New to Brewing! (Florida Brewer!)

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Hello all,

I'm so glad to be here. My name is John, I'm 32 and I'm from (and live in) Florida. I've never brewed anything and I'm so excited to start this adventure. Maybe this isn't the right place for this: but does anyone have a starter guide for brewing? Specifically in Florida? I'd like to brew in my garage but I'm not sure of the ramifications of this.


Thanks in advance and nice to meet you all

 

[lumpher]

First thing you have to decide is what you want to start with: beer, cider, mead... Then you have to decide how: Extract, all-grain, partial mash... Next, how much money you want to lay out at the start. Do you want to use electric, propane, or natural gas? A lot of decisions made early on will save money and frustration. If you start off by answering these questions here, people can start directing you toward the right equipment and narrow it down better to what would be best for you.

 

[boolean]

First thing you have to decide is what you want to start with: beer, cider, mead... Then you have to decide how: Extract, all-grain, partial mash... Next, how much money you want to lay out at the start. Do you want to use electric, propane, or natural gas? A lot of decisions made early on will save money and frustration. If you start off by answering these questions here, people can start directing you toward the right equipment and narrow it down better to what would be best for you.

Thanks for the response, lumpher! I believe I'll need to do some research on the pros and cons of Extract, all-grain or Partial Mash. Plus I need to look in electric, propane or natural gas.

The first part: definitely want to start with beer. I think it'll be simpler than mead. (Please tell me if I am wrong)
The power source: probably electric. That makes the most sense to me. Plus I don't want to fool around with propane tanks.
Now for extract, all-grain or partial mash... I'm not sure. I was going to start with one of the Northern Brewer's starter kits. Specifically this one in the this video:

 

[lumpher]

Extract is definitely the easiest. To make an extract beer, you heat up the water, pour the dry or liquid extract in, start it boiling, put the hops in when you're told to by the kit instructions, then cool it off and put it in a bucket when you're finished. A little bit more to it than that, but it's definitely the best way to start. Some jump in headfirst to all-grain, but I recommend extract to ease into it and get the basics down.

 

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Extract is definitely the easiest. To make an extract beer, you heat up the water, pour the dry or liquid extract in, start it boiling, put the hops in when you're told to by the kit instructions, then cool it off and put it in a bucket when you're finished. A little bit more to it than that, but it's definitely the best way to start. Some jump in headfirst to all-grain, but I recommend extract to ease into it and get the basics down.

Thanks again for the advice and tips. For my first "rodeo", I'd definitely like to go to easier route. I'm also really excited to expand my horizon outside of IPAs. Took a business trip to DC and went to some local ale houses and fell in love with Belgium beer.

If you have any suggestions for some really good extracts please feel free to shoot them my way.

 

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Another one of my worries: can I brew in my garage in Florida? It's super hot down here in the summer. Will that affect my fermentation?

 

[lumpher]

I'm in East Texas. It's as hot or hotter here than it is there. I lived in the Dallas/Fort Worth area for many years and brewed in my garage every time. It's not the temp where you brew; it's the temp where you ferment. Belgians are a good place to start for you, because Belgian yeast usually is more tolerant of higher fermentation temps than most other yeast (Kvoss notwithstanding). The big problem you'll have is cooling it off quickly (chilling) with your hot groundwater temps, so look into the "bucket in a sink of ice water" cooling. After that, you should just be able to add the yeast and shove it in a corner of the house and forget it. Before you do that, be aware when the yeast says "68-80 degrees" or whatever temps it says, that means the temp of the beer, which due to fermentation will be a few degrees higher than ambient temps. If a room is 75, the internal fermentation temp of the beer may be 83 or even higher.

 

[boolean]

I'm in East Texas. It's as hot or hotter here than it is there. I lived in the Dallas/Fort Worth area for many years and brewed in my garage every time. It's not the temp where you brew; it's the temp where you ferment. Belgians are a good place to start for you, because Belgian yeast usually is more tolerant of higher fermentation temps than most other yeast (Kvoss notwithstanding). The big problem you'll have is cooling it off quickly (chilling) with your hot groundwater temps, so look into the "bucket in a sink of ice water" cooling. After that, you should just be able to add the yeast and shove it in a corner of the house and forget it. Before you do that, be aware when the yeast says "68-80 degrees" or whatever temps it says, that means the temp of the beer, which due to fermentation will be a few degrees higher than ambient temps. If a room is 75, the internal fermentation temp of the beer may be 83 or even higher.

Once again, lumpher, thanks again for the great advice. I hope to mitigate my failures by talking to many folks in this forum Would it safe to stick your ferment into a refrigerator with closely controlled temperature control? I have a dedicated fridge in the garage for this purpose. My ambient temps are usually around 75 year round so I don't want to take that chance of screwing up my ferment because I failed to have proper beer temps.

Also does it make since to have a thermometer inside of the ferment container to ensure I'm hitting the target temps?

 

[lumpher]

So you already have a ferm chamber. Perfect. Absolutely use that thing. The more stable temp you can keep your fermentation the better it will be. Remember, when you set the temp to say 62, and the beer starts fermenting, it will still be around 68 inside. I don't worry about an internal thermometer. I just keep in mind the difference inside vs outside the bucket.

 

[boolean]

So you already have a ferm chamber. Perfect. Absolutely use that thing. The more stable temp you can keep your fermentation the better it will be. Remember, when you set the temp to say 62, and the beer starts fermenting, it will still be around 68 inside. I don't worry about an internal thermometer. I just keep in mind the difference inside vs outside the bucket.

Okay awesome! I'm glad you told me that about the fermentation process raising the heat. I would have never thought of that. Science!!!

Would you have to know of a go-to starter kit for n00bs like myself?

 

[lumpher]

I haven't looked at them in decades. Others may be able to guide you.to the best deals out there better than I can.