Home brew kit

Discuss making up beer kits - the simplest way to brew.
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Alexdc12
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Home brew kit

Post by Alexdc12 » Wed Aug 01, 2018 9:21 pm

Hi all
Looking to start home brewing. Setup a bar in the man cave bought a 11 gallon keg and have wasted almost half of it due to not using it in time. Looking for somewhere to buy a 20l keg is proving hard so looked at home brew.
I like Belgian lagers. Amstel and Stella are my favourites. So my question is which home brew kit would be most suited to my preference?
Thanks in advance

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alexlark
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Re: Home brew kit

Post by alexlark » Thu Aug 02, 2018 12:13 pm

Best kit you can get is probably going to be the Coopers European Lager. If you want to pimp that up you can look at using some Saaz hops with it, hop tea and dry hop.

Alexdc12
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Re: Home brew kit

Post by Alexdc12 » Thu Aug 02, 2018 12:36 pm

alexlark wrote:
Thu Aug 02, 2018 12:13 pm
Best kit you can get is probably going to be the Coopers European Lager. If you want to pimp that up you can look at using some Saaz hops with it, hop tea and dry hop.
Yes I read about coopers European lager. Any decent startup kits? I'm looking to decant into a corny keg so I continue to use a my pump/cooler so is there anything else I should be aware of?

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alexlark
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Re: Home brew kit

Post by alexlark » Thu Aug 02, 2018 3:54 pm

I had my starter kit from Love Brewing for about 50 quid a few years ago. Contains everything you need (except a beer kit) to crack on with brewing. The kit included a pressure barrel too. I now use 20L pub kegs but still use the pressure barrel when I don't want anything highly carbonated.

You've got the other route of buying just the bits you need from somewhere like Wilko.

Alexdc12
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Re: Home brew kit

Post by Alexdc12 » Thu Aug 02, 2018 4:39 pm

Thanks Alex. I'll have a butchers online! I see a lot of the kits offer bottles which I'm not really interested in.

How do you fill a pub keg?

Alexdc12
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Re: Home brew kit

Post by Alexdc12 » Thu Aug 02, 2018 5:05 pm


Secla
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Re: Home brew kit

Post by Secla » Thu Aug 02, 2018 6:04 pm

Get a lager yeast and a way to ferment at low temps (temp controlled fridge)
I seem to remember a lot of kits come with ale yeast and probably won't give you the flavour your after

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alexlark
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Re: Home brew kit

Post by alexlark » Fri Aug 03, 2018 6:16 am

That's basically all you need. Although I would substitute half, or all, of that sugar for spraymalt for a much improved beer.

https://www.homebrewcentre.co.uk/extra- ... ymalt-500g

I'm sure the Coopers European Lager kit comes with a true lager strain yeast. If you want to use a different yeast them go for Saflager W34/70. Although for your first brew I would try the kit yeast.

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Monkeybrew
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Re: Home brew kit

Post by Monkeybrew » Mon Aug 20, 2018 10:18 am

alexlark wrote:
Fri Aug 03, 2018 6:16 am
That's basically all you need. Although I would substitute half, or all, of that sugar for spraymalt for a much improved beer.

https://www.homebrewcentre.co.uk/extra- ... ymalt-500g

I'm sure the Coopers European Lager kit comes with a true lager strain yeast. If you want to use a different yeast them go for Saflager W34/70. Although for your first brew I would try the kit yeast.

Yeah the Coopers European Lager did always come with a proper dry lager yeast, but you only get a 7g sachet though and I seem to remember that they recommend starting the fermentation off a bit warmer to help the yeast multiply and then lower the temperature back down to around 12C for the rest of fermentation.

This is all good if the brewer has some kind of temperature control....

Cheers

MB
FV:


Conditioning:
AG#41 - Vienna Lager - 5.6%
AG#42 - Heritage Double Ale - 10.5%

On Tap:
AG#44 - Harvest ESB - 5.4%
AG#45 - Amarillo Gold APA - 5.2%

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