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total pleb here, want to get into homebrewing, where should i start? what do i need? how do i make my beer not shite? ect
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>>747296
>where should i start?
Google.
>what do i need?
Depends on the kind of beer you want to make and how large a batch you are shooting for.
>how do i make my beer not shite?
Practice.
Find a few guides on google/youtube and go over them. Generally if they appear super easy its because they make shit product or are complete garbage (like that one infographic that pops up here from time to time) Collect a list of materials. Come on back when that you have learned and ask any questions you have.
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>>747296
http://www.northernbrewer.com
Their basic starter kit includes almost everything you need. You'll also want to pick up a hydrometer and wine thief. If you stick with their extract kits it's pretty hard to Fuck up. This is how I started about a year ago.
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>>747296
>where should I start
Search for a homebrew forum online or a homebrew club in your area. Think about what you want to make first, then ask them if a beginner can do it.
>what do I need?
It depends on what you are making, I assume you want to make beer. For beer you need (beside the ingredients) : a cooking pot , a fermentation vessel with a water lock, a lager tank (same as 2nd fermentation vessel) stirring spoon, measuring cups , few buckets (CLEAN ONES at least 2), filter, bottles + caps, free time ,food safe disinfectant.
for more fancy brewing: pH strips, thermometer(max tem =boiling point of water) cooling spiral (copper spiral that can be linked to a garden hose),a hydrometer other gear depending on beer type.
>how do I make my beer not shite?
Follow what the more practiced one say, learn from them, start of with one recipe that is known to work. Stick to known recipes until they work and you get a feel for the ingredients, after that you can start experimenting yourself.
Use decent yeast, not some shitty bread yeast or pathetic shit some people use. Some yeast strains can be expensive due to transport costs so buy them together with some other home brewers. (this wil not be needed the first few years)
buy quality , like with everything : garbage in garbage out.
work clean: this is important if you contaminate your batch you can ruin it, you want yeast to grow not bacteria.
WORK CLEAN
have fun, its a cheap way to get high quality beer. Sometimes it will turn out like shite but just try again better luck next time you will be happy you tried again. Its easier then it looks at first.
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Brewed an Oatmeal Stout, wanting to ad coffee to it. Anyone have experience on what type of coffee to ad? Light roast, dark roast, espresso? Was considering adding vanilla beans as well.
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As I'm getting into homebrewing, I'm wanting to experiment with more stuff. The first idea on my list is a beer that can fill you up and meet all of your daily vitamin/protein/etc needs. Something that instead of eating, you could drink and it would sustain you.
I've looked at kefir beer, but I don't know. Any ideas?
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Go with a one gallon kit first, no sense in brewing 5 gallons of shit beer. Figure out how to do it right first, then brew bigger batches. The kits will have very hit you need. The process is simple, boil the grains in water
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>>747834
>will have *everything* you need my bad
Basically you are making sugar water. When you boil the grains it extracts the sugar from the grain. Next using a strainer you will remove the gains and leave the sugar water behind
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>>747839
Next boil some more water
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>>747842
>rotated pic
>posting from iPad
>what can you do
Pour the water over the grain to wash the extra sugar from it. No sense in leaving any behind.
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>>747843
So pretty simple, go back and forth a few times straining the grains, sitting them over the pot, and washing them (with the water that collects as they are washed). I switched to a bigger pot but you get the idea.
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>>747849
Now strain the grains out again and bring the leftover water to a boil
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>>747852
These are hop pellets just fyi, that's how they come. I highly recommend putting a pellet in your mouth and sucking on one. It will come apart and be mushy and realistically you probably shouldn't swallow it. But once you understand what a hop tastes like you will always be able to detect it in future beers you drink. I had an IPA the other day and fuck it was too "hoppy" tasting, never understood what that taste was before. I know ales are typically more bitter but eff it reminded me of a straight up hop pellet. Anyways...
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>>747855
So you add the hops. Follow the directions, they will tell you how many mins in to add them
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>>747702
wow you went all out alcoholic here , think about your liver it cant handle that amount of alcohol.
if you want a liquid meal look for soylent2.0
the 2.0 is made without people, instead they use corn, soybeans, mushrooms and a lit of vitamins and minerals and the best thing is it only costs 10$ a day
http://www.soylent.me/
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>>747857
As the water boils the hops will un-mush and mix in, here you can see the bubbles on the top turning a slight green from the mix
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>>747860
As you let it cool down the hops will fuse together again. You want to bring the mix down to room-ish temperature sooner rather than later.
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>>747861
Keep in mind this was at 170 - 200 degrees fahrenheit so an ice bath will help it cool faster
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>>747862
As it cools the hops will fuse more together. Fortunately this makes it easier to siphon around when transferring into your glass carboy
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>>747863
I didn't take any pics here but it's not hard to imagine, transfer the liquid into your carboy. Siphon works good. The thing they don't tell you is that when it's all said and done, bottled and everything, your beer bottles will have a small amount of residue at the bottom. It's just protein and you can drink it, but I prefer to pour out the last quarter inch of beer when I open a bottle. The less residue you can leave behind when you siphon the less will end up in your beer bottles.
