You say 'skip the how to’s" but then in another post you say “oatmeal, yeast water and hops”. Trust me, if you think that’s how you brew beer you definitely need the “how to’s”. I’d start at www.howtobrew.com
Ok everybody… I know there is more to making beer than what I said. I was over simplifying the process but was basically saying that the process can be as simple as I want to make it to start. Thanks for the recipes and suggestions. Definitely gonna hook up with people in my community.
Hey, find a local homebrew club and learn from some good people. May 2nd is big brew, where you can see people brewing on simple DIY systems to ones that take some Rocket Science.
Clubs
Big Brew - National Homebrew Day
Also, if you have access to PET bottles (plastic 1,2,3 liter soda bottles) they work quite well to carbonate and serve beer out of. Amassing enough glass beer bottles for a single batch can take time and expense for someone just getting into brewing.
I can brew a 5 gallon batch with a 2 gallon pot easy.
I am still learning and use a very simple system as ingrediants are expensive enough as is.
I do 2.5 gallon batches. I “brew in a bag”, boil in a like 4 gallon pot on the stove (some of these pots get stupid expensive depending on size. I got the largest pot before the huge price increase to the next size), use a Mr. Beer Keg as my fermentor (though I do all grain and have never actually used a mr beer recipe), and transfer the beer from the fermentor to a pointed measuring cup to the bottle, and add the hard sugar candy drops. Make sure your wife is ok with a horrific mess in the kitchen! lol
I used a Mr Beer fermenter twice and was not happy with the quality. The plastic is very thin and I do not like the no airlock lid that allows air in after fermentation dies down. I plan on picking up a small speidel fermenter if I decide to do any more small batches.
I don’t understand the rest of your bottling process. Are you pouring beer from a measuring cup into bottles? If so, I recommend getting a bottling cane/wand and attaching that to the spigot.
Yes, that’s what I’m doing. I have tried pouring directly from the spigot to the bottle but that was too messy. A good measuring cup gives me a reliable flow with no spillage (if I am sober with a steady hand). What you suggest is one of the next steps for me.
I would get a bottling wand and a hose. You can do it with just a hose though. If you put the hose on the end of the spigot and into the bottle, you can turn on spigot until the bottle is almost full. Very little in the way of mess and bubbles, and less exposure to oxygen. The bottleing wand makes it even better. It switches flow on and off as you put it in and takie it out ofthe bottle by pressing the tip to the bottom. Very clever. When you take the bottling wand out of bottle you are left with a good amount of head space.
I also mix my sugar into bottling bucket, and not directly into bottles, but if you have a fool-proof measuring system, I am sure it is fine.
^^^ This is what I was recommending for the exact reasons he stated. It can be as easy as length of tubing, but the bottling wand makes it a whole lot easier.
[quote]Warning: Do not under any circumstances recycle the aforementioned condom. It’s not worth the savings! :o
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Yeast infections can be terrible
+1 to what everyone has already chimed in on, especially the club idea. I would add, for a very minor investment get Charlie’s book, “The Joy of Home brewing” and read it, if that doesn’t make you feel like jumping in I’m not sure what will. That’s how I got the bug and haven’t looked back since:)
As far as bottling goes if you have a dishwasher use the open door as a platform for the bottle(s). Set the bottling bucket on top of the DW and feel free to spill as much as you want.
Furthermore, if you have a sanitize feature to the DW that is great for the bottles too. Sanitize and bottle out of the same platform.
Good bottling advice, thank you all