Expert: Ed Westemeier - 6/13/2007

Question
I am just starting out brewing and don’t have the money to buy any of the ready made kits, so I’ve just kind of gone at it to see what happened.

I have a bucket (maybe a gallon of water… I wasn’t really measuring) in my kitchen filled with brown sugar water, 3 apples, and a packet of bread yeast. It’s been in there for a week, it’s bubbling… that’s about all I know.

I’m sure whatever it is that’s brewing in there will taste terrible… but I think brewing is really interesting and want to keep at it!  So I’ve got some questions.

(1)   I’ve found a lot of brewers yeast online. Amazon.com sells some. You can buy tablets from GNC, but they’re both being sold as food supplements. Would those work for my purposes?
(2)   My concoction in the kitchen. When should I drink it? Do I have anything to worry about when drinking it? (Like, oh, going blind or dying).
(3)   Any other advice?

-Dave


Answer
Sorry, but you're going to have to start over from scratch. What you're making in your bucket is not beer, just a random alcoholic beverage that probably won't be very tasty.
Homebrewing is not at all difficult, but you have to have some idea what you're doing. There are plenty of good books on the subject, and you may even have a homebrewing retailer in your area that stocks the books, as well as the ingredients and equipment you'll need. You can get a complete set of beginner equipment and the ingredients for your first batch of real beer for under $100, and after that you'll just need to buy more ingredients for later batches.
In case you don't have a retailer in your area, there are plenty of them on the internet. For example, northernbrewer.com, morebeer.com, williamsbrewing.com, and many others. Just search for them and you'll be able to get their catalogs. You might also have a local homebrewing club you can join, and the members will be only too happy to help you get started.
Good luck!