[Closed] Home Brew

Balls wrong forum, mods can you move it please.

The Coopers kits are good. I am drinking one now. You treat the first couple with kid gloves then you worry a lot less. Sanitisation is the main thing.

Now that's what i'd refer to as constructive down-time 😉

If you really want it moving dude - report your own post.

Just been and stuck my head in the barrel and it smells fantastic. Can't wait for over 40 pints of hopefully decent beer to be ready, I'm going to need another fridge.

Constructive down time indeed, the beer and doing the DH damper mod to my Lyriks took up my afternoon.

Pre-apologies for going off-topic...

What's this new damper you talk of? Pics/links welcome 🙂

Lyrik DH mod.

http://m.pinkbike.com/news/technical-tuesday-lyric-mod-2010.html

Improves small bump compliance apparently. We shall see.

conditioning matters a lot IM limited E - in terms of duration.

cynic-al - Member
conditioning matters a lot IM limited E - in terms of duration.

Now who's following who... 🙄

eh ❓ I posted on a thread you'd posted on, co incidentally.

Your pattern is to quote an aged post of mine and flame me.

Have a word with yourself.

😆

🙄

😛

Calm down girls.

Al, when you talk of conditioning do you mean the couple of weeks I have to leave it in the bottle after brewing?

I just checked on it and its looking good the yeast has clearly been at work as it has a bit of a head.

yes - IME it really is worth leaving it at least 2 weeks - the longer the better.

Bottle it and forget about it...pop out and buy of crate of something to keep you going.

In the meantime stick another one on as soon as the fermenter's empty, obviously you'll need more bottles or a keg.

I've been home brewing for a few years. I went with pressure barrels rather than bottles. They take up less space and are less time consuming to clean. Plus you can't give it away!

I've got 2 pressure barrels, conditioning 1 brew, drinking the other. Estimating when 1 barrel will be empty so ready for the brew in the fermenter requires very careful quantity control. 😆

I've tried a range of kits. IMO the premium kits are worth the extra money. Woodfords, Milestone, St Peters, Muntons Gold. I've just ordered a new kit that's supposed to be a take on Timothy Taylor's Landlord. It might not last long if it anything like its supposed to be.

Make the brew into the fermenting bucket and leave well alone for 2 weeks in normal house temperature. Too hot and the yeast dies. So no conservatories or airing cupboards. Transfer to a pressure barrel, be careful to leave the yeast in the fermenter. I've seen some "advice" about adding the used yeast to the bottle or barrel. All it will add is dead yeast bite and taint the finished beer. Minimum of 2 weeks before drinking.

It does get better the longer you leave it. I've got a Woodfords Sun Dew that's 2 months old that's improved massively. Family get togethers have improved as well.

The 2 months plus in the bottle for the Woodfordes Wherry has been beneficial. Two weeks will be a bit short, it will just about be drinkable but may have a strange aftertaste.
I'm hoping the Hopback Summer Lightning clone is half as good.

Go to www.jimsbeerkit.co.UK for more hints, tips, recipes etc

I made the switch to all-grain BIAB (Brew In A Bag) method in January this year. Not made a kit since, and the number of recipes available to replicate your favourite commercial brew is astounding.
Extra equipment required over & above brewing kit beers is a boiler - mine was £70 - and a voile bag (£8).

next batch, tomorrow probably, is a blonde ale using cascade & citra hops. I already had the hops so basically the price of the batch is 4.5kg of grain (£8.50) plus the yeast (£2.99)

I've seen some "advice" about adding the used yeast to the bottle or barrel. All it will add is dead yeast bite and taint the finished beer.

Cannot see the point in doing that, there'll still be yeast in suspension at that point which you'll need anyway for carbonation.

Thanks for your advice guys, I'm not sure I will be able to leave them more than 2 weeks without trying one of them. It's not like it will make much of an impact on stock when I'm brewing 40 pints. I might be able to hold fire on the rest but the first needs to be tried asap.

Cannot see the point in doing that, there'll still be yeast in suspension at that point which you'll need anyway for carbonation.

I can't either. Like I said just adds yeast bite to the finished beer.

Forgot to say when I transfer to the pressure barrel I add 80grams of brewers sugar, although I've used granulated, brown or Demerara sugar as well, for 40 pints to help the conditioning and to create gas to help pour the beer. The way the pressure barrel works it needs top gas to stop glugging and stirring up the yeast sediment. Plus it gives a nice airated head.

