Hello All,
Newbie Alert wooop wooop
I am planning a trip to the homebrew shop tomorrow to buy MY FIRST EVER HOME BREW BEER, I've made wine before and am currently doing so but I've never tried a beer. If in a pub I usually buy a cask ale if they have one or failing that bitter.
What should I buy:
Reccomendations for a good easy Kit
Minimum equipment I should buy
And then when it's finished, what about bottling, bottle topping etc. and if i use a pressure barrel how do I chill the beer before drinking without it going flat?
I dont have any beer books just wine ones so really I'm clueless on this and I would like to go to the shop with some ideas and plans so I dont look like a complete numpty.
Thanks for reading this and thanks in advance for your help and advice.
Regards, Ian
First Brew
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snudz
Re: First Brew
Hi Ian,
I too recently returned to homebrewing and made up a Muntons Old Conkerwood kit. My initial purchase consisted of a fermentation bin (with lid and airlock) a big jug, thermometer, hydrometer, sterilizing agent, a pot of yeast supplement, a couple of sachets of S-04 yeast (to replace the kit yeast) and the kit. I would have thought though that as a current winemaker you've already got most of this. I bought a King Keg "top tap" barrel and some syphon tubing a week or so later.
As for an easy kit then the world's your oyster. To be honest if you can make wine then you can make up a kit. Have a quick read through these pages, they are full of pointers as to what you are looking for. My initial experience with the Conkerwood was so good (should have left it longer, the last ten pints were sublime) that I'm brewing another at the moment. Some will steer you clear of Muntons and my current bucket did seem to stick at SG1025 but a quick kick to rouse the brew seems to have worked. It's bubbling away again quite merrily and I hope to barrel at about 1016 or below. My advice would be to leave it as long as you can after barrelling. I read about a chap on here the other night who has a stock of 18 month old bottles. He must be in alcoholic heaven!!
Happy brewing
Andy
I too recently returned to homebrewing and made up a Muntons Old Conkerwood kit. My initial purchase consisted of a fermentation bin (with lid and airlock) a big jug, thermometer, hydrometer, sterilizing agent, a pot of yeast supplement, a couple of sachets of S-04 yeast (to replace the kit yeast) and the kit. I would have thought though that as a current winemaker you've already got most of this. I bought a King Keg "top tap" barrel and some syphon tubing a week or so later.
As for an easy kit then the world's your oyster. To be honest if you can make wine then you can make up a kit. Have a quick read through these pages, they are full of pointers as to what you are looking for. My initial experience with the Conkerwood was so good (should have left it longer, the last ten pints were sublime) that I'm brewing another at the moment. Some will steer you clear of Muntons and my current bucket did seem to stick at SG1025 but a quick kick to rouse the brew seems to have worked. It's bubbling away again quite merrily and I hope to barrel at about 1016 or below. My advice would be to leave it as long as you can after barrelling. I read about a chap on here the other night who has a stock of 18 month old bottles. He must be in alcoholic heaven!!
Happy brewing
Andy
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snudz
Re: First Brew
If it's an ale that you're brewing I'd keep it in an unheated room. If it was a lager I'd keep it in the garage at this time of year or purloin an old fridge for the garage in the summer. The fridge would be handy for the fermenting of a lager in the summer too, especially if you could thermostatically control the temperature too.