I Am Brand New To Brewing, Any Help Appreciated

[keezawitch]

Hi, I am an australian who is brand new to brewing, I have only just put my first batch in, I really want to make my brews from scratch, e.g grow the ingred and use so would love to get some advice on the whole process, thanks

 

[pimpsqueak]

Have a look at the articles section: http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/index.php?autocom=ineo
Pay particular attention to "New to Brewing" and any other applicable areas.
If you have further questions, use the forum search function before starting a new thread, as most, if not all questions have been asked and answered.
Welcome aboard! :beer:

 

[JDW81]

Have a look at the articles section: http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/index.php?autocom=ineo
Pay particular attention to "New to Brewing" and any other applicable areas.
If you have further questions, use the forum search function before starting a new thread, as most, if not all questions have been asked and answered.
Welcome aboard! :beer:

Read lots; articles, books, forums, blogs etc. The internet is your friend. I also learnt a lot watching vids on youtube.

Three other pieces of advice: Sanitise, sanitise, sanitise. IMHO it is the most important aspect of brewing.

Welcome to a life long hobby/passion/obsession.

JD

 

[loikar]

**** all that shit.

Find someone close to you who is doing similar or as close as possible as what you want to do.
Post a new thread saying you want to attend an AG brewday to learn, someone will put their hand up and help out.
Ask them if you can brew with them. From there you'll be able to find out and see first hand the process and have better understanding of what's happening, terminology used and why we do what we do.
Ask Questions!!

Not to say that reading and youtube aren't benificial, but nothing beats 'hands on'.

Now, growing and malting grain is impractical unless you have a fuckload of land and a shitload of time, it's a lot of work for little return in a home brewer setting.
But if you can do it, go for it, it's not going to kill you and we'd all be interested in hearing about how you go about doing it.

Growing Hops is definitely doable, but don't expect to just plant them and walk away. you'll need to keep them fairly spaced out if you're growing multiple varieties and you'll also need to give them plenty of vertical room (they like to grow up a wire\trellis)

My advice to you is:
Attend a brew day with someone who's already brewing the same process as what you want to brew.
once you understand the process and the reasons why we do what we do, then look at introducing your own malted grain and hops.

Anyway,

Welcome to brewing and post a thread asking someone if you can check out their brewday.

BF

 

[Diesel80]

From someone who has just made the switch from cans to grain after 2 weekends of can brewing i can tell you the hardest thing about making beer from grain is finding a way to get your grain crushed when you don't have a suitable mill.

If you can heat water, read a thermometer, tip things in and out of buckets into pots and stir with a big spoon and have the dexterity to add hops to your pot, and have a way to seperate out the grains from the liquid you can make wort.

Then if you can successfully cool and tip this wort into a fermenter, add some yeast you can turn it into beer.

This will make beer from scratch. Will it be any good? Who knows?

To make good beer from scratch there are many small but very important things to learn, control and master (temp control fermentation, sanitation, hot side / cold side oxidation management, cooling, yeast selection / pitch rates, why my airlock isn't bubbling etc), but the actual overall process is quite simple.

Mastering these key things listed (and others not listed) will unlock good beer! I am a little ways off where i want to get to but stoked with how i am getting on thus far.

I read on here for about 8 weeks before i decided to take the plunge in BIAB AG and i can tell you now my shed looks like the city farmers warehouse. Grains, buckets, cubes and all sorts of agricultural looking stuff filling the shelves. I haven't used a can opener since. The odd youtube video did me good also.

Each to there own i reckon BF, but a Brew Day is a good idea with a local member. I just chose to dive in a learn for myself once i had a basic understanding.

