Who here does home brewing? Gonna need advice....

SleevePlz

For Christmas this year, the wife and I decided to skip exchanging gifts and instead invest in some home brewing equipment! Super excited, to say the least. So now comes the research phase. For starters, would you recommend a starter kit? Something like this? (pic is a link if you want the details of what is included) Is this kit full of stuff that you would end up upgrading almost immediately or does it seem decent? Is it missing a bunch of stuff that we would want early on? I'll stop the questions for now. Thanks in advance for any help!

Brianak

I started many years ago with a kit like that. It worked well for the first couple years. The first piece you will likely upgrade is the bottle capper. The rest of the items I still use many years later.
Would recommend not using the canned beer kits. They all taste about the same. I use northern brewer for all my supplies. Let me know if you have any specific questions.
And clean everything! Sour beer ruins the fun.

danielzreyes

I got dibs on a bottle for the first batch.

jd50ae

That kit has everything you will need. Another one is Mr Beer.

The Mr beer, however did not come with a room addition which is where the guy ended up going with it. It seems that everyone is so impressed with the results of these little kits (probably subsidized by hop growers and bottle makers) that they come down with "beer brewing fever" and the expansion to bigger and better follows.

The finished products I have tasted are certainly good, and the recipes are endless. But sadly there seems to be no cure for the ensuing addictions that invariably follow.

Beer tastings, beer parties, and all sorts of "excuses" to drag your friends and neighbors into sharing your illness follows, and before you know it, everyone is doomed and an intervention is impossible.

Good luck.


I am available for sampling and tasting of any finished brew.

webmost

jd50ae:

That kit has everything you will need. Another one is Mr Beer.

The Mr beer, however did not come with a room addition which is where the guy ended up going with it. It seems that everyone is so impressed with the results of these little kits (probably subsidized by hop growers and bottle makers) that they come down with "beer brewing fever" and the expansion to bigger and better follows.

The finished products I have tasted are certainly good, and the recipes are endless. But sadly there seems to be no cure for the ensuing addictions that invariably follow.

Beer tastings, beer parties, and all sorts of "excuses" to drag your friends and neighbors into sharing your illness follows, and before you know it, everyone is doomed and an intervention is impossible.

Good luck.


I am available for sampling and tasting of any finished brew.

Nah. Not a problem. The immense amount of drudge work that goes into cleaning and sterilizing the bottles ... that's what makes the hobby self-limiting.

OTOH -- all the beer drinking that goes into collecting that many bottles -- that's fun.

Don't forget the water. No kit comes with water. You need to find good tasty spring fed water.

enjoy.

SleevePlz

danielzreyes:

I got dibs on a bottle for the first batch.

Lol, you might be better off getting dibs on the third batch. Need a couple to work out the kinks, I'm sure.

SleevePlz

Brianak:

I started many years ago with a kit like that. It worked well for the first couple years. The first piece you will likely upgrade is the bottle capper. The rest of the items I still use many years later.
Would recommend not using the canned beer kits. They all taste about the same. I use northern brewer for all my supplies. Let me know if you have any specific questions.
And clean everything! Sour beer ruins the fun.

Thanks for the heads up. I'm checking out Northern Brewer right now. Looks like a nice site. Even requested their catalog.

Ken_Light

Friends don't let friends Mr. Beer. That one looks fine. Your first batch'll probably be great. Just be crazy about sanitation and you'll be golden. Go all extract, nothing too fancy. Monitor temp during fermentation and make sure the yeast stays healthy. Like storing cigars, but without worry about RH. If you can get an extra bucket, do a secondary fermentation (basically just siphon the beer from one bucket to another leaving the crap behind) to get an end product with less sediment to worry about. When you bottle, go sanitary-crazy again, and don't forget the priming sugar in the bottling bucket (it happens! what a waste!) Your first batch'll be great. It's when you start drinking heavily and thinking you know it all with batch number 5 that you'll get your first dud...

SleevePlz

Thanks for the advice Ken. Let's get real. I should really be worrying about something more important, like what I'm going to call my brewery! Lol

danielzreyes

SleevePlz:

Thanks for the advice Ken. Let's get real. I should really be worrying about something more important, like what I'm going to call my brewery! Lol

Shafty's Brewery ... duhhhh

Brianak

The part of brewing that almost made me stop was bottling. The cleaning/sanitizing/filling/capping/cleaning got to be a chore. Went to kegging and it is so much easier.

Brianak

The dishwasher is great for removing labels. And if it has a steam cycle will clean and sanitize.

SleevePlz

Brianak:

The part of brewing that almost made me stop was bottling. The cleaning/sanitizing/filling/capping/cleaning got to be a chore. Went to kegging and it is so much easier.

Yeah, we were talking to a local bartender and her and her husband home brew and she couldn't emphasize enough the importance of proper sanitation. What are your (and anyone else's) thoughts on the swingtop bottles? Work well? More or less work than capped bottles? I already have a small collection of them, but haven't actually looked into using them.

Brianak

In the end they are about the same. You need to remove the rubber gasket to get them clean. Then put them back on.

SleevePlz

Brianak:

In the end they are about the same. You need to remove the rubber gasket to get them clean. Then put them back on.

Cool. I knew I was saving those for a reason.

Ken_Light

SleevePlz:

Brianak:

In the end they are about the same. You need to remove the rubber gasket to get them clean. Then put them back on.

Cool. I knew I was saving those for a reason.

They are the same, but if you're handing this stuff out there's something really cool about the swing-tops. Something cooler than a big ol' 22 with a pop top. People think you rolled up with a couple 40's without labels. Not classy.

SleevePlz

Ken Light:

SleevePlz:

Brianak:

In the end they are about the same. You need to remove the rubber gasket to get them clean. Then put them back on.

