home brewing..thinking of getting this kit..

[waggy]

The kit is missing a hydrometer.

is it something that is really needed?

 

[dougp]

You don't really like beer do you?
It takes ~2 months for a basic ale and, up to a year for some of my Imperials. Are you really going to spend that time on a measly 3 gallons? That's why so many who start with the "beer pig " brewers give up on it. Also, small batches are far more susceptible to sanitation and off flavor issues. 5 gallons is a reasonable size batch for home brewing. At least until you've been bitten by the bug.

2 months for a basic ale? WTF are you doing? I can have a pale ale ready in two to three weeks, especially a British PA. Safale S-04 flies, I hit FG in 3 days on a SMaSH.

But I refuse to brew 10 gallons - I simply don't have enough people around me to consume it and I won't become one of those fat old guys in my club. I know someone who brews 10 gallons every other week, and it's only he and his wife who drink.

 

[Uppsala9496]

Need that for your original and final gravity.

 

[dougp]

is it something that is really needed?

Yes, or you could buy a refractometer. Either way, you need something to measure starting, original and final gravities to determine the amount of sugar in your wort.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

is it something that is really needed?

You use it to measure the initial or beginning gravity before pitching your yeast. You also use it to measure the final gravity. This allows you to compute alchohol by volume or, abv. It also allows you to see if fermentation is complete according to your recipe.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

2 months for a basic ale? WTF are you doing? I can have a pale ale ready in two to three weeks, especially a British PA. Safale S-04 flies, I hit FG in 3 days on a SMaSH.

But I refuse to brew 10 gallons - I simply don't have enough people around me to consume it and I won't become one of those fat old guys in my club. I know someone who brews 10 gallons every other week, and it's only he and his wife who drink.

Yes you can rush them but why? The more you learn about home brewing teaches you that allowing things to take their own time improves flavor, nose, head retention and, mouth feel. If you don't have enough people around you to consume it, you not only don't like beer, you don't like people either.

 

[xSauronx]

Meade is great but takes at least a year. I'm frequently offered meades accompanied by comments like "can you believe it's only three months old?" Hack! Cough! Choke!
/thinks to self
'Yes I can."

i have found it drinkable-ish at 6 months, but i also decided that if id just start making it a couple of years ago....then after a couple of years id have a shitload and can drink it whenever i want.

makes the best damn mimosa ever.

i have to be honest, i suck at getting the carbing right and gave up for a few batches. i need to try again and pay more attention to things but...meh.

i got a little 1L oak barrel last year, made a polish meade [50% water, 50% honey] and finished it with some orange for a couple of months before barrel-aging it for a year. sweet jeebus that stuff is amazing.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

i have found it drinkable-ish at 6 months, but i also decided that if id just start making it a couple of years ago....then after a couple of years id have a shitload and can drink it whenever i want.

makes the best damn mimosa ever.

i have to be honest, i suck at getting the carbing right and gave up for a few batches. i need to try again and pay more attention to things but...meh.

i got a little 1L oak barrel last year, made a polish meade [50% water, 50% honey] and finished it with some orange for a couple of months before barrel-aging it for a year. sweet jeebus that stuff is amazing.

The great thing about Meade is that it's a living thing. If a Meade seems to be bad or has off esters, don't throw it out. Give it some more time and it will fix itself. I kid you not. I had a godawful strawberry thing my daughter started. Totally undrinkable after a year. I put it away and forgot about it. I tried it after 5 years and it was amazing!

 

[dougp]

Yes you can rush them but why? The more you learn about home brewing teaches you that allowing things to take their own time improves flavor, nose, head retention and, mouth feel. If you don't have enough people around you to consume it, you not only don't like beer, you don't like people either.

*shrug* Rush them? Not quite sure what you want me to do, it's an ale, not a lager. Considering I control my fermentation temperatures, I can always get the ideal profile from my yeast. I'm finishing up my new brewing equipment, it got way too cold today to brew which is what I was planning on doing. I'll shoot for next weekend - just have to finish my false bottom.

 

[bbhaag]

Great hobby to get into. Most kits you see won't come with everything you need so just pick a good one at a decent price and go with it. If it's something you see yourself getting into you can always add to your equipment as your skill level goes up and funds permit.

