Beers/ales and the art of making your own – how?

Have taken a liking for real ale/beer, no fizzy yellow watery stuff anymore thanks. Thinking of making a few bottles of my own and wondered what does the STW collective use? Any suitable reading material and guidance on the subject that is particularly good? Where to get the kit (online) and whatever else is needed?

Thanks.

http://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=47875
http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=10257
A couple of good sites,very friendly,lots of advice.Choices are kits of various kinds,using malt extract and hops etc,or full mash.Easiest way in is a kit or two to start,lots of online homebrew shops,google is your friend.John Drummmer will probs be along too ,he’s another keen brewer.If you’re near Barnsley,I’ll be brewing this weekend,you’re welcome to watch.
Ian

Howdo!

+1 for jimsbeerkit.

For kit brews I’d recommend the two can kits from brupaks, St Peter’s etc. Equipment wise you’ll need at least one fermenting vessel, a big long plastic spoon, hydrometer & trial jar, and bottles or keg to store it in.

For all grain the easiest method is Brew In A Bag, for which you’ll need a boiler, mashing bag and thermometer in addition to the above.

Wilkinsons & Tesco often carry some gear to get you started.

Excelent online book here
John Palmer. how to brew[/url]

and Graham Wheelers book how to brew reals ales is a good read with lots of recipes for popular ales

be warned though you can make some seriously nice beers for £00.50 per pint once you have your equipment.

this is not me – I think the lack of Yorkshire accent kind of gives that away 😉

the copper coil is an immersion chiller, optional but it saves leaving the hot wort overnight to cool down to yeast temperature. put this in the boiler for the last 15 minutes of the boil, then run cold water through it until the wort is down to 25degrees or less. Takes about 30-40 minutes

Did you make your own immersion chiller John? – I keep meaning to get one and it looks like you could just bend some copper pipe around a cyclindrical object to make your own. Not sure on the price of copper pipe, mind.

Home brew is great and surprisingly easy.

Kit required is as John above suggests – most home brew shops will sell you this as a kit. You also need to consider how you will store your beer once its made – bottles or keg and buy the equipment for this too.

Beer kits are a very good way to get started. I’ve tried Brupaks and St Peters kits and have had good results with both.

I’ve now moved on to extract kits – Brupaks brewers choice – its a good way to try different customisation options without going to the more complicated all grain methods.

I started with kits and the moved straight to all grain brewing (about 6 years ago).

I’d recommend anyone toying with the idea of homebrewing to start with a kit or two (see above for recommendations).

Jimsbeerkit has a very active forum so lots of help available there.

All grain brewing needs more equipment (but the brew-in-a-bag method reduces that) and takes more time than kits. But the results are better IMO and you can make whatever beer you like.

It’s a great passtime with the benefit of beer being the end result 🙂

no, I bought my immersion chiller – £60 or less. but yes, that’s all it is, a length of copper pipe with some hose attachments

at the last in-shop brewday we used a plate chiller – took < 10 minutes to chill to 22deg. More expensive but uses less water and much much quicker

some people do “no chill” i.e leave it overnight – especially in arid areas where water is at a premium e.g Australia

I have to admit,I made my own hot liquor tun,boiler,and mash tun,but bought a chiller,very very useful piece of kit,especially if time is at a premium.
Ian

not that I’m recommending Tesco, or Coopers kits, over anywhere else, but this’ll get you started…

http://www.tesco.com/direct/diy-beer-starter-kit/213-7435.prd?pageLevel=&skuId=213-7435

of course if you have a local homebrew shop (LHBS) then I’d recommend going there instead, but if you don’t, this is better than nothing

At work ( brewery ) we have alot of 12ft lengths of stainless steel coils from the insides of Lager chillers. They fit inside home brew buckets as they are wound back on themselves , approx 12″ x 14″ .
Perfect for cooling wort , just connect to your cold tap and run the drain to waste .
Yours for P & P if you want one .
One problem is I am not at work as will be on sick leave as having hand cut open tomorrow, so will be off for 6 ish weeks .

Hi STM, I’d love one of the coils if possible ?

Brilliant – great info and plenty to be getting on with.

