Home brewing kits ....

[phil675]

So about this time last year I bought a Woodfords Wherry kit. All I did was ferment it with the supplied yeast, stick it in the keg and waited. Drank most of it but eventually it wasn't too nice and poured about a quarter keg away as it was very sedimenty. I will be brewing a new batch of Wherry when I move next week.

What can I do to make the next batch better? I picked up some beer finings from Wilkos today, I take it that will clear out some of the guff?

Also it was always very gassy, my missus works in a pub and says that they take gas out of the ale barrels should I be doing this?

 

[McPhee]

I'm just about to put together my first brewing kit. The local brewing shop has offered me a reconditioned (by the guys that run the place) Cornelius keg for the same price as a new King Keg. Yes or no? I'm reading up on Cornys now, but I just want to check that I'm not missing some huge downside.

 

[The_blue]

The only downside is the gassing methods (you don't prime with more sugar normaly in a corne) and the fact it's only 19 litres.

I wouldn't swap mine though.

 

[The_blue]

So about this time last year I bought a Woodfords Wherry kit. All I did was ferment it with the supplied yeast, stick it in the keg and waited. Drank most of it but eventually it wasn't too nice and poured about a quarter keg away as it was very sedimenty. I will be brewing a new batch of Wherry when I move next week.

What can I do to make the next batch better? I picked up some beer finings from Wilkos today, I take it that will clear out some of the guff?

Also it was always very gassy, my missus works in a pub and says that they take gas out of the ale barrels should I be doing this?

if your kegging you'll always have sludge in the bottom, it's the old yeast from the priming (adding sugar to produce CO2) when you transfered into the keg.

Try not priming and adding any CO2 needed by bottle.


I use finings with my beer.

Ferment in the bucket and let the solids settle out (7-10 days).

Transfer to a 2nd bucket or similar and add your finings. Let this settle out for 2-3 day.

Transfer your clear beer into the barrel and add CO2 to stop it oxidising.


To stop it being gassy only add a small amount. High pressures will dissolve the CO2 into the beer giving it fizz.

 

[McPhee]

The only downside is the gassing methods (you don't prime with more sugar normaly in a corne) and the fact it's only 19 litres.

I wouldn't swap mine though.

Sounds good to me then 19 Litres is fine, I'll prob be doing 25 Litre batches at first until I move to AG after Christmas anyway. One Corny and 8 750ml bottles would be perfect; a keg to drink, 6 bottles to give away and 2 to store for a year+

 

[Tonyator]

After trying my Raspberry and Blackcurrant ciders, I decided I have to try a few diffident flavours... I'm thinking when I've found my favourite flavour I'll brew 23 liters of it

So I bought three packs of frozen fruit, Summer Fruits, Black forest fruits and Blueberries.

I'm going to use the same recipe above just replacing the type of fruit. First Up are Summer fruits and blueberry.

 

[PaulStat]

Aye, that's what I've been thinking of (and what most people seem to use). Was just wondering if anyone else had anything. I see you also use a boiler, is that just a modified tea urn or something?

Effectively yeah, old Burco wash boiler

 

[The_blue]

Next brew is on!

I've got a coopers English bitter kit with

500g Light Dry Malt Extract (delicious right out of the bag )

500g Brewing sugar

To this i'm adding a tea of

150g Cracked Crystal Malt

15g Goldings Hops

Basically I'm boiling the Crystal for 20 mins then adding the hops to the hot liquid for 10 mins, then adding this to the kit recipe as normal.


The tea is made with about a 1.5 litres of water. I then strained it through a cheese cloth (or very clean teatowel) into the FV and squeezed it out. I then added another 1/2 litre of water to wash out any remaining flavours in the now pulp. I repeated this about 5 times as the run off was still dark drown and smelling like the 1st lot. The last wash was still light brown.

http://i55.tinypic.com/34hzb5g.jpg[img]


Anyway... I've ended up with an OG of about 1045. assuming i can get to 1010 i'll be a happy boy!

