Home Brewing (Complete Noob)

RedRabbit

Today's brew day!

A nice, simple IPA using admiral and archer hops.  Going to be my first time dry hopping.  Hop bill still only comes in at 150g though!

Chiller coil will get it's first outing today as well.

Was going to use the kveik but I'm going away for a few days next week so I'll leave that one until I'm at home to keep an eye on it.  Just going to throw some dried yeast in this one.

Also need to get my last brew into a pressure barrel and harvest the yeast from the fermenter.

RedRabbit

Brew done.  Just waiting for it to cool before I can pitch the yeast.

Chiller coil hasn't been used due to losing one of the hose connectors.  Going to let it cool to around 50°c in the boil kettle and then transfer it to the fermentation bucket.

Only realised a connector was missing after I started rehydrating the yeast.  I'm sure it'd be fine left alone but I'm going to turn it into a small starter just to make sure the yeast is still active in the morning.

Also cracked open a bottle of stout I bottles last week.  Needs a little longer in the bottle but it's showing promise.  I'll add some oats and barley next time but it's still definitely a stout, just a bit more hippy than you'd expect.

duotone

Brought a couple bottles of the Mosaic IPA upto a mates house yesterday & they really enjoyed it. Comments like “I’d be happy with that if I’d ordered it in a pub!” Am happy with that for a 1st attempt.

Roll onto trying that Hoegaarden brew in the next couple weeks. Think I will get another Demi-John and do a 10 Litre brew this time.

hywelg

duotone said:

Brought a couple bottles of the Mosaic IPA upto a mates house yesterday & they really enjoyed it. Comments like “I’d be happy with that if I’d ordered it in a pub!” Am happy with that for a 1st attempt.

Roll onto trying that Hoegaarden brew in the next couple weeks. Think I will get another Demi-John and do a 10 Litre brew this time.

Scale up to 25l. Anything less and you'll never have enough beer. Corny kegs are the way to go. 

And yes, pretty much every beer I've brewed has been as good as or better than what you'll get in a decent pub. 

hywelg

duotone said:

Brought a couple bottles of the Mosaic IPA upto a mates house yesterday & they really enjoyed it. Comments like “I’d be happy with that if I’d ordered it in a pub!” Am happy with that for a 1st attempt.

Roll onto trying that Hoegaarden brew in the next couple weeks. Think I will get another Demi-John and do a 10 Litre brew this time.

Scale up to 25l. Anything less and you'll never have enough beer. Corny kegs are the way to go. 

And yes, pretty much every beer I've brewed has been as good as or better than what you'll get in a decent pub. 

RedRabbit

hywelg said:

duotone said:

Brought a couple bottles of the Mosaic IPA upto a mates house yesterday & they really enjoyed it. Comments like “I’d be happy with that if I’d ordered it in a pub!” Am happy with that for a 1st attempt.

Roll onto trying that Hoegaarden brew in the next couple weeks. Think I will get another Demi-John and do a 10 Litre brew this time.

Scale up to 25l. Anything less and you'll never have enough beer. Corny kegs are the way to go. 

And yes, pretty much every beer I've brewed has been as good as or better than what you'll get in a decent pub. 

Moving to corny kegs has drastically increased how much I enjoy brewing.  I used to hate bottling day.  The idea of cleaning and sanitising 40+ bottles and then filling them one by one was a big part of why I stopped brewing for a few years.

I still do 5l batches for testing recipes and I don't mind bottling those but I think a move to swing top bottles has played a part there as well.  I do quite fancy a couple of mini kegs for the small batches though.

duotone

RedRabbit said:

hywelg said:

duotone said:

Brought a couple bottles of the Mosaic IPA upto a mates house yesterday & they really enjoyed it. Comments like “I’d be happy with that if I’d ordered it in a pub!” Am happy with that for a 1st attempt.

Roll onto trying that Hoegaarden brew in the next couple weeks. Think I will get another Demi-John and do a 10 Litre brew this time.

Scale up to 25l. Anything less and you'll never have enough beer. Corny kegs are the way to go. 

And yes, pretty much every beer I've brewed has been as good as or better than what you'll get in a decent pub. 

Moving to corny kegs has drastically increased how much I enjoy brewing.  I used to hate bottling day.  The idea of cleaning and sanitising 40+ bottles and then filling them one by one was a big part of why I stopped brewing for a few years.

I still do 5l batches for testing recipes and I don't mind bottling those but I think a move to swing top bottles has played a part there as well.  I do quite fancy a couple of mini kegs for the small batches though.

