I've been surfing this fine forum and have discovered I may be in over my head. You guys are serious !!! I just want to brew a decent beer without having to throw away every other batch.
Any body can brew a great batch of beer if you just follow some basic processes, have good sanitization practices and have patience to let the beer ferment, clear and bottle condition thoroughly before drinking...
It's really rare to have to throw out a batch of beer...It takes a heck of a lot to ruin beer. Most of the time people think a beer's ruined when it's just too "green" and hasn't finished conditioning in the bottle...or they rushed through the fermentation into the next step (like moving to secondary or bottling too soon by not taking a hydro reding- or in lieu of a hydro reading letting the beer sit in primary for 2 weeks.)
Thre are some great resources here on this forum that can help anyone brew great beer, if they just follow the info left here by people with more experience then them.....There's always someone here who's brewed even 1 more batch of beer then us and has one more piece of the puzzle to share.
Here's some "sticky" links with great info...I wish more people would read them BEFORE they brew their first batch, so they'd know things to look out for, and not to wory about.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=54362
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=43635
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=43014
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=7909
yea, some people here are really hardcore...they "build" their own water, or grow yeasts, or can cite the amount of sugars that can be extracted by mashing of ANY given malt....Some of them make great beers, and some of them don't.
And there are others here who, crack open a beer,, then just slap a bunch of ingredients together, let it ferment for 2 weeks, clear for 2 weeks and bottle for 3 without taking any readings, and some of them turn out great beers, and others don't.
I've had great beers that have come out of $3,000 dollar herms systems with all the bells and whistles, and I've had some that were worse than skunky budweiser....I've tasted award winning beers that were made with extracts, and even kits, and I've tasted kit beers that were crappy as well...Even had some fantastic beers that came from mr beer kits...
The point is, that you can approach beer making at any level...you can be all grain, or all extract, AND MAKE EITHER GREAT BEERS OR LOUSY BEERS, depending on how good or bad your basic processes are. And the only ways to perfect your process, are to learn as much as you can, ask as many questions as you can, and brew as much as you can....And have patience to let the beer do what it needs to do...oh and to learn to RDWHAHB!!!
You can do it gunny!!!! Everyone can!!!
(end of peptalk/sermon)