First home brew this weekend!

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xBa380

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The past two weeks I have gathered up supplies for my first home brew this Saturday. I have been wanting to do it for several months now, but spent a lot of that time studying the process, materials, sanitation, etc... Today, my last bit of equipment arrives (brew kettle) and I will be all set to go!

I am starting with all-grain, not extracts. I figure go big or go home.
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Living in Cleveland, I have access to some amazing shops for grains/hops/yeast thankfully. One of the best shops in town is less than 10mins away

My first batch will be an IPA with a heavier malt backbone... Using a malt bill of 77.8% pale 2-row, 11.1% Crystal 20L and 11.1% Victory. Hops will be Chinook, Simcoe and Citra.

Should come out to about 6% ABV and 60 IBU's. First batch will be about 4-gallons.

The initial investment was a little costly, but now that all the supplies are purchased each 3-4 gallon batch should cost me around $20 in grain/hops/yeast.

Anybody else brew their own beer? How have your experiences been?
 
I am a woeful home brewer.

have tried a dozen or so batches over the last 25 years, and they were all rubbish...
 
Good luck. I have had all the equipment to do extract brewing since January 2011. Then various things happened with my wife's pregnancy and then my girls came along and I just haven't had time.

But, new house, with a garage so i'll have some outdoor space and maybe i'll be able to put this stuff to use.
 
Swinging for the fences EARLY, aren't we?
I did a full year of kits before jumping into All-Grain.

You'll need 5 hours of continuous free time.
Sanitation is key.
Timing is key.
Get a good thermometer to make sure your mash water and sparge water are at the correct temps. No guessing, no "it's close enough."
 
Originally Posted By: Chris Meutsch
You'll need 5 hours of continuous free time.
Sanitation is key.
Timing is key.
Get a good thermometer to make sure your mash water and sparge water are at the correct temps. No guessing, no "it's close enough."



Excellent advice.

You mess up sanitation, the whole batch will either taste horrible or make you sick.
 
I have the stuff just have not gotten around to it.

There are a TON of micro breweries out here in the Pacific Northwest.

Enjoy man!
 
Originally Posted By: racer12306
Originally Posted By: Chris Meutsch
You'll need 5 hours of continuous free time.
Sanitation is key.
Timing is key.
Get a good thermometer to make sure your mash water and sparge water are at the correct temps. No guessing, no "it's close enough."



Excellent advice.

You mess up sanitation, the whole batch will either taste horrible or make you sick.


+2.
 
Originally Posted By: Rolla07
Originally Posted By: racer12306
Originally Posted By: Chris Meutsch
You'll need 5 hours of continuous free time.
Sanitation is key.
Timing is key.
Get a good thermometer to make sure your mash water and sparge water are at the correct temps. No guessing, no "it's close enough."



Excellent advice.

You mess up sanitation, the whole batch will either taste horrible or make you sick.


+2.


Absolutely the truth. Most of the work is around sanitation as well. If you haven't seen it before get How to Brew by John Palmer. Excellent book.
 
So far I have brewed about 15 different batches over the past 2 years. They have all turned out well.

I highly suggest that you get Beersmith 2.2 Download that and then have fun looking at all the other brews out there. I get my receipts from there and tweak them to my liking. I'm still a green horn when it comes to just coming up with my own ingredients.

I still do extract. Too lazy to put the extra time in on the all grain. Maybe some day I will change over. I was lucky and got all my brewing equipment for free, so the only thing I will need is the mashton. Been keeping an eye out on line for a good price for one.

I just make 5 gallon batches. It is amazing at some of the receipts I have gotten are for only 3 gallons or so but I still brew them up to 5 gallons. Still turn out well. We print our own labels in Paint. They turn out well. I also got all my bottles pretty much for free from the local restaurant.

If you do bottle just use Oxyclean to clean them with. No need in buying anything from the beer store. Oxyclean works great at cleaning and taking off labels. I just soak my bottles for two days and the labels pretty much fall right off.

Maybe some day I will keg, but right now it is easier for me to bottle. One batch pretty much makes 48 to 54 bottles. So the cost is about .80 a bottle. Not a bad price if you ask me.

From start to finish on the initial brew takes me 3 hours. What takes the most time is getting the water up to temp fast. Find a used turkey frier. They work great plus keeps the smell outside.

I tried a cider kit, one apple and one cherry. They where a hit. Surprised me at how many people liked them.

 
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I used to brew a LOT at one point but I've been on a hiatus. I brewed a little extract, and then went all grain. Its time consuming, but the results were always great.
 
As I have spent a lot of time researching, I understand sanitation is key. I have my Starsan ready to go for sterilizing everything that the wort touches post boil.