Do you know if these kegs are reusable? Recently finished a Doom Bar one for a mates birthday & that would save me buying another Demi-John.
https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/300346754

RedRabbit

duotone said:

RedRabbit said:

hywelg said:

duotone said:

Brought a couple bottles of the Mosaic IPA upto a mates house yesterday & they really enjoyed it. Comments like “I’d be happy with that if I’d ordered it in a pub!” Am happy with that for a 1st attempt.

Roll onto trying that Hoegaarden brew in the next couple weeks. Think I will get another Demi-John and do a 10 Litre brew this time.

Scale up to 25l. Anything less and you'll never have enough beer. Corny kegs are the way to go. 

And yes, pretty much every beer I've brewed has been as good as or better than what you'll get in a decent pub. 

Moving to corny kegs has drastically increased how much I enjoy brewing.  I used to hate bottling day.  The idea of cleaning and sanitising 40+ bottles and then filling them one by one was a big part of why I stopped brewing for a few years.

I still do 5l batches for testing recipes and I don't mind bottling those but I think a move to swing top bottles has played a part there as well.  I do quite fancy a couple of mini kegs for the small batches though.

Do you know if these kegs are reusable? Recently finished a Doom Bar one for a mates birthday & that would save me buying another Demi-John.
https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/300346754

Do you mean for fermenting in?  They can probably be repurposed for that but I don't know how much of a faff it would be.  A lot will depend on how easy they are to clean and whether you can keep it covered or fit an air lock to it.

If you mean for storage and serving from then it would seem the answer is a very useful "it depends".  I'll see if I can find the discussion on it I read on another forum.  There's a decent chance the doombar keg was mentioned.

duotone

RedRabbit said:

duotone said:

RedRabbit said:

hywelg said:

duotone said:

Brought a couple bottles of the Mosaic IPA upto a mates house yesterday & they really enjoyed it. Comments like “I’d be happy with that if I’d ordered it in a pub!” Am happy with that for a 1st attempt.

Roll onto trying that Hoegaarden brew in the next couple weeks. Think I will get another Demi-John and do a 10 Litre brew this time.

Scale up to 25l. Anything less and you'll never have enough beer. Corny kegs are the way to go. 

And yes, pretty much every beer I've brewed has been as good as or better than what you'll get in a decent pub. 

Moving to corny kegs has drastically increased how much I enjoy brewing.  I used to hate bottling day.  The idea of cleaning and sanitising 40+ bottles and then filling them one by one was a big part of why I stopped brewing for a few years.

I still do 5l batches for testing recipes and I don't mind bottling those but I think a move to swing top bottles has played a part there as well.  I do quite fancy a couple of mini kegs for the small batches though.

Do you know if these kegs are reusable? Recently finished a Doom Bar one for a mates birthday & that would save me buying another Demi-John.
https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/300346754

Do you mean for fermenting in?  They can probably be repurposed for that but I don't know how much of a faff it would be.  A lot will depend on how easy they are to clean and whether you can keep it covered or fit an air lock to it.

If you mean for storage and serving from then it would seem the answer is a very useful "it depends".  I'll see if I can find the discussion on it I read on another forum.  There's a decent chance the doombar keg was mentioned.

Yeah @RedRabbit I was thinking for storage & serving. Thinking about it I won’t really be able to get in there to properly clean it out.

hywelg

duotone said:

RedRabbit said:

duotone said:

RedRabbit said:

hywelg said:

duotone said:

Brought a couple bottles of the Mosaic IPA upto a mates house yesterday & they really enjoyed it. Comments like “I’d be happy with that if I’d ordered it in a pub!” Am happy with that for a 1st attempt.

Roll onto trying that Hoegaarden brew in the next couple weeks. Think I will get another Demi-John and do a 10 Litre brew this time.

Scale up to 25l. Anything less and you'll never have enough beer. Corny kegs are the way to go. 

And yes, pretty much every beer I've brewed has been as good as or better than what you'll get in a decent pub. 

Moving to corny kegs has drastically increased how much I enjoy brewing.  I used to hate bottling day.  The idea of cleaning and sanitising 40+ bottles and then filling them one by one was a big part of why I stopped brewing for a few years.

I still do 5l batches for testing recipes and I don't mind bottling those but I think a move to swing top bottles has played a part there as well.  I do quite fancy a couple of mini kegs for the small batches though.

Do you know if these kegs are reusable? Recently finished a Doom Bar one for a mates birthday & that would save me buying another Demi-John.
https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/300346754

Do you mean for fermenting in?  They can probably be repurposed for that but I don't know how much of a faff it would be.  A lot will depend on how easy they are to clean and whether you can keep it covered or fit an air lock to it.

If you mean for storage and serving from then it would seem the answer is a very useful "it depends".  I'll see if I can find the discussion on it I read on another forum.  There's a decent chance the doombar keg was mentioned.

