Home of the BrewNosers

Been a essential beer drinker all my life and want to start brewing beer myself at home.. Any ideas or suggestion to start up home brewing would be greatly appreciated..

Man, lot's of options, but BIAB seems to be the flavour of the month.

Welcome!

Welcome! Festabrew kits are probably the easiest way to get started.

Sent from the brew timer.

Yes, Festabrew kit is a good way to get your feet wet

Thanks a lot for your suggestion.. So festa brew it is.. I should go to noble grape to get a brew and also check out on the equipment I need to brew...

starter kits with a festa brew included were something like 89.99 just before Xmas. Gets you everything you need to get started with festa.

OK...........got a festabrew kit.. blonde lager.. Have started the primary fermentation and can see the airlock bubbling away.. Am going to wait till the bubbles come down to about 3 or 5 a minute before I siphon into the carboy.. ...

Measure gravity before transferring to Secondary or bottling

Welcome, and hide your credit cards.

Tony L wrote:Welcome, and hide your credit cards.

The best advice you could give a new home brewer.

yups - I can already sense the feeling about the credit card.. Am already looking at buying one more carboy to get the next batch rolling lol..

Plus there is a lovely smell coming from the beer fermenting..

sleepyjamie wrote:Measure gravity before transferring to Secondary or bottling

If the gravity doesn't change after at least 2 successive readings, then you are good to go. With a lager, I would put it in the secondary and find the coldest spot you can and leave it.

Glad to hear you are getting into the hobby. It's a great way to spend every dollar you have.

Where are you brewing out of?

OK.. I get it.. I will take the gravity reading on the 5th and 6th day to check and see if it changes.. If not am planning to get into the secondary glass carboy... and coldest spot it is...

OK.. Just moved the lager into the secondary carboy.. its resting now.. no krausen at all.. am keeping an eye to see if the beer is clearing.. Will let it ferment and clear for about 2 - 3 weeks now..

handsomebuddha wrote:OK.. Just moved the lager into the secondary carboy.. its resting now.. no krausen at all.. am keeping an eye to see if the beer is clearing.. Will let it ferment and clear for about 2 - 3 weeks now..

Are you lagering it (leaving it in the cold?)? If not it will probably finish fermenting much sooner then 3 weeks.

I believe not... It is in the coolest place in my home.. Have to invest in a beer refrigeration soon.. Its in my closed temperature should be around 19 - 21C.. any advise is highly appreciated.. am looking at letting it for 2 weeks before I bottle it with dextrose.. Leave it another 2 weeks and then rack it in my refrigerator...

handsomebuddha wrote:I believe not... It is in the coolest place in my home.. Have to invest in a beer refrigeration soon.. Its in my closed temperature should be around 19 - 21C.. any advise is highly appreciated.. am looking at letting it for 2 weeks before I bottle it with dextrose.. Leave it another 2 weeks and then rack it in my refrigerator...

only thing i'll mention, it may or may not carbonate fully in 2 weeks after bottling. best thing to do is to leave all the bottles at room temp so the yeast can continue to work, and cool a bottle to taste and confirm its carbonated