I just put on my first one, it was pretty easy almost too easy. Now the 3 week wait to see if I have cocked it up.

FWIW I have used the Coopers kit with their Canadian Blonde beer. Anybody had any experience with this? I guess most kits are about the same.

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 http://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 like this 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.