I'm proud to say that I've joined the Homebrewing community! Brewed my first beer today, an American Brown Ale.

Submitted ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨Dogiedog64@lemmy.world⁩ to ⁨homebrewing@sopuli.xyz⁩

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/f97fdc89-3acb-484f-908e-5d534682c9c7.jpeg

I’ve had a beginner kit in my basement for a while, but never had the time to make it. Now with the holidays, I set aside today to brew it. Probably could’ve done things better and sanitized more effectively, but I’m just happy to have done it at all. Now to let it ferment, and bottle in a week or so. I really hope it doesn’t taste like shit…

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TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
One recommendation and an early one I advise making…

Get an outdoor propane boiler. The crab pot boilers work great and are about 50 bucks.

If you have a boilover or a spill (and you will) it’s a royal mess to clean up off a kitchen stove and floor. That shit is sticky. But if you are doing it outside? Hose it down when you need to.

Second, kitchens are multi use in demand spaces. Brewing takes up much of both time and space. It’s better for the house to do it outside.

Third, if you do it in your driveway you’ll have people come up and ask you what you are doing, and you’ll create unwitting recipients for the inevitable excess of beer you’ll end up generating should you stick with the hobby.

Also, a crab boiler/outdoor stove can be used for other things beyond brewing.

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- Bluegrass_Addict@lemmy.ca ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  does -15C have any effects on brewing beer in the driveway?
  
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  - TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    If you can get to the target temperatures for your recipe, it’s not really a problem for the beer. Now for the brewer…
    
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  - alzymologist@sopuli.xyz ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    Nope! Just did it a few days ago with a setup mentioned in another comment here.
    
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  - CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    It’s a significant factor on the energy consumption for sure.
    
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jeena@piefed.jeena.net ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
Wow amazing, congratulations, the first one is the most difficult one because you need to get everything at once to be able to start and need to learn quickly. From now on will be gradual improvements. The coolest thing is how you own taste develops over time and you start tasting beer as it’s ingrediences and you can predict from what and how different beers are made of, etc. It’s an amazing journey, enjoy it!

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A_norny_mousse@feddit.org ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
Let us know how it turns out!

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Korhaka@sopuli.xyz ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
Very nice!

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BasicallyHedgehog@feddit.uk ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
One thing I learned - brew a beer style you enjoy. I naively tried to brew a brown ale for my first two attempts, solely because it was recommended as one of the easier styles to tackle as a beginner. I wasn’t fond of either, and it put me off the hobby for a while. Then a couple of years later I brewed a clone of an IPA I knew and enjoyed and it stuck! I had a clear idea of what I wanted to improve the next time… and the next, and the next. If you do enjoy brown ales, then all the better!

Keep chasing that dragon! 🍻

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alzymologist@sopuli.xyz ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
Hey welcome to the club!

Cover the bottle with something, light spoils the hops flavor even in dark brews and dark rooms. Kitchen foil should be more than enough.

This setup is surprisingly enough for almost everything one might need, if you are creative. Get a hydrometer early on though if you haven’t, it’s really a helpful tool.

I find induction heaters really nice to use, after using a gas burner for years, I’ve got a few induction ones and don’t plan to go back (one is outdoors, industrial unit mounted on a wooden rack). They are often pricy, but my 1200W unit was 50 Eur at most popular local supermarket and managed to boil quite some batches (industrial one was 10x that, it’s a beast I needed for other purposes).

If you keep evaporating a lot indoors, especially in colder weather, you’ll have condensation and might end up with mold and construction materials degradation, unless you set up proper exhaust really close to the boiler (make sure it draws well and whatever gets condensed in the line goes somewhere). Well, problems might start after several years of intense brewing probably, so don’t get too stressed about this.

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epsilon_eridani@startrek.website ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
I think a brown ale was my first too. Hope it turns out well!

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Skua@kbin.earth ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
Hell yeah, welcome to the club!

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plactagonic@sopuli.xyz ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
Good luck with brewing! It doesn’t take much to brew good beer but getting the consistency in the batches (if you want to brew same beer multiple times).

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GrayBackgroundMusic@lemmy.zip ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

I really hope it doesn’t taste like shit

If it tastes bad, wait another week. All the guides I read talk about a week or 2 or whatever. My brews take 6 weeks in the bottle to be great. (honestly it’s an overnight switch, it’s super weird. 5 weeks of “ehhhh” the week 6 “amazing!”)

Also, if you have a bad brew, try adding something. I had a brew that was garbage but if I added a tbsp of oj per bottle, it was drinkable. I still don’t understand.

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