Throwing in the towel

Yakima 728
Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
I don't want to be misinterpreted as saying you must go all-grain. I did one quality extract kit between Mr. Beer and All grain and it was great. MUCH better than Mr. Beer, but because I wanted to totally understand and control (or at least be a part of) the entire processes, all-grain was the logical step. Also, keep a DETAILED brewing journal! This will help you see where you might have made a mistake. Another thing to remember, beer isn't the only thing you can make. For a simple, almost ALWAYS successful experiment, make some Edworts Apfelwein (do a search here on HBT). If you manage to screw that up (which you won't) then definitely take that as a sign of what you should do....
 
I was thinking of going over to northern Brewer if this brew demon kit doesn't work out for me. I saw some beginner kits that I liked. I've read some good reviews about their kits. Any thoughts?
 
ReaperOnefour said:
I was thinking of going over to northern Brewer if this brew demon kit doesn't work out for me. I saw some beginner kits that I liked. I've read some good reviews about their kits. Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

Do you have the 2 gallon or 6 gallon brew demon kit? And do you like to make things yourself? If so, I can give you a few ideas on getting some basic equipment locally for a good price. If you have a 2 gallon brew demon kit, you are set to do 1 gallon all grain brews. Likewise with the 6 doing 5 gallon. They basically provide you with the fermentation vessel. Depending on your size, I'll recommend the other things you might want (without spending a small fortune).
 
ReaperOnefour said:
I was thinking of going over to northern Brewer if this brew demon kit doesn't work out for me. I saw some beginner kits that I liked. I've read some good reviews about their kits. Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

Northern Brewer is where I started. They have some great kits. I would recommend clicking on the learn tab and checking out the video section. Also, their youTube channel. After watching a ton of vids and reading alot, my first batch turned out great. I am a few extract batches in and am going to start an all grain this weekend.

Good starter extract vid:
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaDQ6S6p6Wk[/ame]
 
ReaperOnefour said:
I was thinking of going over to northern Brewer if this brew demon kit doesn't work out for me. I saw some beginner kits that I liked. I've read some good reviews about their kits. Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

By all means, try a good quality kit. My LHBS carried only True Brew kits when I started and they made a good beer every time. And the LHBS guy was a successful home brewer, who helped me over some bumps in the road. I have also tried Northern Brewer, Brewer's Best and Brooklyn Brew Shop kits, again with great results. I've gone all-grain since then, but starting with a good-quality kit gave me a lot of confidence to keep pursuing the next level. If I'd had the experience kit after kit that you had, I think I might have considered quitting also. Some of the basic beginning aspects of successful brewing are: hydrometer, sanitation and ferm temp control. And patience. Lots of patience.
 
I've been brewing for a year and a half. I've done about 20 batches. I started with a mr beer someone gave me for Christmas and it was terrible. I'm doing all grain now which made a big difference but no where near as big as these three things. Fermentation temperature control, yeast starters for liquid yeasts, and a brew log. The first good beer I brewed is lost to history. I didn't write anything down and I can't replicate it. My beers are better now than that one, but I learned to keep track of things better.
 
swampbrewcrew said:
I've been brewing for a year and a half. I've done about 20 batches. I started with a mr beer someone gave me for Christmas and it was terrible. I'm doing all grain now which made a big difference but no where near as big as these three things. Fermentation temperature control, yeast starters for liquid yeasts, and a brew log. The first good beer I brewed is lost to history. I didn't write anything down and I can't replicate it. My beers are better now than that one, but I learned to keep track of things better.
Click to expand...


Just as a footnote. I know just enough about brewing to start really screwing stuff up. I'm in no way experienced.
 
I have the brew demon 2 gallon kit. I've already brewed the Vienna lager. ( Which came out cidery.) I have the one evil pilsner conditioning right now. I also have a replacement Vienna lager recipe in the box that brew demon send me.
 
