I could do with some advice / guidance really..
Saw a home brew kit in a shop called "the Range" bucket, with various starter kit stuff inside for £20. Also they did home brew bags with things like IPA, Mild, Stout etc in them. They also do coder and Pilsner and Nut brown beer. All for £20 a bag (40 pints)
Just add sugar and water.
Looks tempting but is it any good?
I think you still need to have a couple of goes before you nail it but yes, some of those kits can produce some excellent tasting beer.
There's a few homebrewers on here. Homebrew in general is now really good. What brand are the kits?
I've pretty much stuck with Coopers kits (make 5 gallons) and Brupaks Beers of the World (make 2 gallons) and think they taste great.
At £20 it can't hurt to give it a go, it'll be a slippery slope from there though. Only thing I'd suggest is instead of plain sugar (which can leave the beer a bit 'thin') use a kilo of spraymalt or a tin of malt extract instead which gives more body to the beer. Though there's nothing wrong with using plain sugar.
Also, check if the barrels have a tap on. If not, then you'll need a siphon tube which is a bit of a hassle doing 40 points. And you'll need something to put them in - either start collecting brown glass bottles, or use plastic fizzy juice bottles.
Jim's Beer Kit is a great place to gather information. There's a dedicated 'kit' part to the forum.
Get one to suit your tastes and see if you like the results, then go here beery goodnessfor first class goods and very quick postage .
HTH .. CHEERS ! 
Bothing to add except that my wife wants to brew her/our own ale.
How I love her. 
The make of the kits I saw are these
I make loads of homebrew.
This is the sort of gear I use
http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/acatalog/Beer_Starter_Kit_With_Barrel_Equipment_Only.html
And I make tins of this.
http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/acatalog/Wheat_and_Scottish_Beer_Kits.html
Just add sugar and water. Follow the instructions and it should turn out good. Make sure its kept warm (comfortable room temperature) when brewing and store it in a cool place once kegged. I keep mine in the outhouse.
The only problems you should encounter with the brewing will be if you haven't sterilised the equipment properly, or rinsed it off properly. After some use the kegs might need seals replaced so its usefull to have some spares kicking around but they are cheap as chips.
Go for it, you'll have good beer and you'll save a fortune. I have around 120 pints of various stuff in the shed that cost me around 40 quid to make.
That kit you've got looks fine. I'd buy a pressure barrel for storing it in as its easier than bottles.
Something like this.
http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/acatalog/5_Gallon_Plastic_Barrel_S30_valve.html
Bottling is a load of hassle, use a keg this time of year and keep it in the garage. Bottles are useful in the summer when the ambient temperature is higher, they can be stored in the fridge.
IME kit beer is pretty ropey but a good way in to brewing.
Well thats just sorted my christmas present out from the other half! This is going to be fun 
kit beer used to be ropey but the stuff that's available now is excellent - in particular the 2 can kits that contain all the malt you need - no extra sugar required. Coopers kits are excellent too.
I brewed a Coopers Australian Pale Ale a few weeks ago with additional hops; had one of those the other night followed by an Everards Tiger & I preferred my own brew.
Pressure barrel is fine for ales & stouts but lager really does suit being bottled - more fizz.
Believe it or not, even Tesco Direct are getting into the game.
Coopers do 500ml PET bottles in dark brown that are ideal, nay designed, for beer/lager. box of 24 for around £12 but you only need to buy them once. unless you get into the habit... I've got about 6 boxes plus a load of glass bottles.
Bottling is easier if you have a bottling stick - long slim hard plastic tube with a needle valve on the bottom. Weight of beer keeps it closed until you put it into a bottle & press down. Lift up, it stops flowing. much easier than a tap on the end of your siphon tubing.
You'll also need a hydrometer to measure (a) the Original Gravity and (b) the final gravity; subtract one from the other, divide by approx 7.5 and there's your ABV% content.
Another recommendation for Jim's Beer Kit here too.
Finally, no matter how quickly the instructions say it'll be done, IGNORE that bit. It's ready when it's ready and not before. Your hydrometer will tell you when that is.
The hassle I find with bottling is the cleaning and sanitising, did 40 the other night (used the stick) as I fancied knocking a few out for mates. Forgot how much I hate it!
Tip for kit beer, use mineral water or at the very least treat your tap water with a Campden tablet to knock the Chlorine out before you brew.
indeed with the treated water. If you buy 5L bottles of supermarket water, you can also keep the bottles & use them for demijohns when doing wine
I did 33 bottles today. cleaned, rinsed 4 times, then bottled a Coopers European Lager. Took about an hour, maybe 2 hours at most. Should be ready for NYE, luckily I'm not a lager drinker & mrs_drummer has plenty of stock...