Cool. I knew I was saving those for a reason.

They are the same, but if you're handing this stuff out there's something really cool about the swing-tops. Something cooler than a big ol' 22 with a pop top. People think you rolled up with a couple 40's without labels. Not classy.

Yeah, right on! Might need to grab some more Grolsch. The Hacker-Pschorr LE is also in a swing-top and was quite tasty. Just more reason to buy beer....

kuzi16

i brew quite a bit. always seem to hand out a bottle or two for the holiday exchange here.

find brewers forums.

take notes on every detail of how you make every batch. if you like it then you can recreate it

there is no such thing as too much sanitation

research every recipe beforehand. know why you are putting things in.

know why you are brewing. if you are brewing to recreate a very specific style thats one thing. if you are brewing to make a unique beer, thats another.


all extract brewing is ok, partial mash is better. making the leap to all grain is difficult but fun. i still have not done it. i hope to soon.

FIRERAT

I figure instead of starting a new topic, I'll necromance this one....

Any home brewers on here? I've been brewing for about 12 years and it is the 1 hobby I always go back to.

Yakster

I brewed in college using a hand-me-down bottle capper from my dad who used to brew beer in college using Pabst Blue Ribbon malt and telling me stories of exploding bottles. I did extract brewing, built up a mash tun and a sparge setup to switch to all grain but must of had a bacterial infection in my first batch of all-grain beer and got tired of cleaning 8 six-packs of bottles so I haven't brewed in decades. I also made a legendary double-batch of mead one time.

Now I just roast and brew coffee, it takes less effort, doesn't tie up the kitchen, and the results are enjoyed by the whole family with less time waiting for the end-product to finish.

FIRERAT

@Yakster said:
I brewed in college using a hand-me-down bottle capper from my dad who used to brew beer in college using Pabst Blue Ribbon malt and telling me stories of exploding bottles. I did extract brewing, built up a mash tun and a sparge setup to switch to all grain but must of had a bacterial infection in my first batch of all-grain beer and got tired of cleaning 8 six-packs of bottles so I haven't brewed in decades. I also made a legendary double-batch of mead one time.

Now I just roast and brew coffee, it takes less effort, doesn't tie up the kitchen, and the results are enjoyed by the whole family with less time waiting for the end-product to finish.

Right on. I tried making mead. It was...I don't really know what I'd call it but I got away from it quick. Made a few wines and ciders too that weren't too bad.

Brewing is my main hobby and has been for a while. I've converted half of my garage into a small brewery, built 2 fermentation chambers, a 2 tap keezer (kegerator from a deep freezer) and as of right no own 11 kegs. I stopped bottling a long time ago but will bottle off my kegs for parties or contests and what not.

My wife used to give me grief about it but now she realizes it keeps me home and is cheaper than therapy.

ShawnOL

Sounds like an interesting hobby. When one of you guys builds a still, let me know.

EgoBoundary

I used to do all grain brewing ... kept doing tougher batches till I convinced myself I needed a 10 gallon kettle ... but about 10 years ago I slowed down... realized it is tough to drink 5 gallons of beer, and I hated cleaning bottles ... attempted to use Cornelius style kegs proved to be difficult and I let the hobby fade. I mostly drink bourbon now anyway... occasionally beer. Also I was really off about the sour beer phase... I like some of New England hazy iPas , and may consider going back into it for those...

FIRERAT

@ShawnOL said:
Sounds like an interesting hobby. When one of you guys builds a still, let me know.

I dabbled in distilling a bit too. Made a bit of shine but my still sucked and I never made anything all that great.

FIRERAT

@EgoBoundary said:
I used to do all grain brewing ... kept doing tougher batches till I convinced myself I needed a 10 gallon kettle ... but about 10 years ago I slowed down... realized it is tough to drink 5 gallons of beer, and I hated cleaning bottles ... attempted to use Cornelius style kegs proved to be difficult and I let the hobby fade. I mostly drink bourbon now anyway... occasionally beer. Also I was really off about the sour beer phase... I like some of New England hazy iPas , and may consider going back into it for those...

Yeah bottling is a pain in the arse for sure.

peter4jc

@Rolanddeschain used to talk about brewing some great beers. Never sampled any but he sounded like he knew what he was doing.

Wylaff

I've got a friend I make beer with occasionally. We tried bottling once and it sucked. We switched to pony kegs. On the rare occasion that we need to bring any somewhere a keg can't go we would fill a growler and take that. Or if you're gifting fill a couple flip top bottles from the keg.
All in all it's a really fun process. Check online for a local home brewers store, and go in person to ask questions. Every one I have been to has been incredibly helpful. Also when starting out, don't do full grain. You'll intimidate yourself into quitting. Grab a couple extracts. You can mix and match to get the flavors you want, but it takes most of the hard work out.

FIRERAT

Agreed. Extract brewing is very straight forward and you can focus on the fermentation side of things first. Jumping to all grain really isn't too hard though. You don't need the traditional 3 vessel setups. Brew in a bag methods are really simple or for not a lot of scratch the all in one systems like the mash and boil are great. That's what I usually brew on and make pretty decent beer.

EgoBoundary

Partial mash extraction is perfect... ease of the 5 gallon kettle (boiling on 3 gallons) and the complexity of fun grains... it was my go to for a while... all grain is cool too... but a lot more grains to deal with

Rolanddeschain

I’m back. I haven’t been online recently due to the move. I still homebrew and I’m in discussions to potentially open a brewery/taproom in the next 18 months

FIRERAT

@Rolanddeschain said:
I’m back. I haven’t been online recently due to the move. I still homebrew and I’m in discussions to potentially open a brewery/taproom in the next 18 months

That is awesome!! You remember the face of your father!!