Perhaps we had better start from the beginning....

This blog has been getting more action then I thought it would. For those of you reading this, thank you. With that said, I've been approached by a lot of people asking me about starting this hobby. I think one thing that made people very interested was my "Do the Math" entry. So lets go to the beginning.

Getting into this hobby can be somewhat cheap, depending on much gear you want to get. I started small and slowly went bigger. It's always hard to figure out what to get because maybe you don't know how far you're going to take this. When I first started I never thought I'd go to all-grain, but here I am. So I'll try to break it down in the easiest way to start.

Starting with extract kits is definitely the correct direction. The main difference between all-grain and extract kits is the mash has already been done for you. So instead of soaking grains for an hour and a half, you add malt extract to boiling water. From there, everything in brewing is the exact same. I'll go into more details on this a little later on. Let's talk about gear.

So what gear do you need to buy? Any local homebrew store should have a starter kit. Due to the fact that I live in MN, I'll reference local homebrew stores. Start kits are typically the same, it all depends on what kind of upgrades you want. The big question is do you go with the plastic bucket fermentors or do you go with the glass bottle fermentors? I think it comes down to what you start with. I've heard some discussion that if there's a scratch on the inside of your bucket there's a chance that if not cleaned well enough it could spoil your beer. Is that true? I'm sure it's possible but I'm not sure on the likelyhood. I know Paul, one of my homebrew friends, uses the plastic buckets. I personally use glass because that's what I got with my starter kit which was a xmas gift. Plastic is cheaper and keeps the light out, glass is more durable but requires a towel around it to keep the light out. Light runes beer, so remember to keep that fermator dark.

Once you've picked out which fermentor you're going to use, it's time to pick out your boil kettle. I started off by borrowing a 5 gal kettle. I would boil around 3.5 gal of wort then after I added it to the fermator I would add additional water until I reached 5.5 gals. Later after brewing for a while I bought a 7.5 gal kettle to perform full boils. That means I would start with around 6 gal of water and after the boil I would have around 5.5 gal of wort. I went with the full boil because I always was upset that my color from extract brews was darker then I thought it should be. The flavor was never horrible, just the color was off. I was told by local homebrewers that without doing a full boil, your color will always be a little off. Like anything, going full boil kettle costs more. Also with a full boil you pretty much have to brew that on an external burner, which once again increases initial costs. A great beginning all-around kit to start with would be this one from Midwest Supplies.

Now you've got your beer, it's fermenting and it's almost done. Now comes the part I hate... bottling. I think it's good for everyone to bottle at least once, though after one or two rounds of bottling people will quickly figure out why I went to kegging. Bottling makes a mess out of the kitchen, or wherever you're bottling. It also sucks because if your carbonation is off sometimes there isn't much you can do about it. 

A typical extract brew day goes like this: Get 3.5 or so gal of water up to a boil, if there is grains to steep (some extract kits include them for additional flavor) do this before the boil, remove the kettle from the heat and add the malt extract, bring liquid back up to a boil, add hops while performing the boil, after the boil cool the beer down, put it in a fermentor and top off with additional water, take a gravity reading, add yeast, cap and wait. Once it's done fermenting then you'll bottle, wait about 2 weeks then enjoy.

There's many different resources out there that can help you get started with your first brew, or feel free to invite me over. I'm always game for teaching people. If you have additional questions feel free to hit me up. Another great resource for homebrew help is the local homebrew store or the local homebrew club if you have one. For those of you in minnesota, I'm part of MN Brewers, which also gets me a discount at all the local homebrew stores. Best of luck on your first brew!

Prost!

-Ryan