beer Newbie to brewing

rabbit

rabbit

Hey, you guys I may be getting a homebrew kit for Christmas from someone. Don't know yet though. Just hoping:D Anywho, do you guys have any tips for a future guy learning to brew beer. I'd love to try some recipes out that are known and good. I'd love to be creative and mess around making stuff as well, but being new I think I'm just not at that level yet:lol:. Anywho, if you have any advice, or tips on what NOT to do let me know in advance. Even if I don't get one for Christmas I know I'll buy some kind of set after I get a job anyways.

P.S.- I also love stouts, India Pale Ales, and brown ales. All beers are good, but those are probably my three favorite types.
 
Make sure the hops you use are fresh (still green and aromatic), READ The Complete Complete Joy of Home Brewing by Charles Papazian, sanatize sanatize sanatize, keep the cats away from the area you are brewing at, don't over prime your bottles, get a decent glass hydromiter, most prepackaged recipe kits are crap, start off with partial mash brewing (extract with grains), glass carboys are expensive but with the money. If you are brewing a 5 gallon recipe, put it in a 6.5 gallon carboy (fermentor), it'll save your ass alot of trouble, start growing your hops this year, belguim candi sugar can be made own your own in your house for a hell of a lot cheaper than you will buy it for at the homebrew store, "don't worry have a homebrew", yeast is alive so feed it posative thoughts and talk to them, did I say don't worry yet, ALWAYS drink when you brew.
 
Thanks IGG. I didn't get the brewing kit, but I'm stilling having a great Christmas. However, I do in fact still want to brew my own beer. I will most definitely keep those tips in mind. Whenever I get a job again I plan on getting a brewing kit. I'll grow my own hops too like you said. Just another excuse for something to grow!!:lol: Also, I'm drinking beer right now....YEAAHHHHH!!!!....LOL!!
 
most prepackaged recipe kits are crap
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I'm new to homebrewing myself (only 4 batches) and have only done prepackaged kits,(extract, grains, hops, yeast, ect.) a porter, blonde, wheat, and an amber ale. The three that I have been able to taste were enjoyable. Not trying to be rude, but how are they crap. I'm not sure I understand the differance between partial grain and a 'prepackaged kit'. I believe you can get partial grain prepackaged kits also. Anyway IGG I'm a member of HBT, (seen you there a few times) great site with an endless pool of knowledge! And sorry about not getting the kit for christmas, when you do get on you will be addicted!:lol:
 
XRDAN said:
Not trying to be rude, but how are they crap. I'm not sure I understand the differance between partial grain and a 'prepackaged kit'.
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No, you're not being rude, no worries. I guess I should have expounded slightly more when I said they were crap. They'll work and will produce a drinkable beer, but you get FAAAAARRRRR greater beer when you get outside of the kits. Ontop of that the yeast packages have a tendancy of being way to old and exposed to a ton of different temps thus killing a large majority of the guys. The hops same thing (even the hop infused extract you won't get a big taste from).

XRDAN said:
I'm not sure I understand the differance between partial grain and a 'prepackaged kit'.
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The pre-packaged kits I'm speaking of are the ones that have Hopped Liquid Malt Extract, no grains, and yeast.

Partial grain is when you purchase all the ingredients seperatly, crack the grains and seep them in water. Then you add malt extract right before a full boil in which you add the hops.

Then we get into all grain in which you sparge your grains and use no extracts.

XRDAN said:
Anyway IGG I'm a member of HBT, (seen you there a few times) great site with an endless pool of knowledge!
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Yep, it (like this site) has some great people on it and I've been trying to read as much of their posts as possable. Just met a few of them this last Sunday at a bar (meet Yooper, JayC, and CBBaron).


XRDAN said:
when you do get on you will be addicted!:lol:
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HE SPEAKS THE TRUTH!!! I can't stop now. I'm getting a second fermentor (carboy) from a friend and now I'm going to try to brew every weekend. :shocked:
 
As IGG said, kits tend to sit on shelves and not be very fresh.

Partial mash involves steeping grains (usually only 2-3 lbs) in correct temperature water, boiling that wort, adding hops at appropriate times, and adding extract 10-15 minutes before flame out.

Good beer can be made without grains, but you will be very limited on styles.