Thinx I like to give it a go
Whats are the best home brew kits to buy?
So from start how long does it take to taste ones rewards
Coopers are pretty good with their recommended sugars.
I'd start with one of these http://direct.tesco.com/product/images/?R=213-7435 if you don't have a decent homebrew shop near you. This contains the fermenting bin, 40 PET bottles, 1 pack of Beer Kit Enhancer (malt extract plus dextrose) and a beer kit. Obviously everything other than the kit & sugar are reusable
My father in law uses Geordie kits with granulated sugar - not the current best practice but he likes them so who am I to argue 
Brupaks - two can kits, Linthwaite Light & Fixby Gold are nice
St Peters' IPA & Golden ales are nice too - again, two-can kits.
The two can kits seem to mostly be made by a company called Muntons, and a lot of people have had problems with the fermentation "sticking" at around 1020. I've not yet experienced this problem, but the method of getting it going again seems to be raise the temperature a little and give it a GENTLE stir
Coopers were the best of the bunch from my kit days.
The Fixby Gold is well spoken of but unfortunately both mine turned out gash, so bad that I never managed to finish the keg off.
Welcome to another hobby, if you're still enjoying it in 6 months I'd strongly recommend going all-grain. It's easy and forgiving enough, more time intensive but it really does produce far better results.
And it's another chance to continuously buy new and better kit in the search for the perfect brew.
wasn't a problem with the keg was it?
I've kegged 5 different brews this year & ended up pouring all of them away. My bottled stuff is fine.
One brew I bottled 10 bottles & kegged the rest. Bottles were fine, keg was sour. not vinegar but bad enough.
Turns out I'm not doing things right with the keg, especially the rinsing rinsing and rinsing again. I was also recommended to fill it with gas straight away to stop the air already in the keg from getting at the beer.
Next brew is a Coopers IPA. 30 bottles & 10 pints in the keg to see if I've got it right yet, without wasting too much good beer.
And I'm planning to go All Grain some time in the new year...
So from start of making your brew, just how long till you can taste your rewards
depends how clear you like it
seriously though, it takes from 4 days to 2 weeks to ferment out, depending on ambient temperature. If doing a lager with lager yeast at lower temperatures, even longer.
Then there's the secondary fermentation in the bottles/keg - I give it another two weeks in a warm place.
Then there's the bottle/keg conditioning - basically, clearing as the remaining yeast settles to the bottom of the bottle/keg. I give mine at least two weeks in a cool place, but some beers benefit from longer conditioning.
So realistically, about 5-6 weeks if you like it clear & bright.
This ^ is a St Peters' IPA I did in August. Still got a few bottles left
Another one for coopers here. Muntons connoisseurs is worth a look too.
The all malt kits are much better than the ones that require added sugar in my experience. Mind you, 'proper' homebrew is even better - i.e. boiling and adding hops according to a recipe. Kits are a great introduction though. It took me a while before feeling confident enough to do my own boil, mainly because the more you read the more you worry about buggering it up. As it turns out it's not that hard, it's only like cooking. As my mate and brewing partner says 'People have been doing it for thousands of years'.
My top tips are:
- be super clean and sanitary
- use good yeast and chose the right one for the style of beer. A basic kit is often loads better with posh yeast rather than the one supplied.
- Be patient, when they say 2-3 weeks in the barrel, leave it 2-3 weeks, rather than repeatedly sampling it 'just to see if it's ready'!
Do it! It's great fun and the only real way to get fresh beer at home.
st peters IPA is a good un!
Even cheap stuff is fine if you're not too picky. So far I've done Geodie bitter,St peters IPA and yorkshire bitter (from wilkos) all good!
2l pastic bottles are cheap and easy, screw top wine bottles are my favourite. I've got all my mates onto it now, planning a mini beer festival!
Not sure what it was to be honest, brews are generally fine but the Fixby was awful on the 2 separate occasions I made it. Strange as it always well recommended, suppose it could just be coincidence.
I'm making a Hobgoblin clone on Monday, followed in a couple of weeks by a Chimay White.
I think the Coopers IPA was one of my better kits, made it once with spray malt and once with enhancer.
the more you read the more you worry about buggering it up. As it turns out it's not that hard, it's only like cooking. As my mate and brewing partner says 'People have been doing it for thousands of years'.
My thermostat broke on my first grain brew, the mash temperature went way over what is considered healthy yet still ended up with very decent beer.
