Home brewing kits ....

Bottled the IPA, at last! 26 bottles altogether (and got my 3 litre hobo keg, and I've had a few pints straight out the FV). Filled the bottles higher than normal. I still think it tastes amazing. Hopefully they'll be nicely carbonated for this weekend as I'm having a party. You're all welcome.
Got just enough bottles left to bottle another batch (probably do the wheatbeer in 2 weeks and then the search for more bottles for the Apfelwein resumes...).
 
I have to stop reading this thread, it's making me thirsty :(


Anyone brewing a London Porter style beer? I was at a CAMRA event the other day and it seemed to go down very well. Just the blurb on the beer pump was enough to get me drooling ("...malts...dark coffee...chocolate...", nom!).
 
Ahleckz said:
Just primed the 'keg' (a 3 litre Robinsons squash container) with 45g of sugar (made a simple syrup) and filled it with about 2.8litres of IPA. My view is this - it saves me having to wash bottles (I hate washing bottles!) and saves time filling them up (I hate bottling!). Also it would be FAR easier to just take round one of these things to a party/friends house than lug round 6 700ml glass bottles. I'm very concious that it'll explode though, lol.(
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Well, it's not going to explode as it is now empty. That lasted about 24 hours. Used it as an experiment but ended up just drinking it instead. 3 litres is the perfect size - sod 700ml bottles!
:D

I don't suspect the 26 bottles will last long either... This IPA is stupidly nice. A strange colour, but bloody gorgeous! Secret Santa sorted!
 
jp_bl_68 said:
I have to stop reading this thread, it's making me thirsty :(


Anyone brewing a London Porter style beer? I was at a CAMRA event the other day and it seemed to go down very well. Just the blurb on the beer pump was enough to get me drooling ("...malts...dark coffee...chocolate...", nom!).
Click to expand...


o8ar5t.jpg



Ruby red / black


Rich roast malt


Roast / treacle /chocolate

Went down a treat!
 
Just ordered some equipment, a Magnum Elderflower Cider Kit and a Coopers Ginger Beer kit. I thought I'd go with kits first to ease my way into it, then try experimenting with other cider recipes later.

The only thing I didn't get is bottles, turns out its cheaper just to get some Tesco Value water in a 2L bottle for 17p (and I can use the water in the brewing too), I did mess with the idea of a keg, but it's a lot of money it doubles the price of the stuff I just bought almost.

I'm excited for it to get here! :D
 
Has it been bubbling? The hydrometer reading should have changed in 2 weeks. Are you sure that you are taking measurements correctly? If it's foamed up then the gravity has changed. I suspect your equipment or (and probably more likely) you're not testing it correctly.

To take a sample, you want to fill up the tube that the hydrometer lives in with your liquid and then drop the hydrometer in (spin it whilst dropping it in). Liquid will obviously come out the top so do it over a sink. Then record it once the hydrometer has steadied itself.
 
Aceface:

Just tried your wheat beer plus raspberry. It's ready to be bottled (based on age/gravity) but it's got no body what so ever...
I'm not going to bottle it now, I'm going to hop it with a fair bit of fuggles to give it some body... (the brewery helped me a bit!).

It seems that all my brews suffer from a lack of body, I'm putting that down to my flat being very cold all the time... I can't get the temperatures to lager it or anywhere close...
I'm interested in a like for like bottle swap just to see the differences temperatures make!

In saying that, the raspberry wheat is drinkable but not as good as I hoped! Hopefully throwing some fuggles in will sort it all out.
(I'm drunk, so I hope I haven't put any swear words in...)
 
Going to be making my third all grain beer tomorrow, first one was too weak, second too strong, so hopefully this one will be just right. Also got slightly better equipment and yeast this time so it should be good.

Also got all the ingredients for a 4th so just need to finish off the last bottles from the 2nd brew and we can get that on the go once we get the third one from the FV and into the keg.
 
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Helloo, I've been doing a wherry kit off that website, after mixing in the bin for a week I've transferred in to the keg and left that in the warm for a week. I now realise that the tap end was leaking (not the seal). I've adjusted the lever slightly and it seems to have stopped now.

Will this have got rid of all the pressure? I had to move the keg from upstairs to get it in a cold place and it got shook up a bit, after this the valve at the top had little bubbles coming out of it. Does this mean there is plenty of pressure? Or about to explode? :D
 
danza said:
I have in front of me everything I need to get going with my first brew, except sugar. What should I use?

My beer kit is John Bull Best Bitter if that helps.
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Sugar. Essentially, the yeast eats the sugar and poos out alcohol. You can use anything that has a high level of sugar in it really, I've used bottles of very sugary diluting juice which gave me the sugar and a hint of raspberry which was nice. Though, you really ought to get down to the shop and buy a few kilos.
 
A lot of people seem to recommend spraymalt. Is it worth going with this instead of bog-standard sugar?

Wilkinsons sell it, so I'm considering going there to get some. Actually, maybe not. I forgot it's new year's day! :p

I think I'll have 1KG of sugar somewhere in the house.
 
I use them both in kit brewing (you wouldn't use them in full brewing, or I wouldn't, as you are dealing with bags of hops (the bane of my existence), using spraymalt to add body and flavour rather than alcohol as they are quite expensive for what they are and I make strong brews (read - lots of sugar). Feel free to use just spraymalt, it'll change the flavour quite considerably though but should, in theory, give you a nicer beer. Make sure you use the correct malt though, you don't want dark malt if you're making a lager. Oh, and further to this, your gravities will be off by using spraymalt so you'll have to buy more than a kilo of spraymalt for a kilo of sugar. I can't remember the quantities though. The other option, is to just add less water.
 
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Okay, getting a bit too much for my first time I think, so I'll keep it simple. :p I have found some light muscovado sugar, which apparently can be used (gives a caramelly flavour) and almost a kilo of white sugar. I'm too impatient to wait until I can go to the shops, so will probably try a 3:1 mix of muscovado and white sugar.

Just realised I don't seem to have a thermometer anywhere. I'll probably have to go to work to find something to do the job with.
 
Yeah, that's why I first suggested getting sugar. Wasn't aware you knew about spraymalt. When I make kits, I don't use thermometers. Even doing a mash brew I rarely use one. Up to you really, some people will call me stupid for doing so but it's whatever works for you really.
Post some pictures. :)
I haven't done any brewing for ages, got plenty to bottle though but just can't find the time.
 
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