Cheers,
D80

 

[keezawitch]

thanks for the help, the sanitize sanitize sanitize it def something i will do, kind of automatically as i am also making cheese from my own goat milk and have to follow the same rules, I have just over 3 acres and access to another 2 so really thinking of giving growing hops and barley a go, cant hurt to try and if they fail the goats will eat them, would like to know where i can get some hops rhizones from , I live in New South Wales in Australia. I also have someone who has brewed and my son has freinds who seem happy to help , been reading and watching videos and taking notes, crossing my fingers the first batch is drinkable, odd thing is i dont really drink much but i am sure family will help out in the drinking dept

 

[keezawitch]

have

From someone who has just made the switch from cans to grain after 2 weekends of can brewing i can tell you the hardest thing about making beer from grain is finding a way to get your grain crushed when you don't have a suitable mill.

If you can heat water, read a thermometer, tip things in and out of buckets into pots and stir with a big spoon and have the dexterity to add hops to your pot, and have a way to seperate out the grains from the liquid you can make wort.

Then if you can successfully cool and tip this wort into a fermenter, add some yeast you can turn it into beer.

This will make beer from scratch. Will it be any good? Who knows?

To make good beer from scratch there are many small but very important things to learn, control and master (temp control fermentation, sanitation, hot side / cold side oxidation management, cooling, yeast selection / pitch rates, why my airlock isn't bubbling etc), but the actual overall process is quite simple.

Mastering these key things listed (and others not listed) will unlock good beer! I am a little ways off where i want to get to but stoked with how i am getting on thus far.

I read on here for about 8 weeks before i decided to take the plunge in BIAB AG and i can tell you now my shed looks like the city farmers warehouse. Grains, buckets, cubes and all sorts of agricultural looking stuff filling the shelves. I haven't used a can opener since. The odd youtube video did me good also.

Each to there own i reckon BF, but a Brew Day is a good idea with a local member. I just chose to dive in a learn for myself once i had a basic understanding.

Cheers,
D80

 

[keezawitch]

OOPS sorry deisel80, new to forums too, i was trying to ask you if you had tried a food processor to crush your grain, i use mine to chop up almost anything.

 

[pk.sax]

...

Find someone close to you who is doing similar or as close as possible as what you want to do.
Post a new thread saying you want to attend an AG brewday to learn, someone will put their hand up and help out.
Ask them if you can brew with them. From there you'll be able to find out and see first hand the process and have better understanding of what's happening, terminology used and why we do what we do.
Ask Questions!!

...

My advice to you is:
Attend a brew day with someone who's already brewing the same process as what you want to brew.
once you understand the process and the reasons why we do what we do, then look at introducing your own malted grain and hops.

Anyway,

Welcome to brewing and post a thread asking someone if you can check out their brewday.

BF

^ That

 

[hoppy2B]

If you're not planning to grow hops commercially the best advice I can give you is to grow them on some trellis. Chook mesh or similar would do fine. You can grow them up string for a metre or two and then onto the mesh. Give them plenty of room to grow and don't prune them. They like watering, and if your ground is well drained and you add plenty of manure you should get a good harvest the first year provided you start with reasonable sized rhizomes.
Growing grain on that size patch will not be economical unless you know someone local who has machinery and will do it cheap to help you out. Don't even think about growing and harvesting barley by hand. That is just crazy talk. Barley is very difficult to thresh by hand also.
You may like to consider growing a small patch of potatoes if you are really keen. Doesn't hurt to experiment.
You will find hop rhizomes on this site and ebay in winter and going into spring. Good luck.

 

[keezawitch]

working on finding someone with machinary and working out a trade, we have been thinking of putting about half acre under green feed crop so might try barley if i can get help otherwise i think i may buy some unhulled, this is something i am not in a hurry to do want to study the process first, keen on hops though thanks for advice on growing and we are not short on manure so have plenty fertiliser it i get a crop i know how to dry out and i have a couple of dehydration machines to help in the process so i can store them, why potatoes?

