Brand New to the Hobby

[Mozart]

Greetings everyone!

I'm pretty much brand new to the homebrewing hobby. A friend, a homebrewer himself, introduced me to the hobby a little over three weeks ago when we got together at his place and I helped brew my first batch. I actually tasted the finished product for the first time this past weekend.

Was it nirvana in a glass? Pure heaven on the tastebuds with an aroma to match? Well, um, nope. It's a bit too light, and a bit undercarbed, and likely a whole bunch of other things my pallet isn't yet practiced enough to determine.

Ok, ok, I know, I should let it age more, we shouldn't have let the wort splash around when putting it the the bottling bucket and inadvertently aerate it a little. We should have trusted that the no rinse sanitizer was, as its name would in hindsight seem to obviously imply, actually no rinse! Can you tell I've been reading a little here?

Is it drinkable? Do I enjoy it? Absolutely! That's what's important, isn't it? RDWHAHB, right? It even got a rave review from a friend we had over who said, "You MADE this?! It's GOOD! You REALLY made this?" Ok, so my beer earned this rave review after the guest in question had finished off an entire bottle of wine, but I'll take it.

So, my second batch (and my first flying solo), brewed on Saturday, is sitting in my fermenting bucket as I write this, and, when last I checked this morning, the airlock was happily bubbling away, my little yeast friends diligently working day and night on my behalf. Yeah, ok, after 36 hours with no airlock activity, I peeked -- didn't need to though, the krausen had already formed and when I resealed the lid, the airlock started bubbling happily, so guess the lid was just not sealed down quite tightly enough. And yes, I pitched the yeast when the temp was still a bit warm (as in just opened the pack and dropped it right atop the wort without reading any of the directions first), and my ale is likely fermenting at a temp a bit outside the ideal range, but hey, it's my beer!.

Anyhow... I don't have a question or anything. I just thought I'd introduce myself to this forum since I'll be lurking around while I continue with my newfound hobby and thank you all for the great advice I've gotten and the advice down the road I know I'll be getting.

Cheers!

 

[bobot]

Welcome Mozart! Patience was the hardest thing for me to practice...ah, who am I kidding? It's still the hardest part!

 

[dozer5454]

Welcome to the hobby/addiction. If there are any local brew clubs in your area they are a great resource for recipes and new techniques. In my club we have a welder that makes building things fast and cheap. Just a thought.

 

[meltroha]

It's awesome here, isn't it? Welcome to the hobby!

 

[Eshorebrewer]

Awesome! Welcome to the hobby, you'll have a great time with it.

 

[opiate82]

It will take a while (and quite a few batches) to get your methods dialed in right where you can start making beer exactly the way you want it to taste. Like any hobby, you will get better with time and practice.

But even when things don't go as planned or come out perfectly, you still end up with beer when all is said and done.

Welcome to HBT, you have obviously done a bit of reading already, but as you will come to find out, this is the absolute best place for home brew information out there.

 

[thood6]

Greetings everyone!

I'm pretty much brand new to the homebrewing hobby. A friend, a homebrewer himself, introduced me to the hobby a little over three weeks ago when we got together at his place and I helped brew my first batch. I actually tasted the finished product for the first time this past weekend.

Was it nirvana in a glass? Pure heaven on the tastebuds with an aroma to match? Well, um, nope. It's a bit too light, and a bit undercarbed, and likely a whole bunch of other things my pallet isn't yet practiced enough to determine.

Ok, ok, I know, I should let it age more, we shouldn't have let the wort splash around when putting it the the bottling bucket and inadvertently aerate it a little. We should have trusted that the no rinse sanitizer was, as its name would in hindsight seem to obviously imply, actually no rinse! Can you tell I've been reading a little here?

Is it drinkable? Do I enjoy it? Absolutely! That's what's important, isn't it? RDWHAHB, right? It even got a rave review from a friend we had over who said, "You MADE this?! It's GOOD! You REALLY made this?" Ok, so my beer earned this rave review after the guest in question had finished off an entire bottle of wine, but I'll take it.

So, my second batch (and my first flying solo), brewed on Saturday, is sitting in my fermenting bucket as I write this, and, when last I checked this morning, the airlock was happily bubbling away, my little yeast friends diligently working day and night on my behalf. Yeah, ok, after 36 hours with no airlock activity, I peeked -- didn't need to though, the krausen had already formed and when I resealed the lid, the airlock started bubbling happily, so guess the lid was just not sealed down quite tightly enough. And yes, I pitched the yeast when the temp was still a bit warm (as in just opened the pack and dropped it right atop the wort without reading any of the directions first), and my ale is likely fermenting at a temp a bit outside the ideal range, but hey, it's my beer!.