[img]http://i51.tinypic.com/33kqfzr.jpg[img][/QUOTE]


Quick update for anyone who's interested... ;)

Just kegged it up:-

[img]http://i54.tinypic.com/168bfyu.jpg
That's next doors roof, the phone focused straight through the beer!

I'm very happy with the clarity and the flavor. I'm only 2 weeks it's become a fantastic brew

Nice deep flavor with a light bitterness. I'm going to leave it a month (if i can!) and re assess before trying again with a few more hops.

 

[Ahleckz]

Just got a cool box, now to source a tea urn. No idea where I'll get one of them though...

 

[Jonny69]

I just racked off the two blackberry wines I started at the beginning of August. Wow. They are lush. And country wines improve with age, so these two are going to be stunners in a few months.

I've left them on the yeast a lot longer than you're supposed to and I was worried it might have imparted some yeasty odours into the wine. It seems to be fine though. I would say it's ready to drink now, but I'm going to be patient and wait...

 

[Vanquish-Storm]

Mines now been syphoned to the keg (about 2 weeks ago) , i had a little sip and I am very impressed. It tastes better than some of the real ales I have had in the pub.

Im going to leave it a week before trying again. I will try to get some pics up.

 

[Jonny69]

Question for those of you that have done alcopop style drinks. What sort of strength do you guys normally brew that sort of thing up to?

I've got a load of sachets of Kool Aid from America which I'm probably not going to drink. I might turn some of them into an alcopop instead. Can't decide whether to stick to 5-6% or take it up to wine strength. I'd brew the sugar out, add campden and sorbate to stabilise the yeast and then back-sweeten with sugar. I think they might taste a bit strange if the alcohol level is too high. Alternatively, I could brew a 2 litre batch and feed it until the yeast exhausts, see what it's like and if it's too strong I can water it down with 2 litres of alcohol-free Kool Aid.

 

[The_blue]

Just started a coopers stout kit.

I've made this before using sugar and it was a fine pint...

This time i've used 1kg dark dried malt extract and about a mug of castor sugar (was sure i'd got brown in stock....)

Starting gravity is 1054 so should hit 5.5%

 

[Pestilence]

How quickly do everyone's beer brews generally kick off fermentation, and how long do they last?

Just started a Pilsner on Saturday and by Monday morning it was going nutttts. Bubblin' like a mofo with an obvious, thick, foamy head and crust on the inside (good sign!).

Anyway, a day later and it's settled down to only occasional bubbling. I'd have thought you'd expect a good 2 or 3 days of bubbling mania, or am I wrong?

 

[Jonny69]

This was quite exciting. My brew was alternating between a big frothy head and a clear top. It was repeating this over about a two minute period:

 

[The_blue]

What is that? Carrot wine??


Just started bottling my wine and realised i've cleaned 20 litres worth of bottles for 23 litres of wine!!

 

[Jonny69]

Variant of WoW with red grape instead of the orange. Hoping for a rosé.

See how it comes out.

 

[Jamrasta]

Ok, I've never brewed before, I've got Friday off and want to give a cider brew a go. I've been looking for some all in one cider kits and found these ones which look good, what do you think guys?

http://www.homebrewcentregy.com/Starter_Kits_for_Cider.html

 

[The_blue]

The foam has settled and it's closer to 19 than 20 litres. That and 9 litres of head!

While i agree that being p155ed would help with warcraft i do thing thats a bit extreme Jonny!

 

[The_blue]

Ok, I've never brewed before, I've got Friday off and want to give a cider brew a go. I've been looking for some all in one cider kits and found these ones which look good, what do you think guys?

http://www.homebrewcentregy.com/Starter_Kits_for_Cider.html

They look fine. I'd go with a bucket and barrel oprion. You can still bottle with that if you want

Start drinking tesco bitter lemon and save the 1 litre PET bottles