I’m new to the forum and didn’t see any forum section indicating a “Beginners” area, so I thought I’d post here. I’m considering starting homebrewing as a new hobby and before I spend the money thought I’d ask on here if you all think my idea is feasible.
As you may have guessed from my user name, I’m a fan of dunkels. I thought it might be fun to try brewing a batch, and over time tinkering with various recipes to come up with something different. Is a dunkel something that is not too complicated for a beginner? I’ve read through some of your posts and find a lot of what you say very confusion, and I’m hoping that by getting into the hobby and learning as I go that it will all begin to make sense. But I’d hate to get into it and find that the couple hundred dollars I spend to get going was spent poorly in pursuit of my idea.
So far I purchased The Complete Joy of Homebrewing, with the plan to by a kit this coming weekend, depending on my research on the feasiblilty of doing dunkels.
As I’m sure you’re aware, a Dunkel is a lager, which, when made correctly, is fermented and aged cold. This style pretty much requires refrigeration to make. Most people starting out and for that matter, most brewpubs find making ales less equipment reliant and faster to make.
You could make an ale similar in color, malt flavor and hop schedule to a Dunkel and use a clean ale yeast, but it wouldn’t be exactly the same as commercial Dunkels, perhaps not as “clean” as what you’re ultimately looking for.
Once you have made a few batches of ales and are indelibly hooked on the hobby, you can obsess about buying or making new equipment.
welcome. no it is not too difficult. i started with a lager kit. since that first batch i have been all grain lagers.
read read read, practice read and practice
if you go to the main aha website there is a section on brewing 101. lots of down loads. john palmer’s book is online. simple book to get the main ideas with lots of pictures is “basic homebrewing” edited by jim parker.
this is a fun hobby, rewarding, keep it simple and read and practice
Anything is possible. Try a dunkel recipe with ale yeast - something like White Labs WLP001 or SafeAle S-05 - these are both clean fermenting (There is a Wyeast version too, but I don’t know the number). Then, if you have a cool basement or garage, try it with a lager yeast during the fall/winter - or ferment inside with ale yeast and move it out to cold condition for a month. Either way, I doubt you’ll be wasting your money.
Given that you’re new to this, you need to understand the old saying, “brewers make wort, yeast make beer.”
Whatever yeast you use, you need to control fermentation temperatures as best as you can in order to allow the yeast to do their jobs well. Yeast give off heat during fermentation, so the temps inside the fermentation vessel (called the “fermentor”) is often 5 or more degrees F above ambient air temps. What Jeffy means by a “clean” fermenation is that your chosen yeast strains are allowed to work at the desired temps and produce little or no additional flavors, such as esters (fruity flavors and aromas) or phenols (usually peppery, clove), or fusel alcohols (i.e., those other than ethanol).
Given that it is Summertime, it is doubtful that you have a fermentation area in your house that is at ideal temps (55F for lagers, 64F for most ales). Fermenting in the 70’s or higher is a bad idea, especially for a Dunkel.
Sub-terrain basements might work if temps get into the 50’s down there. Refrigerators are too cold unless you get a Ranco controller and hook your beer fridge up to that.
Thank you all for the replies. I have already visited the Homebrew 101 section and will certainly download the mentioned book. I have a cold basement where I am planning to do the brewing, but it won’t be cold enough. It’s too bad a fridge is too cold, I don’t mind spending additional money to get a proper refrigeration method, so I’ll look into this Ranco controller that was mentioned.
Welcome aboard Dunkelben. This has quickly turned from a hobby into a passion for me so be wary, lol. In fact I recently downsized 3 other hobbies to concentrate solely on brewing. Good luck to you.
If you want to be on the cheap pragmatic side, you can get a 10$ timer from the hardware store and fiddle till you figure out how often to run the fridge to get the temps you want.
I’ll certainly hang out here and try to learn more and more about the process. I think I’ll start easy with a batch or two that won’t require refridgerting the fermentation process. In the meantime I’ll figure out how to use a Ranco controller, and then hopefully start brewing dunkels.
And to answer a question, I’m from Columbus, Ohio; and plan too find a local club.
Are you going to make an extract beer? If so, it may be difficult to get the right malt flavors. Those rich flavors come from the base malt. You can’t take generic pale extract and add some steeping grains and get it to taste right. You will probably have better luck if you can use Munich malt extract or something designed for that style. Otherwise, you’re likely making just a random brown ale.
A temperature-controlled fridge is certainly nice to have, but not necessary, even for lagers. A “swamp cooler” and some frozen water bottles will let you ferment at least 10°F below the ambient temperature.
And don’t forget that the basement floor is typically cooler than the surrounding air. You can set you fermenter on the the floor to help keep it cool and then move it to a higher location a couple of days before siphoning it another vessel.
Just remember, beer was brewed in caves long before refrigerators showed up, much less microbiology. You’ll be amazed how straight forward and simple it really is.
Responding to Gordonstrong’s question about making an extract beer, since I’m still very new at this I’m not sure what exactly that is, but I have read in various dunkel recipes that Munich malt extract is included, so my intention is to use whatever ingredients are required for the desired beer. in this case, a dunkel. I only hope that the necessary ingredients are not too difficult to acquire, as I haven’t done my research to that degree yet.
Thanks a10t2 about the post about a swamp cooler. I’ll certainly look into that. Anything I can do to be economical would certainly be nice, and my unfinished basement floor from the beginning was where I planned to have the fermenter, and which may very well provide a cool enough environment.
That brings up another question, and please pardon my ignorance if this is a stupid question, but is there a way to read the tempurature of the liquid inside the fermenter (carboy, correct?)? If so, I could do one or two test batches to see what tempurature the beer ferments at simply sitting on the concrete floor.
Don’t need a carboy… the 6 gallon brewing buckets they sell at your local home brew supply are easier to work with (clean specifically) . Yes a stick on thermometer is perfect.
Personally, if I were you… I’d make a few Kolsch’s or German Ales… get the hang of it and then see if you can pull off a lager…(the Dunkel…) Don’t worry, you will NEVER regret anything you brew, as your own brew tastes better than anything you can buy in a store…
[quote]Don’t need a carboy… the 6 gallon brewing buckets they sell at your local home brew supply are easier to work with (clean specifically) . Yes a stick on thermometer is perfect.
[/quote]
The kit i’m buying comes with both a bucket and a carboy, so I’ll probably at least try the carboy first. I had completely forgotten about those stick on thermometers. i used to use those on fish tanks when I was a kid. excellent!
Dunkel, I really want to +1 what some people mentioned or implied earlier. As was said, making beer is easy - like golf is easy. It’s just that to do it well takes a significant amount of effort. It’s much better (for your long-term brewing) if you start out walking rather than worry about running right out of the blocks. Practice is needed. If you do not do that, you are destined to be very disappointed, imho. Learn the basics first - learn about sanitizing equipment, learn what part water plays, how to encourage yeast to do what you want them to do, temperature controls during particular times in the process, etc. I would venture to guess that a majority of people on this site - and most brewers, home and commercial - started off with something akin to a Mr. Beer kit, extract brewing and “learning by mistake”. I know that I did anyway. I have been brewing for 5 years and still do not feel like I’m ready to make some of my favorite styles - like saison and barleywine. Learning as you go is much more fun and much more satisfying and better for the future than jumping in with both feet first. I’m having a blast.
Don
