Stone Cold Lead Pipe Lock'd N00b Advice

[Alamo_Beer]

Oxyclean is your friend

 

[Alamo_Beer]

Sanitizer in a spray bottle rocks

 

[Revvy]

Oxyclean is your friend

Nothing beats it for getting labels off bottles (Soak for 24 hours in warm water/oxyclean).

You can throw away your bottle and carboy brushes and use only an oxyclean soak and a thorough rinsing. Run your autosiphon in a bucket of oxyclean to clean it too.

Non scented oxyclean is recommended.

The no name/generic/wallmart type works fine.

 

[Alamo_Beer]

Don't worry about Hot Side Aeration or Autolysis. They're the boogymen of homebrewing

 

[TheJadedDog]

Do not rack to secondary until primary fermentation is complete. No fermentation occurs during secondary - secondary is a misnomer.

 

[Funkenjaeger]

If foam (AKA krausen) starts coming out of your airlock and/or blows the stopper/lid/airlock off, your batch is not necessarily ruined. Clean up and sanitize as best you can, and switch to a blowoff tube until fermentation calms down again.

 

[Funkenjaeger]

Not sure if this was your plan already, but perhaps this should be made into a wiki page once the initial flood of entries slows down? It would keep the info more condensed, possibly making the lazier n00bs more likely to read the whole thing than when it's spread across many pages, provided people liberally link to the page when n00b questions are asked.

<feel free to delete>

 

[Alamo_Beer]

You aren't going to save any money by brewing your own beer. It's about the fun/experience of it all.

 

[Dinbin]

Buy a hydrometer. Read the instructions that come with it.

 

[Professor Frink]

If you're fermenting in a 5 gallon carboy, use a blowoff tube.

 

[Professor Frink]

If you want to up your gravity, use more extract/grains.

 

[Professor Frink]

If you're extract beer is to dark, add most of the extract later.

 

[Fingers]

If you use liquid yeast, you should make a starter.
Do not make a starter for dry yeast.
Don't ask what a starter is. Go here https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Starter

 

[Revvy]

Yes, that vomity, curly, thick looking gunk at the top of your fermenter is normal. Your beer is not infected. It's called the Krausen...It will fall to the bottom of the fermenter later. Now quit opening the bucket every 5 minutes. Your beer is fine, and you keep letting out the co2 and run the risk of getting a real infection. Next time get a 6.5 gallon carboy to ferment in, then you can watch all you want. But cool your wort before putting it in there.

 

[DeathBrewer]

don't use vanilla, fruit flavors, honey, ginger, etc. in your first batch.

start simple and ask around for a tried and true recipe.

 

[s3n8]

When in doubt, wait a week.

Use google site:homebrewtalk.com instead of the site search. Chances are somebody asked your same question earlier today (yes, i lernt this the hard way )

go to total beverage to get some good beer while you wait impatiently for your first batch to finish.

When in doubt, wait another week.

 

[Desert_Sky]

You aren't going to save any money by brewing your own beer. It's about the fun/experience of it all.

well if you don;t count the thousands you may spend on education/equipment then sure it is!

 

[Revvy]

Don't use a plastic scrubby or anything rough to clean the inside of your fermentation or bottling bucket. Scratching the inside could leave you open for bacteria. If you need to do more than an oxyclean or spray from a hose or faucet, use a sponge instead.

 

[jds]

• You will get conflicting advice from people. Brewing is a craft, and craftsmen often have differing opinions on the best way to do things.
• Your own common sense is probably pretty good. Trust it.
• It's actually fairly difficult to ruin a beer, so don't worry about it too much.
• Don't get loaded while brewing your first few batches. It can seem pretty hectic the first few times around.
• Age improves all homebrew. Have patience.
• The hydrometer is your best tool for knowing when to bottle. Use it.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

Time is your friend.

If there is still active fermentation (airlock activity, bubbling krausen, swirling yeast, SG still dropping), it's not time to rack, no matter what the instructions say about fermentation time.

If your beer is not carbonated, you probably didn't wait long enough.

If your beer tastes "funny," but not bad, you probably didn't wait long enough.

Have patience.

 

[BrianP]

Buckets, carboys, and better bottles all produce good results.

Buckets: cheapest, but you can't watch the fermentation.

Glass carboy: fun to watch, more expensive, heavy, slippery when wet, dangerous if dropped.

Plastic better bottle = fun, similar in price to glass, safer than glass.

Plastic water bottle = permeable to oxygen, not recommended.

 

[BrianP]

When in doubt, use a blow-off tube. Fermentation explosions are a pain to clean up.

 

[cmorkat]

And my favorite cause I did it due to impatience.
Dont pitch to early cool the wort down to below 80 degrees.

 

[FlyGuy]

Don't drink all your homebrew right away. You will regret it. Most beers will improve with a bit of aging.

 

[FlyGuy]

A critical factor to making good beer is a stable and appropriate temperature for fermentation. Learn what your yeast needs and always pay attention to it.

 

[FlyGuy]

If your tap water tastes good, then it will likely make good beer. If you have chlorine in your water, remove it with an appropriate water filter or with a campden tablet.

 

[FlyGuy]

If you use glass carboys, don't ever put hot wort in them, and don't put them in an ice bath. The thick glass shatters easily under heat stress, and is extremely dangerous. To make them easier to carry, put them in a plastic milk crate.

 

[FlyGuy]

It is relatively easy to oxygenate and ruin your beer once fermentation is complete. Always rack 'quietly' and expose your beer to as little air as possible until you actually drink it.

 

[FlyGuy]

Sunlight and bright fluorescent light will ruin beer. Keep your fermenters and bottled beer in the dark. Always. Brown bottles are best because they add some protection from light.

 

[FlyGuy]

Your yeast will need a lot of oxygen right after you pitch them so they can build themselves up for fermentation. If O2 isn't in your wort, you are putting your beer at risk of developing off flavours. Typical oxygenation methods include shaking the hell out of your carboy/fermenter for 3 mins, aeration pumps with an inline filter, or oxygenation kits that are sold by homebrew shops.