Brewing my own Beer... Anyone else?

Yeah I've done it a few times. It's fun. Waiting for it to ferment is agonizing. Don't worry about recipes yet just see if you can make it first. Clean clean clean. Can't hurt to call a friend whos done it and invite them to brew day. Make sure you have a big enough pot for the wort. Clean again. I got most of my stuff from the brewers apprentice I think. We jerry rigged a word cooler with copper coil and ran ice water through it.

I miss those homebrews. Give your uncle a call I'm sure he's love to talk brewing with you. It's nice to have an experienced brewer to call on brew day for little unforseen questions.

 

I got a kit for Christmas last year and I haven’t even touched it. I need to!!! If I recall, Mitchell is a pro!

 

I've been brewing for 30 years, but not as much as I used to. In November i bottled the 86th 5 gallon batch since I started keeping a journal in 1997. Its a strong 9% IPA with tons of Citra and Cascade hops, grapefruit zest and grapefruit extract. Came out real good, and not s citrusy as I expected. I usually dont fool with extracts and just make make ales, pale lagers, or occasionally a stout.

my advice is dont fool with a "kit" Get a good basic brewing book, go to a local homebrew store and buy basic equipment to brew and bottle a 5 gallon batch of ale, practice clean technique, follow me instructions for a basic recipe and your first batch will be perfectly decent.

 

edit- just saw you already have the kit. what actual ingredients and equipment did it come with? I can give you some device on avoiding common errors if I know what you've got.

 

cosign

 

yes. doing it for years. Go read john palmers book on how to brew
http://www.howtobrew.com/
Don't worry about screwing it up...it's actually kinda hard to really eff up beer.

 

I volunteer quality control expert aka taste tester!

 

Yeah but you’ll want someone vast experience, someone with talent! Hahaha

 

Hmmm...have you ever heard of Greg Noonan?? Brewing expert who, according to many, wrote a book on how to brew which is considered a bible in that field.

 

I've done it off and on for the last 10 years or so. Just remember that you pretty much will burn a full day with the brewing stage and then another when you get to the bottling stage. I invested in a costco miniwine fridge as a fermenter for better temperature control too.

 

For a newbie... read Charlie Papazian's "Joy of Homebrewing." Read it, and reread it.

If you're using extracts, try to mash a few pounds of milled grains in, too. This is what will make good homebrew GREAT homebrew. This is how you can fine tune your homebrews to add complexity of flavor and body... and color.. and get a better head on your beer in the glass. It's really, really easy with a good thermometer. You really have to do it if you want something special.

Make sure you ferment in a very cool place in your house. Fermenting too warm and too fast is the second best way to put all kinds of off flavors in your beer. The best way is to not clean your equipment.

Avoid pellets if you can. Plugs are better, and whole hops better still. Can't find whole hops? Grow them! At one time I grew 5 different varieties. Now I only grow Cascade. I harvest them and dry them on window screens in my garage, then vac bag them and put them in the freezer.

 

Oh...yeah that's perfect equipment. I don't trust those COMPLETE kits with ingredients to give you decent stuff...especially the hops and yeast in those kits you really have no idea how old, properly stored, and fresh they are. Plus the kits sometimes come with super simplified instructions that aren't really the right way to brew beer...just the easiest possible way.

Books:

The Papazian book that LBCrew mentioned, and also The Complete Handbook of Homebrewing by Dave Miller.
Good luck! Report back.

I'll just throw out one nugget of advice. Good homebrew depends on a complete and attenuated fermention. Leaving excessive unfermented malt in the finished beer is a common mistake and it results in an overly sweet malty beer. To avoid this I'm a big believer in doing whatever i can to help the yeast get started quickly, and with plenty of yeast to tackle the job. I rarely just toss a packet of dry yeast in the cooled wort like 90% of all recipes say. I make a yeast starter the day before or a few hours ahead of time the day of. There are tons of simple ways to make a sterile yeast starter.

 

cheers....

 

Awesome man sounds great!

 

It will. The taste will become smoother and the carbonation more mellow and better texture. my rule of thumb is i open one bottle after maybe 3 weeks just to see how it came out. The rest i try not to touch for over a month after bottling because it really improves in the bottle. a light amber like that really wont peak for a couple of months, and then shouldn't change much more. Stronger and darker beers will continue to improve for 2-3 months in the bottle.

Congratulations on a successful brew!