Help me get into homebrewing

minirhyder

So brewing my own beer has been an interest of mine for a while. For some reason I've never really been able to actually do it.
Every time I go and read about it I just come out just as clueless as before.

So can you guys share some resources that got you into it? Maybe some personal anecdotes, experiences, stories, and so on?
How do I even start?

bowen

http://www.mrbeer.com/category-exec/category_id/132

This may help.

Djeet

Buy or check out and read "How to Brew" by John Palmer. Find a local home brew supply store and hang out, these guys love to talk about brewing. Our such place (austin home brew supply) has kits and ships.

Clean, clean, clean. Tools soak in mild bleach solution in the primary fermenter as you make the wort. You will eventually want a wort chiller if you dont start with one so you can drop the temp quicker.

grouch993

A friend and I did this during college. We bought one of the kits that came with a big five gallon container with pressure release cap, strainer, and other bits. The kit wasn't necessary, but made it easier. We also collected Coke bottles and used an old root beer capper for the first batch and eventually collected the bottles with ceramic tops for subsequent batches.

Make sure you have space to keep the fermenter at temperature, be careful to avoid the depleted yeast and sludge when pouring off the fermented beer. We found it was easier (and more even) to calculate the right amount of sugar for carbonation for each bottle instead of dumping the whole lot into the pot and then bottling.

You can start out with the tools for measuring specific gravity and such, but we didn't use them for five batches. We tried a hopped wheat beer and then single and double malted dark beer with and without hops. The double malt turned out the best, heavy and smooth with a high alcohol content.

schuss

Homebrewing is 90% sanitation, 10% brewing. Remember that ratio and you'll do well.

RedDawn

The Complete Joy of Homebrewing was the book I got started with and I love it.

kuhlmeye

So you want to homebrew! Awesome! It's honestly really easy. I did my first batch last August, and a year later, I have a beer in a keg, a batch in bottles, and batch fermenting. I saw Mr. Beer was linked up above, and while it's a decent introduction to homebrewing, I would probably just recommend jumping up to a full 5 gallon extract system. It'll make better beer, and really doesn't cost a whole lot more.

The basic equipment you will need is:
A kettle (big enough to fit 3 gallons comfortably, I think mine is 20 qts)
A 5 gallon bucket with lid for fermenting
An airlock of some sort
(Typically) a 5 gallon bucket with a spigot on the bottom for bottling
Something to transfer liquid from the fermenter to your bottling bucket
Bottles and caps
A bottle capper.

This might seem like a whole lot of shopping, but lucky for you, many homebrew outlets package this into a neat little bundle!

Starter Kits:
Midwest Supplies
Northern Brewer 1 gallon Kit
Northern Brewer 5 gallon kit

These include pretty much everything you need to get going, except a kettle. However, it looks like Target has you covered: 20 qt kettle from Target

Also of note, both the Northern Brewer kits come with a recipe kit, and it looks like the Midwest Supplies kit doesn't. Generally, recipe kits will come with instructions, but if you want, I could easily provide a full set of general instructions.

Oh, and if you can, do get John Palmer's How to Brew.

oldsak

Seconding the complete joy of home brewing.

I just started this summer and honestly, the best thing (besides talking to friends who brew) has just been going to my local homebrew store and asking them how to do stuff. YMMV but at my local store everyone is knowledgeable and very helpful.

Deadfall

Buy or check out and read "How to Brew" by John Palmer. Find a local home brew supply store and hang out, these guys love to talk about brewing. Our such place (austin home brew supply) has kits and ships.

This, yes. There are dozens of homebrewing books, and this is one of the more easy to follow ones.

Also definitely hang out at a brew shop and talk to the employees. Tell them you're looking to get started and they'll hook you up with everything.

Clean, clean, clean. Tools soak in mild bleach solution in the primary fermenter as you make the wort.

Clean, yes, but don't use bleach. You'll want a food-grade sanitizer that literally any brew shop will carry. The reason is two-fold. One, it is, well, food grade, and you don't want bleach in the nooks and crannies of your equipment.

And two, don't fear the foam. It'll foam up like crazy when you fill your fermenters to soak your tools. Don't rinse out the foam. It'll make your equipment pretty ph neutral, and you don't want to throw in the minerals again from your tapwater. It dissolves on its own.

You can definitely purchase each piece of a set individually, but I highly recommend just going to a shop and spending the money on a basic kit. It contains literally everything you need except for a pot and it will probably come with a book on how to brew and a free first recipe.

