Beginning a Homebrew

[MrIncredible004]

I have seen a few threads throughout here but couldn't find one on starting up.

Any suggestion on where to begin? I live in Colorado Springs and have been laid up from surgery and am looking for something to pass the time.

I love IPA's and Hef's would like to start there.

Thank you for the advice in advance.

[rbeau30]

If you are pretty sure that you are going to make this a hobby, I would probably start with a little bit of extract brewing to get most of the process down. (you can also start with smaller batches).

Then to prevent you from wasting any money on buying stuff you won't use when you are really into it, buy used stuff. Because Now that I am to the point of all grain, and not bottle-conditioning, I don't ever bottle anymore (I fill up growlers for folks) and I don't brew with extracts anymore.

You are going to need a lot of things:

Cleanliness/sanitation is the key in getting a good product (unless you like sours LOL). I use star-san for santitizing.
Space to do the whole thing. (Mashing, Lautering, boiling, chilling, Primary fermentation (cool dark place), Secondary (transferring 5 gallons of wort and young beer around). Bottling/Conditioning. Then drinking!


With extract brewing you basically need the less amount of stuff. You will typically get an ingredient kit with all the extract and specialty grains yeast and hops. All pre-measured.

Then you really just need a kettle or large pot if you are doing it in small (<5 gallon ) batches.
A way of cooling the wort (wort chiller or floating the pot in a larger vessel of ice) to get it to the temp where you don't kill the yeast.
a Primary fermenter (usually a plastic bucket with an airlock on top of the lid).
Secondary fermenter (carboy with airlock on top) tubes to siphon the wort or beer from one to the other.
Bottles (you can reuse the non-twist topped bottles from beer you drink) clean and sanitized.
Bottling bucket to fill bottles.
Crown caps and bottle capper.


Once you get to the point where you want to make 5 gallons of it at a time, and get into more involved recipes.

You will need a mash tun (I use a round 10 gallon drink cooler converted into a mash tun.) to develop and extract the sugars from your grains.
Large enough kettle to boil 5 gallons of wort
Wort chiller to quickly cool 200 degree worth down to 70
Fermenter vessel (hopefully you bought a 6 gallon one from above)
Carboy for secondary fermentation (some people use these for primary some don't even use a secondary fermenter)
5 gallon corny (old soft drink ) kegs (because bottling is not lame) and CO2 tank and tubes for carbonating a place to chill your corny kegs


One bad thing about jumping right into the whole thing is the possibility of brewing something undrinkable (through either a miscalculation in grains like when I put too much peated grain into a scotch ale I was trying to doctor up or through poor sanitation). When you get into all-grain brewing you have many many variables, and if you have not got a system down many things can go wrong and loosing a batch of beer can get expensive. A 5 gallo batch of my dark milk stout or dark IPA can get upwards of 120 -150 dollars. I have a Cream ale that I can get as cheap as 30 dollars for a 5 gallon batch.

[mightiestmouse]

This site has a lot of informational stuff and usually where I tend to buy things from. They have starter kits available too: http://www.northernbrewer.com/

Another good resource (and if you become a member opens you up to discounts at most breweries) is the american home brewers association: http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/

Like was stated above, start with extract brewing as it will be the least expensive option up front to decide if you want to continue with home brewing. As long as you have a large enough pot (can hold 2 1/2 gallons of water with a bag full of grain at constant boil), you will probably only have to buy:

Primary carboy
Secondary carboy
Air lock
Extract kit with yeast
Chiller
Hydrometer
Thermometer
Cleaning solution
Sanitizing solution
Plastic food safe bucket
Funnel
Bottles, caps and capper (you can reuse old bottles from beer you drink they just have to be sanitized beforehand)

Heating all of that water on your stove top will be hard on your burners, so if you can spare the money I would get an external burner that hooks up to a normal propane tank and get a stainless pot to brew in.

Extract brewing is a relatively simple chemistry experiment. As long as you can follow directions, keep track of timing, and keep your equipment clean/sterile you should be fine. My dad and brother in law have been home brewing for quite a while so I skipped bottling and went straight to kegging as I have never enjoyed having the sludge at the bottom of a bottles. It's not a problem as long as you pour the beer properly. I also liked the advantage to force carbonating beer in a keg so you can essentially have beer on tap in 4 weeks from the day of brewing whereas bottling will add another couple weeks to that.

I've got about a grand into my setup for extract brewing (most of which is tied up in my keezer build for my two 5 gallon kegs and taps). After you have the main equipment, brewing becomes a relatively cheap hobby as you only buy the beer kits.

[rbeau30]

...

Heating all of that water on your stove top will be hard on your burners, so if you can spare the money I would get an external burner that hooks up to a normal propane tank and get a stainless pot to brew in.

...

Extract brewing is a relatively simple chemistry experiment. As long as you can follow directions, keep track of timing, and keep your equipment clean/sterile you should be fine. My dad and brother in law have been home brewing for quite a while so I skipped bottling and went straight to kegging as I have never enjoyed having the sludge at the bottom of a bottles. It's not a problem as long as you pour the beer properly. I also liked the advantage to force carbonating beer in a keg so you can essentially have beer on tap in 4 weeks from the day of brewing whereas bottling will add another couple weeks to that.

I've got about a grand into my setup for extract brewing (most of which is tied up in my keezer build for my two 5 gallon kegs and taps). After you have the main equipment, brewing becomes a relatively cheap hobby as you only buy the beer kits.

I already had a turkey fryer setup and I use that for my burner. The wort cools off better outside where I can hook up my wort chiller to the garden hose.

I HATE bottling. Now that I am set up for kegging, I can still fill a bottle or two already from the keg if I need to give it away or have a friend bring a growler to me to fill up.

Most expensive for me was the Mash tun, kettle, and keg setup.

