Almost 8 years since my last brew was finished, I've been inspired after accidentally finding this site, to make another brew.
The topic title was the first sentence from my wife's lips this morning..That's a great sign if you ask me!
Anyway, after reading the very useful tips scattered around the site, I thought I'd give my twopenneth'.
1. Clean/sterilise properly. Take your time. I've never had a brew go bad so I know my regime is working. When rinsing your equipment, do the last rinse with HOT water, as it removes the last smells of chlorine.
2. Filter your water. I'll post a picture later of a filter I found in the Souqs in Qatar a few years ago. It's a cracker! They remove the smelly chlorine from the water. Even the missus can taste and smell the difference immediately. It makes a MASSIVE difference to the final aroma and taste.
3. Never use SUGAR...NEVER, NEVER, NEVER,EVER, with a kit...I spent years trying to perfect the ideal lager and after probably 20 lots of 5 gallons, realised that the only beers that 'forgive' sugar are really dark, strong flavoured ones, and that's only when using the Muntons BEER ENHANCER which is a sugar/malt mixture.
ALWAYS use spraymalt/dryamalt with kits..Yes, it increases the cost considerably, but the difference is enough to put people off home beer for life. NEVER, EVER use sugar...The beer ALWAYS tastes like pi**.
4. After reading some great re-hyration tips on this forum, it is ESSENTIAL to rehydrate packet yeasts in a glass of 30 degree C boiled and cooled water. Pour onto surface, leave for 15 mins. Stir and leave for 20 mins and it is KICKING with energy, ready to go to work. Add to the wort, ensuring the wort is between 25 and 30 degrees C, otherwise you could 'shock' it...Would you like jumping into a freezing lake, or a boiling pool? Thought not! Oh, and aerate the brew with a paddle for 5 mins..Get some OXYGEN in there, use lots of elbow grease!!
5. Finally, follow the manufacturers instructions regardingtemperature. You are not brewing to show off, with loads of froth all over the place. Get a strip thermometer for the Brewbin AND a room thermometer for the room. I use a brewbelt, about 3 quarters the way UP my bin which raises the brew temp. by 3 degrees from the room temp.
6. Daab's comments on 10 DAYS IN THE BREWBIN are spot on. I spent years arsing around with syphoning after 36 hours, finings etc....As long as the temp. has been kept as required, you won't get anything other than lovely beer....Don't worry, it is what most breweries do after all.
Now for my beer.......
16 hours after starting a COOPERS STOUT with 1kg light SPRAYMALT, the yeasty head has formed and the brewbin is pumping out a lovely smell around the house...Brew temp is 23.5 degrees, room temp is 20 degrees.
There is NO NEED to keep looking, don't do it. Once you trust your 'regimes', you can follow the 10 day rule. If you must look, take a peek and/or a sniff through the hole on the lid. I cover mine with a piece of kitchen roll, held by its corner by a rubber bung as a weight.
I barrell, but again NEVER USE SUGAR. Instead, save a little dry malt and mix with some beer, before priming the barrell with that...Again, sterilise, and rinse with hot water to eliminate the chlorine smell
Remember to keep secondary fermentation going for 5 to 7 days, to ENSURE the brew is complete. Then store in cold place..My shed is 4 degrees this morning so with float attached, I should have beer about 1 week later.
Does beer condition? Well. yes. but anyone who tells me a barrell of pi** turned into a barrell of nectar is telling porkies...When I syphon to the barrell, I take a glass of cloudy beer to test...You know from there what it will taste like....but yes, it does 'peak'....
Most of my kits in the barrell are good to go after three weeks and give me a 3 or 4 MONTH WINDOW...before slowly, losing their best..
Any bottled beer (which I HIGHLY recommend) lasts up to 18 months, but goes off much slower...If you can be patient and bothered, botting is the way to go...I've made kit beer in bottles that would close a brewery..
BEST KITS? From MY experience...
1. Telfords Euro pils, with 1.2 kg light spaymalt, using saflager yeast. Walked all over the crap you buy in a pub, with NO silly CIDERY homebrew taste. Not as cheap as they once were, but now MUNTONS make most of the stuff on the market, I presume most of their products use ''similar' malts.
2. MUNTONS stout. again, 1kg light spraymalt, 250g dark...Walked all over any bottled I could find. Cried when it finished...
3. CIDER YES CIDER!!! This is easy and if you NEED to buy a cheap kit, allows sugar to be used...DEAD SIMPLE..great inspiration for beginners.
Hope the tips help, I'll post some pics later...Happy brewing,
Dave.
