Going to try my hand at home brewing

Probably want to ask over here: http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/forums/homebrewing.8/ . I'm sure you'll get a lot of good info. Good luck!

 

My first recommendation would be to find your local homebrew supply shop and tell them that you would like to start home brewing. If there is no shop close by, a Google search will find numerous online stores that would have starter kits for sale. I would also suggest reading John Palmer's book "How to Brew". It is available online for free and will give you an idea of the different difficulty levels to brewing your own beer. I have been brewing myself for a few years and have been acquiring equipment and refining my techniques along the way. I started with a 5 gallon pot and an extract kit from Northern Brewer.
Have fun and Good Brewing!

 

Northern Brewers starter kits are exceptional, they are exactly what your local home brew shop would sell you except much cheaper. Look them up online.

 

Welcome to the BA site, @Mikeduvall86, and to the Homebrewing forum. Your question gets asked frequently so I'll suggest that you page backward in this forum and read the similar threads and the various opinions of how to get started. The recommendation by @rstahl5k about reading howtobrew.com is a universal suggestion from members in this forum because it is an excellent way to get a very good knowledge about homebrewing. The printed version is not expensive, and it is a later version than the one that is online. Plus a hard copy allows you to write notes, highlight, mark-up, etc. the book for your personal usage.

Hang around the site and this forum as long as you'd like, explore to discover all of the other features, and enjoy your time while here.

 

My dad gifted me a 'premium starter kit' from midwestsupplies.com about a year ago and we have brewed a few times together. On saturday we bottled up 4 cases of good stuff. Don't stress too much, take it slow, have fun!

 

The very first thing you should do is to be realistic about what you want out of homebrew and what you're environment can handle. I went all in on a 5 gallon setup only to realize my condo wasn't really conducive to that size. Also, I had just relocated to a new city without knowing a lot of beer drinking friends, so the 5 gallon batches were all me. That, in combination with me not really sticking to the same style of beers, made for a lot of beer just sitting around which also created a bottleneck for brewing additional, differing batches. I ultimately picked up a smaller kettle (indoor gas oven) and a couple 3 gallon carboys which is right in my wheelhouse for consumption and allows me to brew more often.

I kept my 5 gallon gear for when I have more friends...and move somewhere with some outdoor space.

 

I am just gonna say you can make killer beer with a mr beer kit. Just dont use their ingredients.

 

Find an experienced homebrewer and brew with them a few times first that is willing to share equipment and experience. Avoiding the common mistakes of new Brewers will allow you to make fantastic beers from the start. If you are still or even more fascinated with it they can steer you towards equipment that can adapt and which ones you can live with or without. Dive into the book how to brew during this process. And invite your homebrew buddy to help you brew your first kit. A buddy of mine got started with five or six Northern Brewer kits that he really liked them. He made really great beer.

 

There are those who will disagree, but I found Alton Brown's homebrewing episode of "Good Eats" ("Amber Waves" Season 6, episode 7) to be very informative, despite a few curious errors (you'll go back and cringe in a couple of years). My biggest take away was the simplicity of the process and the fact that you don't need a whole lot of exotic equipment. I think he nailed those aspects quite nicely and, indeed, this was one of the things that pushed me off the fence years ago and got me started. That said, I wouldn't use this as your sole source of information. Unfortunately, I don't think these episodes are available online for free anymore.

 

It sounds like you might be a perfect candidate for a brand new Brewie!!

For only three times the price of a standard washing machine, you could be "brewing" in the comfort of your own home, but without any of the added enjoyment of actually brewing. Production starts soon, so order yours now!!

Brewie: It's just like homebrewing, except not at all.

 

Csaba from Brewie said mass production starts in July. Even he was surprised by the interest expressed in this forum! I'm considering selling one of my kids to buy one!

Well said.

 

Read this a few times.

http://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html

 

You forgot to mention that some guy said "they say they have a discount on their updated website." What more could you want?

 

I case the OP comes back and is confused by the last couple of comments regarding a "Brewie"

http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/so-who-is-going-to-buy-a-brewie.234309/

Just to be clear, no one is suggesting a Brewie is a good idea

 

I'm not sure what you mean. I think a Brewie is a great idea. I've already cashed out part of my 401k and borrowed against my mortgage to ensure that mine arrives this July.

Kidding, obviously. I had hoped that I laid the sarcasm on thick enough that the OP wouldn't be misled.

 

well..... here's my advice...
first... forget kits... forget extract brewing of all types and just jump into all grain... buy yourself a homebrew package that includes at least 1-7 gallon fermentation bucket, a bottling bucket, and some tubing and racking and bottling canes, a capper, caps. Then head to the store and buy you a 5 gallon igloo cooler and a 7 gallon stainless steel kettle... you can buy a conversion kit for the false bottom and stainless spigot on the cooler, or you can simply buy a stainless spaghetti strainer that fits nicely in the bottom of the cooler and line the top with some foil so that it fits tightly and nicely in the bottom of the cooler(now mash tun)... buy a cloning recipe book and that will give you a good idea of what grains go in what types of beers... then work off that... as for the actual brewing process... avoid the common pitfalls...
1.always reach a full vigorous boil
2.always cool your wort to pitching temp within 30-40 minutes max... the faster the better
3.practice transferring water from fermenting bucket to bottling bucket for practice... practice bottling in general with water
4.sanitation is key...ESPECIALLY post boil.
5.introduce plenty of oxygen before pitching(I pour from about 5-6 feet into the air into my fermenting vessel and aerate the crap out of it before pitching
6.patience, patience, patience... a beer may be near target final gravity in a very short amount of time, but a diacetyl rest(at slightly higher temp), as well as overall patience is one of the biggies that it seems a lot of homebrewers take for granted earlyand take too long to learn. this will vastly improve your beers and decrease dumps.
7.make yeast starters(buy a stir plate, stir magnets and erlenmeyer flask - i mean you can do dry yeast for a while for starters but then you really need to start making starters as you'll find they are absolutely crucial for lagers and some other styles)
8.have fun
9.share
10.hooked

 

While I don't necessarily disagree with you on jumping straight into all grain in an informed manner, excellent beer can be made using extract. It also gives you an opportunity to practice some process, sanitation, yeast, and fermentation easily and in a more controlled repeatable way taking the mashing aspect out of it.

To the OP: BrewCipher is a free excel spreadsheet written by one of the top and most trusted contributors of this forum. It will allow you to play with recipe parameters, once you are comfortable with the vocabulary, and see how things are interrelated. It is the best program I have used and free.

There are some extract tips written by another trusted forum member. If you are interested in them, I'll post them.

 

I absolutely would recommend that approach. There's a lot of brand new process going on. Get the bugs worked out of that part before throwing in another non-trivial variable. Just my $.02.

 

Buy a Mr. Beer or any 1 or 2 gal fermenter and really challenge yourself with some small extract batches first