Home brewing kits ....

This thread has given me a bit of inspiration!

A quick question - how strong is the smell when brewing? as I currently reside in a small flat and the gf might be a bit miffed...
 
You can't smell it at all when it's brewing. It's all air locked. If you're doing proper mash then you will get a bit of a smell when making the wort, but I doubt you'll be doing that if you live in a small flat. I brew in a small cupboard (where my boiler lives) and I don't get a face full of bad smells when I open it.

My Smirnoff Ice ripoff which I originally said tasted horrible has actually turned out quite nice. It's nothing like smirnoff ice, more of a white wine with quite strong a strong lemony taste. Not great, by any imagination, but when I tried it before it was undrinkable but now it is quite quaffable. Very good!
 
Ahleckz said:
You can't smell it at all when it's brewing. It's all air locked. If you're doing proper mash then you will get a bit of a smell when making the wort, but I doubt you'll be doing that if you live in a small flat. I brew in a small cupboard (where my boiler lives) and I don't get a face full of bad smells when I open it.
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Thanks, might have to give it a try. I know my Dad's got all the kit somewhere
 
Ahleckz, you could make a hop tea using some hops and add at the same time you add the hot water to the canned syrup. Would make it taste a bit fresher and maybe try using a better yeast, instead of the kit yeast?
 
What kind of quantities should I be using? Perhaps an ounce?
I'll use my Young's yeast.
Was going to do it tonight, as I'm bored, but don't actually have any yeast left so will have to wait until tomorrow. Can get down the brewshop and buy some hops though.
 
I don't have any atm, but the shop stock the following :
Bramling Corss
Styrian Goldings
Mount Hood
Northern Brewer
Liberty Hops

They also have other kinds occasionally, should I be looking for any in particular?

Oh, they also sell these:
Halletau
Fuggles
Progress
First Gold
Saaz
Challenger
 
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I would personally speak to the guys running the homebrew store, much more knowledgeable than me. I've only had experience using Amarillo (very strong) and Tenntang (quite nice, but more for lager).
Thinking about it though, if it's a British bitter, try and get some British hops like fuggle?
If you want some decent input go check out http://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/forum/index.php forum, it's very good.

*edit* realised it's an IPA, hop the hell out of it!
 
Yeah, thought about hopping it up as it's an IPA. I'm sure it'll be good no matter what does in. Northern and Amarillo are both suggested on a few sites I've looked at. Will go for Amarillo if they have it.
 
Yeah, I know what you mean. Can be a thin line between spicy and bittery. I suppose this is the best way to learn! If it goes wrong, it goes wrong. Going to have to speed up the drinking of some of my booze though, don't think I have enough bottles left to bottle this.
Will go to the brewshop early tomorrow so I can get it done in the day - and not spend another day doing sod all!
Will report back.
 
Ahleckz said:
Pictures people, we need pictures!

No recent pictures for me, as my camera has broke. But here's where my booze ferments and what it ferments in:
brewingaway.jpg
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Nice, are those 5 gallon oil containers? I have a few of these, can I ask how you cleaned then out or did you buy them empty?
 
MikeHunt79 said:
Nice, are those 5 gallon oil containers? I have a few of these, can I ask how you cleaned then out or did you buy them empty?
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I'm not sure that they were for oil. I think they were just general liquid containers. They came to me empty. I cleaned them out with hot soapy water, bleach, hot soapy water and then sanitizing solution.
I wouldn't use oil containers if they've had oil in them, or be prepared for a lot of hard cleaning. I wouldn't be comfortable using something oil had been in unless i had scrubbed it which would be impossible without cutting off the top. Do able, but not really practical.
I'll find out what the things I use were designed to be used for - they came from my friends work.
Yeah, they are 5 gallons. I have 5 of them altogether now so I could have 25 gallons (200 pints) of booze ready to drink every month if I was at full constant capacity. Usually though it's only 10 or 15 (80 - 120 pints).

Moses, stick in at the law! I didn't, and instead just became up an alcoholic brewer!... Actually, sod the law degree!
 
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I do things simply, cider is pretty much just apple juice, two types of sugar, yeast and ginger. Kinda stolen from EdWort (http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f81/edworts-apfelwein-33986/)

I haven't done proper beer mashing yet as I can't afford all the stuff. I want too, but I don't have an income atm and it can be quite an investment to get everything.
For my beers, I just get the syrup from a brewshop, add water, sugar and anything else to edit it too my liking.