WarEagleBrewer said:
What made you try brewing initially? I mean, what did you hope to get out of the hobby? A lot of folks try it for the wrong reasons. The first I can think of is "cheap beer". If you are looking to be frugal, this hobby does NOT start that way. There are things you will need to buy up front in order to make good beer. If you are an impatient person in general, go ahead and quit. If you are easily frustrated, go ahead and quit. It the thought of pouring down the drain something you spent $40 on and waited 4 weeks for upsets you, go ahead and quit. I also started with a Mr. Beer kit. It made beer. It was not good beer, but hey....I'm not picky.....until I AM. I invested in 5 gallon all grain equipment and wow what a difference! One difference.....WAY MORE TIME INVESTED! So if you don't enjoy the process itself, quit. It is WAY easier to just DRINK good beer than try to make it. For me, the joy is in the making more than the drinking. If I make a beer I like, that's a bonus. If I make a beer my friends like, that is the ultimate reward for me. All of us are different. I HIGHLY recommend the idea of doing some 1 gallon all gain brews before you quit though. Cheers!
Click to expand...

I'm going to edit my real response to this. The short version, I disagree with you. Please keep in mind that we all brew for different reasons. If I was to follow your advice I would have quit a long long time ago.

To reaper please pm me and I can help you get started cheaply and quickly if you would like to know more about those things. There are 99 ways to skin a cat and 93 of them work. You will find many want to tell you exactly how to do it, I hope you find your own way and what is best for you in this fascinating and varied hobby.

Btw did you watch the 15 minute pale ale video. Those two guys are famous Homebrew writers and podcasters.
 
I saw two beginner kits from northern Brewer that I like. I can't remember the name, but it's the one that has the two big mouth bubblers for primary & secondary. The other one I like is the go pro 1 gal kit. The thing is I'm kind of limited space wise, & I was also thinking that maybe I should stay small until I really get the hang of brewing before I start doing big batches.
 
What size is your kettle and what other gear if any do you have? You need starsan and for now you can ferment up to two-and-a-half gallons in those mr. Beer kegs, I used to. I'm not familiar with those kits but if they are extract keep in mind, that they have already been boiled that's how they became extract.
 
What's up kh54? The instructions that brew demon provides says to boil the hme & the brewing enhancer ( which is pretty much corn syrup) until completely dissolved. Then pour into the conical fermenter. They say ferment for 1 week then bottle. I ferment for two weeks, then bottle.
 
Apple scrap. I have the mr beer lbk( little brown keg) & the brew demon plastic conical fermenter. I also have 24 of the 1 liter pet bottles, a bottling wand, some funnels, air lock, & that's about it.
 
You need a kettle. Cheapest for the most part is a 12 dollar ss 4 g for 2.5 gallon batches and 20 dollar 8 gallon tamale pot for 5 gallon batches. From there its like a ball of string, how long do you want it. For all grain the options are either the grains move out from the water in a bag or the water moves through the grain in a drain valve. Denny Conn home brew master, writer, and journalist of all things brewing has said he is still using his cooler mash tun for 19 years. Other option the bag pulled and lifted by hand or pulley and drained over kettle, squeezed in bucket, dunk sparged, and so on. A ten gallon kettle makes a great option. Affordable and versatile. I went with 15 gallon 65 dollar aluminum kettle because experience led me to wanting plenty of head space and room for high gravity brews. But I started with 20 gallon 8 kettle pot to see how my stove would do. Key here......how are you going to boil batches and heat water? Excited to see how you do with real products.
 
Brewing has 2 sides. A hot side and a cold side. From the end of the boil to your gut everything, umm every little thing clean and sanitized. See mongoose suggestions on sanitization procedures.

The real reality so far for you is simple. The quality of what you are putting in your kettle is the quality coming out. Fix that and your beer will improve. Cheers
 
Apple scrap. Lol, me too. Well, like I said I do like the northern Brewer kit with the two big mouth bubblers. However....space is a little limited at my house. I also like the go pro 1 gal kit too. I was thinking maybe I should stay small until I get the hang of brewing. Hey. So the northern Brewer kit with a lme....is that considered an all grain recipe?
 
