Homebrew general

>How big does the pot need to be?
If you're doing extract brewing more or less the same size as your batch. You can usually boil slightly below your target volume and top it up at the end, but not by a lot. (You're losing hops efficiency if your wort is too concentrated)
If you're going all grain you actually need a pot larger than your batch size.

I guess you could do things in several gos, but I'm not sure if you'd want to. Things would get messy quite quickly.

I've been brewing 10-11L (2.9 gal) batches with a 9L(2.4 gal) pot for a while. I wouldn't want to go significantly past that volume, though.

I've not done enough research yet to know what dry hopping and kräusening mean, could you explain? Which brewing process would you recommend for me to be able to brew the sort of beers I'd like to make?

Like above, I'm still trying to get to grips with the terminology - could you explain extract brewing vs non-extract brewing?

You could in theory bottle with a siphon (you'd just need a bottle wand), but if you're looking for a very basic setup for your first couple batches, you could forego the siphon and just ferment IN your bottling bucket. This is the most minimal setup for your first brew.

Nobody's first batch is quality, and you won't know if you want to truly pursue homebrewing until you have a few batches under your belt, so you don't want to pull the trigger on costly equipment at first.

Start out with a 3 gallon extract setup. That includes, at the least, the bottling bucket, bung, airlock, sanitizing solution, bottles, caps, and bottle capper. Could potentially be less than 50 bucks if you make the bottle bucket yourself (VERY easy) and save bottles from beers you drink.

Extract brewing involves purchasing dry or liquid malt extract at your local home brew store and mixing it in with water to create your wort. This method is preferred by people who do not possess the equipment needed to steep and strain their own grains at home, otherwise known as "all-grain" brewing.

The malt extract serves as your fermentable sugars, the sugars that your yeast converts to alcohol. All-grain brewing is the process of extracting sugars from the grains themselves to acquire your fermentable sugars.

If you can follow a recipe, you can extract brew. It is not much more than boiling a mixture of ingredients like you would a stew.

Another thing, the clerks at your local home brew store are a wealth of knowledge. If you walked in their knowing nothing about brewing beer, you would leave being confident enough to tackle your first extract batch.

Thanks, that looks like a good list to be getting on with.

What equipment would I need to steep and strain my own grains? Although I want to keep it simple I don't just want some make-your-own-beer package, it'd be more interesting to try the full brewing process. On the other hand, if that requires a bit more skill or costly equipment, maybe it'd be better starting off with the simpler method.

I know people don't like "books" anymore, but Charlie Papazian's, "The Complete Joy of Homebrewing" is an excellent intro to beer and mead brewing. He's an entertaining and laid back writer that can have you up and running with extract brewing in no time. His all-grain section is a little dated, but for beginning extract brewing there's no better source.

I'm brewing 5 gallons of an all-grain German Ale called "Alt" early Sunday morning and I'll take pics and start a thread after I'm done so you can see my equipment and process.

People might not be interested and I'll probably get shit on, but, meh, so be it. There's a million ways to do it, but I know mine makes good beer.

I JUST invested in everything I need for an all-grain setup. It also was an opportune time for me to upgrade from having 3-gallon capabilities to 5-gallon. So right now I can brew a 5 gallon all-grain batch, which you'll find is needed to follow most recipes online.

Before, I was doing 3-gallon extract batches with the equipment listed here . For a 5 gallon all-grain batch, I needed to purchase an 8-gallon kettle and a mash tun (insulated tank used to steep your grains in hot water and drain the sweet liquid that is your wort).

One thing to note: you don't need that much equipment to brew beer, as beer brewing is a very simple concept. You will find, however, that extra equipment is needed to speed up the process, make brew day less tedious and stressful, and ultimately better the quality of your end product.

From just after my first batch, I knew I was going to develop a long-term passion for brewing beer, so making those extra investments came very easy to me. My biggest advice, however, for the people interested in getting into homebrewing, is to go with the most basic setup as possible the first time. You can spend less than 50 bucks at the home brew store and in two weeks have a bottle of your beer in your hand, and by then you will have found out if you want to brew another batch or not.

TL;DR after a couple small extract brews, you will know whether or not you'll want to brew bigger batches and transition to all-grain.

For the extract batch do you still need the pot and heat sauce, or is that only with all-grain?

*source rather than sauce, putting hot sauce into a beer might be one taste infusion too far. In my defence it's late and I'm tired.

bump

>Home beermaking- William Moore
>beeradvocate dot com
>northernbrewer dot com

How is this kit for beginners?

the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/acatalog/Home_Brew_Starter_kit_for_use_with_Glass_Bottles_Equipment_Only.html

It'd work, but you're still going to need a large stainless pot to boil the extract. Also, fermenting in plastic is going to be something you'll want to get away from fairly quickly. They get small scratches and become increasingly difficult to sanitize. A 5 gallon glass carboy is really what you'll want to move to after a few batches and save the bucket in the kit for a bottling bucket.

