Home Brewing

[SexiAlexei]

I figured I'd see if anyone out there does home brewing.

 

I'm going to start this weekend. I bought a kit online, and I'm going to hit up Brew and Grow to get some missing pieces.

 

Any advice to first timers? I took a class at Brew and Grow, and I have the book they suggest, so I have a decent idea of how to start.

 

Edit: I thought I was in SLAM, could a MOD please move? Thank you!

Edited May 8, 2013 by SexiAlexei

[Leonard Zelig]

Yes, my buddy & I have been all grain brewing for a while now. Check out HomeBrewTalk.com. You will get tons of info there.

 

John Palmer also has a good book for beginners, a lot of the info can be found here: http://www.howtobrew.com/. In my opinion it is much better for beginners than the Papazian book.

 

As for advice, keep everything clean & sanitized. Watch your fermenting temperature; your room temp may be 66°, but the active yeast will actually add 5-6° to the temp of the fermenter. It seems odd, but the yeast is actually the ingredient that will have the biggest impact on the flavor of the beer. Expect your first few batches to be bad, but take notes of everything you do, because you think you will remember everything but you will not. Look into one of the homebrew programs out there, we use BeerSmith and it is well worth the money.

 

If you have any questions, I will be happy to try to answer them.

[Capn12]

I brew at home as well. Both resources that LZ mentioned above are great, especially the John Palmer book. I read parts of it over and over before starting up myself. If you're hesitant to go All Grain from the start, don't be! I made exactly 1 Extract brew before I swapped right to All Grain, far more rewarding IMO.

 

I use Brewers Friend to log all of my recipes that I've made and those that I'm going to make. Watch your temperatures VERY closely, and don't get frustrated whilst waiting on your wort temperature to drop after boil. Pitching the yeast when the wort isn't ready, is definitely not a good idea at all.

 

Also, your first brews you make, don't necessarily have to be bad! The first all grain recipe I did, a Coffee Coconut Oatmeal Stout, just placed 2nd overall in our area's home brew contest.

 

Be creative, you'll never know what may work in a beer, just always remember that anything you add sugar-wise, is going to change the dynamic of the beer overall.

[FlaSoxxJim]

Very good information and suggestions from the brewers here. Not actively brewing now but was an avid all grain brewer for several years before other demands on my time sidelined me. I also recommend using brewing software. I always liked BeerTools. There is a free online version and a premium version. I was always very happy with the free version.

 

My tips:

 

• Good sanitation

 

• Papazian and Palmer books for beginning brewers. Papazian in particular is good for showing you how to use a bit of specialty grain in your early extract brews to brew them to style.

 

• Fermentation temperature is a consideration but until you graduate to fermenting a spare fridge and a Johnson temperature controller you are going to be stuck fermenting at your house temperature. Warmer fermentation temperatures yield more esters and leads to fruitier beers — not necessarily a bad thing, but you'll have a hard time getting a clean, dry, American Pale Ale profile if you are fermenting above 68ºF or so. Don't bother trying to brew lagers because unless you are able to ferment at low temperatures and lager for extended period at even lower temperatures you will get disappointing results.

 

• Dry yeast quality has come a long way since I started brewing but I still prefer liquid yeast. If you go with liquid yeast you can use the 'smack pack' of nutrient wort to start your culture before pitching into the fermenter, but I recommend making a separate 100-1,000 ml starter wort culture to pitch. Pitching that much active yeast will get fermentation going very rapidly, making the chances of contamination by wild yeast or bacteria almost zero. Actively aerate your wort before adding yeast, but after that point make sure your fermenting beer has minimal contact with air. The point was made earlier about waiting until your wort is cool before pitching the yeast; this is important as your yeast will be injured or even killed by hot wort.

 

• Have fun! Be adventurous and don't worry if your beer doesn't taste like a commercial product. It's going to be good stuff!

 

 

[mr_genius]

Very good information and suggestions from the brewers here. Not actively brewing now but was an avid all grain brewer for several years before other demands on my time sidelined me. I also recommend using brewing software. I always liked BeerTools. There is a free online version and a premium version. I was always very happy with the free version.

 

My tips:

 

• Good sanitation

 

• Papazian and Palmer books for beginning brewers. Papazian in particular is good for showing you how to use a bit of specialty grain in your early extract brews to brew them to style.

 

• Fermentation temperature is a consideration but until you graduate to fermenting a spare fridge and a Johnson temperature controller you are going to be stuck fermenting at your house temperature. Warmer fermentation temperatures yield more esters and leads to fruitier beers — not necessarily a bad thing, but you'll have a hard time getting a clean, dry, American Pale Ale profile if you are fermenting above 68ºF or so. Don't bother trying to brew lagers because unless you are able to ferment at low temperatures and lager for extended period at even lower temperatures you will get disappointing results.

 

• Dry yeast quality has come a long way since I started brewing but I still prefer liquid yeast. If you go with liquid yeast you can use the 'smack pack' of nutrient wort to start your culture before pitching into the fermenter, but I recommend making a separate 100-1,000 ml starter wort culture to pitch. Pitching that much active yeast will get fermentation going very rapidly, making the chances of contamination by wild yeast or bacteria almost zero. Actively aerate your wort before adding yeast, but after that point make sure your fermenting beer has minimal contact with air. The point was made earlier about waiting until your wort is cool before pitching the yeast; this is important as your yeast will be injured or even killed by hot wort.

 

• Have fun! Be adventurous and don't worry if your beer doesn't taste like a commercial product. It's going to be good stuff!

 

I'm too lazy to home brew. I simply buy 3 Floyd's bombers

[Jake]

If I started home brewing, I'd try German yeast in everything

[FlaSoxxJim]

If I started home brewing, I'd try German yeast in everything

 

You would do well enough using a Kolsch or Altbier strain but unless you could ferment at controlled low temperatures any German lager strains would likely give unsatisfactory results. . . high levels of diacetyls and fusel alcohols and other brewing chemistry compounds that impart off flavors to beer fermented at too high a temperature.

[Capn12]

Yeah, unless you had a room/area to store your fermenting goods at 50-65 degrees, you'd have a bit of funk in a lager yeast.