My First Home Brewing Experience

Hi Beer Lovers,

It wouldn't be fair for me to say that every single beer batch I've made was a success, well I could say it but it simply wouldn't be true. My very first experience with making beer at home wasn't a success....

I can't remember if it was 2 or 3 Xmas's ago, my wife got me a small home beer brewing kit. Needless to say I was super excited. What a perfect gift, right? Well not quite, let me explain. The kit was a kit that is sold at Bed Bath and Beyond, if my memory serves me right it had a couple different dry malts and a small fermenter, that was large enough to do 6 12 ounce beers at a time. It also came with hops, dextrose (corn sugar) and 6 plastic bottles. Here's a picture...



Well needless to say when you start brewing you'll learn (or already know) that cleaning is about the number #1 thing of importance when you're brewing beer. The amount of cleaning and cooking, etc is pretty much the same if you're brewing enough beer for a 6 pack or 2 1/2 cases.

Fast forward to the end the beer didn't ferment. Not sure if the yeast was no good or if I screwed something up.

Bottom line if you're buying your man or whoever a beer brewing kit, opt for a known quality kit. He'll appreciate it, and if he doesn't like it, these kits can be easily sold on ebay.

JB