All in all I think it's a pretty forgiving process providing you get the cleaning right.
I've never screwed it up yet. pour kit into barrell, do what you're told. Leave it for a week ish in a warm enough place but not next to a heater. Wash bottles with milton (pour from bottle to bottle to save costs). add a half a tea spoon of sugar per pint to bottle then leave the bottles at room temp for at least a week, better 2, then start drinking it. Easy.
I'm making a Hobgoblin clone on Monday,
funnily enough it was my hobgoblin clone that was the 10 bottle / rest keg disaster.
I'd add to adsticks tips: rinse rinse and rinse again. then rinse one more time for luck
Peracetic acid is your friend when it comes to sterilising kegs .
Plus a tiny amount of so2 if you are not refilling a keg instantly .
Strangely warming the beer up a few degrees in the keg will help shelf life . the yeast will mop up any oxygen present and produce co2 in the secondary fermentation .
Alternatively get a bottle of gas , fill with 1% PAA abd use the gas to blow the PAA out .
You now have a sterile inerted keg .
HTH
ps I have made 2 million gallons so i know what im. . . .
2 million gallons? Singletrack christmas party at yours then!
while I've been away from the keyboard I've put another batch on. 20L of Coopers' IPA as per kit instructions. no extras. but I might dry-hop with some cascade when it's finished fermenting
As mentioned above, cleanliness is crucial. Basically, the fermentation conditions which best suit yeast also suit bacteria (and random wild yeasts which may be present in the air), and these can lead to 'off' flavours in your beer.
Bottling is a bit of a hassle, as you have to clean, sanitise and rinse all the bottles, but it's a cheap way to get into home-brewing. You can always get into kegs later on - if you're going to get into it long-term then kegs are much less hassle (but relatively expensive to get set up with, hence the need for long-term use to get your money's worth).
You can get some very drinkable beer from kits. Ale is generally more forgiving than lager, so stick with that until you get more experience. Usually the yeast that comes with kits is a generic one that they chuck in with every kit, lager or ale. As a general rule, chuck out the yeast that comes with it, visit your local homebrew shop and buy some decent yeast specific to the type of beer you are brewing.
Avoid using table sugar if possible, buy the same weight of light unhopped spray malt (aka light dry malt extract, or LDME). This is also a sugar, but is derived from malted barley rather than sugar cane. Table sugar can add unwanted flavours, whereas LDMA will add extra malt flavour to your beer.
Finally, try to maintain a constant temperature during fermentation. Big fluctuations can often lead to various by-products which can affect the flavour of your beer. Usually 18-20deg C is good for ales, or about 10C for lagers.
Hey sorry just picking up on this but I've tried on of these kits before Christmas, having never homebrewed before. I tried the Premium Lager kit which was simple to make up, simple step by step instructions included, and tasted great (we drank the 40 pints worth in 2 weeks!). There's a website with more information on if you're still not sure http://www.makeyourowndrinks.co.uk I'm going to try one of the ciders this week so will let you know how that goes too.
I've now moved on to Brew In A Bag from kit beers. This way I choose what malts & hops, and even yeast, to use. I get a beer exactly the flavour I want.
So far I've done a batch of Old Peculier, a batch of Pilsner and a batch of Theakston's best bitter clone, the two Theakston's brews coming from recipes in Graham Wheeler's book "Brew Your Own British Real Ale". The OP is coming into condition about now; the best bitter needs another couple of weeks in the bottle, and the Pilsner is "lagering" in the cold greenhouse.
Aside from the cost of the extra equipment (i.e. a big pan and a mesh bag, £75 between them) an all grain brew in a bag can be done for less than a tenner a batch.
3kg of Pale Malt at £1.60 a kilo - £4.80
300g of crystal Malt at £3.20 a kilo - £1
20-40g of hops of your choice - £1-£2
Yeast - £2 odd
John
Trade rate for Pearl Pale Ale malt is approx 50p /kg crushed , and 60p a kg for Crystal and other adjuncts .
Obviuosly we buy tonnes , If you could get to 25kg your local micro should be able to do you a deal
I'm sure, but I don't know where to store 25kg bags of grain without attracting something for the cat to play with
I tend to buy only what I need for each brew so I don't have to worry about storage, but I know I can get it cheaper by buying in bulk
Damn this forum...It's cost me another 70 quid. Ordered the Wherry premium kit and a box of 10 co2 cartridges.
Now any pointers to making my 1st brew the best it can be? Thinking of using bottled water (the cheap 20p stuff from tesco)???
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