I still ferment in plastic and my beer turns out pretty good. I actually bottled a few soldiers today.:thumbsup:

 

[Uppsala9496]

I ended up skipping the bottling stage and went straight to kegging. Have 2 on tap right now, with a third fermenting. Have the capacity for 3 kegs on tap with a 4th available once I replace the lid on it since it won't properly hold pressure.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Oh yeah, I rembered another thing about home brewing. Once you get going and have several batches bottled, it's easy to forget the details or even what kind of beer it is. Labels are nice but crazy expensive. What I do is keep a white board with names and descriptions for the beers with a small colored paper dot next to it. I buy sheets of peel and stick dots from the office supply and put one on each cap when I bottle. Course, you can always play beer roulette. That's fun too!

 

[waggy]

great.

trying to go cheap. budget is tight and all. I enjoy having 3-5 beers a week so little worried about them going bad before i can drink them.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

great.

trying to go cheap. budget is tight and all. I enjoy having 3-5 beers a week so little worried about them going bad before i can drink them.

I've never had a beer go bad.
Seriously, the flavor profile may change, lighter beers tend to change faster but, I've several beers in the bottle for two years or better and are just fine.

 

[waggy]

I've never had a beer go bad.
Seriously, the flavor profile may change, lighter beers tend to change faster but, I've several beers in the bottle for two years or better and are just fine.

2 years!? i heard you had a window to drink them. i can live with it changing heh.

hmm

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

2 years!? i heard you had a window to drink them. i can live with it changing heh.

hmm

Use brown bottles and keep them out of the light and heat. Oh and, use good caps.

 

[Chocu1a]

I just transferred a Blackberry Honey Cream Ale to secondary. Dry hopped with 1/2 oz Willamette hops. Initial tasting was awesome.
Will start a Cali Common next Week.

 

[ControlD]

I bought that same kit from Northern Brewer and I have been pretty happy with it. Your biggest expense is going to be getting a decent brew kettle. You need to figure out if you want to stick with extract brewing or move on to all grain brewing. If you want to try all grain brewing you will need a larger kettle. I skipped the extract thing completely (except for the included kit) and am doing brew-in-a-bag all grain which isn't really any harder than extract brewing and it more rewarding. Since I do 2 - 2.5 gallon batches I just got a cheap 5g pot (I mash in a 5g cooler to make things easier). If you want to do 5g all grain batches you will need a 8 gallon pot at the minimum.

I bought a refractometer from Amazon for a decent price, so maybe check there if you prefer that over a hydrometer.

Start with lower gravity beers (basic ales, wheat beers, etc.) and you can go from brew to drink in 6-8 weeks easily. The hobby is a blast!

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

I bought that same kit from Northern Brewer and I have been pretty happy with it. Your biggest expense is going to be getting a decent brew kettle. You need to figure out if you want to stick with extract brewing or move on to all grain brewing. If you want to try all grain brewing you will need a larger kettle. I skipped the extract thing completely (except for the included kit) and am doing brew-in-a-bag all grain which isn't really any harder than extract brewing and it more rewarding. Since I do 2 - 2.5 gallon batches I just got a cheap 5g pot (I mash in a 5g cooler because my kettle isn't big enough). If you want to do 5g all grain batches you will need a 8 gallon pot at the minimum.

I bought a refractometer from Amazon for a decent price, so maybe check there if you prefer that over a hydrometer.

Start with lower gravity beers (basic ales, wheat beers, etc.) and you can go from brew to drink in 6-8 weeks easily. The hobby is a blast!

There's also the mini mash style which uses some extract and some grain. You get better flavor than straight extract and can be done in the same size pot.
A stainless steel turkey fryer setup makes for decent brewing as well. You get a good size pot and a burner with more btu 's than your stove.

 

[ControlD]

There's also the mini mash style which uses some extract and some grain. You get better flavor than straight extract and can be done in the same size pot.
A stainless steel turkey fryer setup makes for decent brewing as well. You get a good size pot and a burner with more btu 's than your stove.

That's a good point about the burner. If you have an electric stove, trying to get anything over a couple of gallons to a boil in a good sized pot is a true exercise in patience. Trying to get a full 5g boil going is pretty much a non starter. I brewed one batch (2.5g boil for an extract kit) and ordered a burner the next day.

