Total newbie just made my first batch!

[HooniverseJeff]

I've had a copy of John Palmer's How to Brew sitting on top of my toilet library for over 2 years now. Yet I've never gone out to get the equipment and dive in to the home brew world.

This Christmas, my wife surprised me with a Mr Beer.

Now, I know some of you are down on the kit, while others see it as the perfect starting point... and that's what it is for me. My first batch (wife also bought the American Devil IPA HME) is now sitting in the dark, letting the yeast do its wonderful thing!

I live in Southern California, so I plan on checking out Addison Home Brew Provisions very soon.

After I get a few small Mr Beer batches under my belt, I will ramp up to the 5 gallon setup. Regardless, I am incredibly excited to finally get a batch going! :rockin:

 

[bmunos]

Congrats man! Keep brewing ! It will get addicting haha ... Also keep your mr beer fermenter I'n case down the road you want to experiment it will provide. The perfect 2 gallon fermenter !

 

[Revvy]

Very few people who actually know what they're doing are "down on kits." In fact we usually recommend new brewers start with kits for the first few batches, they are fool proof and allow new brewers to focus on their brewing process without worrying about messing up a batch because they used an un vetted or lousy recipe or monkeyed around and just tossed a bunch of stuff together.

If a beer doesn't turn out, and you used a kit, it's a lot easier to trace back the issue to some part of the process, then rater or not it was just a crappy recipe.

Then after you understand the fundamentals you can read and learn about what each grain, hop, yeast contributes and read about recipe creation so you know what you're doing a bit better then just dumping a bunch of stuff in a fermenter and hoping it turns out.

There are some great kits out there.

 

[HooniverseJeff]

Congrats man! Keep brewing ! It will get addicting haha ... Also keep your mr beer fermenter I'n case down the road you want to experiment it will provide. The perfect 2 gallon fermenter !

Will do, thanks!

Very few people who actually know what they're doing are "down on kits." In fact we usually recommend new brewers start with kits for the first few batches, they are fool proof and allow new brewers to focus on their brewing process without worrying about messing up a batch because they used an un vetted or lousy recipe or monkeyed around and just tossed a bunch of stuff together.

If a beer doesn't turn out, and you used a kit, it's a lot easier to trace back the issue to some part of the process, then rater or not it was just a crappy recipe.

Then after you understand the fundamentals you can read and learn about what each grain, hop, yeast contributes and read about recipe creation so you know what you're doing a bit better then just dumping a bunch of stuff in a fermenter and hoping it turns out.

There are some great kits out there.

Words of wisdom, much appreciated.

 

[nukinfuts29]

Very few people who actually know what they're doing are "down on kits." In fact we usually recommend new brewers start with kits for the first few batches, they are fool proof and allow new brewers to focus on their brewing process without worrying about messing up a batch because they used an un vetted or lousy recipe or monkeyed around and just tossed a bunch of stuff together.

If a beer doesn't turn out, and you used a kit, it's a lot easier to trace back the issue to some part of the process, then rater or not it was just a crappy recipe.

Then after you understand the fundamentals you can read and learn about what each grain, hop, yeast contributes and read about recipe creation so you know what you're doing a bit better then just dumping a bunch of stuff in a fermenter and hoping it turns out.

There are some great kits out there.

Well said! I wish I had started with a kit, god would that have been so much easier! My first brew was an AG :x

Welcome aboard and congrats on the first brew!