Been thinking about getting into the homebrew lark; any recommendations for how to "get started"? Would a kit [url= http://www.wineworks.co.uk/product/wineworks-superior-beer-starter-kit/ ]like this[/url] be all I need?? Cheers!

aye, that'll do for starters 🙂

Coopers kits are among the better one-can kits, but two-can kits do give better results; although they are more expensive, once you've added in the price of a pack of Coopers BKE (Beer Kit Enhancer, a mix of dextrose & dried malt extract, used instead of sugar), there's not that much in it price wise

in the case of beer (and wine), cleanliness really is next to godliness. Make sure you sterilise everything AND rinse it well before adding the ingredients

Cool cheers. Their next kit up is another £25 and includes a Wherry two can kit (from what I can see). Think you can get that kit for around £20 anyway so could always "upgrade" my starter kit if I'm feeing confident for my first brew 😉

OP, I'll let you have your thread back now 🙂

Munkster this is what I have but Canadian blonde not ginger beer. I'm happy for anybody to ask anything, I havnt got a clue what I'm doing!

http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/acatalog/Coopers_Home_Brew_Ginger_Beer_Starter_kit.html#a100172_2e_2e_2e_2e

OK I'll ask another 😉

Say I did get that kit with the pressure barrel (??) not bottles how long would I have to drink 40 pints? I am assuming not "indefinitely"...

From what I have read you should have at least 6 months. I can't see me needing more than 1 month if it tastes good.

I've never had good results from a barrel but I think that's down to me so I now always bottle. Upside is, if one goes bad, it doesn't spoil the whole batch; downside is cleaning 30-40 bottles...

I would aim to empty a barrel inside two weeks; if you can't drink it that fast, use bottles.

One 70g packet of powdered ginger from Sainsbury's (quite often on offer)
Two kilos of sugar
Five teaspoonfuls of brewing yeast (bread yeast will not work)
Forty pints of water
Two weeks
Beer for about 10p per pint
Repeat (until tired of ginger beer)

Your barrel will last 2-3 months quite happily,as long as you remember to top up with CO2 regularly.A lot of information here
http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/viewforum.php?f=30&sid=f7d1318c908873d2cbfa1fd68dc1c19a and like Jim's Beer Kit,they're both full of friendly people,recipes and good advice.
Ian

I got mine into 29 750ml bottles (mostly) yesterday, tasting in a week 🙂

Hope it's good.

Deciding on my next brew thinking of doing a honey porter from scratch

I'll try and post a picture of my Kegerator - split C02 system running 2 Cornelius kegs of 19ltrs each with two taps on the outside of the door. Man P0rn ! I have a large stainless grain system and brew quite a lot.

STW has a nasty habit of this. I've been mulling over giving home brew a try when this thread pops up.

i think the watershed for me was spending 15 quid on alcohol one weekend and realising that commercial beer is just pi$$.

looks like i'm going to have to give this a try now 🙂

NZCol I can't wait to see that!

My brew is currently under the stairs wrapped in one of the kids old duvets to keep it at over 21deg. Really looking forward to trying it.

Already decided I will do the Coopers Wheat Beer concentrate next. I'm not up for mixing the ingredients myself just yet. Problem is I am going to have to wait until I have either finished my current 40 pints or buy some more bottles.

davidrussell give it a go so far it has been pretty easy and it works out at less than 50p per pint after you take away the initial setup cost. After homebrew, DE razors and owning a BFe and a 456 its a good job I don't like SS and don't have a 29er or I would be shouting house on STW bingo!

I_Ache.

Add an Audi, Apple iBitch user and a wood burner to the list for the jackpot prize. 😉 😉

Good point, we nearly just bought an Audi A1 and I am thinking about an iPad mini depending on price. Should I just shoot myself now?

Ok so im late to this thread but i have just started my first ever brew (woodforde Wherry) and tbh i may have rushed in a little and just followed the pack instructions which consist of about 8 lines.

I have the two can set with a ferment tub and a plastic keg. I did sterolise all iof the gubbins but i did NOT rinse as wife started on about it not then being sterile (dont normally listed to her!) so first off will it taint?

secondly i had the pack of yeast which i poured in then decided to stir in....was this right or should i have just left to float on top???

next up the water was tap...hard area...again will this notice

Sugar....is the brewers stuff better? i did hear someone say that normal sugar gave it a cidery taste?

and lastly i have the keg but there was no mention of gas?? it just has a screw in lid and a tap at the bottom. So numpty question but will i need to shipon into the keg then apply gas to the barrel and not just screw the lid on?

TBH im not expecting this to be a success and have resigned the first batch to be drain fodder but was hoping that i can sort things out a bit for the next round.

My instructions said I should rinse after sterilization and to sprinkle the yeast on top.