Anyhow... I don't have a question or anything. I just thought I'd introduce myself to this forum since I'll be lurking around while I continue with my newfound hobby and thank you all for the great advice I've gotten and the advice down the road I know I'll be getting.

Cheers!

Welcome! Reading on here can really make the learning curve much quicker!

By the way, there were two things that made my beer from eh this is ok to damn this is good. First and foremost the pitching temp is HUGE. Keeping the ambient temperature at 60-65 the first several days will do wonders for your beer. Secondly is adding most of the extract at the end of the boil. It helps get rid of that "homebrew" taste.

Anywhos, read and learn as much as you can and goodluck to you!

 

[doby]

But even when things don't go as planned or come out perfectly, you still end up with beer when all is said and done.

Now thats a great quote

Welcome to the forum!

 

[roger617]

Welcome! I've been at it for just at a year now, and this forum has definitely helped my learning curve. I make it a point to improve one process with every batch, and that has already gone a long way.

Cheers!

 

[Mozart]

First and foremost the pitching temp is HUGE. Keeping the ambient temperature at 60-65 the first several days will do wonders for your beer. Secondly is adding most of the extract at the end of the boil. It helps get rid of that "homebrew" taste.

Pitching/fermenting temp is one of the things I've been reading about as a way to improve my homebrew. I am, however, struggling to find a way to accomplish this. I can't imagine SWMBO's reaction to a swamp cooler in the house. Right now, my fermenting vessel is tucked under the knee hole of my desk, completely out of sight, as SWMBO has decreed. At present I haven't a spare refrigerator (nor the space for one) in my garage. A swamp cooler in the garage is possible, but the garage is not insulated -- I'd get more temperature fluctuations out there, and on warm days the garage is significantly hotter than the house. So much hotter that, fluctuations aside, I think I'd be better in the house without a swamp cooler than in the garage with one.

Thanks for the suggestion of adding the extract later in the boil.

Cheers!

 

[kombat]

Congrats, and welcome! Aside from the temperature control that others have already mentioned, one suggestion I would make would be to rehydrate your dry yeast before pouring it in, instead of just sprinkling the dry yeast right into the wort. If you just sprinkle the dry yeast directly into the wort, you're killing approximately half the yeast right off the top, which means you're underpitching by 50%. That spells stressed yeast and off flavours.

Regarding the fermenting temperatures, why do you have to keep the fermenter hidden under a desk, out of sight? Do you have a basement, or a closet you can use? Do you have a spare bedroom? A swamp cooler doesn't have to be very big, just a plastic laundry tub from Wal-Mart with the beer bucket/carboy sitting in it, covered with a t-shirt and filled with cool water.

 

[Mozart]

Regarding the fermenting temperatures, why do you have to keep the fermenter hidden under a desk, out of sight? Do you have a basement, or a closet you can use? Do you have a spare bedroom? A swamp cooler doesn't have to be very big, just a plastic laundry tub from Wal-Mart with the beer bucket/carboy sitting in it, covered with a t-shirt and filled with cool water.

I keep the fermenting vessel out of sight in accordance with SWMBO's decree.

Do I have a basement? No. We're on a concrete slab.

A closet? Not one with space enough for my fermenter. They're all pretty full. Storage space is often an issue for those of us without basements.

Spare bedroom? Uh-uh. Closest thing to that is the office, where my fermenting vessel resides under my desk.

On the "dare to dream" front I'm envisioning a small fridge with a temp controller in the garage at some point. We actually have one there, now that I think of it, but I don't think it's big enough to hold my fermenting vessel. When I get home tonight I'll check. If not, perhaps someday I'll be able to buy one and make the room. I think it's the best option all the way around as it gets the fermenter out of the house, provides good temp control, and though rare, in the back of my mind I have fear of a krausen-clogged airlock leading to a wort explosion under my desk. I can't imagine SWMBO's reaction were that to happen! An explosion contained in a mini fridge in the garage? I might actually survive that one long enough to brew again another day.

Cheers!

 

[kombat]

I keep the fermenting vessel out of sight in accordance with SWMBO's decree.

I don't know you, so I'm going to refrain from commenting on your marriage other than to point out that most people use words like "decree" and "SWMBO" with tongue firmly in cheek, rather than as literal directives. A good marriage includes a healthy dose of compromise. Perhaps she has a good reason for insisting that she not have to look at a bucket, that's between you and her.

I'll instead reiterate that the number 1 most important differentiating factor between great beer and "meh" beer is temperature control during fermentation. It is absolutely crucial that you keep the beer temperature between 65 and 68° F if you want great tasting beer. Note that that's the beer temperature, and fermentation is an exothermic reaction, so the beer temperature will typically be 5-10 degrees above the ambient room temperature during active fermentation.

