Home Brewery Kits

[Vanimal46]

The girlfriend and I exchanged Xmas gifts early since we're not spending the holidays together, and she gave me a home brewing kit. I love beer, so I'm open to trying this out. Has anyone had success brewing their own beer at home before? If so, I would appreciate any advice you can give me. Or am I just going to get frustrated and wish I had a real beer to drink?

The link is the kit I received. 

[DaveW]

I did Mr Beer before, it's ok, nothing earth shattering. I have a lot of friends and family who home brew, what I have found is you get what you put into it, patience is important as is experimentation. Start with Mr beer, see if you like it, if you do, then get a full set up. I have a full set up collecting dust at the girlfriends folks place, need to give it another shot!

 

Have fun!

[Mike Sixel]

Right, Mr. Beer is the starter kit, to see if you like it......if you do, you'll quickly outgrow Mr. Beer. I used to brew a lot back in the day, you can really make great beer. Mr. Beer should not be frustrating at all. If she didn't get you a particular recipe.....start with a brown ale. Easiest to make and have turn out. 100%, if you are interested, go to a local homebrew place and just see if you click with one of the employees and can pick their brain.

 

I really enjoyed brewing beer with friends, and seeing what we came up with. It is a good, easy, communal project.

 

#1 priority is to follow all sanitizing steps/instructions. You must have clean equipment. Number 2 is to use non-chlorinated water. If your city water is pretty treated, or you use bottled water, make sure you use water that has not been treated much.

[Vanimal46]

Awesome, thanks for all of the tips Mike and Dave! I'm flying back to Minnesota this weekend for the holidays, but I'm looking forward to giving this a try when I get back to Austin. 

[DaveW]

Right, Mr. Beer is the starter kit, to see if you like it......if you do, you'll quickly outgrow Mr. Beer. I used to brew a lot back in the day, you can really make great beer. Mr. Beer should not be frustrating at all. If she didn't get you a particular recipe.....start with a brown ale. Easiest to make and have turn out. 100%, if you are interested, go to a local homebrew place and just see if you click with one of the employees and can pick their brain.

 

I really enjoyed brewing beer with friends, and seeing what we came up with. It is a good, easy, communal project.

 

#1 priority is to follow all sanitizing steps/instructions. You must have clean equipment. Number 2 is to use non-chlorinated water. If your city water is pretty treated, or you use bottled water, make sure you use water that has not been treated much.

I wish I had enough room to get back into it for sure, stupid NYC! It is really fun to finally after weeks of waiting crack open some brews you made, even if they aren't great it's still fun. Also +1 on the sanitation tip.

 

I took a whiskey making class recently, I think I'm gonna give that a shot sometime soon.

[ALessKosherScott]

+2 on cleanliness. The key is keeping everything clean and contamination free. Iodine solution is your friend.

 

Good luck, and be afraid when you start ordering glass carboys and fancy outside burners