Hey Everyone,

Just had a curious question. I am just getting into home beer brewing and was just wondering if anyone on here makes their own beer? I would appreciate any tips or pointers you might have learned and if you know any good online shops to buy supplies.

Cheers!

Clean thoroughly between brews is probably the most important think. Start with extracts to gain confidence before moving on to grains. Lastly have fun and excitement with it.

ASUPATCH wrote:Clean thoroughly between brews is probably the most important think. Start with extracts to gain confidence before moving on to grains. Lastly have fun and excitement with it.

I will reiterate Patch's point. Cleaning AND sanitizing all tubing, carboys, bottles, etc. between each batch is vital. Also - don't get one of the $30 Mr. Beer homebrewing kits. They are worthless. To start homebrewing, plan on spending about $300-$500. Where are you located? Develop a relationship with a local supplier - they are chalk full of knowledge that you can pick up information from as well.

Yosef wrote:

ASUPATCH wrote:Clean thoroughly between brews is probably the most important think. Start with extracts to gain confidence before moving on to grains. Lastly have fun and excitement with it.

I will reiterate Patch's point. Cleaning AND sanitizing all tubing, carboys, bottles, etc. between each batch is vital. Also - don't get one of the $30 Mr. Beer homebrewing kits. They are worthless. To start homebrewing, plan on spending about $300-$500. Where are you located? Develop a relationship with a local supplier - they are chalk full of knowledge that you can pick up information from as well.

Thank you both! I have heard that to have good beer you need to be clean. The funny thing is, I just got a Mr. Beer kit for my birthday and was going to start off with that for the first batch. I am moving soon so I have not bit the bullet in buying better equipment until I settle. I am in Miami now, but I hope to be moving back to NC soon.

Go ahead and use the Mr. Beer. It will be okay. But after one or two you will probably want to advance your technique.

My son started this way and is now very advanced. I am his bottle washer and also built his kegerator. He has built practically everything that he uses including the mash tun and rigging the extra freezer to be able to cold ferment lagers. We have brewed everything from oatmeal porters, to sour beers (of which I have yet to acquire a taste for). We have bought supplies at brew stores in Raleigh, Charlotte, and Asheville, and he also orders quite a bit of his supplies. He gets a lot of his clone recipes off of the internet.

Glad he was able to put his college degree to good use for his hobby.......

I'm a novice, but I assisted a friend with some brews last summer. The process was long and complicated, but one thing that pervades the whole process is sanitation. Make a sanitation bucket and dip everything that you could ever imagine coming in contact with your brew.

We bottled some and kegged some of the same brews, and I highly recommend kegging. It's much easier to force carbonate instead of waiting an extra two weeks for bottles to carbonate (using more yeast, depending on the brew). Peeling labels and sanitizing used beer bottles (we're poor), was by far the biggest pain in the ass of the whole thing. I thought it tasted better too. Bottles are left with some sludge at the bottom, at least the last few you bottle. Kegging seemed to me to be easier and better.

Getting creative with ingredients was my favorite part. We took what was essentially the Dales Pale recipe and added local honey in addition to the malts. It turned out higher gravity (on account of an added sugar), about 8%, and you could really taste the honey. We added agave nectar to an oatmeal breakfast stout recipe too.

I plan to eventually get my own equipment.

Have fun!