As we've said, the easiest/cheapest way to keep the temperature down is with a simple $7 laundry pail from Wal-Mart, an old t-shirt, and some water. Or maybe you could install a window air conditioner in your office room to keep that room cooler than the rest of the house (you'd want to set it around 60° F).

If you cannot find a way to get your temperature into that range, you'll still make drinkable beer, but it'll never be the best it can be. You've already tasted the consequences of cutting such corners. We cannot overemphasize what a difference proper temperature control makes.

 

[KeyWestBrewing]

I too think if you can pull off a swamp cooler you should. It doesn't have to be big, just big enough to fit the fermenter in with a little extra space. It's been 90+ outside the past couple weeks and my 100+year old conch house has no insulation and a metal roof. My carboy in my swamp cooler however has been happily locked in around the low 60s just from rotating some frozen bottles of water. I'm not sure how you feel about Saison's but that's another option you could consider as the yeast prefer warmer temperatures.
Try brewing up something your woman likes and see if that changes her tune about your new found hobby. If she sees that she enjoys the benefits of your brewing she's more likely to hop on board.

 

[rodwha]

You could also use Belgian style yeast as they do quite well in the 70's and 80's. You'd need to really check out the strains available as many have a strong bubblegum or banana and clove taste, which I'm not fond of.

There are some smaller storage tubs out there that may fit well enough under your desk that will still allow a frozen water bottle into. Anything is better than nothing.

To ensure no explosions you could use a blow off tube. Either a length of 1/2" ID tubing that sits on the center piece of a 3 piece airlock or 1/4" ID tubing that will fit inside the grommet w/o an airlock. Or you could always leave plenty of headspace.

 

[rodwha]

"Try brewing up something your woman likes and see if that changes her tune about your new found hobby. If she sees that she enjoys the benefits of your brewing she's more likely to hop on board."

And this.

 

[Mozart]

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone!

If the little fridge is big enough (which I doubt), I'll go the temp control route. If not, even a small swamp cooler is better than none and I'll see if I can make it fit somewhere, and I may look into Saisons and Belgians too! Don't know much about them, but one of the reasons I've started homebrewing is to try to investigate different types of beer along the way.

I'm looking forward to broadening my beer horizons along the way, through my favorite beers tend to be pale lagers, with certain Pilsners and Märzen not the least among them. I certainly will need much better temp control before trying any of those, though.

And for the record, my "SWMBO decree" comments were absolutely tongue in cheek! I'd go the route of brewing something she likes, only she doesn't like beer much (despite being Austrian).

Cheers!

 

[rodwha]

If you are able to do temp control it opens the doors quite wide to what you can do. I'd suggest that before trying Belgian yeasts.

Maybe you should try making a lighter ale with fruit. Or maybe a from of wheat beer. A honey beer maybe? Even making mead or wine might ease the situation.

I'm fortunate in that mine got me into this, and she likes several types of beers. She quit on me as my bottling partner though...

You mentioned mostly liking lagers. What beers have you made so far? What are your interests so far with ales?

 

[Mozart]

You mentioned mostly liking lagers. What beers have you made so far? What are your interests so far with ales?

I do really like lagers (not all of them, but many), especially some of the German/Austrian ones. I'd name names but most people will not have heard of them as they're regional beers in Germany and Austria and not available outside those markets. I'm not sure what my specific interests for ales are yet, other than to try them all! I'm really open to brewing/trying anything.

The one I made with my friend was a recipe he got of the net and had brewed before. It was called White House Ale, and if I remember the ingredients properly, it was Crystal 75 for the steep, two different LMEs, one was pale, not sure of the other but I think it was wheat, and I don't remember what kind of hops we used, nor the yeast. We even went off the recipe he did have as he realized during the steep that he didn't have the hops the recipe called for, but used something he thought was similar.

Actually, that's one lesson I learned from my friend. Take notes! Not because he did, but because he didn't, but admitted he should. If that ale had turned out exceptionally well, it might be a little hard to replicate especially going off recipe and not taking notes regarding the differences.

The one I have in the fermenter currently I remember far more clearly. I have my notes at home, but it was a pre-packaged box of ingredients I got at my LHBS that they put together right in the shop. 1.5# Crystal 15, 0.5# barley (I think), liquid pale malt extract (either 4# or 8#? again, recipe is at home), and 1 oz. liberty hops for bittering, another oz. of the same hops for aroma. I'm pretty sure the yeast was US-05.

A wheat beer is definitely on the horizon! In fact, the next time I brew with my friend, the plan is for a hefeweizen. I do like hefeweizen!

I guess, while I don't dislike them, IPAs and other brews on the high end of the IBU scale I haven't quite acquired a real taste for yet, but I'm not ruling them out either. I really do want to try a lot of different things as I progress with this hobby and expand my horizons.

Cheers!

