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Posted: 1/6/2016 3:00:44 PM EDT
[#1]
Nice!
Make sure to take your time and read through the instructions. Block out about 2-3 hours for it when you get a chance so you aren't rushing. Then enjoy your new hobby!  |
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Posted: 1/9/2016 1:28:36 PM EDT
[#2]
Well done wifey!
You've just entered a black hole that is home brewing. It's one of the most satisfying hobbies there is! There's nothing better than having family and friends over and serving them beer that you brewed up yourself. You'll have people that turn their noses up at it, but even more people that rave about it and want to tell all their friends just how good your beer tastes! It really is one of the more rewarding things you can do. Good luck with your first batches! |
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Posted: 1/11/2016 5:22:31 PM EDT
[#3]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Nice! Make sure to take your time and read through the instructions. Block out about 2-3 hours for it when you get a chance so you aren't rushing. Then enjoy your new hobby! Definitely read and have a firm understanding of the basic principles before your brew. Set aside about 5 hours for your first brew. You likely won't need that much time, but it's better to finish early rather than rushing to finish so you can run off elsewhere. John Palmer's How to Brew book (available free here, also available as a paperback) is a great book to learn the basics. Charlie Papazian's The Complete Joy of Homebrewing and The Homebrewer's Companion are great second steps. Check out Home Brew Talk for lots of info and recipes. Good luck with your first brew! You'll be addicted shortly. |
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Posted: 1/11/2016 6:07:58 PM EDT
[#4]
Thanks! I cant wait to do my first one, gonna probably do it in February, I am going out of town next week for a week.
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Posted: 1/26/2016 4:02:39 PM EDT
[#5]
My wife got me the same kit, but with glass carboys. I got the Irish Red extract kit with mine.
I am currently on day8 of primary fermentation. The bubbles are slowing down so...I guess I will transfer to my secondary fermentation carboy within the next fewdays. I take a little peek at my creation every day-at least once. I hope to hell I did it right. |
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Posted: 1/26/2016 5:14:40 PM EDT
[#6]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
My wife got me the same kit, but with glass carboys. I got the Irish Red extract kit with mine. I am currently on day8 of primary fermentation. The bubbles are slowing down so...I guess I will transfer to my secondary fermentation carboy within the next fewdays. I take a little peek at my creation every day-at least once. I hope to hell I did it right. Don't expect a LOT from your first one, but it was a great learning experience! An Irish Red is low gravity and should be done by day 5 at most if pitched well, but I have seen wierder things :) Your 2 main things to focus on? Sanitation and Yeast --you will usually make at least drinkable beer with those 2 things 
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Posted: 1/26/2016 5:19:52 PM EDT
[#7]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
My wife got me the same kit, but with glass carboys. I got the Irish Red extract kit with mine. I am currently on day8 of primary fermentation. The bubbles are slowing down so...I guess I will transfer to my secondary fermentation carboy within the next fewdays. I take a little peek at my creation every day-at least once. I hope to hell I did it right. Don't bother with secondaries unless your putting additives in your brew or have a long term brew that needs to age. Keep it in the original fermentation bucket for 2-3 weeks and bottle it. The less you monkey with the beer the less your chance of doing something wrong IMO. |
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Posted: 1/27/2016 8:54:51 PM EDT
[#8]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Don't bother with secondaries unless your putting additives in your brew or have a long term brew that needs to age. Keep it in the original fermentation bucket for 2-3 weeks and bottle it. The less you monkey with the beer the less your chance of doing something wrong IMO. Quote HistoryQuoted: Quoted: My wife got me the same kit, but with glass carboys. I got the Irish Red extract kit with mine. I am currently on day8 of primary fermentation. The bubbles are slowing down so...I guess I will transfer to my secondary fermentation carboy within the next fewdays. I take a little peek at my creation every day-at least once. I hope to hell I did it right. Don't bother with secondaries unless your putting additives in your brew or have a long term brew that needs to age. Keep it in the original fermentation bucket for 2-3 weeks and bottle it. The less you monkey with the beer the less your chance of doing something wrong IMO. Yep. The idea of using a secondary for every batch was from 10-20 years ago when people severely under pitched yeast and generally used unhealthy yeast which led to off flavors from bad/dead yeast much earlier. If you pitch a healthy and large batch of yeast, you can leave it on the cake for months. |
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Posted: 1/27/2016 10:38:47 PM EDT
[#9]
I don't secondary, I leave it in the primary for about a month. I would secondary if lagering or adding fruit and maybe woodchips. All the kit instructions say to secondary and I'm not sure why, but you really don't need to and you will probably get better results if you don't.
https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=15108.5;wap2 |
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Posted: 2/2/2016 11:46:29 PM EDT
[#10]
Congrats, you have just gotten into a hobby thats almost as bad as BRD
Anyone want to take bets on how long it takes him to get into kegging and allgrain? |
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Posted: 2/3/2016 12:28:22 PM EDT
[#11]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Congrats, you have just gotten into a hobby thats almost as bad as BRD
Anyone want to take bets on how long it takes him to get into kegging and allgrain? LOL.. One of my friends is doing the bowflex(just sitting in his garage for years) into a brewflex and is planning to go all grain. I want to be able to keg and get a kegerator at some point but will take it slow. I also have a name for my IPA now. H-1B IPA |
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Posted: 2/8/2016 2:16:08 PM EDT
[#12]
My first Kit was done in 1992 or 93 using a hopped LME IPA kit. I bottled it up using Grolsh bottles and 3-4 blew up in my closet while they carbonated. But it was the best damn beer I ever drank.
