Rookie start up questions.

[mrchicken]

Hey gang. Been reading the beginner forum and it feels like I stepped into an advanced PHD level class!

20 years ago when I made beer, we got a kit with the plastic bucket fermenter, got a "beer in a box" extract kit or got the ingredients separately from the guy at the home brew store, and made beer in the kitchen pantry. We made sure to keep the house AC set to 72 during fermentation (72 summer and 65-68 winter) and had mostly good results.

Seems like every thread is about complicated chemistry, precise temperature control, and other stuff we didn't know about back then.

I guess my questions are these.
1. Can you make decent beer in the kitchen without dedicated refrigerators, chillers or the like? How much temperature fluctuation is ok? ( really don't want to have to buy a dedicated beer fermenting fridge)

2. Anybody have input on something like the FastFermenter beer making kit? Looks like it would solve 80% of the mess we used to make racking the beer and filling bottles.

3. Any good beer making books for beginners that can help me through the rookie phase and then move up to more complicated brewing a step at a time?

4. Im going to be purchasing a starter kit soon, Any labor/time/mess saving devices in addition to the beginner kit that is a "must have" ?

Sorry if these questions have been answered, for some reason Im not having any luck with my searches.

 

[dstockwell]

Even with AC set @ 72°F, fermentation could be as high as 80°F, really not close to optimum preferring the low-to-mid 60s °F. If you don't want a small fridge you'll need to do something to control temps, at least for the first few days.

How To Brew: Everything You Need To Know To Brew Beer Right The First Time
The Complete Joy Of Homebrewing
Designing Great Beers: The Ultimate Guide To Brewing Classic Beer Styles
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American Sour Beer
The Complete Beer Course: Boot Camp For Beer Geeks: From Novice To Expert In Twelve Tasting Classes

 

[kaisetti]

I'll take a stab at 1,3, & 4.

1. Yes, you can make decent beer without having a lot of fermentation equipment. Due to space requirements, I had to ferment in our downstairs closet for many years with an ambient temp around 69. My beers were decent. But, when I built a fermentation chamber and could control the temps, my beers got much better (still my own worst critic though).

3. I got Charlie Papazian's Joy of Homebrewing, which is great. However, I've found this site to have all the information I need so far. There is such a wealth of information here that you don't have to stray far from the site to get the info you want.

4. Depending on your budget, I would invest in a large (at least 8 gallons) brew kettle and a wort chiller. Other members will have other great recommendations as well. Like many, I started with a kit my wife bought me for my birthday, and now? Let's just say I'm glad my wife doesn't know how much I spend on this obsession with all the equipment and gadgets I have.

Welcome back to the joy of homebrewing!

 

[kramer2500]

Welcome mrchicken. I'll try to answer the best I can.

1) I currently do not have a dedicated refrigerator or any other temp control device and my beer is decent (I measure this by the fact that when people come over, they grab a homebrew out of the fridge before they grab a commercial beer). Could it be better? Absolutely! I will be upgrading to temp control soon though. As for temp fluctuation, look at your yeast packet. Most of the time, it will give you an idea of the ideal range. Try to stay in that. Also, look at styles that around the temp of your house right now.

2) I have no experience with FastFermenter

3) Start here: http://howtobrew.com/ The is the online version of How To Brew by John Palmer. Most people have read some or all of it. There are updated versions for sale, but might as well start with the free version.

4) Depending on the kit, it will probably only have a racking cane. Definitely get an auto-siphon. In addition, most kits do not have a hydrometer. Spend the $8-10 to get one so you are not posting "There are no bubbles in my airlock. Is my beer done?"

As for time saving techniques, peruse this forum. There are a lot of tips and tricks (for example, if your dishwasher has a sanitize setting, use that and then bottle on the dishwasher door when it is folded out to make cleanup easier).

There will probably be others along shortly that will have better advice than me!

 

[Brian77095]

Yeah that's kinda the nice thing about this beer making thing. It can be as complicated or simple as you like and still get good drinkable beer!

1. I live in Houston Texas and in the summer we keep the AC at 80 so its hard for me to make beer in the summer with out a temp controlled system. In the winter (when I started) I made good extract beer at room temp and then with a swamp cooler. Then I checked craigslist until I found a freezer for 40$ could not pass it up. So yes you can certainly make good beer with out a temp controller.

2. Dont have any info on that for you.

3 There are a bunch. Some on line for free. My advice would be to follow the direction of the kit you are using. Learn as you go. Take notes on brew day. Learn from your mistakes and make incremental improvements. Also one of the best things I did in improving my beer was to join a club. They showed me what my beer could taste like and gave good feedback on my beer and process.

4 I now enjoy team brewing 10g. We split the beer and labor. This forum is full of tips and tricks. You will be busy reading for a long time!

Hope that helps!

 

[SEndorf]

Yes. You can make a decent beer from an extract kit in your kitchen if you keep temps in the low to mid 70's depending on the yeast. There are simple ways to do this without fancy equipment.
Most people recommend "How to Brew" by John Palmer when first getting started. However there are many others.
Eventually, you will want to gradually get better equipment simply because they will turn a good beer into a great beer, and it's a lot less work.

