Im new to brewing, Im done some wine making in the past though
Whenever I search for tutorials or info on brewing home-beer all I find are annoying starter kit videos and pages
Does anyone know any tutorials on making beer on your own with just plain ordinary ingredients, and no extracts or special grains or Camden tablets, etc etc
Silly question I reckon, but I really want to get into brewing, and the old fashioned way
-Josh
These are on the AHA page. Just go the advanced section.
I’d recommend checking out our brew in a bag tutorial. It’s a technique to all-grain brew without having to buy an overt amount of equipment: How to Make Beer - American Homebrewers Association . Jeff’s link is a good’n, too.
at a minimum you are going to need special grains.
if you are referring to full on old school brewing with out chemicals, instruments, or other modern conveniences I’m not sure what you’ll find out there.
I feel like the absolute minimum one would need is:
malt (malted barley)
water
hops (or other bitter herbs)
yeast (wild caught or store bought)
some sort of vessel to mash in
some sort of vessel to boil in
some sort of vessel to ferment in
some sort of vessel(s) to condition in
The one techno gadget that would make everything much much easier:
an accurate thermometer
It might help us give more solid answer if we can get definitions of a couple of things.
What do you mean by “Starter Kits”? Equipment kits, recipe kits, both, neither?
What does “special grains” mean? As Mort stated, you will need to have at least malted barley and hops. A couple of specialty malts like caramel (10L-180L), patent malts, cereal grains can make major differences in what type of beer is made.
Campden tablets have a place in your brewery if you have chlorinated water. Not 100% required but can be a real time saver if you don’t want to have to pre-boil your brewing water and let it site over night.
Many videos are designed to take a complete novice with a new kit from their LHBS through the basic process. They can be good primers. If you have a specific style of brewing you are looking to learn I can guarantee someone on this board knows how to do it and is happy share.
Welcome and we’re happy to help!
Paul
Maybe this as a starting point? I think the all grain one comes out soon.
http://beersmith.com/dvd/
Take a bucket. Fill it with something with a decent amount of sugar in it. Add water. Wait several weeks. You will have…something that could loosely be called beer. That is about as basic and “old fashioned” as you can get. It also may not be very enjoyable.
Modern homebrewing tutorials begin with the presumption that you want to make a beverage that resembles something similar to the products you buy at a bar or store labeled “beer” which requires at least some basic equipment, malted grains (and/or extracts), hops, yeast and a decent water supply. That is why you find tutorials requiring specific ingredients and a certain level of equipment. Even centuries ago, brewing required specific ingredients and equipment and the brewers had specific and often laborious techniques for brewing.
This should be simple enough.
Denny Conn’s web site (http://hbd.org/cascade/dennybrew/) and Don Osborn on you tube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMHLqnWCNjE) is what got me into all grain. Very basic no additives. Water, grain, hops, yeast. Make a simple mash tun from a beer cooler, get a bucket to ferment in, a boil kettle and spoon and you’re in.
How about going old school and learn the best way by picking up a book? I learned from reading “the Complete Joy of Homebrewing” and advanced from there. You will only glean the very, very basics from any “starter” kit or “video”.
There really is a lot to learn, assuming you want to learn it well. I can’t imagine learning how to brew by watching a video or reading the instructions from a kit.
The internet is a great tool but I highly recommend you look for a complete compilation.
And, of course, we will always be here to answer any of your questions at any time.
Yep. I learned from Charlie P back in the day, and obsessed (and spent) from there. 
My “Advanced Brewing Kit” might well have been the first thing I bought using the internet. Not completely sure anymore but it’s quite likely. ;D
Hopefully we haven’t scarred him away with our joking around. We really are here to try and answer each others questions. But any group like this if left alone for too long will take thread into areas that can’t be explained by the title. :o
Paul
** fixed a spelling error. I shouldn’t type before 7:00AM
As everyone else has stated, books especially by Palmer, Daniels, Zainasheff, and Foster (just to name a few) are great resources and reads. I would also choose one of the major software tools out there. I use Beersmith 2 (no affiliation) and it has worked wonders for the way I make my own recipes (it’s also great tool to scale recipes or convert to/from extract recipes).
Experimenting using the SMASH method is also another great way to know your ingredients and system.
Me too! +1