Recently I have been convinced that making beer at home is a fantastically rewarding hobby. I found out that my co-worker is a big fan of homebrewing and has been making his own homebrew recipes for a few years now.
I decided to investigate further and ask him all there was to ask about getting started on my own batch. I found out that his personal resource for Starter Kits and Starter Beer Recipe Kits was located at NorthernBrewer.com. I did some more investigating online and found another place called MidwestSupplies.com. I compared the cost of the basic starter home brew kits and found that Midwest Supplies was cheaper and they also had a glass carboy that came with the kit. I was also very impressed with their extensive selection of recipe kits available.
I chose the Irish Stout to start out with due to its forgiving nature for newbies like myself. (FYI: You normally want to start out with a darker beer when you are making your first batch of beer.) It took 2 or 3 hours to set up and boil and brew which was sort of like making tea. After everything is added and the yeast is pitched in, I let it sit in Primary fermentation for about 7 days. After seven days, I siphoned it into the Secondary fermenter. (In this case, it was the glass carboy.) There it stayed for 2 weeks. After 2 weeks, simple corn sugar (or as its commonly referred to as priming sugar) is added to the bottling bucket and then you siphon from the secondary fermenter into the bottling bucket with the priming sugar in it. This is the point of bottling. Let it sit in bottles for about 2-3 weeks to allow for perfect carbonation and ENJOY! My stout was GREAT!