FWIW, the beginners beer forum sometimes looks like an advanced PhD class - An unfortunate mistake.

 

[SGTSparty]

You can make good/very good beer w/o a dedicated fridge for fermentation. That said, the quality of your beer will be affected by the quality of your ambient temp. My basement stays dark and mid 50's-mid 60's year round. I'm building my fermentation fridge right now for lagers but I've made very good beer w/o it.

As for your starter kits and suggestions, that really depends on if you're going traditional All Grain, BIAB, Full Extract or Extract w/ Partial Grain. If you're looking to make it in the kitchen you're probably looking at extract or maybe BIAP depending on the strength of your burners depending on batch size.

The biggest time and mess saver for me was going to kegging, no bottles, no priming sugar, since i ferment in bottling buckets I don't even use a racking cane or auto-siphon. Super easy and clean. That said it might be a big step from just starting to kegging, especially if you have space limitations. I'd say get a bottling wand and if you're going for 5 gallons, maybe a immersion wert chiller that will hook up to your kitchen sink. Will save you a lot of time. Or upgrade to a kettle w/ ball valves, makes transferring wert much less messy if you're using more than one pot.

 

[J187]

I guess my questions are these.
1. Can you make decent beer in the kitchen without dedicated refrigerators, chillers or the like? How much temperature fluctuation is ok? ( really don't want to have to buy a dedicated beer fermenting fridge)

You don't need a fridge, but temp fluctuation is always going to be pretty bad for your beer. There are plenty of options to control temps pretty well without a fridge and controller - these are just more precise and less labor intensive...nearly a set it and forget it approach. Swamp bath works very well with a large enough volume and enough effort. You can build a box out of foam insulation or wood and use a second hand fridge or old small AC... lots of options. The best thing you can do for your beer period is doing your best to control ferm temps.... that and full wort boil.

2. Anybody have input on something like the FastFermenter beer making kit? Looks like it would solve 80% of the mess we used to make racking the beer and filling bottles.
No, sorry

3. Any good beer making books for beginners that can help me through the rookie phase and then move up to more complicated brewing a step at a time?
I like Palmer's How to Brew

4. Im going to be purchasing a starter kit soon, Any labor/time/mess saving devices in addition to the beginner kit that is a "must have" ?
Bottle conditioning and carbonating I assume? The vinator, a drying rack and a bottle filling wand are must haves for me. They make a long arduous and annoying bottling day very much easier and faster

 

[mrchicken]

As to chilling the wort.... We would use 2 gallons of water in the pot, then put the other 3 in the fridge/freezer. When the wort was finished, transfer to the fermenter, then add the cold water to bring the temp down. Usually got it down into the low 80's-upper 70's and could pitch the yeast about the time we got everything cleaned up and put away. If not within a couple hours. Does this cold water "shock" the wort causing undesirables?

 

[mongoose33]

You can, if the ambient temp is moderate enough, control ferm temps with a swamp cooler--put fermenter in a shallow pan, fill pan w/ water, drape t-shirt over fermenter and hanging into the water, and get it wet. The evaporation will cool the fermenter.

I have that going on in my basement right now (ambient 65--yeah, I'm lucky). Without the pan of water I'll hit 70 degrees during fermentation as the exothermic reaction of fermentation heats up the wort. But I can maintain 65-66 if I keep that t-shirt wet.

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If you don't have much in the way of equipment, a kit is generally the most cost-effective way to go.

I don't know much about fast-ferment--looks like a good system but I cannot figure out how to control temperature with it. I even now have a refrigerator I can use as a fermentation chamber to control temp, but of course the fastfermenter won't fit in there. Until and unless I knew how to control temp with it, I wouldn't get it.

 

[Coathanger]

I don't have a dedicated fridge and the fermentation ranges but I try to keep my house around 70F on average.

I worked without a wort chiller for several batches, maybe close to 10 before I made one myself for under $40. I instantly regretted not using one all along. Highly recommend one.

 

[Sadu]

The swamp cooler is an excellent way of maintaining temperatures, depending on your climate. I make lagers with mine (although I just upgraded to a fridge which is easier/better).

You can improve the stability of the swamp cooler by adding an aquarium heater ($10) and a cheap temperature controller ($10). This effectively sets the minimum temperature of your beer and looks after the heating side of things automatically, handy if things cool down at night. Then to control the cooling side, you chuck in a frozen water bottle or 2 in the morning and this prevents the beer overheating. If you threw in too much ice then the aquarium heater will kick in and prevent it getting too cold. After 4-5 days fermenting it's less important to keep the temperature stable and you don't have to be so particular about the ice bottles.

 

[mrchicken]

You guys are awesome! Thanks for all the replies.
I'm in the South so its 93-97 most of the summer and keeping the house down below 75 gets kind of expensive. Dropping it to 70 just to make beer would make the electric company happy but my wife....not so much.

I like the idea of the fast fermenter but wondered about the mobility/portability issue. Ill keep looking. Maybe somebody makes a shorter fatter model that will fit in a fridge better. OR I can just get a kit and be done with it.