Well as the title states I/we (my business partner and I) are new to brewing. However we have purchased a nice home brewing kit that should arrive next week.
I love to learn new things… I love beer… so we thought lets just brew our own.
So the reason for the post if to see if there is someone in our area (Boston area) we could buy a few pints for and talk beer. Someone that has done this for enough time that they know what they are doing and get teach us a few things that we “need” to know.
Even if its just “here read this book or article”
We want to learn how to brew great beer… any help or pointers would be awesome!
I’m still pretty new to the home brewing scene, with 9 batches in the last 11 months, but I have learned a ton just from this forum, so you should definitely spend some time here. If you have not read John Palmer’s “How to brew…” you should. It’s a great starting place and is all about making good beer the first time out of the gate. Easy to follow, and great details make it great for someone starting out in the hobby. Check it out and ask any questions you may have here. Also, if you are on here, the home page has some great videos and detailed info on getting started all the way up to advanced brewing. As I have seen on here so many times, “Welcome to the obsession!”
Check out the ‘find a club’ section on the AHA main pages. There are likely several in your area. Clubs are one of the best resources available for that kind of face to face knowledge transfer.
This forum is invaluable as well. Ask questions. doesn’t matter if they have been asked before. We all love to talk about beer and are happy to show off err share our knowledge with new brewers.
in terms of books, How To Brew by john palmer is a classic as is the complete joy of homebrewing my mr. papazian. as beginner books those are a good place to start.
best advice I can give you to start out is to keep it simple until you get the idea. And then, still keep it simple (or not as the humor strikes).
What styles do you like to drink? make those first (assuming it’s not bud or miller, those are more advanced believe it or not)
and most of all, relax, don’t worry, and have a homebrew! (or commercial brew if homebrew is not yet available)
Welcome CTbeerworks, If you go to main AHA page and click community and then click find a home brew club you will find all the people you need to talk and answer your questions in your area. Also just by joining this forum you can get all the help and answers too.
Just by being here and reading the forum, you are going in the right direction. Here are a few tips to help you out.
The book “How To Brew” by Jon Palmer is a great reference to have.
Make sure that your equipment is cleaned well and anything that will come in contact with the beer after the boil is sanitized. I recommend using Starsan as your sanitizer. It works great, is fast, is no rinse, and dont worry about the foam. It will sanitize too.
Make sure your wort is cooled to at least around 70 degrees before you add your yeast. Use either an ice bath or immersion chiller to accomplish this.
Be sure to aerate the wort prior to adding your yeast. (Buying an O2 stone is one of the best brewing investments I have ever made).
Pay attention to your airlock. No activity is probably OK, but if you see some tanish sediment in there, add a blow off tube or you will have a huge mess to clean up.
Most importantly, have fun and dont get discouraged if you are not making perfect beer right away.
http://howtobrew.com - it isn’t completely up to date, but at least 95% of the info in there is exceptionally useful.
Ask questions on this forum. We’ve all been beginners ourselves. There are no stupid questions here, and everyone is quite helpful. You’ve come to the right place.
Control your fermentation temperatures. Low-to-mid 60’s F is right for most ales. If you have a basement that stays relatively cool, then you’re in good shape for brewing in New England.
Pay close attention to sanitation
Use fresh, quality ingredients
Have fun. Don’t stress. Whatever happens, you will make beer.
I learned to brew by watching the instructional DVD that came with my first kit, reading “The Complete Joy of Homebrewing” (as mentioned already) and keeping it simple at first. Buy an ingredient kit so you don’t have to worry about complex all grain recipes and techniques. Stick to ales at first as well.
There’s lots of intelligent and experienced people on the forum and lots of different books, DVD’s, YouTube videos, and podcasts to solicit.
I promise that the first batch is worth it in the end and truly not that hard!
Welcome CTbeerworks ! I don’t need to add a thing on to all this good advice, except to re-emphasize to ask all the questions you need to here. The advice is top notch and we all started somewhere.
I live in the Boston area, I’ve been brewing for several years now, even worked at Sam Adams for a few years. What kind of questions were you all looking to have answered?[/size][/size]
Wow so much help so fast! Thank you all for the responses. I’m a car guy so I’m used to car/jeep forums and it can be touch and go on those forums. Some people are great other just don’t know when to stop. lol
I purchased this kit: http://morebeer.com/products/personal-home-brewery-kit-5-kegging-super-deluxe.html Not really having any useful knowledge other than the little I read so far. I did purchase it planning ahead. I’m sure its more advanced than I need right now but I’m fairly OCD and type A personality, so I figured I would buy a “better” kit…(not even sure if it is or not…) or at least one that seems like it is based on my infant beer brewing knowledge.
I have downloaded the “How to Brew” book by John Palmer. I’ll read that over the weekend… or at least try to.
I think as time goes on I’ll honestly have more questions, however I’m so new to this I almost don’t know where to start. I thought to search for a forum after I purchased the kit.
Based on the great responses here I should read the book first so I have a more purposeful question that isn’t so general.
I really appreciate your offering to help and I will be hitting you up for some local help Im going to read the book so I can have a broken english conversation about brewing beer with you. lol ;D
Hopefully by the end of next week, I’ll have the kit and have finished reading the book and I can get started and have some more useful questions for you.
We should push for the AHA to schedule one of the upcoming conferences for Boston, Providence or maybe Portland (Maine - the other Portland with a great beer scene) so you all have an excuse to head out way to drink visit.
Definitely buy the “How to Brew” book by John Palmer. Never be afraid to ask questions on this forum. It will be one of the most powerful tools to brewing you have. I own a brewery and have brewed professionally for almost 4 years now and still come back to the advice on this forum.
Don’t be afraid to try brewing without reaching an advanced level of knowledge. It is pretty difficult to really screw this up. If you can follow a recipe then you can definitely make beer using a kit. The little mistakes you make along the way will help you better understand the process and fix those issues in the future.
Brew weekly. Keep notes, cuz you’ll be several batches ahead of yourself. Keep an “its only ingredient” mind set. Nothing is a waste, even dumped beer is a lesson. Though I doubt you’ll dump much. Today’s beginner has a huge advantage with internet, books, etc. Im convinced one can go f4om first batch to award winning in a year, easy. Brew often, read, note taking, listen to pod casts like Beer Smith and Brewers Network, and have fun.
Surprised that no one by now has suggest a visit to your local HBS for hands-on advice. You bought online which is great. But most shops that i go to don’t just want to make a sale off of you. They want to help you, answer questions, show you gear, and ingredients, and how to use them the right way, so that you’ll have success and come back.
I’m sure there are some excellent LHBS (Local Home Brew Shops) out there, but not all of them give the best advice. It’s definitely worth supporting your LHBS, but don’t rely on them as your sole (or even primary) source of brewing information unless you know that they give out good info.