I was taught brewing beer in the 60's with off the grocery store shelves brewing in a churn in the basement. It was so simple! I quit in '94 after a very bad all foam batch, and I come back and the entire world has changed & the science of brewing has left me FAR behind. I'm new here for certain. And I am VERY welcome to any input here, and let's just say that I beg for that. Not only have I forgotten what I did then, but now I face coming back to the hobby and the entire world has changed and I don't even recognize the terminology. Thus, please practice patience with me, I'll have a ton of questions along the way. This new brewing, re-racking, tun, etc.... And I even forgot how to do it in a churn... My apology in advance for my ignorance......
Welcome. Ask questions. Newbies join in all the time and enough of us don't mind addressing repeat questions that you can usually count on someone helping out. Your unfortunate all foam batch sounds like an infection to me, for what it's worth.
Yep, I knew it was all about sanitation then. At the very same time my ex divorced me - so sanitation, sanity - what ever the reason I gave up. And now the equipment is so much better! Sanitation iis in my microscope - and I WILL BE CLEAN! I'll scrub and I'll dub and I'll keep this clean! I won't go there again. New potential friend, I'm serious about this. I know I know nothing now compared to before. However, grocery store brewing with us throwing in our own ingredients along the way - appeals to me versus paying bucks for this and that along the way. First of all I just want to get back into brewing my own. And then I want to remember what I did with grocery shelve ingredients and throwing in my own you name it ingredients to make an incredible batch. I think I'm trying to meld the past with what You new generation guys (and gals) are doing now. And I think along the way I can get back into this and enjoy what I brew. It's so complicated now - so much so that I have a lot to learn. But on the other hand, it was far simpler then in a churrn, and back then the beer was so much more flavorable when alll I had to to was throw in a couple of peaches versus now when I have to "calculate" what I do.
Thinking about it, new friends along the way, perhaps you may wish to go back to the "churn" basics and figure into your brews those things which date back to forever back - beyond our ancseto'rs memories. Pardon me, but it used to be far simpler, and we'd throw whatever pleased us into the batch. Just maybe I can add yesterday to this forum, and help just a little bit - while I learn a lot from the brewers of now here. Please, do not forget yesterday.
I think you're in for a pleasant surprise. It's probably a heck of a lot easier to make good beer now than it was back when you did it before. In fact, I don't know how you guys did it in those days: there are so many products available now (like no-rinse sanitizers especially) to make your brewing life easier, and so much more info available. I agree with MrOH: Palmer's How to Brew is a great starting point. Don't worry if it doesn't all make sense at first, just read it through and start brewing. There will be a learning curve, for sure, but you'll probably make better beer than you've ever made right off the bat. Good luck!
Practice makes perfrct. Just get Northernbrewer.com deluxe starter kit and get right into it making good beer is easy
In addition to Palmer's book, I would suggest looking up homebrewing videos on youtube. Many of them are good, especially if you find it easier to learn from videos than by reading.
If you're like me and don't like reading from a computer monitor, Palmer's book How to Brew is also available in print as a later edition, although I've read in various comments on this forum that the changes between editions are not that significant. I do agree with the recommendations above that it is something that you should read.
I have everything to brew now, except the 15 gallon SS cook pot. That's in transit right now. I've been looking at this over a month now, focused primarily on equipment. I've not focused on brewing techniques, and now is the time to focus here now, and that's the reason I joined this forum. Just to give examples, I enjoy strong beers, very robust taste, and an ABV of above .10 My favorite beer is Samiclaus and I do like Arrogant Bastard Ale. As for equipment, in addition to the pot, I just received two Speidel 60L fermenters, the utility gizmos, and a batch of ingredients for a 5 Gallon Belgian Tripel. It'll be a couple weeks before I brew this - I need to do a whole lot of reading first. My Christmas Wish List on Amazon is the ingredients to do a (2) Samiclaus Clones. I'm going to play first, do a couple brews prior to Samiclaus. I purchased two of the Speidels in order to produce a batch every three weeks in case it comes to that, and I did feel it best to have a backup brewer. I see very clearly that I'll certainly need to cut back on ingredient expenses. There's a way to do that out there somewhere!
It sounds like you have bought/are buying a lot of equipment before focusing on "brewing techniques." I would say the two are heavily interdependent. My only advice at this point would be to read "How to Brew" (I'm sure you're getting tired of hearing that in this and other threads) before you spend another dollar. Seriously, there's a reason folks are taking the time to suggest it.
I agree. Definitely read up on it all, and drink it all in before you start brewing. I'd suggest starting out with a few extract batches first and get the hang of it before switching over to all-grain. Watching a lot of 'how to' videos on YouTube helps as well. Northern brewer TV has some good ones on their channel. Good luck with it all man!
Yes, bought a lot of equipment in advance, and felt pretty comfortable doing so. I only bought the essentials, and no specialty equipment. I put some heavy thinking into the brewer, was absolutely not going to use a plastic carboy, didn't want to use plastic at all if I could avoid it - due to my foam batch 20 years ago. But then the weight and fragility of the glass carboys were a worry, and also the difficulty of cleaning. Additionally I wanted to graduate into 10 gallon batches. Stumbled in to the Speidel on Morebeer's website. It looked tempting even though it is plastic. So, I started reading the reviews - all 14 pages. Besides the misc essential gizmos, picked up a bottling bucket and the 15 gallon SS cook pot. I'm reading How To Brew right now, and will certainly finish reading that, making notes, before starting the first batch - which will be a 5 gallon brew instead of 10 gallons. And, I'll do several 5 gallon batches before I go more deeply into it. I haven't looked at Youtube videos yet, but fully intend to prior to the first brew. Thanks for the tips!
Do you have a bottle capper? Samiclaus is a great beer but I reckon it would be hard to brew being a 14% abv lager and all.
^^ there's no reason that you cant just wing it and "throw whatever" you want into your beer. of course your results may be unpredictable and hard to replicate, but its your beer do it what ever you want. i also agree with the advice on reading how to brew, it was very helpful to me when starting out. if there is a homebrew store near you i'd visit them. they can give you advice and supplies and often available via phone when you run into a question. (plus helping a local small business is good in my book). i also found it was easy to start with one of the premade kits (betterbeer or similar). these have pretty detailed instructions and that helps when you are learning what to do. also the recipies are typically decent, and well tested out; so your chances of making a pretty good beer early on pretty good.
Thanks ashellen! Encouragement is always great! I figure it will be after the first of the year before I do a real brew. And I've been doing some thinking. I want to experiment, and I know my stepfather and his buddies used baker's yeast and whatever they could find for malts. I've been reading as much as possible, and I really want to figure out how my stepfather brewed in a churn. All of my equipment is together now, but I'm not ready to use it. I'm looking at a fridge with modifications to control temperatures to 70f. So my big batch is awaiting the solution to that. So, for my experimentation, I ordered a kit from Mr. Brew - not necessarily what I would consider a premium batch, but a 2 gallon fermentor and some ingredients to play with. I've read that taking baker's yeast and cooking up some grapes & raisins works for wine. If I lose a batch, I've not lost much. If I get a batch, it's enough to taste and plan on a larger scale if dictated.
