What to Brew?

[Long-Haired_brewer]

Well i have my first ever brew day on monday and also my first all grain, i have ordered the ingredients from Paul at Barley Bottom (really helpful chap) and i can brew one these three: 1] Summer Lightening 2] Ringwood Best Bitter or 3] Ringwood Old Thumper.

[floydmeddler]

Jeeze... first brew and all grain? Talk about a baptism of wort!

[alefric]

Summer Lightning.........Nice and simple for a first attempt.......and it tastes good too!

Andrew

[adm]

I'd go for Summer Lightning too - especially given that I'm an eternal optimist about the weather.

[Long-Haired_brewer]

Thanks guys, summer lightening is leading in the polls, plus i happen to have a bottle by my side.
How long would a starter last as in say i made it tonight would it still be viable monday?
Cheers
Oliver

[adm]

All depends.....but basically yes.

You could make a starter now, it might take until Thursday/Friday to be finished up (but maybe less as it's warm at the moment), then you could bung it in the fridge for a few days, pour off the spent wort the day you want to brew, bring it up to temp and use it.

What yeast are you planning to use?

[Long-Haired_brewer]

All depends.....but basically yes.

You could make a starter now, it might take until Thursday/Friday to be finished up (but maybe less as it's warm at the moment), then you could bung it in the fridge for a few days, pour off the spent wort the day you want to brew, bring it up to temp and use it.

What yeast are you planning to use?

Hey adm,
its the Hopback Yeast I didnt open the bottle in the end (think i was far too gone to drink anymore) anyway the starter would be the yeast taken from a bottle of summer lightening. I feel a afternoon ale coming on....

[adm]

Ah...if it's from a bottle it'll take you longer as you'll need to start small and step it up. You'll probably need 2-3 days for the 1st starter, and another couple for the step up - so if you get it going today, you should be just about ready for your target Monday brewday.

Chris did some excellent videos on this process that are up on YouTube somewhere.

If this is your first ever brew, I'd recommend you get a pack of S-04, US-05 or Nottingham yeast to have in as backup, just in case anything goes wrong with the starter. BarleyBottom are the cheapest for dried yeast - it's only a quid and if the starter doesn't work, you can just sprinkle it onto the wort if neccessary.

Good luck for Monday! You should have a lot of fun.

[Long-Haired_brewer]

Cheers adm
In that case better get drinking, sounds good. Right i will start having a look round here and then youtube
I am a step ahead of you hehe, i ordered all my stuff from BB including 3 lots of yeast (2*S-04 &1Nottingham) so should all be good.
Once again thanks adm and everyone else

[OldThumper]

Summer Lightning.

Ringwood Best is pretty bland in my opinon and it is irritating that the vast majority of pubs in Hampshire stock it rather than other more exciting bitters

But of course if you really like it then fair play. I guess I am just bored of seeing it in 90% of pubs I go in! A "safe undaventurous pint" I would say

Rant over!

[Long-Haired_brewer]

Summer Lightning.

Ringwood Best is pretty bland in my opinon and it is irritating that the vast majority of pubs in Hampshire stock it rather than other more exciting bitters

But of course if you really like it then fair play. I guess I am just bored of seeing it in 90% of pubs I go in! A "safe undaventurous pint" I would say

Rant over!

Don't think i have ever seen it in a pub up here

[floydmeddler]

Thanks guys, summer lightening is leading in the polls, plus i happen to have a bottle by my side.
How long would a starter last as in say i made it tonight would it still be viable monday?
Cheers
Oliver

I've made a starter recently from yeast at the bottom of a bottle and pitched the next day. It's in secondary at the min doing well. Maybe I was lucky.

[Long-Haired_brewer]

Mondays brew day will have to be put on hold i should have been getting everything today as my mum was bringing the stuff back with her from her parents but she has got a stomach bug and cant go any where for the next couple of days