Beer Forum

Been brewing for exactly one week. One of my friends has been a homebrewer for several years, and walked me through my first all-grain batch, which has been fermenting for, well, a week. Just took a little taste this evening and it's pretty darn good, even though it's green yet. I've been getting all sorts of useful tips here and look forward to my next batch!

Cheers!

Welcome!

It's nice to have friends that homebrew. Welcome to the obsession!

Got a private tour of New Belgian, after a wedding trip to Denver. Amazing place. Was not a fan, until the tour. Like Little Portland out there in Fort Collins.

Welcome!

Thanks everyone! We moved out here from Central Oregon in 2009, and I was amazed at how many breweries we have here. In fact our first apartment was just down the street from New Belgium, Odell's, etc. Now that we've moved into a house I can brew pretty much any time I want and not upset the neighbors. Back in August my friend had me come over and help him brew a batch because he messed up his shoulder and couldn't lift the buckets, etc. For my help he gave me 2 gallons of a 6 gallon batch, and it was so much fun and such good beer I decided I wanted to try it. As soon as this batch is out of the fermentor and bottled I'm gonna fly solo and try it by myself. Any suggestions on a good, hard-to-screwup AG recipe for a fledgling homebrewer? I'm thinking hefeweizen but I'm all open to suggestions. My setup is a 5 gallon fermentor bucket, 5 gallon glass carboy, 5 gallon bottling bucket, 8 gallon kettle & patio stove, and a 5 gallon watercooler mashtun.

Jumping into All Grain right away? Now that's a maun!

Stouts and porters are popular with first-time homebrewers because it can hide minor flaws. Be careful with the hefe with only a 5 gallon fermenter. You'll need some headspace and most likely a blowoff tube if you are trying to get close to 5 gallons (most likely you'll end up with 4 gal.).

I would pick up a brewing bucket at the LHBS (6.5 gal) to give yourself some headspace, or a larger carboy (glass or better bottle).

Welcome! Muffasa will be proud of you!

I was wrong about the buckets, TDS; they're both 6.5 gallons, just labeled up to 5 gallons with 1.5 gallons headspace I'm assuming. I'll take your advice on the stout & porter though. I'll probably follow up on my next batch in the correct forum, I'm sure I'll have some questions.

Dirk: thanks for the vote of confidence!