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.