Experimenting with specialty grains is the most fun part!

For a simple stout recipe, I would recommend:

6 lbs dark DME
8 oz crystal malt 60L (grain)
4 oz roasted malt (grain)
2 lbs 2 row pale malt (grain)
1 oz fuggles hops for 60 minutes.
White Labs Irish Ale Yeast

Steep the grains at 153F for 45 minutes in 2 gallons H2O. Sparge (pour the wort back though the grains to rinse out all of the goodness and filter out little grain bits).




Begin to boil for 60 minutes, add hops as soon as it begins to boil.

Watch for boil over and boil vigorously for 45 minutes.

Add all of the DME and boil for the last 15 minutes.

Cool the wort to 100F. Put 3 gallons of purified water and the yeast in the fermentor. Pour the cooled wort onto the yeast to mix it in and aerate(bubbles are good). You should have 4.6 gallons or so.


Fix airlock in place. Leave it in a dark place for 4 weeks or until hydrometer readings are consistent and stable for 3 days.

Bottle with 3/4 cup of table sugar. (boil the sugar in 4 cups H20 and cool with a lid on)

Add sugar water to bottling bucket and syphon the fermented beer onto it.

Bottle in any size bottle. I like big bottles for stouts.

Let it age as long as you can stand, or at least for 1 month. Enjoy!
 
So I guess what I'm doing IS partial mash, the kits I buy come with steeping grains, hops, LME (or DME). All the good stuff not mixed together. Although, the grains in the kits are already cracked ready to go. I can understand about the freshness, who knows how long the kits have been sitting on a shelf.

On a side note
I just recieved my 'fat tire' and 'blue moon' clone kits today in the mail :):) Next brew day: Friday. It's a toss up between the fat tire, and the sierra nevada bigfoot clone.

Happy Brewing,

P.S. sorry for highjacking the thread
 
XRDAN said:
So I guess what I'm doing IS partial mash, the kits I buy come with steeping grains, hops, LME (or DME). All the good stuff not mixed together.
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Yep, you're doing partial mash.

XRDAN said:
Although, the grains in the kits are already cracked ready to go.
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That's a big no-no. From what I understand you want to use the grains no latter than 3 day after they have been cracked.

XRDAN said:
P.S. sorry for highjacking the thread
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:rolleyes: We usually do that on every thread...

XRDAN said:
Is it ok to prime with table sugar?
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No, it's not ok.
 
Extract

In my opinion, beginning brewers should start out with extract brews with dried yeast until they are comfortable with the basic process. As was said before, never kits - (I prefer the 5 lb. bags of extract).
You can make award winning beers with extract. Grain brewing can be quite daunting at first...
Not to discourage you, but there is nothing more deflating than working for 5-6 hours on a grain recipe then having a genie fly out of the fermenter the first week.
I have been a recognized AHA judge since 1994. You need to walk before you can run.
But with patience and SANITARY habits you'll be brewing kick ass beers!

As you gain experience and graduate to grain, it will be more time consuming, but less expensive, and when you go to liquid yeasts, the difference is, well, you'll see!!
 
Caustic Casey said:
Not to discourage you, but there is nothing more deflating than working for 5-6 hours on a grain recipe then having a genie fly out of the fermenter
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See? Just another reason why you should wait until after you brew to eat the mushrooms. :lol:
 
It Most certainly is OK to prime with table sugar! It has to be sanitized by boiling.

It is actually Ok to brew with some table sugar, as long as it is no more than a pound or so.

The 3/4 cup to prime will become alcohol with no discernable flavor difference.
 
cheezydemon said:
It Most certainly is OK to prime with table sugar! It has to be sanitized by boilong.

It is actually Ok to brew with some table sugar, as long as it is no more than a pound or so.

The 3/4 cup to prime will become alcohol with no discernable flavor difference.
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Really?????? I thought you had to use corn sugar/dextrose.
 
Absolutely not. Some homebrew stores will say that to get you to buy priming sugar, but the truth is that table sugar only causes off flavors if it is nearly half of your fermentables, which would mean 3 lbs or so of table sugar,and even then a slight cidery taste is the worst that will happen.

I sometimes use brown sugar for dark beers, but all I have noticed is that it takes a little longer to carb, no real flavor difference.
 
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