My First Brew Ever! ...and a few questions

[philm00x]

Congrats on your first brew, and welcome to the Borg!

[FedoraDave]

Welcome, Caps.

Stick around. We have beer.

[radonc73]

Welcome Caps to your new obsession.

[mtsoxfan]

Welcome aboard... Enjoy the ride...

[Banjo-guy]

Welcome Caps!

[BeerRust]

Welcome. I agree with the advice you have already have received.

As for the fruit, raspberry seems to come through the most of any fruit, and adding after primary fermentation is complete.

[FedoraDave]

I don't want to discourage you or sound like I'm being a downer, Caps, but my own personal advice (based on my own personal experience) is to go easy on any additions this early in your brewing journey. Right now, you need to get familiar with the process, comfortable with the basics, and establish your method. And you need to ground yourself in the basic ingredients. While it's pretty safe to add some fruit to a blonde ale, you're still experimenting with an unknown when it comes to that particular blonde ale. Let me throw a "what-if" out there:

What if you make a raspberry beer and you don't like it? Does this mean you don't like raspberry additions? Or does it mean you don't like the addition you made to that particular kit? Or does it mean you don't like the base beer you added the fruit to? Or does it mean you added too much or too little?

What I'm getting at is you're experimenting with complete unknowns, so you're going to have a tougher time evaluating and modifying. I went through the same thing when I first started brewing, and once I stopped and just brewed the kits as-is, I actually was able to progress much faster.

Of course, it's your beer, and you can do with it as you please, and I wish you much success whatever you decide. And I definitely understand the desire to customize your beer. I just thought I'd offer my own experience and rationale. If you intend to brew for years to come, then you've got a lot of time to create signature brews that will really light up your eyes. It's worth slowing down and learning the few basics now.

[haerbob3]

I second what Dave is saying. My brewing got a lot better when I did kits as is when I first started brewing. I am chef so flavor profiles is something I deal with every day. Yet my first mad scientist beers were not very successful. I would add do not chase ABV right now either. It would be very easy to render a beer to be nearly undrinkable. I hate to say this but go to MR B's site and take a look at their fruit beer kits. This will at least give you a starting point. I do not know if Brew Demon sells kits for fruit beers. I would start with a kit. That way you know you have a working recipe. I have been brewing (AG) for awhile. When I try a new style of beer I often buy a kit and brew it as is to get a feel for it.

[jimjohson]

gotta agree with The Hat and harebob, you'll do better to do at least a couple straight, and like harebob suggests start with a kit.

[Capitals82]

I don't want to discourage you or sound like I'm being a downer, Caps, but my own personal advice (based on my own personal experience) is to go easy on any additions this early in your brewing journey. Right now, you need to get familiar with the process, comfortable with the basics, and establish your method. And you need to ground yourself in the basic ingredients. While it's pretty safe to add some fruit to a blonde ale, you're still experimenting with an unknown when it comes to that particular blonde ale. Let me throw a "what-if" out there:

What if you make a raspberry beer and you don't like it? Does this mean you don't like raspberry additions? Or does it mean you don't like the addition you made to that particular kit? Or does it mean you don't like the base beer you added the fruit to? Or does it mean you added too much or too little?

What I'm getting at is you're experimenting with complete unknowns, so you're going to have a tougher time evaluating and modifying. I went through the same thing when I first started brewing, and once I stopped and just brewed the kits as-is, I actually was able to progress much faster.

Of course, it's your beer, and you can do with it as you please, and I wish you much success whatever you decide. And I definitely understand the desire to customize your beer. I just thought I'd offer my own experience and rationale. If you intend to brew for years to come, then you've got a lot of time to create signature brews that will really light up your eyes. It's worth slowing down and learning the few basics now.

Dave, I gotta also agree with everything you said. Even though I haven't even tried the finished product yet of my first beer, I probably got a bit ahead of myself with the idea of adding fruit. You are completely right about trying out my first batch, seeing how it goes, then trying out the Weizenbeir by itself and then deciding wheather or not to add fruit.

like a lot (most?) of people that first get into home brewing, it's super easy to go all mad scientist on the whole thing at first. I'll slow down, take in what you all have to say and educate myself on all this. I can tell this is something i'm probably going to enjoy for a long time so let me make a few batches and see how they go.

Thanks again ALL for your recommendations and advice.

[SoonerMike]

As newbie myself, just wanted to say hello and welcome.

[T8rSalad]

Welcome A-Borg Caps!

Christmas 2011 I was blessed with a gift of a Mr Beer Kit from my daughter (SWMBO is still cussing her)...lost my brewing virginity with a Cowboy Golden Lager and brewed 2-3 more prior to my Enlightenment of joining the MB Community NOW BeerBorg. Hopefully I do not insult or hurt anyone's feelings here but I have NEVER heard more SAGE advice than what flows from "The Hat's" utterances. And i and many other homebrewers thank him.

To this day, I always revert back to the first time I read those wise words. After that popped cherry experience, I went crazy mad and thought i would throw this in or that in, oh, and let's kick it up 2 notches of ABV by adding more brown sugar or spice of this or that. I have so much old MB refills, I just go to the Wayback Machine and brew up a trusted recipe of whatever...Mr. Fedora Dave, you still speak those wise words to those newbies among us yet I greatly appreciate hearing them over and over again. I bow down to thee.

