The Beginning

[kentspitfire]

Good afternoon all,

After years of drinking fine ale and pondering over getting into brewing my own I've finally decided to get off m arse and give it a go. Before I get into this I just wanted to get a bit of advice as I do have the tendency of going over the top and running before I can walk.

After looking into it a little I was set on getting a woodforde wherry starter kit, but after delving a little deeper I've come across malt extract and biab brewing, which obviously sounds a lot more fun and I like the idea of having more creativity and control.

Is this running before I can walk? Is it advisable to start with a kit? Or is it a waste of time and money if I have my eyes on moving to extracts or biab.

Are there any biab kits on the market that anyone can recommend or decent budget bits of equipment. Will have about 100 quid to get my first brew going.

With this all factored in, in people's opinion is best to suck it up, get a kit and get the experience then build up the kit over time when more money is available?

I know a lot of questions but my experience with beer ends with drinking it.

[Spud395]

No problem starting out with a kit or 2 even if you intend to move along fairly quickly.
You need to get a handel on sanatation and you have very little invested in a kit if it goes wrong because of newbie mistakes.

Get a kit on the go and drive yourself mad reading and researching when thats coming good, you'll be in a better place to make a discision then and you'll have beer as well

[waterwolf]

I reckon it's worth starting with a kit, seeing as the wherry starter kit bits will still come in useful if you take the all grain plunge.
Well that's what I did anyway.

Thanks to the tax man I got a fair rebate which turned into 3 corny kegs,regulator plus a 27 litre burco wash boiler from fleabay which I reckon is ideal for 19 litre brews, and a whole heap of hops and grains

So far I have made 2 biab brews which look and smell great but still in fermenting buckets so no tasting yet

Just be sure on which way your going and not like me who spent a whole day turning a couple of buckets into a lovely well insulated mash tun then read about brew in a bag leaving the tun useless

As mentioned at least the wherry will help with the waiting on the first grain brew.

[rossi74]

go for it i say, a couple of kits while getting the hang of things and building and reading a bit about all grain. that was exactly what i did and I'm now enjoying drinking biab #2 whilst #3 is in fermenter.

good luck

kyle

[Bribie]

Just to recap, BIAB is a method of using grain malt ( typically 4-5 kilos per batch), water and hops to produce the wort that gets fermented into beer.
So it's not a complete "brewing" method, it's a "wort production" method.

The rest of the brewing process - sanitisation, fermenting, conditioning etc is the same no matter whether your wort comes from a tin, malt extract, BIAB or three-vessel systems mashing systems.
Nothing wrong with starting off with a few kits to get the process nailed down, but going full-mash will definitely give you the "fine ales" you are looking for.