Have a few ciders under my belt and am wanting to finally do a beer. I am comfortable with the fact that extract is a very viable way to brew. So the main question is two fold, first is a oatmeal stout a reasonable first beer? Secondly what do I need to have to get started with an extract beer, equipment wise? I am going to get an ingredients kit from the LHBS. I have a carboy, air locks, 3 food grade buckets, hydrometer, racking and bottling stuff. I am more concerned with the beer specific equipment that I would need to add to the mix.
Oatmeal Stout a good first try?
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TexanRudeboy
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All you really need is a pot to boil it in. Doesn't even need to be huge. You can boil part of the wort and top off with water to your desired volume.
http://www.howtobrew.com
An old edition of John Palmer's book is available there. Some info is out of date, but it will definitely walk you through your first brew.
An oatmeal stout is perfectly fine for your first brew. You will have to steep grains, which Palmer's book walks you through also.
Cheers and welcome to a new addiction!
http://www.howtobrew.com
An old edition of John Palmer's book is available there. Some info is out of date, but it will definitely walk you through your first brew.
An oatmeal stout is perfectly fine for your first brew. You will have to steep grains, which Palmer's book walks you through also.
Cheers and welcome to a new addiction!
Thanks for the response. I have been wanting to do this for years and over Christmas 2012 my niece talked me into starting with cider. So a few runs of cider and now I am really wanting to do a beer. I always understood that it was very involved and you needed a lot of equipment so I didn't do it. Well turns out that I was always told about all grain brewing. As well I was told that extract brewing was foul stuff. Needless to say I found a HBS started reading on here a another site and am convinced that I had bad info.
You had a couple pieces of bad information. Extract brewers can win awards in competition and it doesn't take a ton of equipment to do all grain. Making good beer with extract is in your technique and I think it is easier to make good beer from extract than from all grain. With that said, I've been brewing all grain and don't intend to go back to extract because of the cost factor and the excitement of watching the starches turn to sugars, the fun of making up my own recipes, and to see just what I can do with the process.
I started all grain with BIAB using the equipment I already had for extract. All I had to add was a paint strainer bag and a cheap Corona style mill since the nearest brew store with a mill was 150 miles away. I brew 2 1/2 gallon batches in my 5 gallon pot or if I want a bigger batch I use a 7 1/2 gallon turkey fryer pot to make 5 gallons. With BIAB, all grain brewing is so simple anyone can do it. Measure out the water you need, bring it to a specific temperature, drop the paint strainer bag in and stir in the milled grains. Wait for the amount of time for the mash to complete, remove the bag holding the grains and you have wort made.
I started all grain with BIAB using the equipment I already had for extract. All I had to add was a paint strainer bag and a cheap Corona style mill since the nearest brew store with a mill was 150 miles away. I brew 2 1/2 gallon batches in my 5 gallon pot or if I want a bigger batch I use a 7 1/2 gallon turkey fryer pot to make 5 gallons. With BIAB, all grain brewing is so simple anyone can do it. Measure out the water you need, bring it to a specific temperature, drop the paint strainer bag in and stir in the milled grains. Wait for the amount of time for the mash to complete, remove the bag holding the grains and you have wort made.
scottballz
Well-Known Member
An oatmeal stout is all good for your first beer especially since you will be using an extract kit. all of the hard work is already done for you. just follow the instructions and you will be all good. Welcome to your new passion my friend. CHEERS!
My first brew was an extract oatmeal stout. Simplest thing ever, pour from giant bag (it had full wort volume, post boil), dump yeast on top. The hardest part of it being my first batch was waiting long enough for it to mature. I realized exactly how much aging could help a beer out when I had about 3 bottles left.
Thanks all for the input. I really like oatmeal stout and a Dutch beer by the name of Grolsh. From the Grolsh bottle style fame. I would love to learn to brew some thing similar to it. Any way I am glad to finally be able to look at doing some beer in addition to my cider. Great hobby to add to the other already expensive ones I have.
