[Closed] I've just been given a home brewing kit for crimbo!

Yeah, bin it and buy some decent beer 🙂

buy a decent kit. Clean it all properly and start asking your friends to collect screw top wine bottles over christmas.

Use brewers malt instead of sugar, make sure everything is sterilised, be patient...

Given that the churches and the Salvation Army are manking on about minimum alcohol pricing again with a made-up survey I think that in the future I'll be brewing my own...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-16272347

This is what ought to be done to those interfering nannies...

http://friendsofwillis.hampshire.org.uk/massagainians.htm

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/brewbuddy-40-pint-brewing-system-instore-tesco-goodmayes-was-26-00-now-5-50-1096826

was it this one?

Quality ale awaits, if you do things right. Check out jimsbeerkit.com for a lot of down to earth advice on starting up homebrewing. I also found John Palmer's site very helpful when I was starting;

http://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html

Although he's American and a lot of the UK brewers seem to be a bit derogatory about the Yanks and their airlocks.

Any advice?

Don't brew Brown Ale with twice the malt so it comes out twice as strong, then drink 4 pints of it, causing you to be unable to find the bathroom.

Arrr... it's too late for that! I've had a nip of my sister's lethal four month matured sloe gin...

Clean everything really well.

Don't use granulated sugar, replace with dried malt extract.

Try to keep the temperature stable while it ferments, somewhere between 17 and 21 degrees, but not 17 one day and 21 the next.

Add a crushed campden tablet to your water to drive off any chlorine/chloramine which can give the beer a chemically taste or....

Use bottled Tesco Value water.

Cover the floor with old sheets, you will spill sticky liquid.

Coopers IPA is very good.

Is it home brew beer or wine?

Either way, as has been said make sure everything is really clean and use the best kits you can afford. Also, not sure that using malt extract in a wine kit would produce good results. I Could be wrong though!

Everything that Nick said... and to stress be vigilant about the fermentation temperatures! Keep them as stable as you can and check the yeast packaging for the ideal fermentation temperature and DON'T let it get hotter that that!

All that's been said above but can I add "rinse, rinse and rinse again" ?

+1 jim's beer kit

There are some very good kits around, look to spend £17 to £22 on one. Coopers, Muntons, St Peters, Brewpak and Woodford's are all extremely good. The first one I did (Woodford's Norfolk Wherry) blew my mind - I'd previously only had a go at cheapo geordie beer kits as a student 20 years earlier and they were all vile - this Woodford's stuff was real beer!

I also concur with the cleaning and rinsing advice - it is imperative!

I have yet to venture into the world of brewing from scratch but am considering having a go over the Christmas break 8)

[i]Coopers IPA is very good[/i]

just bottled/barrelled a batch of this. Tasted good already.

I've also done Brupaks, Woodfordes, St Peters', all very good - and all produced by Muntons, apparently. Some people have a problem with them sticking at 1020, but I've not had that problem yet. Didn't like the Wherry though 🙁

All Grain brewing takes a considerable investment in equipment, although you can make it back over about 10 brews.
You at need at least the following
1) a boiler capable of taking as much water as your finished batch is going to be. There are two ways of doing this - a) big pan with a stainless steel tap at the bottom - £65ish. Plus gas burner - I'm told your average kitchen hob isn't up to the job. or b) electric - from £75 up to £300 or more. But elements have a tendency to burn out if you don't rinse the sugary goo off after you've done with your wort
2) a mash tun, insulated to keep the mashing liquor at about 65deg for up to an hour. Min £75
3) a wort chiller - upwards of £55 for a coil of copper pipe through which you run cold tapwater and immerse in the FV until the wort is at yeast pitching temperature. You could let the wort chill naturally but it would be an overnight job & it reduces the chance of a good cold break

and of course all of this can be DIY quality right up to shiny stainless steel commercial brewery quality, with the appropriate ££££s

plus of course your FV, siphon tubing, bottles, kegs etc that you've probably already got

All Grain brewing takes a considerable investment in equipment, although you can make it back over about 10 brews.

Actually, I would argue the investment is in the time it takes to brew, rather than the equipment. Sure you need to spend maybe £200 to get set up and buy ingredients to do all-grain brewing, but it's the 6+ hours you need to dedicate, plus the bottling etc that is the reason I haven't brewed for almost a year now.

Might go back to kits....

well yes, there's that too.

Some kits these days are excellent, and of course you can buy extra grain & hops to tweak them if you like. I did that with a Coopers Australian Pale Ale, which is a pretty bland beer to start with, so I added some Cascade hops - 20g boiled 15mins, another 20g steeped 30mins, then another 20g dry hopped after fermentation had finished. Fantastic brew. In fact, I'm just about to open a bottle of Hop Hop & Away...

[img] [/img]

this is a St Peter's IPA I brewed earlier in the year:
[img] [/img]

Well I'd start with not opening your christmas presents before christmas day. Trust me, if you're that impatient, home brewing is not the game for you.

You guys got any good opening times over Christmas 😉