Welcome Beginning Brewers!

[elmo]

Hi guys, anybody got any recommendations on video series for learning about brewing? Made my first extract kit but I feel like I learned nothing (other than how to follow instruction) lol

 

[ncbrewer]

I don't know about videos, but you could get the book How to Brew Edition 4 by John Palmer. It's a highly respected source of brewing knowledge.

 

[Broken Crow]

I second ncbrewer 's suggestion. If you really want videos though, there's https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAB3kEMvD0_9IaQ6IL6R2cQ and a few others you can start with for some all-around type stuff.

 

[bellhp]

When I started brewing I read Charlie Papazian's " complete joy of homebrewing" I've given that book away twice to friends who were just starting out... 20 years later I just bought it again to refresh my memory as I have been out of the hobby . I notice the how to brew book gets pushed a lot maybe I should pick that one up ... your never too old to learn right?

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

I too have that book, and it was the first brewing book I bought during my journey that started around 1985. I still have that copy and a whole lot of others. I'll have to dust it off and give it another read. On the learning part, I learn with every batch I brew and that's been a lot!

Keep Brewing and Keep Learning!!!

 

[Mason77]

What are some tips for success when home brewing beer for the first time?

 

[JohnSand]

Hi Mason, welcome aboard!
My suggestions would to start simple and reliable. Extract kit from a good supplier, nothing complex. If you have a local homebrew store ask there. Also, read Palmer's book How to Brew, and browse HomeBrewTalk.

 

[Rish]

What are some tips for success when home brewing beer for the first time?

Welcome! Check out the "General" thread in this forum for some suggestions.

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

What are some tips for success when home brewing beer for the first time?

Welcome to the party and this forum!

You'll find a wealth of information here from all levels of brewers. I'd suggest read what you can here and look for some books to read. Books are great reference at all levels. As suggested, start out with beer kits. Kits are a great start, all of ingredients are there, premeasured with detailed instructions. Pick one that is not real detailed, wheat beers are what I started with. Extract kits are easier to start with than ones with grains. Work your way up with each kit and learn from each one. Take good notes as you brew. Keep the brew kit instructions and make notes on that sheet as you go. Even after your brew you could add tasting notes to the same sheet or sheets all for future reference. As you get into brewing more there's lots of software packages to organize your recipes or create them.

Pay close attention to sanitation and cleaning through the entire brewing process. Nothing will discourage a new brewer more than a bad batch of beer for their first or second attempt. It's discouraging after hundreds of batches too! The best advice is to try to make it fun. It's an enjoyable hobby so try to keep it that way.

Happy Brewing!

 

[jerrylotto]

I'll second the suggestion to take good notes, and suggest that if your kit doesn't include Campden tablets to either start with distilled water or pick some up if you have a municipal water source. There's nothing more frustrating than having chloramines (used by municipal water facilities to sanitize and stabilize tap water) impeding yeast action. Half a Campden tablet treats 5 gallons of water.

 

[Sneaky Weasel]

And, really, you should ignore any advice from me.

Does that include this advice?

 

[cadeus]

This is a great place to start if you have ANY questions at all about brewing your own beer.

From Mr. Beer and extract kits to all-grain brewing, we welcome all new brewers who have questions or need advice on their equipment, techniques, fermentation, wort making, yeast, and more.

If you have a question, that means that others probably have had the same question too so no question is too silly. I promise. Ask us!

And to more experienced brewers, it goes without saying that we will be welcoming of those questions and be as helpful as possible in our answers. If someone feels that they can't be positive and helpful, they should refrain from posting in the Beginner's Forum. Ask me if you are unsure if something is appropriate- remember what your mother told you, "If you can't say something nice, then don't say anything at all!"

Feel free to message one of the admins or moderators if you have any problems with posting on the forum, or if you have any problems with navigating around the forum at all.

Cheers!

I have been brewing mead for a few years now. that is how I found this forum. but I am ready to try beer and I have discovered it is very much more complicated than mead. I found a beer I wanna make and I am gonna buy all the ingredients ready to go, but one day I would like to make my own beer from scratch, and that has me wondering, "Can I use the same kind of grain to make all the different malts that go into a beer recipe? Like, if I buy a big bag of barley can I use some for the base and then use other portions to make other malts?"