 

[hoppy2B]

working on finding someone with machinary and working out a trade, we have been thinking of putting about half acre under green feed crop so might try barley if i can get help otherwise i think i may buy some unhulled, this is something i am not in a hurry to do want to study the process first, keen on hops though thanks for advice on growing and we are not short on manure so have plenty fertiliser it i get a crop i know how to dry out and i have a couple of dehydration machines to help in the process so i can store them, why potatoes?

You could try making a potato beer. Potatoes are something you should be able to grow enough of for a brew. You will also need a small amount of malt to convert the starch into sugar.
If possible try using some of the hops fresh. Growing your own gives you that opportunity.

 

[RobboMC]

Home brewing is a process of personal growth. Start easy and allow yourself time to grow at your own pace.

No-one will speak badly of you if you go to the Brew shop and buy a kit or two to brew. You will be learning how to ferment, control temperature, maintain cleanliness, bottle ( or keg ) and so on and will also kave some nice beer to drink along the way.

I started at Kit and Kilo 5 years ago, over Xmas when I brewed an extract/partial with less than 1 kg of grain I think of it as a 'bit of a bottle filler' or a 'session beer'.

From kits you can progress to kits and bits by adding malt extract and your own hops to a kit. I find this quite quick as it can reduce the boil times needed to bitter an extract from scratch. Once you get to this point the lure of better beer will lead you onwards up the slope ( or down the slope as some refer to it ) toward All Grain brewing. Allow yourself to learn as you go and don't be in a rush. Once you do get to AG you want the other processes like fermenting and bottling to be automaticly good so you can focus on the ingredients of the receipe.

But most of all, just keep brewing!!!

 

[keezawitch]

thanks for the advise, what does potatoe beer taste like? I wouldnt mind trying some herbal beers or mead along the way any suggestion as to what herbs to grow, i would also like to try non alcoholic ginger beer for the grankids, tried it once, thank god i used plastic bottles, had it in small pantry, blew the door off pantry bottles flew across 2 rooms and one hell of a mess to clean, but what the hell willing to give it another go. Local brew shop has been helpful in explaining things to me, helps also that i get my cheese supplies from there can kill 2 birds with one stone when shopping, any title to books (beginners type)that anyone has would be helpful, thanks for he good wishes from all

 

[hoppy2B]

'How to Brew' by John Palmer. You can find it on the internet. Worth a look at.
Horehound is a herb you may find growing in grain producing areas. The English brought it out for beer making.
I can mail you out some seeds if you like. I have it growing on my patch. It's a weed. :lol:

 

[keezawitch]

'How to Brew' by John Palmer. You can find it on the internet. Worth a look at.
Horehound is a herb you may find growing in grain producing areas. The English brought it out for beer making.
I can mail you out some seeds if you like. I have it growing on my patch. It's a weed. :lol:

I would appreciate some seeds, dont want to put address up for all to see though, so how would i be able to give address for mailing

 

[freezkat]

I worked so hard on this it is worth quoting myself

Next kit feel free to dip the can in the pot too to get all the goo (pre-hopped liquid malt extract..LME )out.

The white stuff was likely a mix of mostly dextrose (Dex) and some maltodextrin.

To speed things up... A few hours before you start putting the beer together you can mix 15g of the white stuff with a pint of water and boil it. Let it cool to 22C. Then pour that into a sanitized jar and mix it with the yeast. Put the cap on tight and shake the snot out of it. Loosen the cap, keep it out of the light, check it every now and then so it doesn't foam over. Swirl it occasionally to knock down the foam. (Similar idea to punching down bread dough)

When you do Cooper's "no-boil" method your sanitation is critical. Also make certain your sanitizer is either a "no rinse" type and you mixed it right. (Sodium Per Carbonate is very popular here. I like Star-san). Too strong of a sanitizer residue and you could kill all the yeast. Don't trust anything to be clean from the factory. Always sanitize your thermometer, hydrometer, testing jar (sample tube) or anything that touches the cooled down wort/beer. I like wiping these down with Rubbing Alcohol and let it evaporate before using them.