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>>747865
So before we go straight to capping with an airlock we want to use this type of setup for a few days first, I'll show you why next.
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>>747862
oh you use an ice bath , I use a copper spiral with cold water running trough it , works like a charm
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>>747867
Occasionally you will brew a beer that ferments HARD, and when it does you need to be prepared for the mess. If this was capped using just an airlock it would have spilled everywhere. Fortunately I was able to catch most of the mess in this jug using this setup. I was able to rinse the jug, refill with a clean water/c brite solution and let it ferment some more. I had to clean it out twice because the bubbles worked their way up so hard. This was a rum runner stout btw.
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>>747867
hm nice water lock , I made mine myself too
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>>747867
>>747873
Oh shoot I forgot ADD YOUR YEAST before you put the cap on the carboy!
Anyway here's what it looks like after a few days. I caped it with an airlock finally because I was sure the fermenting was slowing down. Also the color changed dramatically as the stuff settles to the bottom. That sludge at the bottom is what you will want to leave behind, the best/cleanest beer is at the top when you siphon. Note - When bottling I will add the sludge to the last bottle of beer if necessary to make it full. It won't hurt the carbonation process and I label the cap as BB (bottom of the barrel). I don't give this out and it will produce about half a beer bottle worth of beer as you pour out the rest when drinking. But half a beer is better than no beer.
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>>747880
One last thing, always let the beer ferment and carbonate in an ice chest. Makes cleanup easier if it over ferments or a bottle carbonates too much and breaks
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>>747870
Nice I've just started into 5 gallon batches, finally got confident enough in my one gallon. Might have to look into that.
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>>747874
Nice, got any pics?
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>>747883
I got bottling pics too if op is interested, here's a few from a while back
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>>747886
Also some people are weird about drinking a beer with no label on it so I got into that too. The wife make the design and I glued then on. It's a pita but the results are worth it, here's some recent stuff.
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>>747890
labels are a good bit of fun
a classic one is a picture of a gear with the words "coping mechanism"
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>>747885
I have not taken picks yet, I can get some of my waterlock that I use for small batches
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If our are doing this often you could invest in sturdier bottles with a flip top they don't break that fast.
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>>747330
I'll second Northern Brewer. They're priced well and have FANTASTIC customer service. I can't possibly overstate that. I've been buying from them for a year. I think I've done about 6 brews so far.
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>>747893
Yea There is still a temp cork here from a cider experiment (1gallon)
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>>747296
In all honesty, I'd start with a Mr. Beer kit. It is hands down the cheapest way to find out if brewing is something you'd really be interested in doing. Their process to make beer is extremely simple because everything is pre-mixed, there are no grains or hops to mess with. Making beer from one of their kits give you a very basic overlook of the process and if you enjoyed it you can switch to a kit that uses grain/hops/malt extract, etc.
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>>747897
True but those are pricey when buying a lot and I like to give mine out, makes an easy Christmas gift. I have a few for myself though, but they are 20oz I believe not 12oz. I like to have 12 oz bottles incase I only want a little beer at a time.
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>>747903
Agree I buy my ingredients kits from them, good stuff
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>>747904
Nice, how'd the cider turn out? I thought you weren't supposed to use wood spoons, corks, anything wood in the process because wood is porous and can harbor bacterial. Only takes one to get in there and grow. I always use plastic/metal stuff - spoons, corks, whatever just in case.
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Keeping your beer cool
Yeti a shit, Engel ftw
Cheaper and insulated on the bottom so ice lasts longer
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>>747928
8 days later
Yeti...
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>>747929
Engel
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John Palmer's 'How to Brew' is the best book I read when I was first getting into homebrewing and the first edition is published free online: http://www.howtobrew.com/
Also, go buy Star San and make sure that stuff touches every piece of equipment which will touch the beer following the boil.
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>>747925
My boss makes wine and I've been allowed to take part.
For wooden materials you just scrub them with an acid (which one I forget now) and it kills everything without destroying the wood.
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>>748015
Ahh that makes sense. Here's one of my first, Mr. Beer and generic PowerPoint format labels lol
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>>747925
>stuff - spoons, corks, whatever
I always use stainless steel tools and a plastic cork. I head that the plastic corks can harbor a little bit of yeast inside this however is not a problem if you add yeast yourself.
Another hombrewer suggested that I used another cork (a new one or a cork one that was soaked in food grade disinfectant) , because I was using wild yeast and I didn't want to contaminate it with yeast from a beer.
The cider was delicious after the first fermentation, but I wanted fizzy cider I bottled it with some sugar and left it on my kitchen counter for a day. I think I forgot to clean my funnel, contaminated the cider during bottling.
This usually doesn't happen to me, I guess it was due to the fact that I was very tired at the moment.
Thread posts: 48
Thread images: 25
Thread images: 25