 

[passedpawn]

I have been brewing mead for a few years now. that is how I found this forum. but I am ready to try beer and I have discovered it is very much more complicated than mead. I found a beer I wanna make and I am gonna buy all the ingredients ready to go, but one day I would like to make my own beer from scratch, and that has me wondering, "Can I use the same kind of grain to make all the different malts that go into a beer recipe? Like, if I buy a big bag of barley can I use some for the base and then use other portions to make other malts?"

I think you're saying that you would convert a base malt to other malts. Don't do that. Don't be a fool.

Choose a beer style you'd like to drink. Find a recipe on this forum that you think you'd trust. Go to your homebrew store, clone the recipe, make it.

 

[cadeus]

I think you're saying that you would convert a base malt to other malts. Don't do that. Don't be a fool.

Choose a beer style you'd like to drink. Find a recipe on this forum that you think you'd trust. Go to your homebrew store, clone the recipe, make it.

"don't be a fool" is a bit dramatic, don't you think? I have found a recipe I want to try and I am getting all the listed ingredients, of course. And I don't mean to take a base malt and change it. I am asking if I can take a bulk of grain and create all the different malts from it. I am talking about, after I have accumulated enough knowledge and experience to do so, taking raw grain and making my own malts to brew my beer... eventually. Are the different types of malts made from different types of barley or can they all be made from the same type?

 

[amber-ale]

"don't be a fool" is a bit dramatic, don't you think? I have found a recipe I want to try and I am getting all the listed ingredients, of course. And I don't mean to take a base malt and change it. I am asking if I can take a bulk of grain and create all the different malts from it. I am talking about, after I have accumulated enough knowledge and experience to do so, taking raw grain and making my own malts to brew my beer... eventually. Are the different types of malts made from different types of barley or can they all be made from the same type?

No, you can’t buy a bulk bag and make different flavours from it. At least not at your current level.

The different flavours are made by sprouting, drying, and toasting the base grain specific amounts then cracking or grinding them to specific thickness. Quite difficult to do correctly in a home set up, but not impossible. Especially since there are multiple different grains to use.

There is a thread here about a guy that did experiment with the whole process, start to finish. Sorry I can’t remember who he was.
But maybe start with learning how to make tasty beer with grains you buy to fit your recipe. In small volumes at first.

What method are you going to use? All grain, half grain half dry malt, liquid malts, or ready to use worts?
What equipement are you going to use? What method? Which yeast?
Beer isn’t that different from mead. ….make porridge..strain out the tea….add yeast and watch while it bubbles. Then strain the tasty stuff off the glunk into bottles with some sugary stuff to make bubbles (or keg it). Wait a month and taste.

Repeat

 

[amber-ale]

Sorry didn’t read your post carefully enough…

There are some interesting YouTube videos about people trying to sprout and toast their own grain.
If they can do it you can too. Eventually. After all somebody somewhere had to do it at home originally, or beer wouldn’t exist.

But first you need to make some batches to get a taste for how the different malts taste and what all the different grains do in a wort.
Try th3 book “ mastering home brew” by randy mosher

 

[bike2brew]

Get the Palmer book "how to brew" as a base reference. Beers are developed by style according to their base malts in combination with various percentage of crystal, caramel, roasted, toasted, etc malts. You can certainly by your base malt in bulk, but the others are used in small quantities so not practical. I am just now making the jump to all grain after extract brewing for last 2 years. I suggest starting with a couple of extract kits before making the jump with both feet. Again, the Palmer book is indispensable. Enjoy and have fun.

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

As others have suggested do some reading and watch videos before you jump in with both feet. Starting out with a kit is helpful as you'll see which grains are added to a recipe to bring out which flavors and colors. Your base grain or grains will set the stage for the others to work into the style you're brewing.

Depending on your batch size and your equipment, buying a sack of base grain might be too much at this point while learning. I brew ten gallon batches with twenty pounds plus pounds of grain. The base grain might be half if that. If I know I have similar batches coming up I would buy a sack of grain.

Also you need to plan how you're going to store bulk purchases of grain after a bag is opened. There just a recent thread here on " how you buy grain".

 

[cadeus]

No, you can’t buy a bulk bag and make different flavours from it. At least not at your current level.

The different flavours are made by sprouting, drying, and toasting the base grain specific amounts then cracking or grinding them to specific thickness. Quite difficult to do correctly in a home set up, but not impossible. Especially since there are multiple different grains to use.