If you bottle, remove all the labels and glue residue. Use the bottle brush till every speck of crap is gone. Feel free to put the bottles in the dishwasher on sani-temp shortly before bottling. Let them cool of course. Even after all that, I still dunk my bottles in Star-san for a few minutes then tip to drain for a few minutes to get any excess foam out. If there is a little in there...don't fear the foam. Don't worry about it.

Don't use sucrose for bottling. It doesn't taste good. Use dextrose or DME (dried malt extract). Your kit likely came with priming sugar for bottling. It will be dextrose. If you have a bottling bucket mix all of the required sugar in there. (Individual bottle priming sucks, when you need to do 50 of them.) The filling stick takes some getting accustomed to. Press down...beer flows...lift up...flow stops. Stop filling just at the base of the neck of the bottle, then lift the stick up to the top of the neck and press the inside of the bottle neck near the top. Slowly fill up to 40mm to the top of the bottle. Fill 12 at a time and keep them in a crate or divided box so they don't tip. Then cap all of them (Repeat until you a finished). Between batches...Lift the filling stick above the bottling bucket and let the beer drain back into the bucket. Press the hose shut-off clamp. I like to jam the stick between the bucket and the bale wire pointing up so it doesn't drip or get dirty. You can use a turkey baster to get the remaining beer out of the bucket that you couldn't attain by tilting the bucket. If at the end you can't fill a bottle at least halfway up the neck. Dump it, cook with it, drink it..just don't bottle it. You could top it off with any beer, then cap it...but what's the point of that?

 

[Kingbrownbrewing]

**** all that shit.

Find someone close to you who is doing similar or as close as possible as what you want to do.
Post a new thread saying you want to attend an AG brewday to learn, someone will put their hand up and help out.
Ask them if you can brew with them. From there you'll be able to find out and see first hand the process and have better understanding of what's happening, terminology used and why we do what we do.
Ask Questions!!

Not to say that reading and youtube aren't benificial, but nothing beats 'hands on'.

Now, growing and malting grain is impractical unless you have a fuckload of land and a shitload of time, it's a lot of work for little return in a home brewer setting.
But if you can do it, go for it, it's not going to kill you and we'd all be interested in hearing about how you go about doing it.

Growing Hops is definitely doable, but don't expect to just plant them and walk away. you'll need to keep them fairly spaced out if you're growing multiple varieties and you'll also need to give them plenty of vertical room (they like to grow up a wire\trellis)

My advice to you is:
Attend a brew day with someone who's already brewing the same process as what you want to brew.
once you understand the process and the reasons why we do what we do, then look at introducing your own malted grain and hops.

Anyway,

Welcome to brewing and post a thread asking someone if you can check out their brewday.

BF

I could not agree more to the above statement.

I wanted to brew for ages, had been on numerous craft brewery tours, have bought every single 'how to brew' book that amazon offers, but until I sat in on a brewday with Scotty from Stone & Wood on his ghetto (sorry Scotty) home system, I had absolutely no idea where to start or what to do. Watching someone else do it with ease and the weirdest gear really puts in all into perspective and allows you to build your own brewery to suit your location, space and expected volume. (Scottys kettle is an old washing machine, I kid you not. And I still cannot brew a beer even close to what he can brew)

Find a brewday, take a video camera or take notes.

 

[Linz]

If none of the guys from western sydney brewers(have a look in the clubs, or whatever its called, section) hasnt PMed you yet......MALE has a meet tonight (5/1/12) at Narellan(down the Northern road) at anticos wood fired pizza, struggletown....C'mon down and pick some brains

 

[Nick JD]

Youtube. Seriously.

There's about a gazilion and a half in-depth videos on how to make beer on there.

Hell, if you want to know how to retap a minced sparkplug thread, it's there too. Replace the rear speakers in your car? There.

Youtube is the place to learn stuff. Last week I learned I could be both revolted and turned on at the same time by a young girl's eyebrows.