A Great first Kit

[daveyk]

After all the rave reviews and feedback on the Woodfords kits, I thought I should try one. The other night I got round to putting on the Great Eastern.

What impressed me most was the straight forward simplicity, ease and speed of getting the brew on. Non of the hops to worry about which have been in the other kits I've tried of late which made me think what a great kit this would be for the first time brewer. You get the full 2 cans of malt which should result in a great beer.

The instructions were easy to follow for the newbie too. The only thing I would have liked to have seen added was a pitching temp for the yeast but followed the usual rule of thumb of 20-25degC.

One little tip I've picked up myself from experience is to only half fill the fermenting vessel before giving the brew a damn good whipping, this results in good airation with less splashing & spillage. The foam on top of the beer was so big I had to knock it back to get the full volume in. (see pic below - just before yeast pitching).

By bed time, the head had died down but inspection first thing this morning showed another good head due to fermentation

I'm planning to resist the temptation of faffing around with this one and will continue to follow the instructions to the letter.... I'll keep you all posted.

Lets hope it a good-un!!

[crafty john]

Looks good,have you tried brupaks pride of yorkshire kits, fixby gold is a favorite of mine

[moobli]

i always find i get quite a good head /aeration by dropping the additional cold water from a height into the fv
and then add with a darn good stirring
10 litre pan of water dropped in to fv from 4 ft high just the water not the pan that is (the pan splashes too much)

[crafty john]

i always find i get quite a good head /aeration by dropping the additional cold water from a height into the fv
and then add with a darn good stirring
10 litre pan of water dropped in to fv from 4 ft high just the water not the pan that is (the pan splashes too much)

I just ask the Mrs

[daveyk]

just the water not the pan that is (the pan splashes too much)

lol.. I've got the mental image now!

[daveyk]

Looks good,have you tried brupaks pride of yorkshire kits, fixby gold is a favorite of mine

Yes.... not the Fixby gold but I have tried the Birkby Bitter and Linthwaite Light.... had great results... next up is the Colne Valley.

Brewed quite a few different types now... not quite a newbie myself but just thought it was nice to get back to basics.

[Nobby Novice]

daveyk, I notice in the picture that your fermentation vessel has a tap fitted. I asked my local homebrew shop if I could fit a tap to my FV and he advised against it. He said because of there being no flat surface to make the hole, it would either split or leak. Was your tap factory fitted when purchased ?

[crafty john]

daveyk, I notice in the picture that your fermentation vessel has a tap fitted. I asked my local homebrew shop if I could fit a tap to my FV and he advised against it. He said because of there being no flat surface to make the hole, it would either split or leak. Was your tap factory fitted when purchased ?

You can either drill your own as long a you use the correct size drill bit for the tap and are careful that the drill doesn't slip or you can buy an FV allready drilled and fitted with a tap from your local HBS, I pearsonally bought mine allready drilled as they cost is only a few quid more, I use mine mostly as a bottling bucket but a lot of people ferment in them so they don't have to syphon their brew into keg or bottling bucket, you just connect some tubing open the tap and let it flow.

[daveyk]

daveyk, I notice in the picture that your fermentation vessel has a tap fitted. I asked my local homebrew shop if I could fit a tap to my FV and he advised against it. He said because of there being no flat surface to make the hole, it would either split or leak. Was your tap factory fitted when purchased ?

I have two of these... the first one was fitted by the very kind John in Hop and Grape when I bought my original kit... the second one I did myself. Easy job if you have a hole cutter. Mine has a drill bit in the middle which stops it from slipping.

As craft john says, I tend to ferment in one, then connect up tubing and decant into the other one to use as bottling bucket. Both taps are the same, one i bought complete with a bottling stick and the other on it's own again from H&G. there is a thick washer which comes with the tap, that takes up any of the 'curve' of the FV. you need to get it tight though. i suppose the type of FV you use will also play a part, but you can see the type I'm using.

What I really like about these taps is that although the screw is fastened on the back really tight, the tap itself still spins freely, this mean you can mount them lower on the FV, (getting more out the tap before tipping), but spin the tap out of the way when standing it on a hard surface, as in picture. The tip I got was don't mount the tap too low though, or all the yeast cake will come out of the tap... leave space for that.