Absolute beginner

Read this...
www.howtobrew.com

 

Read as much as you can, especially Palmer and Papazian. Then take Papazian's advice, "Relax, don't worry, have a (home)brew.

That is, read and learn what you can, but in the heat of things, if you're a point or an ounce off, don't panic. It'll still turn out OK.

 

Relax, don't worry, have a home brew.


When you run into some disasters (and you will, especially during the first few batches) just remember it's only beer. Don't get discouraged if your first IPA doesn't taste like Pliny.

 

Just brewed my first batch yesterday. Extract/specialty grain Brewers Best: American Amber Ale Fermenting in a glass carboy.

Have an extra set of hands
Big ass kettle pot
Star-san in bucket w/ all your tools needed ready to go. Only takes 30 sec. to sterilize, but can keep in for whole brew duration till it's needed
FYI The filter in the funnel will clog up when pouring wort into the fermenter because of the hops.
I put 50/50 vodka and water in my air lock.

Yes, How to Brew first edition is free online in PDF format. It is very helpful and a good read.

Good luck. It's a blast.


Primary - American Amber ale
Next up - Zombie Dust clone.

 

Minor point, but Starsan does not sterilize. It sanitizes, which is all you need.

 

Aside from the "how to brew" link, which should cover nearly everything.

- Develop sound sanitation practices from the beginning. Bad habits are hard to break.
- Have a way to keep your fermentation temperature within (or a few degrees below) recommended temps (per the yeast packet/vile). I would venture to guess this is the #1 most common cause of off flavors among new brewers.
- If you do not like the taste of your tap water, use bottled water. I learned this one the hard way.
- Never be afraid to ask questions. We've all been there before.

 

Thank you for catching my beginners mistake.

 

Question? Can you ferment longer then suggested time on the instructions ? It says two weeks. Thinking of fermenting three weeks instead of doing a secondary considering I am fermenting in my glass carboy and not a bucket. Wish I had used bucket first.

 

You can ferment longer than 2 weeks. Alot of people do it for 3 weeks to let the yeast clean shit up and make the beer clearer.

 

Thanks. Transferring was not my plan for my first brew in fear of contamination and introducing unwanted oxygen

 

Kit instructions are sometimes shite. The yeast will determine when your beer is done. Not a calendar. Wait until your beer has reached its final gravity. Then give it a few more days for the yeast to finish cleaning up their by byproducts and taste a sample. If there are no off-flavors, go ahead and bottle or keg.

 

what do you recommend I purchase instead of using my siphon to pull a sample of beer out of my carboy?

 

I guess I could use the straw method with a sterile tube. Or purchase a fancy device.

 

Wine Thiefs (thieves?) are fairly cheap. A sanitized turkey baster would also work.

 

Back to the OP:

Single best piece is hard to do, but
1) read
2) relax
3) stay in touch--there are some great people on here who have alot of knowledge to share

 

Best 4 pieces of advice:

1. Sanitation
2. Sanitation
3. Patience
4. Sanitation

Get those 4 down and you should be good to go.

 

Also, my standard piece of advice: DONT USE AN AIRLOCK ON PRIMARY.

Eventually, you will get to mop the ceiling. This isnt fun. Research blow off tubes and/or other options that allow you to chuck the airlock.

 

Read before you do things. Aside from howtobrew.com (and the actual book which has a bit more) everyone forgets how awesome google is. You can't imagine how many times I have seen a thread with a question that I have been able to answer with less than 5 minutes of googling.

Also, patience is a virtue, and it is often one of the hardest things to learn as a brewer. Whenever someone is worried within hours or a couple days of pitching yeast, the answer is going to be wait a few days, weeks whatever and come back. Also, time cleans up a lot of stuff in beer. Many of my early batches I drank a ton of before they were really ready. 3 weeks in the bottle now is the first time I will open one, and the beer is much better for it.