'This house stinks like a brewery'!
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steve_flack
Whilst you're right about not using sugar with kits (I mean how do you expect a beer to taste made with 1.5kg of (hopefully) malt extract and 1kg of sugar?), there is a time and place for using sugar in beers - particularly high gravity ones where you don't want the beer too sweet. I'm talking in the >6% ABV area here.
I just wanted to counterbalance the sugar is evil mantra. It isn't...well not always.
I just wanted to counterbalance the sugar is evil mantra. It isn't...well not always.
Glad to hear your returning brew is going well -
discodave
A useful point steve about high ABV beer and sugar..
You reminded me of a Brewferm kit, I think it was Diabalo, made with drymalt and household sugar, which I renamed as 'MOTHERF***ER' and gave to 4 mates one weekend.
It went down a storm and at abou 7.5% alc got them all dancing around my kitchen! Great memories!!!
So yes, you're correct..I was really trying to prevent people making my first mistake of thinking a simple kit with sugar would make pub standard beer..It can't, as you said earlier...
Good to see loads of 2 tin kits on the market now..Quality is now more important than price, thank god.
I'll keep you all up to date with the Stout...I can smell it now, a touch of sweet licorice and malt....MMMmm..
Cheers, Dave..
You reminded me of a Brewferm kit, I think it was Diabalo, made with drymalt and household sugar, which I renamed as 'MOTHERF***ER' and gave to 4 mates one weekend.
It went down a storm and at abou 7.5% alc got them all dancing around my kitchen! Great memories!!!
So yes, you're correct..I was really trying to prevent people making my first mistake of thinking a simple kit with sugar would make pub standard beer..It can't, as you said earlier...
Good to see loads of 2 tin kits on the market now..Quality is now more important than price, thank god.
I'll keep you all up to date with the Stout...I can smell it now, a touch of sweet licorice and malt....MMMmm..
Cheers, Dave..
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guest5234
Re: 'This house stinks like a brewery'!
.
1. Telfords Euro pils, with 1.2 kg light spaymalt, using saflager yeast. Walked all over the crap you buy in a pub, with NO silly CIDERY homebrew taste. Not as cheap as they once were, but now MUNTONS make most of the stuff on the market, I presume most of their products use ''similar' malts.
2. MUNTONS stout. again, 1kg light spraymalt, 250g dark...Walked all over any bottled I could find. Cried when it finished...
3. CIDER YES CIDER!!! This is easy and if you NEED to buy a cheap kit, allows sugar to be used...DEAD SIMPLE..great inspiration for beginners.
Hope the tips help, I'll post some pics later...Happy brewing,
Dave.[/quote]
Hi Dave, tried above kits and they are good, but the king of kits is the famous Brupaks Fixby Gold which has got much attention on these boards, an all malt kit which I add an extra 500gms spray malt and a handful of fuggles hops to the corni, best kit I have ever tasted,I have never had a good cider and you can buy quality cider so cheap thats its not worth making. On the water subject, I have never noticed much difference filtered or not, suppose it is where you live, I live in Birmingham and we get our water from the Elan valley in Wales and it is good.
1. Telfords Euro pils, with 1.2 kg light spaymalt, using saflager yeast. Walked all over the crap you buy in a pub, with NO silly CIDERY homebrew taste. Not as cheap as they once were, but now MUNTONS make most of the stuff on the market, I presume most of their products use ''similar' malts.
2. MUNTONS stout. again, 1kg light spraymalt, 250g dark...Walked all over any bottled I could find. Cried when it finished...
3. CIDER YES CIDER!!! This is easy and if you NEED to buy a cheap kit, allows sugar to be used...DEAD SIMPLE..great inspiration for beginners.
Hope the tips help, I'll post some pics later...Happy brewing,
Dave.[/quote]
Hi Dave, tried above kits and they are good, but the king of kits is the famous Brupaks Fixby Gold which has got much attention on these boards, an all malt kit which I add an extra 500gms spray malt and a handful of fuggles hops to the corni, best kit I have ever tasted,I have never had a good cider and you can buy quality cider so cheap thats its not worth making. On the water subject, I have never noticed much difference filtered or not, suppose it is where you live, I live in Birmingham and we get our water from the Elan valley in Wales and it is good.
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guest5234
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guest5234
DaaB wrote:There's no need to loose the avatar completelyI'm pretty sure evey red blooded hetrosexual male here found it pleasing on the eye it's just that it was getting the way of the serious issue of discussing beer
sorry, dont know how to make it smaller, wife says "for gods sake dont make it smaller, its hard enough to find now" 
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Orfy