You can get some good stuff on CL though.

[MrIncredible004]

Thank you very much guys. Appreciate the advice i have a good base to build off of now!

[Hummer]

I picked up a couple malt extract kits this week, may get them started tomorrow. I like the beer they make just fine. Happiness is having the aroma of beer or wine fermenting in the house.

[fly boy]

Bringing this back to the top!!!


I got a few things for Christmas and I remembered there were a few people on here who home brewed.

Currently: Absolutely NO SKILL in this. I enjoy micro-brews and trying new beers when I have the money (beer is another expensive hobby).
What I have: A basic Mr. Beer brew kit, AND a 5 gallon brew kit with some parts and pieces to almost get me started (from a local home brew store). Also, I have "how to Brew" by John Palmer that seems like a Junior level college science class text book.

next steps: Look online to buy a carboy or two, beer hydrometer, a big pot to boil stuff in, and a chiller to cool the wart.

Since the kit's were given as a Christmas gift, I will use the "mr brew" kit since everything was in it. A simple question is..... Is it worth it in the long run, or will it just be another expensive hobby that gets side tracked? I wanted to get into reloading but don't have the room (and initial start-up fee is $$$). I have a small amount of space I can store 1 or 2 carboy's for brewing if needed. Should I consider this for a long term hobby, or have you home brewers gotten bored or an empty wallet from it? Thanks!

[Hummer]

Bringing this back to the top!!!


I got a few things for Christmas and I remembered there were a few people on here who home brewed.

Currently: Absolutely NO SKILL in this. I enjoy micro-brews and trying new beers when I have the money (beer is another expensive hobby).
What I have: A basic Mr. Beer brew kit, AND a 5 gallon brew kit with some parts and pieces to almost get me started (from a local home brew store). Also, I have "how to Brew" by John Palmer that seems like a Junior level college science class text book.

next steps: Look online to buy a carboy or two, beer hydrometer, a big pot to boil stuff in, and a chiller to cool the wart.

Since the kit's were given as a Christmas gift, I will use the "mr brew" kit since everything was in it. A simple question is..... Is it worth it in the long run, or will it just be another expensive hobby that gets side tracked? I wanted to get into reloading but don't have the room (and initial start-up fee is $$$). I have a small amount of space I can store 1 or 2 carboy's for brewing if needed. Should I consider this for a long term hobby, or have you home brewers gotten bored or an empty wallet from it? Thanks!

I think it's worthwhile. With a basic homebrew equipment kit you can make very good beer and wine for a fraction of the cost of commercial product. If you stick with malt extract kits, making beer can be easy and very economical, and you won't need a boil pot or wort chiller--a consideration if you have limited space. Since you have a basic equipment kit, I suggest you get a malt extract kit like in my post above and get it going at the same time as the Mr. Beer kit. I think you'll find the extract kit will make a better drinking brew than the Mr. Beer. You can also tweak the recipes on beer kits by adding more malt, corn sugar, hops and spices.

Much of your investment in the hobby will be in the work involved with cleaning bottles, carboys and equipment before and after fermentation. If a person has an aversion to cleaning dishes, pots and pans in the kitchen, then they'll likely tire of the hobby. That's the work part of homebrew, but worth it, IMO, for having an abundant supply of good beer and wine to share with friends. The work is why you find so many almost new beer equipment kits on Craigslist. I've outfitted my winery via CL for 5 to 30 cents on the dollar. The trick is to find the ones priced right by people who've done it a while and accumulated a variety of equipment. You can never have too many hydrometers, bottle brushes, carboys and bottle trees.

Winter's a good time to make beer, and I'll start a couple batches this week. This year I was able to source local grapes to make ~84 gal. of Riesling and Gewurztraminer, and ~92 gal. of Cabernet Franc, Cab Sauv, and Merlot. Net cost will be about $3/bottle. It's fun sharing the good stuff with friends. While a few batches haven't been great due to either neglect or experimenting with different ingredients and yeasts, many of my wines have been outstanding--equivalent to $20-$40 bottles.

This years whites are in the garage where they are cold stabilized (which drops tartrates to reduce acidity and mellow the flavors). The reds are inside where it's warmer to promote malolactic fermentation, which also drops acidity and softens the wine.

[Zundfolge]

Currently: Absolutely NO SKILL in this. I enjoy micro-brews and trying new beers when I have the money (beer is another expensive hobby).

Is it worth it in the long run, or will it just be another expensive hobby that gets side tracked? I wanted to get into reloading but don't have the room (and initial start-up fee is $$$). I have a small amount of space I can store 1 or 2 carboy's for brewing if needed. Should I consider this for a long term hobby, or have you home brewers gotten bored or an empty wallet from it? Thanks!

I don't home brew, but I know half a dozen people that have (a couple for over 20 years).

For most people, home brewing does not mean you're "making beer cheap". You'll probably find that you spend as much (and probably more) brewing your own beer then buying it at liquor stores or breweries (even if you amortize the cost of the equipment and supplies over many years). The guys I know that have been doing it for a long time do it because they love the process and not so that they can drink more beer cheaply.

The calculus that I've made is that I'll spend a lot less money and time just buying and drinking beer (we live in a golden age of craft beer in an area with tons of great brewers).


Now if we were allowed to distill at home, I think that might be worth trying.

[kidicarus13]

For most people, home brewing does not mean you're "making beer cheap". You'll probably find that you spend as much (and probably more) brewing your own beer then buying it at liquor stores or breweries (even if you amortize the cost of the equipment and supplies over many years). The guys I know that have been doing it for a long time do it because they love the process and not so that they can drink more beer cheaply.

The calculus that I've made is that I'll spend a lot less money and time just buying and drinking beer

Reminds me of reloading unless your a long range precision shooter loading specialty ammunition.