17 replies to this topic

[dropoff]

hello all im wanting to start brewing beer but dont know where to start so i need to know as a newbie wat do i need to do wat do i need and wat should i brew first

[Steve Urquell]

Here's a good start. https://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html Read and get a feel for what is involved and then decide if it seems like something you might like to do.As for a first brew--brew what you like to drink--but brew it as an ale (@ room temp.)If you like light lagers, brew a cream ale. Just brew something that will be done quickly, cause you aren't going to want to wait long for the first one to be done.So, what kinds of beers do you like?

[Big Nake]

Welcome. You can pick up beginner, intermediate and advanced equipment kits as well as recipe kits from many places online and at local homebrew suppliers. Do a search online and look for the following reputable places... Austin Homebrew, Midwest Supplies, Northern Brewer, MoreBeer, Williams Brewing and Perfect Brewing. You can get equipment and recipe kits from any of these places and you can compare prices online and also compare them to local places. Homebrewers like to patronize their local places so look into that if there is one in your area. I agree that you should start with something that you'll like and something that is forgiving... amber ales and pale ales come to mind. I also put a "new brewers" page on MY SITE for newbies or people looking to get into homebrewing. You found a good spot here... very experienced and knowledgeable people on this board. Cheers.

[dropoff]

i hate bud light and stuff of that sort. i normaly drink snake dog or other flyingdog brews or other imports i want to make my own stuff i have a cellar and everything lol so lets get started i wanna make some strong stuff

[Big Nake]

If you begin brewing with extracts and you want to make strong beer, it's going to cost you some money. There's nothing wrong with making some good, strong beer but it's always good to get the process down first and see what's what... then you can expand. Extract kits that come with a lot of extract (which is what will make the beer stronger) can get expensive.

[Stout_fan]

Well, a lot of folks just go to a department store and buy a Mr. Beer kit.And most of us on this board would recommend you spend your money and time making something you will actually like to drink.The on line research is a good thing.The best deal is seeing if there are home brew clubs in your area. Sampling some of their accomplishments will show you what can be done.Also dropping by a local home brew store (LHBS) to purchase your gear. Both will give you a contact to ask questions to.Getting plugged in locally is far better than a virtual adviser.And as Ken mentioned, baby steps first. Mastering technique is important. Jumping in to the deep technical stuff solo is fraught with peril.It's a process of learning, sometimes from mistakes.You can spend money on fancy gadgets later. I mean, what else do they make credit cards for?

[MakeMeHoppy]

Do searches and see if you can find a homebrew shop and/or club in your area. You will get better advice in person seeing the process. https://www.homebrew...unity/clubsThis site will get you started in your search.

[chadm75]

Welcome to the board and hobby (er obsession)! Read John Palmer's How To Brew (see link above) and Papazian's Guide to Homebrewing (something like that) to start. And then the best learning you can do is brew, brew, brew....oh and hang around on this board! Good dudes here with some great experience that we're happy to share.Except for Lenard....he's a Cubs fan and will steer you wrong everytime! Brew strong!

[Deerslyr]

Read "How To Brew" as already indicated. Get a couple of regular strength batches under your belt before going strong. As noted, a strong beer will take longer. If you do a Pale Ale or a Cream Ale, you will be ready to start drinking it fairly quickly (i.e. a month). Oh, and you can make it taste great too with your choice of hops. The biggest thing to dial into when brewing is sanitation. That, more than anything else, can ruin a beer.Good luck! Hope to see you around here more.

[japh]

Go and read the How To Brew site linked above (or even get the book). That way you'll have a baseline. Get the basic equipment, and make a 5 gallon batch to start.

[DaBearSox]

Here's a letter I sent to my GFs Mom about getting the GFs brother in-law into beer making:

