My name is Ranjeev, and I’m excited to join this community. I’m a complete beginner on my homebrewing journey—in fact, I haven’t even bought my first kit yet!
I live in Panama City Beach, Florida, and I’m getting ready to dive into the world of brewing. I don’t have a science background or any formal training—my main teachers so far have been YouTube tutorials and a lot of passion. My ultimate goal is to one day turn this hobby into a business and open my own brewery.
I’d love to get to know more about the community and your experiences.
What is one thing I should be asked about? Perhaps, what’s the most common mistake a beginner makes that I should be sure to avoid before my first brew day?
I recommend you read the latest edition of How to Brew by John Palmer from cover to cover. I have been brewing since the ‘90(s) and still refer to it routinely. You’ll be miles ahead if you read it and do what it says. After you read it, follow his tutorial for your first brewday.
There are some really good tips so far, especially on Palmer’s book and brewing with a friend if you can.
Based on my own experience, I think the biggest mistake a beginner makes is to overcomplicate things. You might see (or have run across already) the saying “Relax, Don’t Worry, Have a Homebrew".” This is probably the best piece of advice I ever received! That said, don’t relax too much…you’ll still want to sanitize your fermenter, and your first batch isn’t the best one in which to deviate from the recipe/kit by adding “creative” ingredients!
Choose your first batch carefully - an amber ale, stout, porter, or pale ale are all good options. I do not suggest an IPA (the hop aroma is hard to preserve when you are still learning–I was disappointed with the lack of commercial-grade hop flavor and aroma in my early beers), or any light beer (they don’t cover up any minor mistakes). I also suggest something “mid” alcohol range - 5 to 7 percent max abv. Super high abv beers are very doable, but are better once you’ve mastered the other basic techniques.
Given your location and local climate, I would suggest giving some thought to temperature control during fermentation–either a spot that you know will be cool (ideally, around 65 degrees – fermentation throws off a surprising amount of heat, and an air temperature of 70 degrees can translate into 75 degrees or higher in a 5 gallon batch), and/or using kveik or another temperature tolerant yeast strain. You can also temp control with ice packs, etc. Don’t worry too much about being too precise, and based on my experience the first 3 or 4 days are most critical for temperature control (after that, you can often let it ride).
Yes, it is very good. I think my recent post was misleading. I meant to say: I had sanitation issues in the beginning. But NOW I use PBW and StarSan and haven’t had any sanitation’s issues in over 10 years and over 100 batches. Sorry for misleading you in my previous post.
As many others have said, John Palmers book is a great resource. But also know that brewing your own beer, wine, or mead is a journey. It can be painful when you spend a lot of time and money on a batch and it not what you expected. It is one of those hobbies that is easy to do, but difficult to master. If you enjoy learning from mistakes, you will love it.
That being said, I tell people 2 main things before they get into the hobby…
Cleaning and Sanitizing are different things. You can’t sanitize something if it isn’t clean. Don’t take shortcuts on cleaning or sanitization.
Tap water contains chlorine or chloramine and will produce off flavors. It’s important to check your water source. If you aren’t comfortable with your water, you can buy spring water at the grocery store.
Try to find a homebrew club and brew with another person a few times just to see how they do things. Everyone’s going to be a little different; so the trick is to find a setup that works for you and gives consistent results.
Don’t be afraid to start small. I started with larger batches, but my standard batch sizes are 1¼ and 2½ gallons now.
Using Distilled or RO water isn’t strictly necessary, but municipal water varies wildly. Using purified water can eliminate that source of variability while you’re refining your process.
Take more notes during the brew day than you think you’ll need. Consistent processes lead to consistent results.
Go back and listen to all the Basic Brewing Radio Homebrew Disaster episodes. They do one each year. Learn from others’ mistakes. Stay away from large glass carboys.
If you’re really serious about someday going pro, listen to all the How Not to Start a Damn Brewery podcasts. Again, earn experience cheap: learn from others’ misfortune so you don’t repeat it.
Oh, and PS — 90% of cleaning is not letting stuff dry dirty. Clean as you go; clean before the residue dries.
The advice from previous responses are solid. If it hasn’t been said yet, municipal water supplies usually contain chlorine or chloramine. Either of these can impart a band-aid like smell and flavor to the finished beer.
One easy way to avoid this is to use reverse osmosis water often found in many grocery stores or distilled water. Alternatively, a portion of a Camden tablet sold in homebrew and wine making outlets will chemically remove the chlorine or chloramine from the water. One tablet can treat 20 gallons of water, so you might need 1/4 tablet if using 5 gallons of water.
Welcome to the community and your new favorite hobby, Ranjeev! May we suggest one of our official recipes for AHA’s 2025 Learn to Homebrew Day? Find them here: ** Learn to Homebrew Day: Nov. 1, 2025**
You can find videos and other resources there, too. We’re happy to have you!
Congratulations and welcome to the beer world. John Palmer’s book is indispensable and read a chapter at a time or jump around so as to not get overwhelmed. There a tons of YouTube videos and when you’re more experienced ChatGPT can even offer brewing and recipe advice, though I don’t recommend it early on.
Remember: cleaning and sanitizing are different and everything must be clean before you sanitize. Read that again. Using both PBW and StarSan is relatively easy if you follow the directions. And the advice to clean as you go is spot on too, though no spots will be on (ock Dad joke).
Consider brewing software like - I use and reco Brewfather - and it works well on your phone or iPad. They have a very active Facebook group too.
On that note, look up people like David Heath, who have helpful YouTube channels, and Facebook groups. I am not a facebooker, though I sneak in and look at my groups.
Oh, and join AHA if you haven’t already. Be well and brew on!