Thanks – hic 😉

STM, if this is still possible I would love one of these.
Cheers freespace.
Ps nice to see troutie on thbf

I’d like one too please,if there’s a spare.
Ian

Hopefully first all grain within the next week or two.
All depends on freespace no.3’s football tournaments.

Re the Cooling coils .

We have about a dozen I guess kicking around.
As stated , free apart from P & P, but tey are not heavy or massively large , might be able to include JG speed fits on some as well.

I am having my thumb tendons either grafted or the joint fused on my thumb as I ran out of ability at an inopportune moment and hit a tree.

I wont be back at work in a hurry as will be in plastercast. Will bump this thread or start a new one when Im out and about again.

Hope the op goes well and healing vibes sent

please put me down for one when the time is right
I did make a copper one. but it always goes in looking tarnished and comes out bright clean
is copper good for you

I be interested in one the coils as well, thanks. Want to get started as well

We have a really good local brewery in Stafford, Slaters Ales, who make the Top Totty bitter famously banned from the House of Commons. They do a home brew kit. Here

Here is my set up as just brewing a Smoked Wheat Saison
Top is the Hot water ( liquer) tank
middle is the Mash tun
bottom is a pan to transfer the wort to the boiler

next the boiler with the first wort hops waiting

wort boiling merrily

cooler waiting to go in the boiler

And draining from the boiler into the fermenter

and here is some we made earlier this recipe
Cottage house Saison [/url]

MMM very tasty

Trout – nice setup and now thirsty, thanks!

Cheers SV

last pics
the spent hops and gunk in the boiler to dispose of
compost heap or bin but keep away from the dog as hops are not good for dogs

and all tucked up in my fermenting cupboard with the yeasties added

Havent even started brewing or buying kit and I have brewers envy 🙂

Went with a BrewSmarter kit, it comes with a Canadian blonder beer kit. Also ordered a Tom Caxton Real Ale kit and some light spray malt.

time to get making again, now the pig is done and dusted I should have some more time
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/09/01/ale-chief-white-house-beer-recipe
The honey porter was my favourite, though just had some rye porter so might mix the recipe up a little next time

Love threads like this!

This is my BIAB set up currently mashing as I type this:
6kg Crisp pale malt
100g Citra hops
Safale US-05

I think the two tin kits are a good way to start and gets you into a good routine sterilising equipment etc. What I have found the positives of all-grain over extract to be is at worst I can make a very nice drinkable beer whilst with extract kits they all have that ‘homebrew’ taste, some more than others.

Wilkos had a brilliant offer on last week, 50% of all their homebrew range, kits and equipment so I well stocked up!

Going even smaller I do micro-BIAB on the stove – usually working with less than 7l of wort after extraction so I can use a sink filled with ice water as a chiller rather than bothering with proper cooling systems. Works surprisingly well although I do have more clarity issues than proper set ups.

Just finishing off the last bottles of a Green Coffee Pale Ale at moment and i’ve got an oaked single hop citra IPA on the secondary which I’ll be bottling tonight. Very small batches means you can have some fun experimenting.

I’d love a cooler coil as well – let us know when you are two-handed again!

I’m going to get one of these BIABs on the go, but I need a substantially bigger brewpot.
Do ye brewers reckon that an urn with heating element (like patriot matt posted up there) is a good choice? I quite like the simplicity of just a big old pot on the stove, but I’m not sure my hob is big enough to support an 8 or 10 gall vessel safely. The burners are good, but I’d be a bit concerned about it wobbling with the kids running around the kitchen.
I see people use standalone propane burners, and I have a cellar, but looking to minimise expense.

Using gas burners in a cellar would require good ventilation, don’t want a CO2 buildup, right kids 😀

or even a CO build up?

You can get electric boilers, yes. I use a 32 litre pot on my hob at home but use an electric boiler when I brew at the LHBS.

http://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=60410

Thks John for that link. I think a 40L brew urn (or whatever the terminology is) would be right for me.

Bumpity Bump

I am ( almost ) back to work .
Anyone who posted on this thread who was after a cooling coil drop me a pm . Address is in profile and I will try to get one in the post this week

This has spiralled a little so give me a little time to sort it all out.