If you can afford the fermenters and have room they sound nice. Otherwise use good ingredients and start with your lbk to ferment. I use buckets and wish I had nice fermentors like those. Just now got 2nd fermenter bucket. I keep stuff at way minimum. As for extract I have only used hme mr beer. Others will be more able to anwer extract questions.
 
ReaperOnefour said:
Apple scrap. Lol, me too. Well, like I said I do like the northern Brewer kit with the two big mouth bubblers. However....space is a little limited at my house. I also like the go pro 1 gal kit too. I was thinking maybe I should stay small until I get the hang of brewing. Hey. So the northern Brewer kit with a lme....is that considered an all grain recipe?
Click to expand...

If it has extract its not all grain. All grain really is literally just grains.

https://www.friartuckonline.com/Products/OFallon-MO/5001038/Brewing/LDC-1038-SCOTCH-ALE-KIT/

Was the last kit I did. You dont need much room to even do 5 gallon batches. I do mine in my kitchen even.
 
passedpawn said:
Of course. I used to use about 4.5 ounces per 5 gallons of beer being bottled. That's from memory since I don't bottle anymore. Verify!
Click to expand...

More like 2.5 ounces/5 Gallons if your using table sugar. Even that's been too much occasionally.
 
Thanks guys for all the advice. Hopefully this pilsner turns out good. If it don't....my guess is brew demon is handing out bad yeast. Because I followed their brewing instructions to a "T".
 
ReaperOnefour said:
What's up kh54? The instructions that brew demon provides says to boil the hme & the brewing enhancer ( which is pretty much corn syrup) until completely dissolved. Then pour into the conical fermenter. They say ferment for 1 week then bottle. I ferment for two weeks, then bottle.
Click to expand...

I don't know if there is a kit that Brewdemon sells that is different, but I looked at 2 of them, no mention of boiling at all. Hopped malt extracts are boiled in the process of making them. If you are not adding more hops, boiling is likely a bad idea. The longer you boil hops the more bitter the beer becomes.

The directions I read said to heat the containers in warm water to make them easier to pour and dissolve.

Good luck, And again, look for and buy a more quality kit. A good one will not have a hopped malt extract. I would have steeping grains, liquid and/or dry malt extract, hop pellets and a quality yeast of a type suitable for the style of beer. Some of the inexpensive kits have "yeast".
 
When I used to bottle, I used 2-liter bottles. I used the mr. Beer Sugar recommendations for amount. Poured sugar right into bottle. It never did me wrong not once.

Hme is not what you want. Imo if you want to make beer that you will respect, you need good extract and hops. It's my understanding that extract beers are just as good as all grain. Some people can taste the twang supposedly and I'm sure after about 15 or 20 gallons I probably could too. I don't Brew with extract because it's cheaper to brew All Grain. Brewing cheaply is kind of my thing as well as quickly. I have no problem stepping up in price for special occasions though or if I wanted to impress, etc. Just most the beer I make cheaply by buying in bulk.

What kind of beer do you really like? I will help you find a recipe of extract that will work. A one-button solution is to get a kit from a trusted brew website. It will have all the ingredients you need to make good beer.

You will basically heat water, add the extract, Stir It in, start boil, add hops at certain times and chill in your sink. Throw it in your sanitized lbk, tear open the dry yeast and put it somewhere with a fairly consistent temperature for the style. You can do this we are all here to help!!
 
I like a Pilsner, & a good Vienna lager. I like some ales, as long as their not to bitter. I'm more of a lager guy though. The lager recipes on northern Brewer's website says to keep the fermenter at low temperatures. This would be a problem for me though because I have no room in the fridge, & no real way to keep the fermenter cold. I've read that you can put the fermenter in the tub with some ice too.
 
