewing, that alaways helps and by the time your done bottling and you try that first one get ready to buy another kit and start upgrading your equipment and process

cheers