So as a first post I am going to briefly outline how I got started into hombrewing and things I have done along the way. First of all I started brewing with my buddy Frank. We had been discussing brewing together for quite some time and his father (who is in the process of starting a brew pub) gave us a Coopers Ale kit that he received as a gift. http://www.coopers.com.au/ The kits are all extract kits, they are pretty straight forward. You pretty much just mix some syrup and water then let it sit in a fermenter for a couple weeks. It was a great way to get started because the kit contained a fermenter that you can bottle from. The fermenter holds about 8 gallons and I still use it today.
After the coopers kit experiment we were hooked. We obtained a book by Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head beer and brewed an IPA recipe that he gave in the book. This recipe was a partial mash recipe meaning you steep some grains in hot water, these grains give the beer is malty flavor. After you steep the grains you add malt extract which is a powder or liquid that adds sugar which will later be tuned into alcohol by the yeast. I will say that if you are going to start brewing start get a couple extract brews under your belt to start. They are much more simple then all grain and a fun way to learn the ropes and make great beer at the same time. In our early days of brewing we often went to South Hills Brew Supply in Pittsburgh. The guys who work there are great, we would go into the store with a recipe we found online or an idea of what we wanted to brew. The owner would walk around the store with us showing where all the ingredients are and answering any questions about what we were doing along the way. Some stores get frustrated with new brewers but these guys are great.
Once we had brewed a couple batches of extract beer we jumped into the world of all grain. This is a big step, the first couple batches were near disastrous. Somehow malt was dripping from the walls, ceiling and every pot in the house. There are many different methods you can use for all grain and I will cover a couple in this blog. There is a lot of information on the subject, I mostly rely on The Complete Joy of Hombrewing, a book by Charlie Papazain and Home Brew Talk an online forum http://www.homebrewtalk.com/.
That’s all for now!