For any batch of beer, extract or not, you need to boil your wort. This is to sterilize it and meld the components together.

You can brew a 3 gallon batch using a 12QT stockpot on the stovetop. A good way to do this is boil one gallon of water, cool it, then dump it into your fermenter. Then, boil your malt extracts, hops, and 2 gallons of water in your stockpot. Cool that, and blend it with the water in your fermenter before you pitch your yeast.

Thanks, that sounds like a good idea to try for my first few batches, and then if I'm still enjoying myself I can start to invest in more equipment. So it won't have a detrimental effect on the brew quality if I boil the malt extract and hops in 2 gallons of water and then add it afterwards to the pre-boiled gallon? Is that pretty much the same as boiling the extract and hops in 3 gallons, or will it produce a different taste?

there's usually a homebrew general on /diy/

The clerk at the store told me that it's always better to brew in smaller batches, meaning it's better to boil 2 gallons and dilute in 1 than boil 3 gallons.

That's for extract brewing, however. For all-grain you'll end up yielding 8 gallons of wort and boiling it down to 5, hence why you need a propane burner and a massive ass kettle.

For a 3 gallon batch it won't have a noticeable affect.

The point is that it's easier for people who only have a 12qt stock pot and can't boil 3 gallons at once.

looking to brew some mead. do i need a bucket and a carboy or would two buckets work fine?

also side question. I can get tons of buckets from where i work, but they were pickle buckets and thus, smell strongly of pickles. has anyone else used these kind of buckets and, if so, how did you get the smell out?

For first fermentation, two buckets would probably be fine
To get the smell out I think you can wash it in vinegar and salt then rinse with boiling water

This is probably a really obvious question, but can someone give me a simple definition of what is meant by 'the primary' and 'the secondary' in the homebrew context?

There are different phases of fermentation.

The "adaptive" phase of fermentation starts when the yeast is first introduced into the wort. There is a lag phase between when the yeast is added and when the yeast begins converting the sugars to CO2 and ethanol.

The "primary" phase of fermentation begins when the yeast is steadily consuming the sugars, noted by the activity in the airlock. The vast majority of fermentation is completed within the first 48 hours, then the rate of fermentation scales off exponentially after that.

The "secondary" phase of fermentation, also known as the "conditioning" phase, is any length of time between the end of primary and when you consume the beer. Fermentation is at it's slowest then, noted by little to no activity in the airlock. This phase is largely used to allow solids in your beer to fall out of suspension and the flavors in the beer to meld.

>it's better to boil 2 gallons and dilute in 1 than boil 3 gallons.
NOPE
Hop utilization falls with rising wort gravity. You want to boil at as high a volume as you can, so you retain more hops aroma.

How long does cider keep? I have 6 litres thats been fermenting or whatever for about 4 months now, i kind of forgot about it

>retain more hops aroma

When will you hipster faggots learn that not everyone is trying to out-hop each other?

Hell, some of us DON'T EVEN REALLY LIKE HOPPY BEERS!

*HIPSTERS FAINT EVERYWHERE!!!1111*

Many beer styles that aren't hop bombs have a hop aroma as part of the profile, retarded memester.

>hurrdurr
Even if you don't like overly hoppy beer (like I do) you don't want to waste hops for no reason

I'd recommend Palmer's _How to Brew_ as well...Papazian is a classic, but I think Palmer's book is a little bit more modern. Can't go wrong either way though.

Don't be a cheap SOB. Those pickle buckets will smell like dill and vinegar forever. Go buy fermenting buckets.

Also, for a 5-gallon batch of beer you want at least 6 gallons of space to allow for krauesen. The "6-gallon" fermenters are actually close to 7 which is what you want.

Depending what kind of beer you're making the yeast will get most of the conversion of sugar to alcohol done in the first few days (unless it's a lager) but they do more metabolic magic after that. Most of the time I plan on no less than 7 days in primary.

Secondary fermentation happens in a second vessel after you get the beer off the yeast cake. May not be necessary, although you normally want 1 week to 6 months (depending) of time for the beer to finish up before packaging.

Use a hydrometer to tell when the yeast is done...bottling too soon (like when the airlock stops bubbling) is a surefire way to make bottle bombs.

>observes beginner advice on how to brew 3 gallon batch with constricting equipment
>brings out a chart

You are the worst kind of home brewer

Agreed. I've racked all of my beers to secondary. It frees up my buckets for more beers too.