Home brew

[GboroRam]

I sold up all my kit as I found it too addictive really. I could manage a 12 gallon brew length.

Easy way to make a big boiler: food-grade plastic bucket, drill a hole near the bottom at the side, of the same size as a kettle element. If you've got access, do 3 and insert 3 kettle elements into the bottom of the bucket (helps get boiling faster).

Mash tun: I had 2 13 gallon buckets and cut the bottom two inches off one. Drill holes all around the base of the 2 inch bit. Fit a spigot on the full bucket and put the upturned 2 inches in the bottom of the bucket (you may need to trim some of the plastic where the spigot fits).

If you want to be fancy, make a copper pipe ring that fits in the bucket bottom. Slit holes along the bottom edge of the ring. attach it to the spigot. Hey Presto - mash tun done. Surround it in foam on the outside of the bucket (I used carpet underlay but if you can get some thermal stuff like immersion heater jacket, it'd be better).

Looks a bit of a bugger, but it's a big mash tun that works.

Mashing is a great way to get really making beer rather than opening a tin. You can control so much more in the recipe than you can with a pre-made can of malt extract.

[eddie]

My boilers are like you described - basically big buckets.

I'm going 'shiny' later in the year and will go to a propane gas boiler - when I get around to it.

[Shake n Bake]

I'd love to try some home brewing but all of this makes it sound quite complicated. What's the best way to get started?

[eddie]

I'd love to try some home brewing but all of this makes it sound quite complicated. What's the best way to get started?

Easiest way - buy a starter kit off t'internets.

This will come with a kit beer (basically a can containing hopped malt extract and a sachet of yeast), a fermenting vessel (basically a big bucket), a hydrometer, trial jar, thermometer, a bottling bucket, 40 or so half litre bottles or a 5 gallon plastic barrel, a siphon tube, some crown caps, a capper, steriliser and a few other goodies.

Best way - go and visit your local home brew centre and you will get all the advice on starting up that you could ever want. If you are based in Derby, go and see Sam up at Spondon (Creative Winemaking, his shop's called, opposite the library). Sam's a decent bloke and will give you plenty of advice, and will be only too glad to set you up with what you need to get started. You'll also be able to get a far better kit than if you just bought a 'starter' with one included. Tell him the type of beer you like and he will see you right.

Brewing from a kit is dead easy. Basically you sterilise your fermenting vessel (bucket), tip in your extract, add water, dump your yeast in, give it a really good stir, screw the top on, shove an airlock into the bung hole, wait until it stops fermenting (a couple of weeks), siphon it off into your (sterilised) bottling bucket, add priming sugar, bottle, cap, wait for another couple of weeks for the bottles to 'prime' (get fizzy), open bottles, get pissed, repeat several times.

[Shake n Bake]

Easiest way - buy a starter kit off t'internets.

This will come with a kit beer (basically a can containing hopped malt extract and a sachet of yeast), a fermenting vessel (basically a big bucket), a hydrometer, trial jar, thermometer, a bottling bucket, 40 or so half litre bottles or a 5 gallon plastic barrel, a siphon tube, some crown caps, a capper, steriliser and a few other goodies.

Best way - go and visit your local home brew centre and you will get all the advice on starting up that you could ever want. If you are based in Derby, go and see Sam up at Spondon (Creative Winemaking, his shop's called, opposite the library). Sam's a decent bloke and will give you plenty of advice, and will be only too glad to set you up with what you need to get started. You'll also be able to get a far better kit than if you just bought a 'starter' with one included. Tell him the type of beer you like and he will see you right.

Brewing from a kit is dead easy. Basically you sterilise your fermenting vessel (bucket), tip in your extract, add water, dump your yeast in, give it a really good stir, screw the top on, shove an airlock into the bung hole, wait until it stops fermenting (a couple of weeks), siphon it off into your (sterilised) bottling bucket, add priming sugar, bottle, cap, wait for another couple of weeks for the bottles to 'prime' (get fizzy), open bottles, get pissed, repeat several times.

Thanks Eddie. Can you produce some decent beer from these basic kits?

[Shake n Bake]

And how much do you think it would cost to get started?

[eddie]

And how much do you think it would cost to get started?

Yes, you can produce some very good beer from kits - some are superb (a company called Brewferm make some brilliant Belgian beer kits).

Something like £70 would get you a very decent starter as far as both beer kit and equipment is concerned - and much of that is your one-off set-up costs (barrel, fermenter etc). The next time you brew, your beer kit will cost you (dependent upon quality) £10-£25.

The above figures are typically for making 5 gallons. Some kits are for a smaller volume (the Brewferm ones are typically for 3 gallons, but the beer is much stronnger)

[Shake n Bake]

Sounds great. Belgian beer was what I had in mind too. There's a place in long Eaton Im going to check out so I'll ask about brewferm.

[eddie]

Sounds great. Belgian beer was what I had in mind too. There's a place in long Eaton Im going to check out so I'll ask about brewferm.

The one next door to Bridge Tackle on the canal bridge? I use them myself now and again for crown caps, spray dried malt and other odds and ends.

The guy who runs it is the ideal person to speak to about kits because he brews them himself as opposed to all-grain, and he's usually delighted with the results. I also used to buy Brewferm kits from them a few years ago so I know they used to stock them.

The Brewferm kit I used to brew a lot was called Diablo - needless to say, it is very much like Duvel. The tripel is also quite similar to Westmalle - I suspect it's the same yeast that the monks use.

[GboroRam]

Only tips I'd give are:

1) You can't be too careful with sterilisation

2) If a kit beer says add sugar, swap more malt extract (1 can per kilo of sugar substituted). Bit pricier but adding sugar to homebrewed beer won't improve the flavour and gives it that unpleasant cheap, homebrew taste.

Mashing is great fun and can be quite easy to get into, and a lot of forums will give you tips on making your own stuff rather than buying expensive equipment.

[Shake n Bake]

Cheers for the help guys. I'm definitely going to look into purchasing some kit.

[eddie]

Only tips I'd give are:

1) You can't be too careful with sterilisation

2) If a kit beer says add sugar, swap more malt extract (1 can per kilo of sugar substituted). Bit pricier but adding sugar to homebrewed beer won't improve the flavour and gives it that unpleasant cheap, homebrew taste.

Mashing is great fun and can be quite easy to get into, and a lot of forums will give you tips on making your own stuff rather than buying expensive equipment.

Not sure I totally agree on the sugar here. If I was making a full-bodied beer I might agree somewhat, and I would certainly replace sugar with either extract or spraymalt if the kit catered for that option, but adding more malt just might throw the kit out of balance because it will be maltier than the kit manufacturer envisaged, and you then have no idea as to how much additional hops to add to compensate for the increased malt flavour.

Alternatively, you can take normal sucrose and you can 'invert' it by turning it into candi sugar (chemically altering the disaccharide into a fructose-glucose mix by heating in a mild acid solution) - a simple but somewhat time-consuming process. For Belgian beer styles - especially tripels - this is the preferred option because you can caramelise the sugar and alter its colour to suit the style of beer, also sugar is 'neutral' and will just increase the alcohol content without changing the malt/hop balance. That's how the Trappists produce incredible strong beers - and they definitely don't taste home-brewed.

Is the 'cheap homebrewed taste' you refer to 'alcohol burn'? When I first started making kits (over 35 years ago) I used to double the recommended sugar content - and you could certainly taste the alcohol above everything else. Fine in a whisky, not fine in a beer.

[GboroRam]

It's probably just the cheap kits that I'd recommend that, which is generally where people start out.