 

[Pooper]

No offense dude, but your wife sounds like a *****. Grow a pair.

 

[KeyWestBrewing]

No offense dude, but your wife sounds like a *****. Grow a pair.

Dude theres no need for that. None of us have any clue what the day to day is in that household and really, its none of our business. Understandably, not everyone's partner is ok with their brewing hobby cluttering up the house. He's doing what he should by being considerate and that takes a pair. Absolutely no need to insult a mans wife, especially one you don't even know. Thats very bad form!!

 

[kosmokramer]

Welcome!

 

[Bramstoker17]

No offense dude, but your wife sounds like a *****. Grow a pair.

Geez man, hell of a first post to this forum. He said it was tongue in cheek. Probable troll post anyway. To the point of the thread, welcome Mozart!

 

[rodwha]

What American beers have you tried and liked or disliked?

 

[Mozart]

What American beers have you tried and liked or disliked?

In terms of American beers, I enjoy Samuel Adams Boston Lager, and Gordon Biersch Marzen, to name just two. I also enjoy a good hefeweizen.

On Saturday, I spent the day, dawn to dusk, getting a couple of small storage sheds and two sets of shelves. The sheds I put together and put on the side of the house, with one set of shelves for one of the sheds and the other set of shelves to put in the garage -- also spent a lot of time moving/rearranging, and reorganizing (with a still slightly sore back to prove it). The not-to-be-named troll's comment aside, my wife spent the day helping -- all to make room for my brand-spankin'-new temperature controlled chest freezer!

While my ale fermented at room temp (and a little too warm) the first critical week, it's sitting in my new fermentation chiller at a nice, constant 70 degrees or so now. I can't wait to brew my next batch and get it in there. It'll either be the hefe I plan on brewing with my friend who introduced me to the hobby, or if I'm ambitious, another ale. If I go the other ale route, it'll be tight, because that ale would need to be bottled the same day the hefe's yeast gets pitched, so I'm not sure I want that busy of a day, we'll see.

I'm pretty excited though. Lagers here I come! I plan on a few more batches of ale first, for a couple of reasons. First, to fine tune my processes and cut out some of the rookie mistakes I've made, and second, I need a pipeline!

I understand that lagers take a while and a lager would be tying up my fermentation chiller for a good bit, so I want to have a nice ale stockpile so I have beer to drink while I'm lagering my first lager.

Anyway, thanks to everyone for the advice! I love this forum.

Cheers!

 

[kosmokramer]

Awesome, if you ever by the la fairplex feel free to stop in my lhbs and say high, so cal HomeBrew supply

 

[rodwha]

Maybe you ought to look into a kolsch, blonde, cream ale, and special/extra special bitters. Even American pales and ambers may be to your liking.

Awesome that you are getting all set up and with help!

Indeed the lagers take longer. Good idea to build up a stockpile for the wait.

 

[KeyWestBrewing]

If you have temp control I'd set it for 63-65f. It will keep the fermentation clean and make for better beer. The hef may be better fermented a bit warmer but most ales will like it cooler. Just a thought.

 

[Bramstoker17]

In terms of American beers, I enjoy Samuel Adams Boston Lager, and Gordon Biersch Marzen, to name just two. I also enjoy a good hefeweizen.

On Saturday, I spent the day, dawn to dusk, getting a couple of small storage sheds and two sets of shelves. The sheds I put together and put on the side of the house, with one set of shelves for one of the sheds and the other set of shelves to put in the garage -- also spent a lot of time moving/rearranging, and reorganizing (with a still slightly sore back to prove it). The not-to-be-named troll's comment aside, my wife spent the day helping -- all to make room for my brand-spankin'-new temperature controlled chest freezer!

While my ale fermented at room temp (and a little too warm) the first critical week, it's sitting in my new fermentation chiller at a nice, constant 70 degrees or so now. I can't wait to brew my next batch and get it in there. It'll either be the hefe I plan on brewing with my friend who introduced me to the hobby, or if I'm ambitious, another ale. If I go the other ale route, it'll be tight, because that ale would need to be bottled the same day the hefe's yeast gets pitched, so I'm not sure I want that busy of a day, we'll see.

I'm pretty excited though. Lagers here I come! I plan on a few more batches of ale first, for a couple of reasons. First, to fine tune my processes and cut out some of the rookie mistakes I've made, and second, I need a pipeline!

I understand that lagers take a while and a lager would be tying up my fermentation chiller for a good bit, so I want to have a nice ale stockpile so I have beer to drink while I'm lagering my first lager.

Anyway, thanks to everyone for the advice! I love this forum.

Cheers!

Sounds like everything is coming together well! As others said, a cream ale, kolsch, or maybe an American style wheat ale may be to your liking. Good luck and enjoy!