Complete Newbie To Brewing

[marksfish]

as has been said a/g biab is not all that hard all you need to do is hold your temps for 60 to90 minutes and the malt will convert to sugars, there is a heap of recipes on the recipe thread for you to brew something you think that you will like. and yes you will have to be carefull on the cold side (post boil) cleaning and sanitation are more than important they are vital to good brewing and yes a cheap fridge and a temp controller is as important as good yeast for quality beer. all in all my advise is go for it but be preparedf or the hobby to be all consuming.

 

[keifer33]

Keiffer33 will no doubt be at the WCB meeting on Monday, so kill two birds with one stone, grab some free gear and meet some beer freaks crew at the local club.

Seriously it is only a couple of hours out of your life and you might even be able to hook up a brew day with someone. Just bring a glass, and if you haven't a beer to bring along, no worries I will bring an extra bottle for ya!

TWOC have decent ingredients to get you going, and Roy is a good bloke, but if you want to wait until Monday, the crew at WCB may be able to source some other bits and bobs.

Lukas is dropping round tomorrow to collect the goods and it just so happens ill be setting up to brew in the evening so will get a chance to look at my setup and get a run down on the whole 'AG' deal Will try not to make it information overload!

 

[manticle]

I reckon that one really ought to be an A

I know

T'was joke.

An hilarious one too.

 

[Malted]

I know

T'was joke.

An hilarious one too.

Gotcha. Seems in my mind to make a difference as to how you pronounce the A. Aee or Ahh. You're being ahh ass sounds better than you're being aee ass.

 

[mattyoz]

where in the northern suburbs?

i might be doing an all grain brew this weekend if you bring some beers round lol

 

[lukasfab]

done a temp check in the garage today,
left over night the temp this morning was 15deg and when i got home from work it was 22deg

im guessing this is no good?

 

[mattyoz]

not at all, main thing you have to worry about is that it doesnt go to far above 22, i don't even worry about heating my fermenter up these days, i have a fridge set up for fermenting have a controller on the make sure it doesnt get above 20 and i dont worry about it getting cold, not in perth anyway, you just have to worry about it in summer over here when its 30 at midnight you have bid problems if you dont have the fermenter in a cool place

 

[keifer33]

done a temp check in the garage today,
left over night the temp this morning was 15deg and when i got home from work it was 22deg

im guessing this is no good?

Sounds like the same temp as I get at the moment. I actually have to try and keep the temp down during the day for some brews as the reaction of fermentation actually adds a few degrees so 15 over night might be 16-17.

 

[lukasfab]

guys i will probably try go to brewz2you to pick up some bargains...hopefully

i will want to brew a simple german style beer, munich i guess.
what do i need? remember i have nothing i the way of ingredients so things like sugars and what ever i need for complete brew

i like german, belgian beers so what could i get in bulk to save more money and how long do these things last?

thank you

 

[loikar]

And if you don't understand how to troubleshoot because you don't actually understand what happens during mashing, boiling, fermentation and conditioning, then you might reach the belief that AG, as the supposed pinnacle of homebrew is shit and buying beer is better.

That's the main reason for recommending people take their time. It's not because putting cracked grain in hot water is technically or physically hard. It's because there are some processes that take at least a bit of research to understand.

Sorry Manticle, I have to disagree.
Do you need to know what happens to your car when you put oil or petrol in it before you drive it?
Do you need to know why you need to proove bread before baking it?
Do you need to know how a computer works before you buy one?
No, you just need to know how to move through the process.

I agree, only a fool would dive into anything without at least a little research first. But you don't need to know the ins and outs of anything to follow a process.

for my first AG i just made beer. I didn't care about efficiency or hitting my gravitys, I just made beer.
I had a brew sheet (aka a receipe), it told me to hold x amount of grain at y degrees for z amount of time.
I didn't need to know why and what enzyme eats what starch at what temperature, and if i hit a snag I asked someone who could help and advise.

I thinks it's better to assume that people have the common sense to do at least a little research (as the OP has obviously done) rather than to assume everyone is going to walk blindly into something and shit their pants at the first sign of trouble.

Regardless if you research K&K all AG, it's still just process.