There is a thread here about a guy that did experiment with the whole process, start to finish. Sorry I can’t remember who he was.
But maybe start with learning how to make tasty beer with grains you buy to fit your recipe. In small volumes at first.

What method are you going to use? All grain, half grain half dry malt, liquid malts, or ready to use worts?
What equipement are you going to use? What method? Which yeast?
Beer isn’t that different from mead. ….make porridge..strain out the tea….add yeast and watch while it bubbles. Then strain the tasty stuff off the glunk into bottles with some sugary stuff to make bubbles (or keg it). Wait a month and taste.

Repeat

Hello! So, yeah, that does sound pretty complicated. I have already studied malts and making malts, in general. didn't realize a base malt was so different from a crystal malt. I thought it was like caramel, a product of how long it is heated. So, I am planning to to make an all-grain brew. I picked a recipe I found here, actually. I like Guinness, but it's a little too toasty for me to love it. So I decided to make an Irish Red Ale. Same ballpark, but a little more sweet, less toasty. I have most of the equipment I need, but I am headed to the brew store today to possibly pick up the ingredients and the rest of the equipment I need. I think BIAB will be easy enough to start so I just need a pot to boil it and a bag to put my malts in and a few misc. items. I intend to upgrade as I can some of the more high-end equipment if I decide I like it. But I am excited to get into this. I have wanted to for a long time.

 

[doug293cz]

Hello! So, yeah, that does sound pretty complicated. I have already studied malts and making malts, in general. didn't realize a base malt was so different from a crystal malt. I thought it was like caramel, a product of how long it is heated. So, I am planning to to make an all-grain brew. I picked a recipe I found here, actually. I like Guinness, but it's a little too toasty for me to love it. So I decided to make an Irish Red Ale. Same ballpark, but a little more sweet, less toasty. I have most of the equipment I need, but I am headed to the brew store today to possibly pick up the ingredients and the rest of the equipment I need. I think BIAB will be easy enough to start so I just need a pot to boil it and a bag to put my malts in and a few misc. items. I intend to upgrade as I can some of the more high-end equipment if I decide I like it. But I am excited to get into this. I have wanted to for a long time.

BIAB is a great way to get started in all-grain brewing. And as have many brewers, like me, you may decide to stay with BIAB forever. Pot choice is important - for BIAB you should get a pot 2 - 3X the volume of the batches you want to make. I had to buy three pots before I got this right.

Brew on

 

[ncbrewer]

Can I use the same kind of grain to make all the different malts that go into a beer recipe?

To be clear, making malt from raw grain isn't part of brewing - that would be the maltster rather than the brewer. Of course, nothing says you can't do both.

 

[JOHNWALDNER95]

Hi everyone . So I'd like to get started making my own beer and I need advice regarding what kind of equipment I need to get and the process to making beer.
Advice anyone???

 

[jerrylotto]

You need a pot big enough to boil your batch in, a bucket with an airlock to ferment in, a keg set up with CO2 or bottles and caps and a capper,. Of course you need ingredients an instrumentation like a hydrometer and a thermometer. There are all-in-one kits that have everything you need to get started. I'm sure you're going to be upgrading equipment as your process becomes more refined.

 

[balrog]

Read.
There are lots of good books, or spend untold hours on the interwebz, or both.

 

[jerrylotto]

Oh and one more thing, the most important piece of equipment you can have is a notebook.

 

[JOHNWALDNER95]

lol I've come to learn that a notepad is handy period in home brewing.(I brew my own beer)

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

Hi everyone . So I'd like to get started making my own beer and I need advice regarding what kind of equipment I need to get and the process to making beer.
Advice anyone???

Welcome to the group!
The advice from jerrylotto is spot on! Another big thing you need to do is good cleaning and sanitation. Before you add yeast to your wort you have the perfect breeding grounds for anything to grow. New equipment needs to be cleaned and sanitized before use and after every batch. Anything that touches the wort needs to be sanitized.

I'd suggest reading on brewing, watch some videos or hook up with someone to brew with at least to get started.

 

[jerrylotto]

Anything that touches the wort needs to be sanitized.

Anything that touches the cooled wort after the boil...

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

Anything that touches the cooled wort after the boil...

Yes, corrected - anything on the cold side needs to be sanitized.
Thanks for correcting me!