Beer Forum

New to home brewing. Haven't even bought my home brewing equipment yet. lol Can't decide to buy a kit, buy everything separate, or make my own. I'm buying the book How to Brew by John Palmer, even though you can read it online. The first beer I'm going to attempt is going to be a red ale. About all I know is I'm going to use Maris Otter as my base malt. I would appreciate all info you guys can give me. I plan on having my equipment my the end of August. Well I'm off to make a post about red ales. Happy Brewing!

Welcome to the forum, I just joined as well.

If I could go back and start all over I wouldn't have bought a kit. I found that after the first extract brew with my kit the experience was less than desirable, and for just a bit more $$$ I could have got better gear and possibly just gone straight to all grain.

Good luck on your red ale. Cheers

Welcome. Kits are ok and I still have some of my equipment from my original kit. You also have the option of doing BIAB if you don't want to go straight to all grain. And you can use that kettle when you do convert.

All grain can be intimidating but once you do it a couple times, it really isn't that difficult.

I find the kits to be pretty easy to use, though I would like to go all grain soon. My first few batches were horrible btw, but that's ok, I am getting better!