So where to start. It all really depends on how much he wants to start with. It becomes quite the expensive little hobby, I have spent plenty on equipment over the last few years. The kit that Lora got me was called Mr. Beer. Basically it was a small little kit with crappy equipment that used crappy ingredients and left you with sub par beer.Mr. Beer KitThe good thing about that kit is that it is beyond simple and it gets you to learn the process of brewing beer. It is also a 2.5 gallon fermenter rather than a 5 gallon so it takes up less space. This would be an idea if all he wants is to understand the process first to see if he wants to get into it or not.An absolute must is this book:How to BrewThis is basically the homebrewers bible. He will learn everything about it from this book.For equipment we'll first have to know if he has a big enough kettle yet. For 5 gallon batches he'll need a minimum of a 24 quart stock pot, either aluminum or stainless steel. I found my turkey fryer/pot combo on ebay for around 50 dollars. It is easier to brew outside on a turkey fryer hooked to propane rather than an electric stove. An electric stove will take a long time to heat up the liquid and does not achieve a rolling boil well enough. However he can choose to go smaller and add more water at the end to get to his target amount. Most of the next equipment can be found in starter kits that some homebrew shops compile. A very good homebrew shop that I have purchased from before is actually located in Austin. Here is the link:https://www.austinhomebrew.com/You may want to send Kathryn out there so she can talk to one of the guys there to see what all would be needed for their specific living quarters. Also this place would be a great resource to him for any questions he may have.The start kit that I would recommend is this one:Starter KitYou do not have to get the secondary fermentation vessel but it would be helpful if he chooses to get into it like me. For the first few batches though I would say skip the secondary fermentation vessel and just get him a bottling bucket with a spigot. That will give him almost everything he needs (equipment wise) to make his first batch.Other things he will need:BottlesKettleFunnel with strainerIngredient kitAustin homebrew also has a lot of ingredient kits that come prepackaged with everything he needs for a first batch. You can have Kathryn find out his favorite kind of beer and then ask for a kit for that style of beer. He will want to start out brewing with extract. These kits will give him a liquid malt extract rather than extracting the sugars from the grain directly as I do.It is a really hard to know what exactly he will need. It all depends on how much he wants to get into it or feels comfortable with starting out. You may want to get him that book so that he can read it before diving in and then maybe get him a gift certificate to Austin Homebrew supply.Or you could always start him out with the Mr. Beer kit like Lora did with me, it did give me an understanding of how the process works. What it also did was leave me wanting to be able to make better beer so now I have all the equipment that i have.Sorry if this sounds like a different language to you, its a hard topic to explain b/c there are a lot of bits and pieces that are needed for different steps in the process.Let me know if you need more help

[Deerslyr]

Here's a letter I sent to my GFs Mom about getting the GFs brother in-law into beer making:

We should modify this a bit so that its a bit more "generic" as to location and post it in the FAQ section so we can refer those inquiring about homebrewing to it. Maybe even just start an FAQ thread with advice that we all would post in getting started.

[MakeMeHoppy]