ReaperOnefour said:
I like a Pilsner, & a good Vienna lager. I like some ales, as long as their not to bitter. I'm more of a lager guy though. The lager recipes on northern Brewer's website says to keep the fermenter at low temperatures. This would be a problem for me though because I have no room in the fridge, & no real way to keep the fermenter cold. I've read that you can put the fermenter in the tub with some ice too.
Click to expand...

So umm, I started 2 threads worthy of consideration for you. The first is a debate on warm fermentation of lagers. And the other is a thread for those of us like myself, that ferment lagers warm. You will learn all kinds of awesome things about me by reading that thread. Like I have no palette and I'm schizophrenic. If you want to ferment lagers warm I'm probably your guy.
 
Ice tub works pretty good, had to do it after my dad needed his freezer back. That was for ale temps though.

If you want to try a lager-like beer, but without temp control, I'd look at a cream ale.

14 of my 15 batches have used dry yeast, including the one lager. S-05, S-04, Nottingham, the Saflager yeast. Don't think you need to get into starters and all that, not sure if that's been said.
 
I've seen the cream ale recipe on northern Brewer's website. It sounds good. So you can ferment lager beers with ale yeast? I didn't know that, nor did know that you can ferment lagers warm. I was under the impression that lagers had to be fermented cold. I gotta check out that thread apple scrap.
 
You can buy every Safeway in Town out of a chocolate vampire cereal and throw that in the mash too. A brewery in my hometown of Fort Collins has been known to do that every year around this time. For some reason I'm craving Fruit Loops in my next warm fermented lager, I'm going to do it.
 
Fruit loops was one of my favorite cereals when I was a kid. Hey so apple scrap. What ale yeast strain would you recommend to ferment a lager at just room temperature? And where should I put the fermenter? This past summer I was putting it in the tub. ( No water or ice.) It's a little cooler in there. I think it got down to 72 in there. Which was cooler than the rest of the house. Since I don't have a/c. Before that I was using the bedroom closet. Which is usually between 68-75. ( Depending on the weather.)
 
ReaperOnefour said:
Fruit loops was one of my favorite cereals when I was a kid. Hey so apple scrap. What ale yeast strain would you recommend to ferment a lager at just room temperature? And where should I put the fermenter? This past summer I was putting it in the tub. ( No water or ice.) It's a little cooler in there. I think it got down to 72 in there. Which was cooler than the rest of the house. Since I don't have a/c. Before that I was using the bedroom closet. Which is usually between 68-75. ( Depending on the weather.)
Click to expand...

I wouldn't recommend any ale yeast. I would recommend saf 34/70 lager yeast. Then put your keg in the darkest coldest most consistent temperature room in the house. Probably an outside wall corner. There are other steam lager California common yeasts if you don't want to trust the lager yeast.
 
ReaperOnefour said:
O, ok. I've read about that 34/70. They say it's a good yeast.
Click to expand...

I had good and bad experiences with it. I've used it a bunch on lagers (@ lager temps) with expected results. I did have one beer that got pretty strong clove flavors from that yeast though. That was an exception, so maybe it was something else, but I do a pretty good job of controlling temps, and the flavors sure seemed to be yeast-derived.

Anyway, I don't use it any more. For German Pilsners, which I make a lot, I'm strictly using Wyeast Munich Lager 2308. This yeast, pilsner malt with an OG under 1.050, and tettnang hops, it's the perfect pilsner for me.
 
passedpawn said:
I had good and bad experiences with it. I've used it a bunch on lagers (@ lager temps) with expected results. I did have one beer that got pretty strong clove flavors from that yeast though. That was an exception, so maybe it was something else, but I do a pretty good job of controlling temps, and the flavors sure seemed to be yeast-derived.

Anyway, I don't use it any more. For German Pilsners, which I make a lot, I'm strictly using Wyeast Munich Lager 2308. This yeast, pilsner malt with an OG under 1.050, and tettnang hops, it's the perfect pilsner for me.
Click to expand...


