Beginner Brewer Here, Looking for advice

[AndyBurgs]

Hey Folks,

Just wanted to introduce myself, I'm Andrew and I've recently developed a huge interest in craft beer with hopes of being able to brew some great stuff down the road.

Myself, along with my buddy titosbrewing have been looking into starting our home brewing setup and would love any tips or advice when it comes to building a DIY setup and the must haves.

Feel free to message myself or tito if you'd like to help out in any way, currently trying to put together a somewhat nice setup with more than just the store bought beginner kit.

Cheers,
Andrew

[chalmers]

Welcome Andy!

Can you tell us some of the parameters you have in your system:
Indoor or outdoor?
Propane vs electric vs stovetop?
What volume of wort or beer do you want to end up with?
Full mash/Lauter or Brew In A Bag?

[AndyBurgs]

Right now what we have is the simple kit equipment, but looking to mod it a bit two mimic more toward a full grain mash or BIAB system. Probably will start with a stove top set and ideally looking to focus on brewing IPAS or maybe some other easy brews.

Wondering if there's any links for step by step instructions for DIY setups and how we can move to a more sophisticated setup than just the store bought bucket.

Hoping to have our first brewday this weekend with whatever we can get together by then.

Cheers,
Andrew

[wcturnedec]

Right now what we have is the simple kit equipment, but looking to mod it a bit two mimic more toward a full grain mash or BIAB system. Probably will start with a stove top set and ideally looking to focus on brewing IPAS or maybe some other easy brews.

• When you say simple kit, do you mean something like this? https://www.noblegrape.ca/collections/b ... tarter-kit

• What equipment do you have for the hot side? IE: Mash/lauter tun, kettle etc

• Like chalmers said above, knowing what batch size or final volume of beer you'd want will determine your equipment choices.

• If you want to go the BIAB route and have an appropriate sized kettle you can contact Becky to make you a bag https://www.mashedin.beer/collections/c ... a-bag-biab. Although I doubt it would be ready in time for this weekend.

Wondering if there's any links for step by step instructions for DIY setups and how we can move to a more sophisticated setup than just the store bought bucket.

• You would want to ferment in something more sophisticated than a bucket? Go the conical route?

• Personally if this is your first brew, I'd do either a partial mash (extract + specialty grains) or small (1-2 gallon) all grain BIAB batch as the initial equipment investment would less than a full volume (5-6 gallon) all grain batch.

Hope this helps, let me know if you have any other questions.

[AndyBurgs]

Yes, I believe the kit would be similar to that noble grape one you linked; may also include a glass carboy.

I do have a metal pot that ill be installing a ball valve and thermometer to use as our kettle, and looking to use a basic cooler as an improvised mash tun.

Probably just looking to start with a small batch to get the process down, something along the lines that you'd expect by using a store bought kit.

And I believe we are gonna try to do a hybrid partial mash with about 50/50 extract and grains.

All advice is very helpful as we are trying to jump right in and learn as we go, thank you very much!

Cheers,
Andrew

[wcturnedec]

Think all this sounds good Andrew, definitely learn as you go and have fun!

[AndyBurgs]

Any tips on where to get a cheap wort chiller, as this may be one of the last thing we initially need?

Cheers,
Andrew

[wcturnedec]

Well if you are doing partial mash/extract recipes (and smaller batches) to start you may not need an immersion chiller as you will be topping up with cold water (post-boil) to reach your final volume in the carboy. For years even my smaller all grain batches I used an ice-bath in the sink.