Cheers,

BF

 

[Bribie G]

Agree with BF here. I'm a knowledge sponge and love to get into the chemistry etc, but I also make the mistake of thinking that everybody has the same knowledge base, so I often tend to lose people early on in the conversation, and that's not just brewing. Comes with the Asperger territory - Few months ago I was talking to a couple of AG'ers who make bloody fine beer and they wanted to know why my 3.3% mild tasted more like a full strength, so I started prattling on about mash temperatures, Alpha and Beta Amylase etc.

First they'd heard of it, "Alpha what y lase??" but it hadn't prevented them just going ahead and making beer.

 

[Nick JD]

When using big words, I find there's a fine line between smart and smartypants.

IMO, one of the biggest barriers to learning is nomenclature - and there ya go, I just did it then.

Brewing words make people turn off. The Too Hard Basket starts filling up.

Terminology is how smartypantses retain control of their smartypantsness.

 

[lukasfab]

well guys im a step further in front today towards my first brew.
caught up with keifer33 today and scored myself a few things, i even got to try his brew....NICE!
went to big w and got a brew pot and some PET bottles.

few more pieces of equipment, some more reading and get a receipe down packed and away we go.

 

[kelbygreen]

thats good lukasfab sure you will enjoy it lol

 

[lukasfab]

i decided to do the famous Drsmurto GA

i put his receipe into brewmate for miniBIAB, let me know if this is what it should be

pilsner 1.08kg
munich l .36kg
wheat malt(they didnt have pale wheat) .36kg
caramunich l .1125kg

amarillo 9g
amarillo 6.75g
amarillo 6.75g
amarillo 6.75g

safal US-05 5g

OG 1046
FG 1012
IBU 33.4
ABV 4.62

 

[stux]

Gotcha. Seems in my mind to make a difference as to how you pronounce the A. Aee or Ahh. You're being ahh ass sounds better than you're being aee ass.

The simplistic rule is if the first letter is a vowel or an h then use an an, otherwise an a

But it's more correctly, if the first syllable is a vowel sound then use an an

So for example : "An MPEG meeting was held in June", MPEG is pronounced "empeg", thus a vowel sound is the first syllable

Thus you only use an an for hotel and other words starting with h if the h is silent or you drop your aychs

An 'eavy night in ol London town 'ey cobber

How you pronounce the letter h makes a difference too, you wouldn't use an an with a haych, but you would use an an with an aych

 

[Clutch]

Agree with BF here. I'm a knowledge sponge and love to get into the chemistry etc, but I also make the mistake of thinking that everybody has the same knowledge base, so I often tend to lose people early on in the conversation, and that's not just brewing. Comes with the Asperger territory - Few months ago I was talking to a couple of AG'ers who make bloody fine beer and they wanted to know why my 3.3% mild tasted more like a full strength, so I started prattling on about mash temperatures, Alpha and Beta Amylase etc.

First they'd heard of it, "Alpha what y lase??" but it hadn't prevented them just going ahead and making beer.

Richard Branson needed one of his employees to explain the difference between gross and net profits.
About 3 years ago...

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

When using big words, I find there's a fine line between smart and smartypants.

IMO, one of the biggest barriers to learning is nomenclature - and there ya go, I just did it then.

Brewing words make people turn off. The Too Hard Basket starts filling up.

Terminology is how smartypantses retain control of their smartypantsness.

+1

Instead, a simple explanation of jargon (the bog standard word for nomenclature) words does wonders.

Goomba

 

[Synthetase]

What jargon haters forget is that those of us who are involved in areas full of jargon use it as short-hand - it's got nothing to do with secret clubs. It's too much of a pain in the arse to go around the long way every time you want to make a point.

Having said that, obviously allowances need to be made for people who don't know what the hell you're talking about, which is fine. There's nothing worse than seeing someone new turn up on the forum asking what direction they should go and seeing the first couple of replies read something like a brewer's dictionary of acronyms.

"Forget K+K, go AG BIAB. You don't need a HLT..."

To which the poster usually responds "???".

 

[loikar]

WTF?

ROFLOL!

RAHAHB FFS!