My rhubarb wine was just rhubarb, water, lemon, ginger, anise and sugar. Got the rhubarb for free so it came to about 8p a bottle for 13+%.

Aceface is the better brewer, does things properly (or at least a lot more proper than me) and there's someone else who has done a proper mash beer guide. (Found it - http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17935929). I'd be doing that too, but I don't have anyone who wants to give me a boiler for a tenner. :(
Though, if people really want me to do one I will next month when I get a new phone (my camera on my phone now is kapoot).
For the time being, ask away for help.

The hardest thing is finding something to brew it in (not many people have 5 gallon containers sitting about) and bottles to put it in. Though there's nothing really stopping you from doing it in 2 litre coke bottles or a bucket. You can really use anything you want. I wish I had the money for big glass carboys but my big plastic things were free and do the job just fine. And I don't have to worry about breaking them if I drop them! T
he big Ribena containers are quite good for 'test' batch. Just under a gallon. I don't bother with them. I just make 40 pints worth and hope it's good. :D And if it's not, it'll get drunk one day.
 
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Ahleckz said:
I'm not sure that they were for oil. I think they were just general liquid containers. They came to me empty. I cleaned them out with hot soapy water, bleach, hot soapy water and then sanitizing solution.
I wouldn't use oil containers if they've had oil in them, or be prepared for a lot of hard cleaning. I wouldn't be comfortable using something oil had been in unless i had scrubbed it which would be impossible without cutting off the top. Do able, but not really practical.
I'll find out what the things I use were designed to be used for - they came from my friends work.
Yeah, they are 5 gallons. I have 5 of them altogether now so I could have 25 gallons (200 pints) of booze ready to drink every month if I was at full constant capacity. Usually though it's only 10 or 15 (80 - 120 pints)
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Bloody hell, you could start your own pub! :D i think I'll avoid using oil containers really, I'll see if I can pick up some empty ones, and also start collecting a few other smaller containers. I'd love to have a crack at making my own cider, a few mates have tried it in the past and it's been pretty rough so I'd like to make something that tastes less like vinegar!
 
MikeHunt79 said:
Bloody hell, you could start your own pub! :D i think I'll avoid using oil containers really, I'll see if I can pick up some empty ones, and also start collecting a few other smaller containers. I'd love to have a crack at making my own cider, a few mates have tried it in the past and it's been pretty rough so I'd like to make something that tastes less like vinegar!
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It's so easy to make, there's really no reason not to do it! It's very easy too, the hardest part of the process is bloody bottle cleaning. The cider doesn't taste great straight away, it's very much best left for some months but there's no reason why you can't drink it straight away. And as you made it yourself you'll think it's delicious.
As for kit, all you need is:
A container
A syhponing tube
An airlock (though you can use a balloon)
Sanitizing stuff (I use proper brewers stuff, but you can use baby sanitizing powder or even bleach as long as you rinse well).
Bottles
Your ingredients (including yeast)
A hydrometer (to work out the strength, not necessary but good to know).
A funnel (makes everything easier)
 
You need a distillers licence to own a working still. Though, you can buy things which allows you to create a 20% or so gin/vodka/whisky. I've never used them so couldn't really comment. It's legal to produce spirits in other means afaik but it's a very complicated area and one that I admitably don't know much about.
Distilling is pretty easy though, and I can't imagine that you'd ever get into any trouble. I'm not even sure what the crime would be...You'd never get done for it, unless you were doing it commercially.

Brewing is perfectly legal, no questions whatsoever. You aren't allowed to sell it (mainly because of health and safety, in the same sense you're on dodgy grounds if you bake a cake and go down the local market and sell it), but other than that there's nothing wrong with it.
 
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Ahleckz said:
You need a distillers licence to own a working still. Though, you can buy things which allows you to create a 20% or so gin/vodka/whisky. I've never used them so couldn't really comment. It's legal to produce spirits in other means afaik but it's a very complicated area and one that I admitably don't know much about.
Distilling is pretty easy though, and I can't imagine that you'd ever get into any trouble. I'm not even sure what the crime would be...You'd never get done for it, unless you were doing it commercially.

Brewing is perfectly legal, no questions whatsoever. You aren't allowed to sell it (mainly because of health and safety, in the same sense you're on dodgy grounds if you bake a cake and go down the local market and sell it), but other than that there's nothing wrong with it.
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Cheers for the info, intriguing. Especially considering the level of duty levied on alcohol at present.
 
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