Anxious my first homebrew kit arrives day after tomorrow. I can’t wait for the delivery so I placed it for hold at the ups location. Lol gonna pick it up first thing Wednesday morning 8:00 am. Ordered a small batch brewing kit along with an additional 1gallon fermenter and additional ingredient kit all from Northern Brewer.
I’ve been reading THE COMPLETE JOY OF HOMEBREWING and BREWED AWAKENING. Just trying to absorb the most I can before I start to brew with out a kit and coming up with original recipes. I’ll update on Wednesday when u pick my package up.
Any tips or advice is welcomed. Thanks and look forward to hearing from everyone
First off, welcome ! I would recommend, regardless of what the kit’s directions say, NOT to rack to a secondary fermenter. This is outdated advice that will not die. You don’t need to and it can actually be detrimental to the beer. Just leave it in primary until you are sure that fermentation is done. You know this by taking 2-3 hydrometer readings a couple days apart each. If the readings stay consistent it’s time to bottle or keg the beer.
Next, do your very best to keep fermentation temps down. I started out by placing the fermenter in a plastic tub of water and changing out a couple frozen water bottles twice a day. It truly makes an exponential difference in beer quality to avoid fermenting in the 70s at all costs. Yeast derived off flavors/aromas as well as unpleasant fusels are produced by fermenting beer too warm.
Finally, enjoy the process and don’t get too stressed. Having read Charlie P’s book you should now know the ‘Relax don’t worry have a home brew’ mantra. Heed it. Don’t hesitate to ask for help. Good luck !
HoosierBrew,
Thank you for the quick response
Yes roaming around the forum I read that racking to a second fermenter is a dying method.
I was planning on using the initial 1gallon fermenter for brewing “Caribou Slobber” (american brown ale) and use the second 1gallon fermenter jug to brew “West Coast Radical Red” (amber/red ale)
As far as location of fermentation goes would being in my garage be okay? I wouldn’t want any bacteria or anything else to get in and possibly spoil the batch.
Make sure wherever they are fermenting, that they are submerged in water that is kept in the low 60’s for the first 3 days of active fermentation at the bare minimum. Besides proper sanitation, temp control is one of the most important parts.
Also make sure you are not using chlorinated water!!! This will ruin any brew no matter what you do process wise. I would suggest using distilled water and then building a mineral profile with beer smith 2 that suits your needs. In my experience, having the right amount of calcium for yeast health and the right sulfate/chloride ratio to support your malt/hop profile is the most important
Welcome Jay, are you making their extract or all grain kit?
“I collect spores, molds and fungus.”
JT,
I will be brewing extract first before I move on to grains.
Awesome, solid info above. The most important things you can focus on for these first batches are cleaning, sanitizing and fermentation temprature control.
I’d avoid messing with or adding any brewing salts to your water. Your best bet would be to grab some distilled water from the store (or RO water if your store has a dispenser - most Walmart stores do). Extract kits already have unknown mineral content in the extract, so adding minerals to an unknown starting point won’t really help you. You can also use your tap water if you remove chlorine/chloramine.
HAVE FUN!
“I collect spores, molds and fungus.”
So first thing I see when I wake up this morning is an email from UPS. “Your Package Is Ready For Pickup” Can’t wait to get home and start brewing. I’ll check in later with pics of my kits.
Good luck! And just relax while brewing. There’s no reason to rush. I remember when I first started, I had no guidance, didn’t know about the brewing forums, nothing. I was flying blind, mostly. My first few batches weren’t very good until I started reading the forums.
Beersk,
Thanks! That’s exactly what I’ve been doing. Reading the couple books I’ve got and roaming the forums reading and absorbing the info (or at least trying to.lol)
Thanks guys for the support
Good luck with it and have fun. With the exception of the secondary, if you follow the directions, you should end up with an enjoyable beer. That much more so because YOU made it. There won’t be much to share with a 1g batch though, so be careful breaking it out in a crowd of friends, [emoji12] or you may not get a second bottle…
You shouldn’t have to worry about bacteria if you follow some basic sanitation protocols you’ve probably read about here. As long as there’s an airlock (or something else covering the opening) on your fermentation jug, you are set. Yeast, bacteria, etc cannot crawl into your fermenter - they’d have to ride on house/garage dust and fall in.
Fermenting in your garage is going to be dependent on how well the temperature holds steady there. If it sits in the mid-60s all day you are good. As others have mentioned, one way to safeguard against big temperature swings is to place your fermentor in a plastic tub and fill the tub with cool water. Even without additions of ice, this will help as the water will buffer the temperature swings. Temperature control was my biggest thing when I first started brewing. I was fermenting in the low/mid-70s the first few batches with a lot of temperature swings and the beer was pretty bad. I’ve found that most new brewers tend to be pretty cautious with the sanitation stuff but neglect temperature regulation.
Yeast, at least when you start out - I’d probably stick with a hearty american ale strain in dry form (US-05). That’s a very no-fuss option and one less thing to have to think about. To echo others: enjoy the process, have fun, don’t rush and welcome to a wonderful hobby!
dilluh98,
Thanks . so how long should I keep it in in water? I’ve read for just about 3days. Is that enough or should I keep it in there longer.
While you can get away with temperature control for shorter time periods, you are better off keeping the beer cooled until the krausen drops. For an ale that will likely be 3-5 days.
Good luck.
Okay here it is guys. its finally home.
also picked up a couple gallons of distilled water on my way back.
now the question is… Caribou Slobber or West Coast Radical first???
Looks like a great kit!
FWIW, whenever I see talk about kits, Caribou Slobber seems to come up quite often. They must be doing something right with that recipe. Either one you pick you’ll make beer, you’ll learn something and have fun all at the same time. Enjoy!