Caps, welcome and heed Hat's words of extremely sageful wisdom!!! I do

[FedoraDave]

Thanks for the props, T8er.

It's truly my desire to make every new brewer as successful as possible, so they continue with this hobby and get the most out of it, however they define that. If they want to end up making original all-grain batches and winning competitions, and ultimately open their own brewpub, then God bless them. If they want to stick with HMEs and kits and maybe make slight modifications on them, then that's just fine, also. There's room for everyone in the world of homebrew (except the Temperance Movement; we got no room for them).

I've been around long enough to have seen people sign on, ask how to make a really high ABV beer, or announce they're going to add cucumbers and radishes to the HME to create something unique, and when they're admonished to chase flavor, and the ABV will follow, or to go slow with off-the-wall additions, they get defensive, or say something like, "Yeah, well, I'm not that good at following directions. LOL!", and we don't really see too much of them after that. I can only guess they created a monstrosity of a beer, decided homebrewing was too difficult, and abandoned it prematurely. I hate to see that happen.

On the other hand, there are folks like you and me, T8r. We allowed ourselves a bit of insanity before we reined it in and decided that maybe, if we're going to make this work, we'd better learn the basics first. And we learned to crawl, and then we learned to stand, and we could walk, and soon we were running, and now we're helping others get on their feet and get moving. All in a relatively short time.

Am I an expert, or a master brewer? Hardly. But I've learned a lot, and I know I can make good beer, and that's all I really want; the joy of creating really good beer by myself. And it didn't take that long, once I stopped fooling around and learned the basics.

And if what I learned from my experience helps a new brewer such as Caps, here, well, the credit goes to him, not me. A smart man learns from his mistakes; a wise man learns from the mistakes of others.

[Capitals82]

Thanks T8r and Dave for your expert advise and knowledge. You are the pros at this so I will take all the advise I can get, you won't have to worry about me getting defensive on you about anything as the whole reason I joined this site was to learn and ask questions... so far the response and welcome i've been getting have been amazing.

I have no idea how my first batch will turn out, on brew day I made so many mistakes. I accidently soaked my yeast as I left them in the caps underneith the HME cans while they were soaking in warm water. I spilled the wort all over the place when transfering to the LBC, leaving a sticky mess (not exactly all of it transfered). But when I finally tasted the beer streight out of the fermenter after 8 days, it tasted phenominal! It didn't have a skunky smell or taste too sweet or too bitter or watered down. So I guess I did something right!!

Which leaves me to your point of getting on your feet first and then try new things. My next batch I'll remember my mistakes and hope it goes even better... I'll let you know how it turns out in a few weeks, cant wait!!

[Brewbirds]

Thanks T8r and Dave for your expert advise and knowledge. You are the pros at this so I will take all the advise I can get, you won't have to worry about me getting defensive on you about anything as the whole reason I joined this site was to learn and ask questions... so far the response and welcome i've been getting have been amazing.

I have no idea how my first batch will turn out, on brew day I made so many mistakes. I accidently soaked my yeast as I left them in the caps underneith the HME cans while they were soaking in warm water. I spilled the wort all over the place when transfering to the LBC, leaving a sticky mess (not exactly all of it transfered). But when I finally tasted the beer streight out of the fermenter after 8 days, it tasted phenominal! It didn't have a skunky smell or taste too sweet or too bitter or watered down. So I guess I did something right!!

Which leaves me to your point of getting on your feet first and then try new things. My next batch I'll remember my mistakes and hope it goes even better... I'll let you know how it turns out in a few weeks, cant wait!!

You're in the right place Caps, as you can see from the other posts here no one wants to help new brewers more than the good folks on the Borg.

Your tale of your first brew day echos through the memories of many here I'd be willing to bet.

What Dave, T8r and so many others taught me when offering these nuggets of knowledge was that I needed to learn HOW I was going to brew.

By keeping the early batches simple you can focus on instilling procedures that are consistent, decide how to set up your brewing area for the most efficiency, decide if some new brew gear is in order, get fermentation temperature dialed in, work on insuring that your volumes and measurements are accurate, pre-plan for bottling and conditioning and build up sufficient brew day notes (TAKE LOTS OF NOTES).
Notice that none of tips had anything to do with what ingredients to add. In the early days you should focus on process and procedure so that you "get into the habit" of brewing.

For example since you spilled some wort maybe you practice pouring with plain water until you are in the habit of making the transfer from kettle to fermenter.

Another thing I'd advise for new brewers who want to advance is to move into brewing kits because all ingredients and math are predetermined for a final outcome. So you go into the brew day knowing what the final outcome should be. If something goes wrong it should be much easier to nail down how/why it went wrong and make the correction(s) required.
It also helps you learn about different ingredients like specialty grains how much to use and how to match them.
That gives experience on the recipe side of your brewing.

There probably aren't very many hobbies that require as much patience as home brewing and for this one patience is an absolute requirement for success.

Another thing I would impart on new brewers is to be aware that there will be things that go wrong like infections even with great sanitation, hydrometers breaking, stuck fermentations periodically and you have be able to roll with the punches and not assume it is only happening to you. Stuff happens in brewing just like anything else.

We've all been where you are now and are cheering you on. This is really a lot of fun and we hope you enjoy it as much as we do.