Also, I used brewers friend as my tool for making my recipe, sparge temps, etc... I think I have the entire process down, comfortable enough that I feel I am not missing out on anything.

Thermometer wise my brew kettle and fermentation bucket (which will be kept in my basement around 64-65F) have them, along with a digital hand-held for my mash tun to ensure the 153F area for the hour. It's a good thermometer, +/- 0.9F throughout the range.

Spent a lot of time studying the process... Some excellent guides out there, the one I referenced most was Palmer's How to Brew: http://www.howtobrew.com/

I think it will go smoothly myself... I am excited. I understand it will take a few hours, but that is fine. I am used to 15+hr BBQ brisket/pork and do a LOT of fairly elaborate cooking. I got all the time needed.
 
Sounds great.

Best of luck.


I do believe we will need to send you all of our addresses for a sample afterwards to confirm everything went well.
 
Originally Posted By: Shannow
I am a woeful home brewer.

have tried a dozen or so batches over the last 25 years, and they were all rubbish...

You tried but not success. I knew that I couldn't do anything like home brew of any kind so I didn't try. Lucky me !
 
As an update...

Brew day went great! It took about 5hrs or so start to finish. No hiccups at all, went very smooth actually. Some small things to tweak for next time, but overall I had a blast! My final brew is around 5% ABV and 65 IBU. I was hoping for around 6% ABV, but it is just a learning process... Should hit my target next time!

Beer is actively fermenting in my basement at 66F. Smells wonderful! In a week I will add aroma hops and let it go another week before bottling. At that point, it will bottle condition and carbonate for another two weeks. Just in time for a camping trip with friends!

With the spent grain I fed the chickens and made dog treats (added flax seed, oats, whole wheat flour and peanut butter... With egg as a binder). My two dogs LOVE them!

Will update as I get closer and closer to enjoying the finished product!
 
I envy your 66-degree basement! I've been homebrewing for about 3 years now, somewhere around 30 batches, and the only thing I'd add to the advice already posted is to really monitor your temperature control during fermentation. I found my beers got a lot better as soon as I figured out how to keep temps consistent (for me it's a big cooler filled with frozen 2-liter bottles at regular intervals).

I'm in South Carolina so it's tough to keep any part of the house cool. I stick to ales in the summer and use my cooler method to keep things in the 60-68 degree range.

I like Jamil Zainasheff's "Brewing Classic Styles" as a reference. Solid recipes across all the styles and good explanations of process.

Was also a lot of fun to get into kegging, too. I'll have a wheat beer to keg this weekend... Good luck and I'll look forward to the update.

Oh, and I should add a recommendation: old episodes of Brewing TV are still up on YouTube. A couple of guys at Northern Brewer did a great job on those before they moved on to different jobs.
 
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Yes, I am surprised it is as cool as it is! It stuck to 66F almost the entire two weeks it has been fermenting.

Tomorrow, I transfer to bottles for conditioning. Smells wonderful! Did dry hopping last week of Citra and Simcoe.

Next week I will start my next batch. I am thinking of doing a porter or stout... But still trying to decide! Choice choices...
 
Finally back to update this thread!

The first batch turned out VERY well. Due to the higher amounts of Crystal and Victory malts used, it wasn't the most true-to-style pale ale... However, the end result was like a hopped up octoberfest in some ways... All the friends and family who I gave bottles to all raved about it... Some of which didn't know it was homebrew and said how good it was and what was it before knowing... So that was nice to hear!

I brewed my second batch, a Hefeweizen shortly after... That finished and came out delicious. Very nice banana/clove balance and easy drinking. I was very impressed with the end result.

My third batch is finishing now, a double-IPA... At 8%ABV and 100IBU it is a pretty intense beer with a LOT of hops... It was dry-hopped with over 4oz of a mix of hops including Citra, Chinook, Simcoe, Centennial, Amarillo and Magnum. It finishes bottle conditioning this week, actually... But the sample I tried a few days ago was just awesome. Best one yet, for sure!

Saturday I also brewed my forth... A milk stout. It will be in primary fermentation for 2-3 weeks before conditioning another 3 weeks or so. I look forward to that one a lot!

Already planning my next... An Octoberfest Lager. I recently bought a chest freezer and temp controller to be able to lager and better control fermentation temps, so I want to get the lager going for fall since it takes a good month to brew or so.


Really diggin' the homebrewing though... So much fun and rewarding. I am making far better beers than I expected!
 
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Here are some pics of the first two brews and my milk stout prior to the start of fermentation.

1.) The pale ale



2.) Hefeweizen



3.) Milk Stout.

 
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