Yeah @RedRabbit I was thinking for storage & serving. Thinking about it I won’t really be able to get in there to properly clean it out.

Cleaning out isn't really the problem its pre-carbonating and re-sealing afterwards.  These are not cask conditioned kegs.  Cleaning with hot water and PBW will do a thorough job. Sterilise with Starsan.

You then need a corny keg to carbonate your beer in, ideally in a chiller at 1-2°C. Calculating the CO2 volumes isn't simple.  Far better to get one of these.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07K1H5ZL3/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

And one of these

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Stainless-Steel-Keg-Growler-Spear-Dispenser-for-Beer-growler-2L-3-6L-5L/362489744391?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649

Plus a CO2 supply with regulator.  Carbonate in mini-keg. Serve. Repeat.

I use a 19l corny and do presurised transfers to mini-keg for my sons . They have CO2 fire extinguishers (without dip tubes) for gas.

Once you get a few decent beers brewed you'll be confident that the money invested won't be wasted. I've spent serious money on gear but in return I've had (and given away to friends and family) hundreds of litres of excellent beer. Planning to upgrade to a 70l fermenter soon so I can brew 3 keg batches.

MagicPigDetective

It’s been 10 days fermenting now and the bubbles have ceased rising through the airlock. There are little blobs of light brown sediment on the top, is this normal?

AndyD

MagicPigDetective said:

It’s been 10 days fermenting now and the bubbles have ceased rising through the airlock. There are little blobs of light brown sediment on the top, is this normal?

Yes, looks ok to me, also looks like there is still some activity so I would leave a few more days.

If you have the ability to drop the temperature after that for a few more days it will help the sediment fall out but don't worry if not.

RedRabbit

MagicPigDetective said:

It’s been 10 days fermenting now and the bubbles have ceased rising through the airlock. There are little blobs of light brown sediment on the top, is this normal?

Perfectly normal.  The brown blobs will be yeast.

Give it a few more days to finish off and for the yeast to start tidying up after itself and you'll be ready to bottle.

Nitefly

@MagicPigDetective you could sell that to @strtdv to use as a pie-crust.

hywelg

You'ev got a highly flocculant yeast there.  Get it as cold as you can for 2 days then siphon into bottling bucket/keg.

MagicPigDetective

Thanks all. I’ll move it down to the cellar where it’s cooler. 

RedRabbit

MagicPigDetective said:

Thanks all. I’ll move it down to the cellar where it’s cooler. 

Any progress @MagicPigDetective ?

Just got back from a few days camping with family.  I took a mix of my brews to date, all of which were drunk in preference to any thing they had brought with them.  Orders have been placed for Xmas.  Pretty chuffed with the response. 

MagicPigDetective

RedRabbit said:

MagicPigDetective said:

Thanks all. I’ll move it down to the cellar where it’s cooler. 

Any progress @MagicPigDetective ?

Just got back from a few days camping with family.  I took a mix of my brews to date, all of which were drunk in preference to any thing they had brought with them.  Orders have been placed for Xmas.  Pretty chuffed with the response. 

I siphoned it into the keg on Saturday. Found it a bit of a ffaff, doing it for the first time, trying not to contaminate anything, hope I haven’t spoilt it. Perhaps a siphon pump is needed for next time instead of the sucking on the tube method. Well anyway, the beer at this stage is clear, golden, and tastes beer-like! Should I leave it now completely for 14 days for the sugar to do it’s work? Or can I chance a tipple before then? 

RedRabbit

I'd leave it at least a week before sampling. Carbonation should be done by that point and you can decide whether to leave it a little longer or start drinking.

Having just poured my first pint from my pressure barrel I'd suggest not adding any gas until you notice it pouring a little slow.  From just the priming sugar I have, if anything, too much pressure in mine.  Carbonation is fine but the pour results in a couple of inches of head.

hywelg

RedRabbit said:

I'd leave it at least a week before sampling. Carbonation should be done by that point and you can decide whether to leave it a little longer or start drinking.

Having just poured my first pint from my pressure barrel I'd suggest not adding any gas until you notice it pouring a little slow.  From just the priming sugar I have, if anything, too much pressure in mine.  Carbonation is fine but the pour results in a couple of inches of head.

TBH you'll not get beer out of a plastic keg without foam unless you have such little pressure that you're sucking air in,and you really don't want to do that. 

It's the nature of the tap. The best ones have a spigot on the inside of the barrel where you attach a piece of tube to the far side of the barrel, right at the bottom. The smaller diameter the better. 

When you finally move to corny kegs you'll use 3/16" beer pipe to control the back pressure to reduce foaming.