 

[ControlD]

great.

trying to go cheap. budget is tight and all. I enjoy having 3-5 beers a week so little worried about them going bad before i can drink them.

If you aren't a big drinker, you can always scale you recipes down, which is what I do. I don't need 50 bottles of beer each time I brew! I do mainly 2 gallon batches. There are plenty of software packages out there that will help you scale things down (I use Beersmith). Two gallons gives me 16-20 beers in the bottle which is plenty for me. If you want to do small batches, going all grain is much easier than ordering extract kits.

 

[TonyG]

Save yourself some money and go with an aluminum pot, just boil water in it for an hour or so to build up an oxide layer and you will be good to go. I purchased an 8 gallon aluminum tamale pot for under $30 from target and can get 7+ gallons to a boil on my p.o.s. electric stove. Also, definitely look into the biab process, as you can brew all grain recipes with one pot and a 5 gallon paint strainer bag. It also takes about the same amount of time/effort to brew 1 gallon batches as it does 5 gallon batches...

If you enjoy this hobby, it can be highly addictive. I just picked up 9 more corny kegs, 4 glass carboys, 2 pots, keggle/burner, motorized malt mill, and several other things for $150 from craig's list. Did I need all of that, absolutely! Seriously though, check craig's list for a cheap setup.

 

[bbhaag]

There's also the mini mash style which uses some extract and some grain. You get better flavor than straight extract and can be done in the same size pot.
A stainless steel turkey fryer setup makes for decent brewing as well. You get a good size pot and a burner with more btu 's than your stove.

This is exactly what I did. My BIL gave me a turkey fryer for Christmas several years ago and it sat in the garage unused. When I got back into brewing I busted that fryer out and it works so much better than my stove top. I think he got for $30 at Menards.

 

[Scarpozzi]

Overstock.com used to have kits too with cheap shipping. (I didn't take time to search)

If you buy a TrueBrew Ingredients kit or one of the others, you'll get instructions included with the kit. Just make sure if you start into this you clean you equipment and use plenty of iodophore or starsan to kill off as much bacteria as possible. Use filtered water and steel spoons to stir. Use a stainless steel pot and not aluminum to brew...

Beer kits usually come with everything you need to brew beer including yeast, fermentables, bottle caps, and priming sugar.

I recommend having a kit with 1, 5 gallon bucket (primary fermentation 1 week). 1, 6 gallon plastic carboy (secondary fermentation 2 weeks), and a 4 gallon-5 gallon steel pot/steel spoon. After primary fermentation completes, I use an autosiphon to move the beer into the carboy. After secondary completes, I use the autosiphon again to move the beer back into the first bucket.....then use it a third time to fill bottles. Moving the beer this many times leaves a yeast cake in each fermentation chamber and ends up with a clearer product in the bottles becuase you leave so much behind.

For bottles, you can buy beer bottles buy the case. A 5 gallon batch will fill 54, 12oz bottles....but look into 22 oz bottles to save time bottling. You won't have to put quite as many caps on and you may not want to drink the last gulp of each bottle since it's unfiltered (yeast strain in the bottle).

You can actually clean and steralize your own bottles if you don't mind doing some work. B-Brite is a cleaner similar to OxyClean-Free. Soaking bottles in hot water will remove beer and also soften the label glue effectively. A bottle brush will clean the inside before you steralize them. It's labor intensive cleaning and filling bottles....so like I said, go as big as you can. Don't steralize them until just before you bottle....steralize, rinse, fill.

 

[Scarpozzi]

This is exactly what I did. My BIL gave me a turkey fryer for Christmas several years ago and it sat in the garage unused. When I got back into brewing I busted that fryer out and it works so much better than my stove top. I think he got for $30 at Menards.

Yeah...just make sure you don't care about the outside of your brewpot getting blackened by the flame. My propane turkey burner works great, but once it's in the boil, I have to crank the flame back to keep the hops from boiling over....this creates yellow flame that leaves residue on the outside of the pot. I don't have that problem indoors on my NG burners.....my wife just doesn't like the hops smell in the house, so alas...I'm outdoors.