Help on starting home brewing please

[westham111]

Hi can anybody help me i am thinking of starting homebrewing and would like some help, i have been told that bitter is easier than larger to start with? and could any body point me in the right direction as to what kit to buy and where from, many thanks in advance Paul Butcher

[Jim]

Hi WestHam111,

I'm moving this to the Kit Brewing Questions and Answers forum, as you're more likely to get a reply there.

Welcome, by the way.

[Pav]

hi ya buddy!
I brewed for a bit as a student. After a long break I have returned to it again!!

I got into it the first time around by buying a brewing bag. Maybe not the best brew but an easy way to start. I then got a kit with a bucket and plastic bottles. After that I knew I was enjoying it and got a pressure barrel. The pressure barrel makes it all a lot easier!

I've done largers and bitters but stick to bitters now. I suggest a cheap kit to start with so if you make mistakes you are not put off having poured ££s down the sink. HBard were doing a £6.99 kit which was good but my local brew shop has just put it up to £10

Good luck.. I hope you enjoy.

[Dennis King]

Where are you, someone might know a homebrew shop near you

[Luther]

Well, you've come to the right place! I've only recently started home brewing (on my 4th brew) and I have to say the advice I've had on here has been brilliant - and no one seems to get arsey with the newbies asking stupid questions, which is great!

I reckon just find your local homebrew shop and get an all-in starter kit that will have all the bits you need. Example here:

http://www.hopandgrape.co.uk/catalog/de ... UA20026215&

I've only brewed bitters so far, but have found them easy enough if you follow the instructions and make sure everything is clean and sterilised. Results have been much better than I expected to be honest. The great thing is that there seem to be so many things a kit brewer can do to improve the quality of brews, so you can just keep tweaking and improving with each brew. Have a browse round this forum - you'll find loads of suggestions from treating water or using bottled stuff, using malt extract or spraymalt instead of sugar, dry hopping... and so on and so on.

After a few short months, I'm eyeing up shiny and expensive things and mentally measuring the storage shed in the garden. You are about to step onto a slippery slope, mate. But it's well worth it - and if you're a West Ham fan you're going to need a bloody drink over the next few months

[westham111]

Thanks for your help

[Ditch]

After a few short months, I'm eyeing up shiny and expensive things and mentally measuring the storage shed in the garden.

Luther; You know it. We know it. God help ye when the Wife gets to know it! ..... Ye going to get a new, and bigger shed, aren't ye?

[quiff]

Slippery slope??? You're not kidding! I've not even tasted my first brew yet but I have my 3rd in the FV and I'm already priceing up conical fermenters

[Luther]

Luther; You know it. We know it. God help ye when the Wife gets to know it! ..... Ye going to get a new, and bigger shed, aren't ye?

Oh she knows. She's just in denial. She likes a wheat beer so I'm going for that next, might help win her round. I'm also trying to make as much mess as I can in the kitchen when I brew, to help her see the benefit of a dedicated, separate brewing space...


Mind you, if you're trying not to get hooked, this bloody website doesn't help. After all your championing of Coopers Stout, I might line that up for after Christmas, and I don't even bloody like stout...

[quiff]

I too am tempted to try Coopers Stout as my next brew due to Ditch's mad, rampant raving about the stuff.
Ditch?? I notice you have said in another topic that you use mollasses. Any chance you can post your recipe so we can give it a whirl.
It was the "angels tongue slipping down your throat" analogy that has intigued me.

[Ditch]

Ye don't have to like 'Stout' to like Coopers Stout, lads. Guinness is a stout and I'm not overly impressed with that. Smythwicks is an ale, and I wouldn't drink that if my teeth were on fire! Doesn't mean I don't like ales though. Just that some have it all going for them. Others lack.

Quiff; That time I tried some molasses in my drink was just a one off experiment. And it was Vile! Someone was talking of Brewing with it, so I thought I'd try a drop in a pint of Guinness. Used a level teaspoon in a pint and ruined what was otherwise a moderately passable drink.

Maybe a tablespoon of the stuff to a whole five gallons? But that's a hell of a lot of beer to ruin! Be bloody cautious of molasses.

[Prozac]

Ditch's love of the Coopers Stout kit is not misguided.... supping a pint right now and it is like silk.
Lovely roast barley flavours, a hint of coffee or maybe chocolate, a fabulous pint.
I was in Dublin last Thurs, Fri & Sat..... learned how to pour and taste a pint of Guinness in the factory.....
I think the Coopers is a tad thinner but certainly none the worse for it.

[Ditch]

Lovely roast barley flavours, a hint of coffee or maybe chocolate, a fabulous pint.

I'm So jealous! Sat here with my bloody Guinness .....

I actually Did It, today. Talk about Balls of Brass! I actually sat there, in my Irish local and told my Irish Land Lord that I can brew a better pint of stout than the Guinness he, and a million other pubs, sells! How's That for brass neck, eh?! F*ck 'em! It's a simple bloody fact and no way am I going to say Guinness is better, when it's not. Nor am I going to sit there and let him run away with the idea that I must really look forward to coming in for a 'Proper Pint'.

I Like my home brew. Others like my home brew. Coopers Stout leads to Consideration; " A hint of coffee or maybe chocolate ". It defies an easy definition. It's a mix of flavours to Explore! And those flavours can subtly alter with age and temperature. There's no guaranteeing tomorrows pints will be precisely the same as tonights. Guinness? If that pint hits the glass at one degrees variance from the proscribed, international serving temperature? The black van pulls up and the cooling unit gets attended to.

If I didn't Like Guinness, why would I be buying and consuming so much of it? (Aside from the fact that it's that or various American crap and cider). But, to me, Coopers Stout is simply the hands down winner.

Christ, and it's going to be about a month before I get to taste any more!

But then; There'll be no turning back!

[chopperswookie]

coopers is fab - decided my christmas treat to meself this year will be a coopers stout and coopers dark spray malt brew. coopers is my stout of choice and for the last two years brewed it christmas period then left it, up to three months (i know that will be hard ditch) for that special something on paddys day!

as for starting out. brew something you like. if you drink lager brew a lager. if you drink bitter brew a bitter. then once your first brew is ready you will know how it should taste and gauge if it was a "good un" or needs more work. look at the various types of kit available for your favourite drink - like ditch and his coopers.

Jims is the best place to look on the web. if you look at when i joined the forum that was prob two weeks after i started homebrewing.

give it a go!