Here is a lengthy post. It is from an email I started with my son-in-law to get him started and modified it for the 2 people I taught at this year's Teach A Friend to Homebrew day. Please critique and if close enough we can add this to FAQ. How to home brew….4 kinds of brewing:1. Extract only – Already hopped liquid extract boiled for a short time and fermented2. Extract and Grains – Specialty grains are steeped for color and flavor. Liquid and Dry extract is added to the boil along with hops.3. Mini-Mash – Base and specialty grains are mashed to create fermentable wort and extract is added to increase fermentable sugars in the wort4. All Grain – Base and specialty grains are mashed and enough is done to create all of the fermentable sugars in the wort.Wort (pronounced wert) is unfermented beer.You will be doing Extract and Grains kits or recipes. The flavor is far superior to the extract only methods and is far less complicated and time consuming than the Mash methods.Each of these recipes are similar and the true-brew kits come with all ingredients pre-measured for convenience. Most home brew shops will stock the LME (Liquid Malt Extract) and DME (Dry Malt Extract) as well as a wide variety of specialty grains hops and yeast. So once you do a couple of these kits you can make your own recipes. You will be doing what is called a partial boil. You will be boiling 2 to 3 gallons of wort and adding cold water to top up to the 5 gallon batch size. The basic steps are to steep the grains in a small amount of water to extract color, flavor, and some fermentable sugar. This is added to the 2-3 gallon boil water along with the extract and hops. Most recipes call for a 1 hour boil with bittering hops added at the start of the boil, flavoring hops at the last 15 minutes, and aroma hops added in the last minute or two of the boil. Hops can also be added after fermentation has started and that is referred to as dry hopping. You can roughly follow the directions that came with the kit but they are a little incomplete and over-simplified. Here are some easier to follow directions that you can adapt to all of these kits as well as recipes you come up with:Steeping: Heat 2 quarts of water to about 160 degrees. If you do not have a thermometer just look for the water to start to steam and that will be close enough. Stir the grains into the water and cover. Try to maintain a temperature between 150 and 160 for 20 to 30 minutes.A good trick is to pre-heat the oven to the lowest temp you can. Once the oven is pre-heated, turn it off and place the covered steeping pot in there. If you do not have a pot that can go in the over just use low heat occasionally to maintain the 150-160 temp.Once you have the steeping started, start to boil 2 gallons of water in the brew pot. On a regular stove this will take some time and usually your steep will be done just about as you reach a boil. If you have LME in a can remove the label and clean the can and place in some hot water to loosen it up. It is very thick and some heat will make it easier to pour later. When you later open it remove the entire top so that you can scoop it all out.When the steeping time is over pour the water and grains thru a strainer and then pour the collected water back thru the strainer again. The grains will act as a filter and will separate the collected ‘grain tea’ from the grains.Once it is reasonably filtered 2 or 3 passes add the ‘grain tea’ to the water in the boil pot.BOIL: Once you reach a boil it is time to add the extract and the bittering hops. Always turn the heat off when adding extract and make sure it is mixed thoroughly. This will prevent scorching at the bottom of the pot. Return the kettle to a boil. NOTICE: Watch very carefully at this point. The wort will be very active when it gets back to a boil and will foam a lot and possibly boil over. As it starts to foam, turn the heat down and stir. After a couple of foam ups this will stop and you can just leave the pot at a rolling boil.(I checked the instructions on the Pale Ale kit and I see you do not have bittering hops. The can extract is already hopped. Because of this you will not need a full 60 minute boil.)FLAVOR HOPS: Many recipes call for hops to be boiled for a time between 15 and 30 minutes. These hops add some bitterness but with the reduced boil time still retain the hop flavor.AROMA HOPS: Added for the last 1 to 5 minutes of the boil. Very little bitterness results from the short boil time, but the flavor and aroma remain. Some general notes:Up to this point where the boil ends everything that touches the wort should be clean. Rinse anything well that had soap on it. Once the wort starts to cool everything that comes in contact with it must be cleaned and sanitized. Watch close for boil overs. The 20qt pot is plenty big but still keep an eye. Wort is very sticky and spilling on a hot stove makes a REAL MESS.Cover the pot when bringing the water up to the initial boil to get it there quicker. Try to leave the pot uncovered if possible once the extract is added. If you cannot maintain a boil with the cover off, make sure to leave the pot at least partially uncovered. The boil steam drives off some compounds that can effect how long the beer maintains good flavor once it is bottled.COOLING: Place the boil pot in a sink that you can fill with cold water. After a couple of water changes the wort will start to cool, at this point try adding ice to the water bath to get it to cool quicker. Do not add ice to the wort, just to the ice bath that the pot is sitting in. NOTE: Ice can carry a lot of bacteria while it is sitting in the freezer. Adding directly to the wort can infect the beer with unwanted bacteria. While it is not a health problem it will cause off flavors in the finished beer.If your stir spoon is still sanitized from stirring the boiling water you can occasionally stir to get better heat transfer to the ice bath.SANITIZING: Mix up your sanitizing solution while the wort is cooling. Sanitize the fermenting bucket and lid, the air lock and the hydrometer. If you have a metal whisk sanitize that as well. You can give the bucket a quick rinse with tap water before filling.TOP UP WATER: The goal is to get the total wort volume up to 5 gallons at about 65 degrees. When your boiled wort is cooled enough add it to the sanitized bucket. Add cool or cold top up water to get to the 65-70 degree range. The stick on thermometer is pretty accurate and you can use it at this point. (Stick it on the bucket around the 2-1/2 gallon mark so that it is near the middle of the wort).AERATION: This is the only time you want to introduce air or oxygen to the wort or beer. If you have a metal whisk use it to froth up the wort. If you don’t have a whisk transfer between the boil kettle and the bucket a few times letting it splash as much as you can. HYDROMETER READING: Now that you have the complete wort volume you can take your STARTING GRAVITY reading. You are measuring the density or basically the amount of sugar in the wort. You can float the sanitized hydrometer in the bucket (but likely there is too much foam to get a good reading). You can sanitize a turkey baster and draw a sample out or just pour some from the bucket to a cup. Just add enough to the hydrometer tube to get it to float and take a reading. Discard the wort sample to avoid infecting the beer.Try taking a few hydrometer readings with plain water and mix up some small water/table sugar mixtures for practice.Taking the reading is not critical with these kits, but it is good to practice for when you make your own recipes.FERMENTATION: Sprinkle the dry yeast on top of the wort and place the cover on the bucket. Make sure it is covered tightly. Place the air lock in the cover and fill half way with water. The yeast will eat the sugar and convert it to alcohol and co2. The air lock allows the co2 to escape and will keep outside air and bacteria from entering. Place the bucket somewhere that will maintain about 65 degrees out of direct sunlight. Temperature control is fairly important and can make the difference between a good beer and a great beer. If you start exceeding 70 degrees the yeast can produce off flavors. If the temp drops below 60 the yeast will start to drop out of suspension and will not ferment completely. If this happens you can swirl (not shake) the bucket to get the yeast back in suspension.Within a day or so you will see bubbling through the air lock. This is a good sign that fermentation is started. In a couple days it will slow to almost nothing. Even though it looks like it is done, give the beer a good 10-14 days to complete fermentation.BOTTLING: Hopefully by this time you will have about 2 cases of bottles saved. Screw offs are NOT good. Samuel Adams and other similar bottles work very well. Take a couple caps and practice using the capper tool. You can even use soda bottles if you want. Make sure you only use plastic bottles that held carbonated drinks before.Assemble the spigot to the bottling bucket and check for leaks. Too tight and the gasket gets crimped and leaks. Again it is a good idea to practice filling some bottles with plain water prior to bottling day.Prior to bottling day try to put the fermenter somewhere so that it can settle for at least a couple of hours. A kitchen counter is ideal as you will be siphoning into the bottling bucket and you need gravity for that.Boil about 1 cup of water in a small pan and add the priming sugar and let it cool. While it is cooling you will need to sanitize your bottles, caps, bottling bucket, hose, siphon and filler. Also sanitize your hydrometer if you want to take a FINAL GRAVITY reading. The easiest way now is to just drop it in the bucket to take the reading.Add the cooled priming sugar and water to the bottling bucket. Use the auto-siphon and hose to now siphon the beer on top of the priming sugar mix. A little moving of the bucket will help ensure that the priming solution is well mixed into the beer. (You want each bottle to get the same percentage of priming sugar).When your bottling bucket is filled lift it up to the counter and now use the spigot and filling wand to start filling the sanitized bottles. (I always give the bottles a quick tap water rinse to ensure all of the sanitizer is out). Fill to the top and when you remove the filler wand it will leave a right amount of head space in the bottle. Cap each bottle and place in a warm area. The added priming sugar will cause the suspended yeast to wake up and ferment it. With the cap in place the trapped co2 will carbonate the beer in about a week. DRINKING: Take the bottled beer and place in a fridge for a few days. Serve and enjoy!