Well not really but it got you drunk as a mofo and I was hooked.
Rule #1 when making beer is to relax and have a homebrew. Rule #2 is you will end up making beer. Probably pretty good too if you do not have an infection. 
It is easy fun and a great way to enjoy and explore new styles. It can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be. I went from making only batch at a time to having 1 batch ready to drink, 1 carbonating, and one in the fermenter. Then I went all-grain, then to kegging, jumped up to 10-12 gallon bqatches, to yeast ranching, and was moving up to buying slants and propagating different strains of yeast. At the end of the day I made some really great beers I could share with friends and family and I had a blast. 
Good luck to you and brew on! |
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Posted: 2/14/2016 12:33:10 PM EDT
[#13]
And dont forget
Sanitize, sanitize, sanitize |
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Posted: 2/25/2016 2:46:23 AM EDT
[#14]
Send me a 6 pack and you will have a full report in the morning....
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Posted: 2/25/2016 4:00:29 AM EDT
[#15]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Send me a 6 pack and you will have a full report in the morning.... Holy cow you are back on here! Done man. Ill send some up when I brew!! |
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Posted: 2/25/2016 12:57:58 PM EDT
[#16]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Holy cow you are back on here! Done man. Ill send some up when I brew!! Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Send me a 6 pack and you will have a full report in the morning.... Holy cow you are back on here! Done man. Ill send some up when I brew!! Yeah it's been a while...glad to see the misses is encouraging the brews. Hoping we can get down there this fall and get some much needed time with you guys. |
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Posted: 2/25/2016 5:35:30 PM EDT
[#17]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Yeah it's been a while...glad to see the misses is encouraging the brews. Hoping we can get down there this fall and get some much needed time with you guys. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Send me a 6 pack and you will have a full report in the morning.... Holy cow you are back on here! Done man. Ill send some up when I brew!! Yeah it's been a while...glad to see the misses is encouraging the brews. Hoping we can get down there this fall and get some much needed time with you guys. She loves beer.. she graduated from hefeweisen when i met her.. now she goes after the high gravity stuff in the stout and porter category and is even coming around to some ipa's!! We want to come up and see you guys as well! |
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Posted: 2/28/2016 9:55:58 PM EDT
[#18]
Update:
I went ahead and did the secondary ferment for 2 weeks. Now I've had the beer bottled for two weeks, but apparently I didn't have it in a warm enough place and it is...flat. Good but flat. Should I just keep waiting? I did turn the bottles and moved them to a warmer place. What do you think? |
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Posted: 2/28/2016 10:34:56 PM EDT
[#19]
I would give it another week in a warmer location before I crack the next one.
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Posted: 2/29/2016 9:17:39 PM EDT
[#20]
I like three weeks for bottle conditioning. My room temperature is typically in the mid to upper 70s. After three weeks of conditioning, it is really important to throw the bottles in the fridge for two to three days to continue forcing co2 into the beer.
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Posted: 3/18/2016 4:53:01 PM EDT
[#21]
I conditioned the beer a little longer and...
It's damn near perfect! My family drank it up last night. Thanks for the advice! |
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Posted: 3/26/2016 6:04:46 PM EDT
[#22]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Yep. The idea of using a secondary for every batch was from 10-20 years ago when people severely under pitched yeast and generally used unhealthy yeast which led to off flavors from bad/dead yeast much earlier. If you pitch a healthy and large batch of yeast, you can leave it on the cake for months. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
My wife got me the same kit, but with glass carboys. I got the Irish Red extract kit with mine. I am currently on day8 of primary fermentation. The bubbles are slowing down so...I guess I will transfer to my secondary fermentation carboy within the next fewdays. I take a little peek at my creation every day-at least once. I hope to hell I did it right. Don't bother with secondaries unless your putting additives in your brew or have a long term brew that needs to age. Keep it in the original fermentation bucket for 2-3 weeks and bottle it. The less you monkey with the beer the less your chance of doing something wrong IMO. Yep. The idea of using a secondary for every batch was from 10-20 years ago when people severely under pitched yeast and generally used unhealthy yeast which led to off flavors from bad/dead yeast much earlier. If you pitch a healthy and large batch of yeast, you can leave it on the cake for months. A counter point to a secondary, it is also very helpful to clean up your beer if you intend to bottle it. By using a secondary you will not (or shouldn't be) have the trub that settles to the bottom. Even with a secondary you still need to transfer to a bottling 'bucket.) Contamination is a concern each time to touch your beer so if you're kegging, skip the secondary. Also if you're adding stuff (dry hopping/Wood chips/spices/etc,) you'll need to do a secondary. This is yet another reason I keg, transferring beer is a bit of a pain so I like to only do it once. |
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Posted: 3/26/2016 6:07:25 PM EDT
[#23]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Update: I went ahead and did the secondary ferment for 2 weeks. Now I've had the beer bottled for two weeks, but apparently I didn't have it in a warm enough place and it is...flat. Good but flat. Should I just keep waiting? I did turn the bottles and moved them to a warmer place. What do you think? 2 weeks is pushing it for 'bottle conditioning' really you need 3-4 weeks assuming your room temp is around 70. Once you get that point, throw it in the fridge and you should be there. |
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Posted: 3/31/2016 11:56:57 AM EDT
[#24]
I brewed my first beer, it's now been in the bottle 2 weeks. I drank one after 10 days and it had some carb but needed more. I think I'll bottle condition this one for a month before it'll be fully ready. At 9.2% it needs some time anyway.
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Posted: 7/22/2016 9:32:26 PM EDT
[#25]
What about bottling temp if you're going to use your basement that is easily 60 degrees.
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