A wort chiller is also nice, but not completely necessary on your first try. Just make sure you have a lot of time to let it cool down if you don't have one. If you like brewing, then by all means spend the extra money on a chiller, or there are resources online to show you how to save some money if you want to make your own.

Deadfall

Also, the attitudes of the shop employees can make or break a good experience. I drive fifteen miles out of my way, passing probably a half dozen brewshops along the way, to purchase ingredients at my preferred shop.

A good shop should make a first-timer feel welcomed and offer many different choices and options for their first kit. They should talk about what you need outside of the kit. And they should give you some beginner tips. If they don't do these things, find a new store.

Wezoin

I recently started into homebrewing and love it. One thing I definitely recommend is to go all-grain and do it properly - kits and extract recipes are the equivalent of mixing kool aid instead of squeezing fresh juice.

Deadfall

While all-grain is totally awesome, I would definitely recommend starting out with partial extract and find out if you like it before dropping hundreds of dollars and a weekend constructing your own all-grain setup in your garage.

Heir

Djeet wrote: »

Buy or check out and read "How to Brew" by John Palmer. Find a local home brew supply store and hang out, these guys love to talk about brewing. Our such place (austin home brew supply) has kits and ships.

Clean, clean, clean. Tools soak in mild bleach solution in the primary fermenter as you make the wort. You will eventually want a wort chiller if you dont start with one so you can drop the temp quicker.

Yes! They have a great store, I love that place.

Djeet

I ain't going to counsel anyone to not buy a specialty sanitizer. But I use bleach. A few tablespoons in 5 gallons of water where tools can be kept without introducing bad guys to the wort. Anything touching bleach solution would of course be rinsed with fresh tap water before touching anything I'd put in my body.

However you go about it, stay clean. Cause putting in all the effort and the 6 weeks later having beer that tastes like ass sucks.

mts

honestly at the concentration bleach is used to disinfect, you don't even need to really rinse it off, we use bleach to disenfect when camping/river trips and its like a cap full into huge buckets, you don't even taste it

minirhyder

So I'm gonna resurrect this here thread and say that I got me one of these: http://brooklynbrewshop.com/beer-making-kits/everyday-ipa-1-gal-kit

It's simple, but it's all grain, so I figure it'd be a great start for me.
Gonna take it for a spin tomorrow.

Question so far is, all these kits (and their refills) come with detailed recipes that basically say put this in there at this time. How do I transition into customizing my beer?
For example I like malty and fruity beers. E.i., less hoppy, more sweet. I do remember having this really delicious banana beer. And I'd like to try to reproduce it, but...how? Do I put actual banana chunks in there? Do I get dried fruit? Or do I just get a packet of flavoring or something?

Also I've read that you can't use twist off bottles for bottling your beer. How come? Are they not air tight?

Edit: also, where can I buy a bottle capper and caps? I've found that ordering them comes with ridiculous shipping rates which I'm just not willing to pay.
Can I find them in hardware stores? Household stuff stores? Grocery stores?

Deadfall

Also I've read that you can't use twist off bottles for bottling your beer. How come? Are they not air tight?

This is correct.

For example I like malty and fruity beers. E.i., less hoppy, more sweet. I do remember having this really delicious banana beer. And I'd like to try to reproduce it, but...how? Do I put actual banana chunks in there? Do I get dried fruit? Or do I just get a packet of flavoring or something?

That....could be an entire forum itself. Or a book. In fact, there are many books and forums that go over exactly these things. I recommend this one.

There are dozens of ways to get various flavors. Most banana beers get their flavor from their yeast, as banana itself does not give much flavor to the beer. They certainly do make flavor extracts, but I prefer getting my flavors through actual adjuncts, like dried or frozen fruit, or through the yeast itself. When you start playing around with various strains, the unique flavors each impart will blow you away.

It's kinda like cooking; you'll start to get a feel for what ingredients to add and when (because adding at certain times can completely change the flavor).
If you want to bounce some ideas feel free to pm me, I brew about once a month.

Deadfall

Edit: also, where can I buy a bottle capper and caps? I've found that ordering them comes with ridiculous shipping rates which I'm just not willing to pay.
Can I find them in hardware stores? Household stuff stores? Grocery stores?

