Seeking homebrew guidance...

BlackDog · 10-09-2010, 05:25 PM

I've been brewing for about 6 months now. I bought the smaller kit from MW, similar to the above, but with one carboy only. Within a month I bought a second carboy, so it may have been cheaper to buy the larger kit all at once.

BUT, I've learned since that many homebrewers don't put there beers in secondary at all, which negates the need for a carboy except for big beers which need longer to age. Many successful homebrewers leave their "normal" beers in the primary bucket for 2 weeks, transfer it to the bottling bucket and bottle it, avoiding secondary entirely.

The one "rule" I'd pass along, which you've probably already learned, is that successful brewing is almost entirely dependent upon good cleanliness and sanitation practices. Keep everything clean and you'll almost certainly brew good beer.

But having said that, brewing is pretty forgiving. I've made some sort of mistake on a number of batches (dropped a piece of the air lock into the wort, forgot to check the original gravity, pitched yeast too hot, etc.) and I've only had one bad batch, when I used bleach to sanitize my bottles and didn't rinse them well enough. Bleach flavored IPA isn't very tasty.

The upside of brewing is that even as a beginner you can make some awesome beers. My last batch was a dunkelweissen which just came out great. It's really rewarding when someone drinks one of your beers, looks at you and says "You made this?"

10-09-2010, 05:25 PM	#3
BlackDog Gonna make you groove... Join Date: Oct 2008 First Name: Warren Location: Minneapolis, MN Posts: 2,468 Trading: (19)	Re: Seeking homebrew guidance... I've been brewing for about 6 months now. I bought the smaller kit from MW, similar to the above, but with one carboy only. Within a month I bought a second carboy, so it may have been cheaper to buy the larger kit all at once. BUT, I've learned since that many homebrewers don't put there beers in secondary at all, which negates the need for a carboy except for big beers which need longer to age. Many successful homebrewers leave their "normal" beers in the primary bucket for 2 weeks, transfer it to the bottling bucket and bottle it, avoiding secondary entirely. The one "rule" I'd pass along, which you've probably already learned, is that successful brewing is almost entirely dependent upon good cleanliness and sanitation practices. Keep everything clean and you'll almost certainly brew good beer. But having said that, brewing is pretty forgiving. I've made some sort of mistake on a number of batches (dropped a piece of the air lock into the wort, forgot to check the original gravity, pitched yeast too hot, etc.) and I've only had one bad batch, when I used bleach to sanitize my bottles and didn't rinse them well enough. Bleach flavored IPA isn't very tasty. The upside of brewing is that even as a beginner you can make some awesome beers. My last batch was a dunkelweissen which just came out great. It's really rewarding when someone drinks one of your beers, looks at you and says "You made this?" __________________ "We live in the good of this."