Mine also came with brew enhancer and bottles so no idea about your sugar or keg.

common or garden granulated sugar doesn't add much to the "body" of the beer but shouldn't turn it into cider - if that happens then you've probably got an infection. Spraymalt (dried malt extract) or Coopers BKE does add to the body as it has some of the flavour from the malt, so is better than white sugar for that reason, but no other.

two-can kits eg donks' Woodforde Wherry don't need any extra sugar.

basic keg doesn't have a gas injector so when the gas naturally produced in secondary fermentation has gone, there's no way of getting more CO2 in - but you can buy a replacement cap with CO2 valve. Whether you then choose the 8g CO2 bulbs or a full size CO2 canister is up to you.

when the beer has finished fermenting - which it will do in its own time no matter what the kit instructions say - the only reliable way to tell is to take hydrometer readings over a few consecutive days. Usually takes 6-10 days, some people leave it a fortnight regardless. some yeasts are quite vigorous and can be done inside a week.

When it's steady for three days running AND below 1010, then it's pretty well done. Now siphon into your sterilised & rinsed barrel, add some finings to speed up the clearing, plus 80-120g of priming sugar. This is converted into CO2 in secondary fermentation, and this is what pressurises the barrel, initially anyway.

Some sterilisers are of the "no-rinse" variety but the commonly used one in the UK, VWP, does need rinsing - it's basically bleach and may kill the yeast before it gets to do its thing.

when using tap water, add 1/2 to 1 crushed campden tablet, this will help get rid of the chlorine already in the water. If you're in a hard water area then more treatment [i]may[/i] be necessary, e.g gypsum, epsom salts - but don't worry about that for your first kit or three.

I never stir my yeast in, but it shouldn't do any harm if you have already done this

Pretty much what John said above.

LINKY THING>>>>>> [url= http://www.hopandgrape.co.uk/public/detailv1.asp?itemcode=LID20156353 ]Barrel cap with injector valve[/url] is a must if you are going to use a pressure barrel. Although I only have to use an 8g bulb of gas once on a 40 pint barrel. And that's very near the end when the natural gas from the 2nd fermentation had been used up.

I use Vaseline on the tap and cap threads when putting them on. And I replace the cap seal every few brews as well.

The 2 can kits can give really good results. Far better than cans or bottles of commercial beer. No need to add anything. Sugar for the 2nd fermentation is normally brewers sugar. Just because I've got a big bag left over from when I tried to make some cider. Granulated is normally fine. I only use 80g for 40 pints. Otherwise it creates too much gas and the tap leaks.

I've tried using spring or mineral water before now to see if it changed the flavour. No real difference but it might in a hard water area. Plus you get PET bottles to put your beer in.

The steriliser needs to be rinsed. OK with tap water. Your about to put 30 odd pints of tap water in anyway. And that's not sterile. You can use Peracetic acid to rinse. It breaks down to water and CO2. But fairly unnecessary for home brew.

I did I stint as a commercial brewer in a brew pub. 180 gallon capacity per brew. Home brew is just the same just smaller. If you go down the full grain method try to keep things simple. I'm not a great fan of complex brews with lots of ingredients and a multitude of dry hoping. Most of the great beers are in fact very simple. Beers with lots of conflicting flavours and characters tend to overwhelm. Do a few things well rather than lots poorly.

Right. That's my 2 penny's worth. I'm no means an expert so ignore at will.

Great thread. I bought Sproot a beer kit as a joke birthday present but he's taken to brewing like a duck to water!
We've made Woodfords Nelsons revenge (quite dark, very drinkable) and Sundown which was much paler. Less keen on Sundown but it improved with time.
Now we've done Theakstons old peculier and the primary fermentation is just going nuts with the airlock bubbling like mad. Can the primary fermentation be too good?
All help gratefully received

My favorites at the moment are the [url= http://www.creativewinemaking.co.uk/beer-kits/st-peters-brewery/cat_130.html ]St Peters Kits[/url] the Golden ale especially at the moment, the seem to condition in the barrel quicker than the Woodfords Kits

There are no-rinse santisers available, but should say on the instructions if you should rinse or not.

No need to stir the yeast in either, but if you do make sure you're using a sanitised spoon.

However...it's always a good idea to stir vigorously before you add the yeast, this has the benefit of aerating the wort (unfermented beer) which the yeast will love. The wort is most vulnerable to infection before fermentation, so anything to give the yeast a head start is a good move.

Also try hydrating the yeast beforehand - boil the kettle, sanitise a glass and cool the water in it (you can sit it in a bowl of cold water to accelerate the process). Add the yeast when the water has cooled to around the 25c mark, cover with cling film and let it sit for half hour or so while you attend to the cans.

When done, aerate the wort (as above) and pour the yeast in.