I don't know where to get a capper other than a homebrew store, but they won't be cheap no matter where you go, nor should you get a cheap one. Our club bought the cheapest one our store had at first, ignoring the warnings of the guy running the store, and we broke many, many bottles. This also could be because we didn't know what we were doing, but I still recommend something like this: http://www.midwestsupplies.com/bench-bottle-capper.html

Bottle caps, at homebrew stores, are literally pennies. I think I spent maybe a buck twenty-five for an entire brown bag of caps, and used those for like over a year.

Deadfall

I'll try to give a quick overview of customizing and adding your own flavors to beer. Take everything I say with a grain of salt, though, as I'm by no means an expert. Everybody that brews kinda develops their own style. My friend who brews with me, for example, follows measurements and temperatures and ph readings meticulously, while I use more of a "mad scientist" style and kinda throw things in as I see fit. We both make good beer (we think), just different methods.

That said....

There are a few ways to produce flavors:

Hops add both aroma and flavor. These are usually the first thing you experience in a beer. When boiling wort, the earlier you add hops, the more aroma you get from it, rather than taste. The later in the boil you add them, the more flavor you get. This is how you can get really hoppy beers with citrus aromas, or mild beers with piney aromas.

The vast majority of making good beer is proper yeast selection, and then keeping that yeast happy. Like I said, most of that banana flavor you were describing was probably strictly from a hefeweizen yeast or something similar. They may have used a banana extract, but I'm not a fan of extracts. Some yeasts are selected, like in porters and stouts, for their cleanness. That is, they don't impart much of their own flavor and let the malt and hops really come through on their own. Other styles, like Belgians or saisons use very strong yeasts to give more floral and spicy flavors.

You can also add adjuncts, but again there are dozens of ways to go about this. The rule with boiling and adding hops also applies here. For example, if you add chocolate to an early boil, you will get a pleasant chocolate aroma, but very little flavor. Some brewers add flavors, like cinnamon or vanilla or whatever, to fermentation. This is certainly an option, but it kinda gives it an overpowering flavor (depending on how long you leave it in) and you won't get a very balanced beer. Some recipes call for this, though. I'm fermenting a gingerbread ale right now and adding brown sugar and vanilla and cinnamon and ginger to fermentation because I want to bring those flavors to the front. I'm going for the "gimmick" on purpose.

Mostly, though, a well-balanced beer should be flavored from the grain, hops and yeast. It just takes some time to play around before you start figuring out what works where.

minirhyder

Re: homebrewing shops, it seems NYC is totally devoid of them. So that's nice.
I found one (Brooklyn Homebrew), and I'll check it out in the near future, but there doesn't seem to be much of an alternative (at least not one that seems to have cappers?).

Deadfall

I don't know where exactly you live in NYC, but are any of these near you?

minirhyder

I've checked out Bitter & Ester's and they didn't have any cappers on their website. They seem to be more brewing class oriented and less supply oriented (at least that's what I got from their site).

The Whole Foods Beer Room tooooottalllyy slipped my mind. No idea how I hadn't thought of it, I must have walked past it several dozen times. Thanks a lot, man. Will definitely drop by there.

minirhyder

Question!
Does the pH of the water make a difference?
I have tap water which is on the order of 7 pH and I have filtered water which is very soft and on the order of 5 pH.
Which is better to use?

Deadfall

Not right now. On a larger, commercial scale, yeah it does. But the only thing you should be worried about now is playing around with a few batches.

kuhlmeye

Just a note, an excellent resource on the web are the HomeBrewTalk forums. Lots of great users, and really good for starting brewers to get answers. The only thing I will say, though, is that some users there can be a little over preachy about the "proper" way to do things. Don't be too worried about this though, as I've used different methods for all my beers (with/without yeast starters, with/without secondary fermentation, measure everything precisely/ "about this many hops look good", etc) and they've all turned out pretty good.

As far as flavor development, Deadfall is correct on most of that stuff. The banana flavor was probably from the yeast. One thing I have heard is that many people who use fresh fruit in beer add it after primary fermentation.

Another you can try, which I've been meaning to, is some SMaSH(single malt single hop) beers. Especially since you are using all grain, brewing a beer with one malt and one hop variety will help you learn the different flavor and aroma profiles of the ingredients, which will help when developing your own recipes.

On a side note, I just got my second keg for Christmas, and I can't wait to put my Coffee Vanilla Stout in there!

AresProphet

Thread makes me want to brew again

All-grain is a mess and a lot of work, partial extract batches are perfectly acceptable while you're still learning the process. Missing your mash temp is extremely likely if you aren't familiar with your equipment.