Recipe plz!
 
Jim311 said:
Recipe plz!
Click to expand...

http://beersmithrecipes.com/viewrecipe/894144/passedpawn-perfect-pilsner

It's the best (for me). I follow pretty standard lager rules: ferment in low 50's about 2.5 wks, raise temperature to 60F for 3 or 4 days, cold crash with gelatin, keg/carbonate for several weeks, drink with gusto.

For me, the absolute key is to keep the OG under 1.050. I know as homebrewers, we like to push these things, but if you're looking for a crisp pilsner, don't, it's a mistake. With the right yeast, good attenuation and full carbonation, OG in the mid 40's is a winner.
 
So I was reading about the various yeast used & I kept hearing about attenuation, & flocculation. I don't understand what that means. Can somebody please explain that to me? I'd like to start using the correct yeast for my brews. The ones that come with this brew demon kit says they use an all purpose ale yeast.
 
Just checked my pet bottles which have been carbonating for a week. Their firm to the touch, but have a cloudy look to them, & there's a thick layer of trub on the bottom of the bottle. The wort fermented for 15 days, when I bottled.... the beer had a slight haze, but didn't taste sweet or wine like. ( Which resulted in a cider taste in all my previous beer's.) When I bottled the bubbler was still going. Not at regular intervals, but not to often either. Did I bottle to soon? I'm using a brew demon kit.
 
Brewer's Best has some amazing kits. I've only done one batch, the Mango Saison, and it turned out amazing. It's a kit that requires a grain steep prior to the boil, but the directions are easy to follow and they give you tips on how to make it even better.
Another thing I would HIGHLY recommend is getting the book "The Complete Joy of Home Brewing" by Charlie Papazian. If you don't know who he is, he's pretty much the Godfather of homebrewing. The book is informative, humorous, and has lots of recipes for extract or all grain brewing.

Mr. Papazian gives the best advice EVER. Relax. Don't worry. Have a homebrew.

Edit:
@ReaperOneFour - You should wait until there is no activity in the air lock for 24-48 hours prior to bottling. Sounds like you bottled too soon. That would explain excessive trub in the bottles.
 
ReaperOnefour said:
Just checked my pet bottles which have been carbonating for a week. Their firm to the touch, but have a cloudy look to them, & there's a thick layer of trub on the bottom of the bottle. The wort fermented for 15 days, when I bottled.... the beer had a slight haze, but didn't taste sweet or wine like. ( Which resulted in a cider taste in all my previous beer's.) When I bottled the bubbler was still going. Not at regular intervals, but not to often either. Did I bottle to soon? I'm using a brew demon kit.
Click to expand...

Just be patient. Give it another week. Then put a bottle in the fridge for 2 days before opening. When you pour, just do it carefully and leave the sediment in the bottle. (You can drink all the yeast if you want, but most people want clear-ish beer)

For the next batch, you should get a hydrometer. They only cost a couple bucks and take all the guess work out of "is it done yet". You just take a measurement, wait 3 days, take another measurement. If the gravity hasn't changed, its done. That doesn't necessarily mean you have to bottle at that point. If its still cloudy, you can just let it settle out for a bit and clear up.

** you were probably done at 2 weeks, so don't worry. Just pointing out a cheap and easy way to know for sure.
 

Similar threads

J
Brew Demon - 2 Gal. Dark Sweet Cherry Hard Cider Recipe Kit
Replies
2
Views
463
GoodTruble
G
F
crowd pleaser Recipes?
Replies
19
Views
578
pvtpublic
pvtpublic
lightweight52
failed secondary fermentation
Replies
12
Views
598
Ingo
I
Takeshi_pilis
From cider and mead to beer aka the beginners NEIPA
Replies
10
Views
261
Takeshi_pilis
Takeshi_pilis
R
Iowa brewer, glad be here.
Replies
2
Views
157
eliastheodosis
eliastheodosis
Brewer's Friend 300

Latest posts

Back
Top