A few friends were wondering what to get me for my birthday later this month & the first thing I thought of was having a go at Home Brewing. I think it would be fantastic to make a Hoegaarden style beer or a nice black lager or porter for a fraction of the cost of buying it in pubs.
Trouble is I know nothing about it...so this is where you lot come in! Can anyone point me in the right direction? Should I begin with a starter kit like this?
https://www.home-brew-online.com/starter-kits-c47/festival-micro-brewery-with-bottles-kit-pride-of-london-porter-p2604 or am I better off looking at something/somewhere else?
Comments
That kit looks like a good starting point. It's almost exactly what I got except I bought everything separately. The only thing I can think of extra is a second fermenting barrel and siphon. You do the fermenting in one, with the airlock lid, then you siphon into the other barrel with the bottling stick. This makes it easier to mix in your secondary fermenting sugar (gives the beer a fix in the bottle) and also helps avoid sediment in your bottles.
You can buy a Young's fermenting bucket for about £15.
https://www.brewuk.co.uk/stove-toppers-small-batch-starter-kit.html
Really happy with it. It's small batch, which is a positive (smaller kit to store, less beer to drink if you're not in love with what you've made) and a negative (less beer to drink if you are in love with what you've made!). The glass demijohn is more robust than the plastic buckets you get with other kits too. Other than pots (which you need for any option), you're all set.
I love mine, it's generally always on the go. You can buy some of their pre-packed recipe kits and then tweak them when you're more confident with what you're doing.
Wrong thread!
I'm not locked in here with you, you are locked in here with me.
And deffo keep it ideally a month before drinking.
I'm not locked in here with you, you are locked in here with me.
I like the idea of this. My experience with winemaking was near fatal I reckon. Christ, it was rank, but didn't stop me drinking it, almost trying to convince myself it was alright. I was so ill, everytime.
the only worry with beer making is that you can give yourself terrible trots if you don't get it right
This was 25+ years ago and the wife would never let me have a go. Lol.
I used blackcurrants, elderberries and blackberries mostly for the wines and they usually hit the spot. I was accused of shitting in an aunty's bath once.
EDIT: yeah, fruit wines like you mentioned are always good. I probably make about twice as much wine as beer now, it's a lot less hassle.
I'm not locked in here with you, you are locked in here with me.
Espresso Stout
Chocolate Orange Stout (being.kept for Christmas)
Waimea Single hop IPA
Citra Mosaic IPA
Mosaic Ekuanot IPA
Start with a basic recipe using dried malt extract. Buy a decent book like Graham Wheelers.
You can get started easily with a plastic bucket modified with two kettle elements from Tesco Value kettles and a tap as an outlet. Attach some SS hose braiding to the back of the tap in the boiler to filter out the hops.
Buy a cooling coil, cheap enough off ebay. Ideally get a SS one but copper will do.
Once you have a few brews under your belt you'll transition to all grain using a cool box as a mash tun and you'll get a cheap tall fridge and an Inkbird and a small aquarium heater as a fermentation fridge (to control form temps).
Bottling is for people with too much time on their hands. Get a keg. Plastic to start you off, then Cornelius with a proper CO2 bottle.
And no you don't need to keep it a month. As soon as it's drinkable, it's drinkable. Doesn't even need to be clear.
I was given one of these for Christmas last year. Easy to follow instructions and set up, just make sure you have a big enough pan! I ended up having to split it over two pans which made it a bit awkward. I'm just finishing off the last of the bottles now and I have to say it's a rather tasty tipple.
aw, this thread has me thinking now...…:)
I used to do those 40 pint kits (Woodford Wherry is a decent one) but I've decided to do small batches of all grain brews now instead. I've bought a 10l stock pot to use the "brew in a bag" method (just a big mesh bag to put the grains in so they are easy to pull out after the mash). First batch is quite happily fermenting away under my desk in the spare room - should be ready for bottling in a few days. Going to start another batch over the weekend. I've always used a general purpose yeast in the past but I've bought some british ale and american pale ale yeasts to try to see if there's much of a difference.
I'm also going to get some fruit juice wines and cider on the go just because it works out pretty cheap and helps keep the cupboard stocked. Some of them are actually quite nice.
I'm still trying to stop myself from buying fountain pens and Bonsai trees!