If you plan on brewing frequently you may want to consider kegging instead of bottling. For one it's a lot easier (less sanitizing) and for two you can force carbonate the beer so you don't have to wait as long after fermentation to drink it. It's a bit of a commitment and only one I recommend if you're going to be brewing (and drinking) a fair amount.

Bottles are also easier to share with friends, so there's that.

Dark_Side

minirhyder wrote: »

Question!
Does the pH of the water make a difference?
I have tap water which is on the order of 7 pH and I have filtered water which is very soft and on the order of 5 pH.
Which is better to use?

The simple answer is use filtered water, the long answer can be quite involved and a rather deep rabbit hole that can drown new brewers in too much information.

Anyway, yes, pH can have an effect, but only for all grain brewing, as it will effect the mash. Different pH's do different things, but nominally you want it around 5. I use filtered water when I brew, and much prefer it to tap water. Mostly because I can rely on it not to affect the final beer, and can then add salts or other additives to shape the water profile exactly to what I want over many batches of a recipe.

The other problem about using tap water is you have to give it time to disperse the chlorine in it (if it's city water vs. well water), as the chlorine will make your beer taste like ass.

I started on Brooklyn kit a year ago and I loved the ease and simplicity of their system. I've modified it to my own tastes at this point, but it's a great starting point into all grain. (I did have a ton of trouble with off tastes though...)

TL DR

What about jugs of spring water to cut out the uncertainty?

kuhlmeye

Dark_Side wrote: »

minirhyder wrote: »

Question!
Does the pH of the water make a difference?
I have tap water which is on the order of 7 pH and I have filtered water which is very soft and on the order of 5 pH.
Which is better to use?

The simple answer is use filtered water, the long answer can be quite involved and a rather deep rabbit hole that can drown new brewers in too much information.

Anyway, yes, pH can have an effect, but only for all grain brewing, as it will effect the mash. Different pH's do different things, but nominally you want it around 5. I use filtered water when I brew, and much prefer it to tap water. Mostly because I can rely on it not to affect the final beer, and can then add salts or other additives to shape the water profile exactly to what I want over many batches of a recipe.

The other problem about using tap water is you have to give it time to disperse the chlorine in it (if it's city water vs. well water), as the chlorine will make your beer taste like ass.

I started on Brooklyn kit a year ago and I loved the ease and simplicity of their system. I've modified it to my own tastes at this point, but it's a great starting point into all grain. (I did have a ton of trouble with off tastes though...)

Funny thing about homebrewing is, I've used tap water exclusively in my beers, with absolutely no ill effect.

I think this mostly depends on the quality of your cities water, though. If you are really worried take a look at your cities recent water report.

Dark_Side

TL DR wrote: »

What about jugs of spring water to cut out the uncertainty?

This is what I do.

kuhlmeye wrote: »

Dark_Side wrote: »

minirhyder wrote: »

Question!
Does the pH of the water make a difference?
I have tap water which is on the order of 7 pH and I have filtered water which is very soft and on the order of 5 pH.
Which is better to use?

The simple answer is use filtered water, the long answer can be quite involved and a rather deep rabbit hole that can drown new brewers in too much information.

Anyway, yes, pH can have an effect, but only for all grain brewing, as it will effect the mash. Different pH's do different things, but nominally you want it around 5. I use filtered water when I brew, and much prefer it to tap water. Mostly because I can rely on it not to affect the final beer, and can then add salts or other additives to shape the water profile exactly to what I want over many batches of a recipe.

The other problem about using tap water is you have to give it time to disperse the chlorine in it (if it's city water vs. well water), as the chlorine will make your beer taste like ass.

I started on Brooklyn kit a year ago and I loved the ease and simplicity of their system. I've modified it to my own tastes at this point, but it's a great starting point into all grain. (I did have a ton of trouble with off tastes though...)

Funny thing about homebrewing is, I've used tap water exclusively in my beers, with absolutely no ill effect.

I think this mostly depends on the quality of your cities water, though. If you are really worried take a look at your cities recent water report.

Most people do. For some reason my tap water makes the beer taste shitty. But I do small batches, and I'm really starting to think that small batches are much more prone to off taste problems. I couldn't get rid of a certain off taste in my beers until I switched to 2 gal batches, I could never get the 1 gal batches clean of them.

Really though the equation is simple at first. No bad tastes? Keep doing what you're doing. Bad taste, now you have to start sleuthing to identify it, and that's when we get into pH, recipe formulation, best yeast practices, fermentation profiles, equipment, brewing process and etc.

minirhyder

Well I've used my filtered water, so I guess we'll see what happens.