[MakeMeHoppy]

Just to be clear this was written with a standard 5 gallon bucket system and a true-brew recipe kit in mind. I think that is pretty standard starting ground. The instructions with the kits are pretty good, but I found some unanswered questions until I went through the process a couple of times.

[Cliff Claven]

Here is a good set of videos on brewing an extract batch of beer. My linkOnly thing I would really change is the capper. Get a bench capper instead of the wing capper.

[Deerslyr]

Get a bench capper instead of the wing capper.

Really??? I've used both and I've got to admit I like the wing capper better. Yes, the bench capper can handle Euro bottles (i.e. Stella and Heini if you are so inclined to bottle in green, WHICH is better to do when you are taking brew to a party and people don't understand the sanctity of bottles), but it is big, clunky, cumbersome and dare I say, more expensive? My buddy bought one when he fermented some wine, so I've used it... I don't think it's "all that".

[ThroatwobblerMangrove]

Really??? I've used both and I've got to admit I like the wing capper better. Yes, the bench capper can handle Euro bottles (i.e. Stella and Heini if you are so inclined to bottle in green, WHICH is better to do when you are taking brew to a party and people don't understand the sanctity of bottles), but it is big, clunky, cumbersome and dare I say, more expensive? My buddy bought one when he fermented some wine, so I've used it... I don't think it's "all that".

yeah - no problems with my wing capper here.

[MakeMeHoppy]

Here is a good set of videos on brewing an extract batch of beer. My linkOnly thing I would really change is the capper. Get a bench capper instead of the wing capper.

I scanned the videos and they look pretty good. Pictures are so much better than words for learning. I'll be sure to review these in detail when I get time and will pass them on to newbies. Thanks for the link