Home brewing kits ....

Well no, I Figured this would be my problem. Vaseline both round the lid o-ring and the tap seal, right? Just your bog standard vaseline ok?

Also, does it matter that I didn't mix my priming sugar with a cup of hot water and just threw it in the beer? I guess I probably should have mixed it with water, but I found out too late!
 
ive left an all grain brew on the yeast in the FV for a month and the beer was great. king kegs will never get a tight seal without the vaseline. they are sold as not ready. you need to check all the seals on the valve as well. i lost my first brew as the rubber pressure out seal wasnt on properly. took me a while to get the confidence up to use it again. now it works every time.
 
I've had my IPA sitting in the FV for ages as I haven't had a chance to bottle it, seemingly it's still jimbo jambo though.

(I'm really just bumping this thread)
 
Always worth a bump, I'm getting a woodfordes Nog on in the next couple of days as well as another lager. Looking forward to it. Been annoyed at only have home made cider and wine in the house. Hate buying shop beer now, it's so expensive and boring.
 
Good people of OcUK brewingness, I have a few questions.

I had a go at making my own cider a couple of years back, and it failed due to using apples that were too young (acidic).

As I was so disillusioned by my failure, I gave up hope. However, I hear that beer brewing is potentially 1,000 times easier, quicker and more successful. Therefore, I would like a go at brewing.

I have airlocks, a fermenting bin, a racking syphon, hydrometer and various other bits. What other things will I need to get going? I like the look of that king keg above, that looks quite useful. I take it that can be used to hold carbonated beer, and negate the requirement for individual bottles? Does beer keep well in this type of container (i.e. does the plastic impair the flavour)? I've noticed that the King Kegs are pretty expensive - are there any cheaper alternatives?

Finally, I'd like to take it easy on my first few brews and need a decent, easy to use kit. I'd ideally like to try something that emulates a good wheat beer of belgian style beer. Any recommendations/links/sites with beginner's guides?

Cheers!
 
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I've just polished off the last bottle of wine that I made from my kit and everybody loved it. Nicer than some of the guff that you buy from the supermarkets and at only £1 a bottle then you can't really go wrong. I'll need to buy some more now :D
 
Danza,

You pretty much have everything you need, get some sterilizing powder (though you can use bleach if you rinse it very well. I use VWP sterilizer and never had any bad batches because of bugs. You can use the sterilizer for baby's bottles too. Making sure everything is clean and germ free is really the most important bit of homebrewing as a few bugs could easily spoil your brew.
The king keg can be used to carbonate, you just buy the C02 pellets and add them in. I don't keg though so best getting advice from someone else.
It'll keep fine, for a period of time. As long as you don't leave it in there for too long it's ok. But the plastic is all food grade and doesn't leak into the beer. Your fermenting bin will be plastic too (I assume) and that should be food grade plastic also, if you just bought a bucket from B&Q have a check. I bottle in glass bottles, and carbonate it through secondary fermentation (adding a sugar solution to the bottle before filling) though I would keg if I had the money and my brewpartner was happy with it. I don't think he's happy with the idea of me having a keg of beer in my fridge!

As for kits, that all depends on how serious you want to take it all. If you just want ease and quickness just get something like this: http://www.innhousebrewery.co.uk/index.php?ecom_siteid=176&product_id=36183&option=Prod_detail
That comes in a tin, it's very syrupy and you just add that to boiling water (usually a gallon) and dissolve it and then top up bin with water. It also comes with the yeast. Only extra thing you need to buy is sugar. It'll tell you on the can how much sugar for each batch but you can use as little (if you want low alcohol) or lots (if you want a high alcoholic brew). Sugar is a personal preference, I've used lots of different types and haven't found any difference in taste.
You can add hops or anything else to that kit to edit the taste, aceface added some raspberry juice to one of his brews which he said worked well. Just trial and error really.

Another kit, which is more expensive but may make better beer (I've never used Milestone so not too sure) is - http://www.innhousebrewery.co.uk/index.php?ecom_siteid=176&product_id=444884&option=Prod_detail
 
Cheers Ahleckz.

I somehow completely glossed over the fact I'd need a lot of fridge space to store the keg. Although it is getting colder outside...

I would prefer to use bottles, but I don't want to buy them and don't think I'll come up with enough between now and when I plan to start brewing. Maybe a keg is the answer, and in the summer a cheapo second hand fridge in the garage might be an idea worth persuing.

Cheers for the links. :)
 
Oh, one other thing. Depending on your fermenting bin, a large funnel may be a good idea. We made quite a few brews before thinking about getting one but so glad we did. Makes pouring sugar/water/anything else into the fermenting bin (ours only have small tops) a lot easier.

We found collecting bottles very easy, we use the glass Irn Bru bottles many of which are collected from friends in exchange for a few bottles of brew. I have about 80 empty in my flat at the moment. The good thing about these is that they hold a lot, look quite good and you can get 30p if you take them back to the shop. So in essence, if we can keep our brews below 30p a bottle we are making free alcohol!
 
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1008! my stout is done :)

Going to bottle condition 4 litres and slam the rest once it's clarified in the cornie keg.
 
This is my latest, Brewferm Abdij (Abbey)

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Yes, yes, I know; water stained glass shocker :p

It's an immense drink, very similar feel and taste to Grimbergen Dubble, which is certainly not a bad thing! Packs a punch too at 8% :cool:

No recipes really as these are from kits, altho I do alter some kits a bit (dry hopping, spraymalt etc).
 
Well, thought I'd check my Amarillo IPA. Haven't got round to bottling it, and it's been sitting in the FV for chuffing ages. Took a reading but unsurprisinginly it's the same as it was when I last checked. 1008. Grabbed a glass, and it seems to taste rather watery. Any suggestions as to what to do that would 'de-water' it quickly? The only idea I have is to throw in some Saaz and hope that helps. Or perhaps throwing in some more sugar and yeast?
I took a picture, but it's rubbish.


The Blue & Chicken, looking very very good. What kit Chicken? (I just had a kipper as a snack, yum yum!)
sigma, looks more like a Trappist in my eyes, you'd expect a stout to have a more solid head.
 
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