It's standing right fermenting like crazy.
Pretty exciting

mts

guess what. most spring water is just another cites tap water

minirhyder

Pretty much. With some extra filtration, maybe.
Though Poland Spring seems to be legit? I duno.

Either way, NYC water still being considered pretty damn good, I think it should be all right.

kuhlmeye

Could consider buying one of those pur filters that snap on your faucet. We bought one for our keurig. I will probably not use it for brewing though.

zerzhul

mts wrote: »

guess what. most bottled water is just another cites tap water

ftfy

minirhyder

I'm gonna resurrect this here thread again.

My first ever batch (an IPA) turned out great!
My next batch (a blondie) is finishing up fermenting, waiting to be bottled this weekend.

Now for the question: I have all these leftover ingredients (Citra hops and Safale US-05 yeast, to be exact, but to be joined by more hops and more yeast as I'm going to go for a brown ale next).
Since I'm only doing 1 gallon brews for the time being, my hops and yeast do not all get used up because of the small brew size, and are currently residing in my freezer.

Is there like a backwards beer recipe site out there where I can type in my ingredients, and they would suggest what I can brew? Because as it stands, I'm still not good at just knowing which hops and yeast would go with which grains and stuff.

Bendit

Years ago I wrote an article for my homebrewing club about my "world's cheapest all-grain kitchen brewery". I resurrected the article. You can read it here if you'd like: underland.info/HomebrewingArticle/ . Cheers!

kuhlmeye

minirhyder wrote: »

I'm gonna resurrect this here thread again.

My first ever batch (an IPA) turned out great!
My next batch (a blondie) is finishing up fermenting, waiting to be bottled this weekend.

Now for the question: I have all these leftover ingredients (Citra hops and Safale US-05 yeast, to be exact, but to be joined by more hops and more yeast as I'm going to go for a brown ale next).
Since I'm only doing 1 gallon brews for the time being, my hops and yeast do not all get used up because of the small brew size, and are currently residing in my freezer.

Is there like a backwards beer recipe site out there where I can type in my ingredients, and they would suggest what I can brew? Because as it stands, I'm still not good at just knowing which hops and yeast would go with which grains and stuff.

I'm not sure if there's a resource like that, but you really can't go wrong with experimentation. Trying doing a SMaSH beer (single malt and single hop) with your leftovers to get a feel for what types of aroma and flavors different combinations get you!

Dark_Side

minirhyder wrote: »

I'm gonna resurrect this here thread again.

My first ever batch (an IPA) turned out great!
My next batch (a blondie) is finishing up fermenting, waiting to be bottled this weekend.

Now for the question: I have all these leftover ingredients (Citra hops and Safale US-05 yeast, to be exact, but to be joined by more hops and more yeast as I'm going to go for a brown ale next).
Since I'm only doing 1 gallon brews for the time being, my hops and yeast do not all get used up because of the small brew size, and are currently residing in my freezer.

Is there like a backwards beer recipe site out there where I can type in my ingredients, and they would suggest what I can brew? Because as it stands, I'm still not good at just knowing which hops and yeast would go with which grains and stuff.

I don't believe so. As mentioned SMaSH is a great tool for learning about brewing, as you learn how each individual addition can effect the final result. Brewing programs like Beersmith will give you general recipe guidelines and then you can pick and choose ingredients from there.

Ultimately though, you just have to brew a lot, which will give you a working knowledge of your ingredients, and then you'll be able to slap recipes together out of leftover ingredients.

Throw that yeast away though, dry yeast is so cheap that I wouldn't risk keeping open packets of it around for the next batch, not worth the risk of a slow fermentation start or infection. Safale US-05 is a very neutral, vigorous yeast that will work well in almost any american ale, and most english ales, so that yeast will go with just about any recipe you cook up.

kuhlmeye

Oh yeah, if that yeast is open, go ahead and chuck it. Safale 05 is like, 3 bucks per pack.

minirhyder

Yeah I figured that much. My safale didn't survive the freezer anyway.
I do hate wasting engredients though.

I brew 1 gallon batches so I only use like...1/4 of each packet at most.

I do use beersmith, it's quite great. And my last brew that's finishing up its bottle conditioning bout was a smash with citra hops. I guess I can use them for any light ale, perhaps for a saison.

Thanks, guys!