Home Brewing (Complete Noob)

Blackdream

This is a great forum full of advice and recipes https://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/
All grain brewing is the way to go. Initial equipment costs are higher than kits, but the ingredients for a 5 gal brew will work out cheaper than buying a kit. All grain also tastes much nicer and you’re not limited by which kits are available - you can brew whatever style you want

As stated above Graham Wheeler’s book is an excellent introduction. Don’t be worried about complexity - if you can follow a basic recipe you can brew beer!

Kittyfrisk

Stick to beer   
Friend of mine made his elderflower sparkling wine as usual last year.
Overdid the sugar slightly & the champagne bottles started to explode in the house, splattering tiny glass shards eveywhere.
He ended up having to wear full motorcycle gear, to gently transfer the bottles to a safe part of the garden where they could be isolated in a shed. 
Most of the remaining bottles exploded over the summer, shredding holes in the cloth covering the plastic barrel they were stored in.
This was not a wine for drinking, this was a wine for laying down & avoiding...

RedRabbit

I did elderflower sparkling wine a few years ago and a couple of the grolsch bottles I used suffered the same fate.

What survived was very drinkable though.  I might try it again this year.

Kittyfrisk

RedRabbit said:

I did elderflower sparkling wine a few years ago and a couple of the grolsch bottles I used suffered the same fate.

What survived was very drinkable though.  I might try it again this year.

Bet you wish you'd saved the Grolsch bottles now that they're no longer available, Sigh...

RedRabbit

Yep, just had to order a load of swing top bottles off Amazon.  Wouldn't have been too much more to buy them full of Grolsch.

hywelg

You'll need to factor in a bunch of spare seals for those bottles. Some home brew shops sell them. And sterilise them really well. 

Tone71

I used to brew, started on simple kits which are really good (I liked the ciders) worked through loads and then finally got set up with an all-grain system and made some really excellent beers..however, apart from putting on about 2 stone and being very, very drunk a lot I worked out that I was allergic to live yeast and it would cause allergic asthma so by Sunday night I would be really wheezing and breathless.

Sold it all, lost the weight and can now talk mostly without slurring.

Joking aside it's very rewarding yet incredibly annoying if you get an infected batch, 44 pints down the drain really hurts.

I used to bottle Xmas beers in both capped and Grolsch bottles but really liked IPA's in a keg which was kept in a converted / temperature controlled fridge, lovely and easy for summer barbecues.

Turbo Cider was always fun too!!

duotone

Thanks all for the replies! Will let you know what I go for. 

hywelg

If you want a recipe for a nice simple malt extract hoppy pale ale message me. Ther very first brew I did, and it came out superbly. Citra and Amarillo hops.

duotone

Dodge said:

I bought one of these:

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.

This is the one I’m going for, the Mosaic IPA. Cheers for the suggestion @Dodge ;

Dodge

duotone said:

Dodge said:

I bought one of these:

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.

This is the one I’m going for, the Mosaic IPA. Cheers for the suggestion @Dodge ;

Nice one.  Make sure you've got some big pots too and a decent sized sieve.

You will (at some point) want to invest in things like a decent auto syphon, a bottling wand etc too.  It does make life easier but let us know how you get on.

hywelg

duotone said:

Dodge said:

I bought one of these:

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.

This is the one I’m going for, the Mosaic IPA. Cheers for the suggestion @Dodge ;

Jeez £30 for 1 gallon!!. There's probably £1 worth of grain, £2 worth of hops (if you're lucky), and 50p of yeast. The rest is stuff you probably won't use again except maybe a thermometer. But you'll want a digitalprobe one anyway eventually 

If you follow simple advice like in Graham Wheelers book you struggle to brew a bad beer. Demijohn brewing is only any good for sours,  it's easier to tip them down the drain:)

Dodge

hywelg said:

There's probably £1 worth of grain, £2 worth of hops (if you're lucky), and 50p of yeast.

Probably, but there's more in the box than just the ingredients.

The rest is stuff you probably won't use again except maybe a thermometer. But you'll want a digitalprobe one anyway eventually 

Other than the syphon, which I replaced with an auto-syphon and bottling want, I use every component that came with it including the analogue thermometer.

Demijohn brewing is only any good for sours,  it's easier to tip them down the drain:)

I also use my demijohns for making mead.  Now that's a hangover from hell, but totally worth it.

duotone

@hywelg ;
Here's the kit it contains, there's a photo here 
https://yeastismybitch.com/2015/04/30/a-great-introduction-to-all-grain-brewing-brewuk-craftybrews-stove-topper-kit/amp/

froglord

If you have a local home brew shop, they should be able to give you good advice. Also, the Greg Hughes book is a great resource for the new brewer (with tons of recipes to salivate over):

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Home-Brew-Beer-Master-Brewing/dp/0241392578/ref=sr_1_6

duotone

Found this website which looks good & sells a range of brewing products.
https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/

duotone

Today is brew day!

hywelg

duotone said:

Today is brew day!

What you brewing? 

I went to Murphy and Sons last week and picked up 50kg of LoColour MO so now I'm ready to go again. 

Malt Miller are good but Crossmyloof and Geterbrewed are better for hops. 

RedRabbit

Malt Miller are good but Crossmyloof and Geterbrewed are better for hops. 

Had a delivery from The Malt Miller last week.  Great service and will definitely be using them again.  Due to a cock up on my part I had an almost identical order from BrewUk as well.  Can't fault the malts but BrewUK were slower and more expensive.  End result is I have 50kg of golden promise in stock now.  Should keep me going for a while.

I've had yeast and hops from crossmyloof on eBay. Used their yeast for the first time on Sunday so haven't tasted the results yet but it went off like a rocket.  Not sure on the exact strain as it was just sold as IPA yeast but it's a fraction of the price of the likes of wyeast.

duotone

It’s the Stove Toppers kit that it came with, Mosaic IPA.