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JEFFfromNC wrote:To busy with my Zymurgy hobby,

Ya know.. I've actually thought about doing this myself.. I have a friend that does it and is very good at it.. it's just busting out and getting all the equipment and malts/hops/etc initially.... send me some good brews..

Who has time for PHP when you can be brewing!!!

Right now I have a Red Chery Ale in Secondary and should be kegged next week, I have a English Brown Ale (Newcastle) I brewed yesterday and is in primary fermentation, and a English Old Peculiar waiting to be brewed this coming weekend. After that I will be doing a honey wheat, then a sweet stout, and then maybe an IPA. Been brewing about once a week and it will not be long before I have way too much beer ageing around the house. I do love the sweet smell of wort (unfermented beer) lingering around the house. If you do get interested, go buy "The joy of home brewing" by Charlie Papazian. This is the bible and should be read from front to back before brewing.

I dropped about $550 on all of the initial equipment. This is high because I also bought a 3 Cornelius keg CO2 system ($200). I wanted to keg my brews instead of bottling it all, but I did buy all of the bottling equipment. The English Old Peculiar will all be bottled for a good friend of mine.

This cost will cover your basics for extract brewing. Now getting into All grain brewing you will need more equipment but your price for ingredients will come down in the long run.

I am extract brewing until I can build or buy the remaining equipmnet need for all grain brewing. A extract recipie will run about $25-$35 per 5 gal. batch.

I could go on and on about brewing because I really enjoy it, but here are a couple good reasons to homebrew:

1. It’s a good way to relax.
2. Brewing satisfies an urge to be creative, which is in itself therapeutic.
3. You have the pleasing prospect of offering your friends and relatives something special that you made with your own hands. It’s also fun to get all the compliments that will come with this effort.
4. You will be connected to a ritual that has endured many centuries.
5. If you are so inclined, it is fun to enter your beers in local or national beer contests.
6. It is fun to familiarize yourself with the many, varied beer styles.
7. You get to brew what you like and not the shit the stores have to offer.
8. Avoid thoes taxes!!!

etc...etc...

If you (Pat) or anyone else gets interested in this let me know and I can point you in some good directions.

i'd like some directions.. was going to start off with one of those packaged starter kits i see around, but wasn't sure if those were a bad way to start and possibly better off buying everything seperately.. thanks for anything you've got to offer...

Well Francis I am still a little new to the hobby but I will give you the basics for starting.

First and most importantly:

"The Joy of Home Brewing" by Charlie Papazian

Go buy it, read it, study it, sleep with it under your pillow, etc.....
You get the point. It is the bible of brewing. This book will discuss all of the equipment, ingredients, and procedures you need to know.

Here is an online book about brewing:
http://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html

Second:

Find a local HBS (Homebrew store) and order your equipment. You should be able to put together a list of equipment from Papazian’s book. If you have a local HBS then someone there should be more then willing to help you pick out equipment. It sort of sucks if you don't have a local HBS, but you can get away with ordering everything from the internet. You just get stuck with paying shipping charges and these shipping costs can be a lot for your initial equipment purchase.

Here is a link for the store I use. This store is local to me, but they also do internet sales. Shop around for online stores if you don’t have a local one!
http://www.ebrew.com/

Third:

Locate and join a brewing forum. Folks on beer/brew forums are very friendly and are always willing to answer questions you may have. Two that I can recommend (but there are others out there):

http://forums.homebrew.com/

http://forum.northernbrewer.com/


Forth:

BREW!!! Now that you have read the book, bought the equipment, and had all of your questions answered, it’s time to brew. Sanitation is about one of the most important steps in the process. If it is not sanitized, then it must never touch the brew!!! You’ll read all about it in the book. When you first start brewing it will be with extracts instead of all grain. You can read about the differences between the two. Extract brewing is very easy for the beginner and takes a less time and equipment then all grain brewing. You usually can buy an extract kit that has everything you need including: Malt extracts, specialty malts, bittering hops, flavoring hops, aromatic hops, fining additives, sugar for bottling, yeast, and instructions. I am currently extract brewing while I collect and build the equipment for all grain brewing.

The downside: You will be waiting for 4+ weeks before drinking your brew. The longer the better!!!


Due to lack of time I am going to cut this short. Charlie Papazian's book is going to give you all the information you need. It may suck waiting to read the book before brewing, but DO it. You will have less mistakes and you will not be questioning things on brew day. If you or anyone has questions along the way please feel free to ask me. Try to keep it to this thread.