Home brewing kits ....

rubberduck said:
No idea what you mean with regards to using a syphon to check mavity, you mean hydrometer? What have you taken a reading of exactly?
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Sorry I meant syphoning to get a sample for the hydrometer

rubberduck said:
With regards to no air-lock both methods you mention should be ok, probably having the lid over the fermentation vessel but not fully sealed would be best. The initial krausen gives great protection against infection anyway. Maybe nip to Wilko and get one over the weekend?

Have fun, best way to learn is just to jump in and see what happens. Let us know how it went.
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Cool, I will update later :)
 
Well, batch one is a go.

Only two real issues encountered:
1) My pan was a bit small for starting with 5L of water, and I added too much DME too quickly causing a bit of a mess and I'm not 100% sure it was all dissolved. I also added some of it in the FV so it had cooled a bit but from what I've read DME shouldn't create any infections
2) My strainer doesn't fit onto my FV as well as I hoped and I suspect I had a few hops fall into it. Thankfully it wasn't a great deal so I hope it doesn't overly affect the final result

I suspect when I transfer to my bottling vessel I can syphon/sieve out any hops that might be sitting around
 
oli collett said:
Well, batch one is a go.

Only two real issues encountered:
1) My pan was a bit small for starting with 5L of water, and I added too much DME too quickly causing a bit of a mess and I'm not 100% sure it was all dissolved. I also added some of it in the FV so it had cooled a bit but from what I've read DME shouldn't create any infections
2) My strainer doesn't fit onto my FV as well as I hoped and I suspect I had a few hops fall into it. Thankfully it wasn't a great deal so I hope it doesn't overly affect the final result

I suspect when I transfer to my bottling vessel I can syphon/sieve out any hops that might be sitting around
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1) You can use 4L of water if that will help. Yeah DME clumps as soon as it is in a slightly humid room so make sure you weigh out what is needed prior to starting and seal up both the stuff for use and and remaining in airtight containers. Adding it slowly when the water has cooled a bit helps but a sanitised whisk just used for brewing will also help.
2) Don't worry about a few hops in the FV, especially if you can crash cool it prior to bottling (this will drop them to the bottom of the FV away from syphoning or the tap)
 
Hmm, things are not going so well.

Both of my brews appear to have stalled. The amarillo pale ale is at 1.020 mavity after 14 days, but it was at that mavity after 8 days so it appears to have been stuck for a week. FG is meant to be around 1.012

The double IPA is at 1.028 after 13 days and has been the same for 4 days is supposed to have an FG of 1.012.

Any ideas what I can do? I now realise this beer isn't going to be ready for my BBQ in 2 weeks and am pretty gutted :(

ETA: Doing some reading I noticed people talk of hydrating the yeast, I just sprinkled it into the wort as per instructions and i'm wondering if that was where I went wrong?
 
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oli collett said:
Hmm, things are not going so well.

Both of my brews appear to have stalled. The amarillo pale ale is at 1.020 mavity after 14 days, but it was at that mavity after 8 days so it appears to have been stuck for a week. FG is meant to be around 1.012

The double IPA is at 1.028 after 13 days and has been the same for 4 days is supposed to have an FG of 1.012.

Any ideas what I can do? I now realise this beer isn't going to be ready for my BBQ in 2 weeks and am pretty gutted :(

ETA: Doing some reading I noticed people talk of hydrating the yeast, I just sprinkled it into the wort as per instructions and i'm wondering if that was where I went wrong?
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Take a look at this.
 
Got bought a leaving gift of the Kilner Lager kit... currently starting it today

ASDA are currently doing massive kilner starter kits (bucket + all gear) for £30!

They are also selling all the Kilner kits, beer/cider/ale in there for £20 a pop. Just incase anyone is in the same situation with a lager kit and none of the additional bits.
 
Wondering if anyone here has comments on what I intend to do?

Kilner kit says put teaspoon of sugar into each bottle... Which I will, but want to play.

As such I'm thinking of making a few different sugar solutions by boiling with water before adding.

Thinking of doing

Normal sugar
Brown sugar
Molasses
Normal sugar and some spice
Normal sugar and something citrus

Should be making 40 bottles so was just going to add to a few.
 
jimmy321 said:
If it's a lager kit then you want to use normal sugar anything else will likely cut through the lager taste.
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Would using different sugars / spices not alter the flavour though? Generic lager... is not something to be relished! Was thinking it'd be more craft like if you fiddled with it at this stage, or at least make it unique, which surely is the objective of home brewing?
 
Hi all,

I have crate of empty 0.5L Zwickl beer bottles that have the rubber stops/cage style corks. I've been told by the other half that I'm not allowed to have a home-brew kit as we live in a tiny flat which would end up smelling of yeasty old socks.

I recently read that you can re-bottle wine, add some champagne yeast and sugar, leave it a few weeks and end up with sparkling wine. I know this is quite dull compared with an actual home brew kit / process but I'm wondering if anyone knows if this is possible to do?

If so, can anyone recommend amounts of yeast and sugar which should be added and would the beer bottles be able to take the pressure change?

If not, I'll end up recycling the bottles which is a shame as they could be quite useful!

Thanks!
 
rexehuk said:
Would using different sugars / spices not alter the flavour though? Generic lager... is not something to be relished! Was thinking it'd be more craft like if you fiddled with it at this stage, or at least make it unique, which surely is the objective of home brewing?
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i'd use brewing sugar or beer kit enhancer, worked well with my coopers lager kits and gives better body. it might even enhance those cheap kits.
 
silent said:
i'd use brewing sugar or beer kit enhancer, worked well with my coopers lager kits and gives better body. it might even enhance those cheap kits.
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I used regular caster sugar, 145g for 23 gallons dissolved in boiled water and cooled.

All bottled now, had one +1 week from bottling last night and it was good! Just waiting another 2 weeks before starting to use them regularly.

I found this site which has tons of info... was the best I came across

http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter11-6.html
 
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So I seem to have confused myself by reading a variety of different things online. Please could someone give me a brief run down of amounts of yeast and sugar to use if I wished to turn a normal table wine in to a sparkly wine.

As mentioned above, I have a number of 0.5L bottles with the rubber stopper & cage contraption. I picked up some Lalvin EC-1118 wine yeast and have sugar in the cupboard.

I'm unsure of how much wine I should add to the bottles, how many grams/grains of the yeast mixture to add and how many grams/grains of sugar I should add to each bottle.

Reading about exploding bottles has sort of put me off :D

Many thanks!
 
Decided to start making beer kits again. I used to do it years ago but stopped when I moved to the mainland and never got going again.

Got myself a kit from http://www.home-brew-online.com/. Starting with "Pride of London Porter" - because I like porter :p

Here it is waiting to drop a couple of degrees before adding the yeast.

0jOnW0x.jpg


Yeast now added and the lid and airlock fitted. The room it's in is fine through the day but, at this time of year, gets a bit cool at night so I'll be using the heat pad at night time.
 
Had a bit of a scare at the weekend. I went to check before bedtime on Saturday and the room temperature was 17°C so I switched on the heating pad. Checked again in the morning and the temperature of the brew was up near 30°C :eek: I switched off the pad immediately hoping I hadn't killed the yeast. I was a bit worried as there didn't seem to be much activity since then.

I took the SG today before adding the hop pellets and was relieved when it was 1.022 (start 1.048, finish 1.009) - which is pretty much where it should be at this stage - phew! Should hopefully be ready for barrelling in a week or so.
 
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