Can I ask which brew you used?
Home brewing kits ....
- Thread starter Aliboy
- Start date
Can I ask which brew you used?
It was bought for me as a present. So the full kit (I have looked to see if I can buy it as a single ingredients only package but only from the US)
It was a Northern Brewer kit, with an Amber Ale.
https://www.northernbrewer.com/products/block-party-amber-ale
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Well I managed to get a coopers irish stout kit ordered yesterday, did my last brew last year and the friends I gave some samples to said it was awesome, so going to make one again and see how it goes, would like to try the 86 day pilsner next. My local homebrew shop has been on 2 day opening for the last 6 months for which I don't know and i'mm not sure if this will be the end of it. Ordered from lovebeer but they have restricted the orders and open at 10am for orders and can close any time once the amount of orders has been received. Could be 5-6 days before my items turn up but thats ok with me.
Looks like I bottled too early. beers VERY lively. have to let the gas out then leave it half an hour before opening, the first one covered the kitchen ceiling!
Added about 1/3 of a cup of honey to a copper ale kit from wilko, it's come out somewhere around 6% according to my hydrometer readings!
tastes ok, but I think I'll do something a bit more adventurous when shops re-open.
Added about 1/3 of a cup of honey to a copper ale kit from wilko, it's come out somewhere around 6% according to my hydrometer readings!
tastes ok, but I think I'll do something a bit more adventurous when shops re-open.
When did you end up moving into Kernow? Wasn't your partner on here too?
Home brewing is a lot of fun. I've had some good successes after 10 or so batches, but also some poor outcomes.
One thing I've learnt is that primary fermentation can go on longer than stated on the packs. I normally leave mine in the first bucket for 3 weeks to make sure everything is finished. So long as you have a good airlock and keep checking the water level in it twice daily, I think you'll be fine. Normally fermentation stops in a week, but I like to leave it a lot longer to settle before kegging. From that point on, I follow the instructions as stated to keg it.
I recently tried a St. Peter's Cream Stout and highly recommend it to all home brewers. It's a solid kit, and if you want to experiment with it, try the below:
I recommend adding fruit, lactose and (if a dark beer) roasted cacao nibs to your brew. Fruit must be pasteurized - I heated it at 65'C for 30 mins in a pan - before adding to the brew. I used about 2kg of cherries in the Cream Stout kit above, whacking it in the primary fermentation at the start, and I could notice the flavour when tasting after kegging.
Lactose is also great, it gives a creamy sweet flavour and offsets the dryness you might normally get. Works in everything from IPAs (milkshake IPA) to Stouts (milk stouts). I think I'll use it in everything from now on. An alternative to this is maltodextrin powder, which is less sweet but also adds body.
Cacao nibs add a chocolate flavour, but can make the beer slightly more dry. Used in combination with lactose as above, they significantly boost the texture and flavour of a dark beer, to make a chocolate milk stout for example.
Anyway, I read this thread for tips over the years, so thought I'd share mine too! Cheers.
One thing I've learnt is that primary fermentation can go on longer than stated on the packs. I normally leave mine in the first bucket for 3 weeks to make sure everything is finished. So long as you have a good airlock and keep checking the water level in it twice daily, I think you'll be fine. Normally fermentation stops in a week, but I like to leave it a lot longer to settle before kegging. From that point on, I follow the instructions as stated to keg it.
I recently tried a St. Peter's Cream Stout and highly recommend it to all home brewers. It's a solid kit, and if you want to experiment with it, try the below:
I recommend adding fruit, lactose and (if a dark beer) roasted cacao nibs to your brew. Fruit must be pasteurized - I heated it at 65'C for 30 mins in a pan - before adding to the brew. I used about 2kg of cherries in the Cream Stout kit above, whacking it in the primary fermentation at the start, and I could notice the flavour when tasting after kegging.
Lactose is also great, it gives a creamy sweet flavour and offsets the dryness you might normally get. Works in everything from IPAs (milkshake IPA) to Stouts (milk stouts). I think I'll use it in everything from now on. An alternative to this is maltodextrin powder, which is less sweet but also adds body.
Cacao nibs add a chocolate flavour, but can make the beer slightly more dry. Used in combination with lactose as above, they significantly boost the texture and flavour of a dark beer, to make a chocolate milk stout for example.
Anyway, I read this thread for tips over the years, so thought I'd share mine too! Cheers.
Normally only brew cider from the multiple apple trees i have around my garden.
but decided to make a kit i had from christmas, woodfordes golden something.
very different from cider making but a lot more active, cider normally takes 30 + hours before you start seeing bubbles this stuff was alive after a couple of hours and is going along strongly.
this years experiment is gonna be to try different yeast to see if any particularly helps, plus a blackberry and cinnamon cider for christmas.
but decided to make a kit i had from christmas, woodfordes golden something.
very different from cider making but a lot more active, cider normally takes 30 + hours before you start seeing bubbles this stuff was alive after a couple of hours and is going along strongly.
this years experiment is gonna be to try different yeast to see if any particularly helps, plus a blackberry and cinnamon cider for christmas.
I was bought a home brew kit for Christmas that I haven't put to use yet. I've got the bucket , airlock etc but then lockdown happened and I've been struggling to source reasonably priced bottles. Are bottles the way to go or should I be putting it into a keg or something similar?
I'd say it depends on the type of keg, and in part how quickly you want to drink the finished product.
Kegs generally come in two varieties - the plastic type, and the steel Cornelius.
With a plastic keg, the brew is normally carbonated using sugar and left for a couple of weeks to condition, and pressurised with a CO2 bulb via the cap to provide the pressure for delivery and to keep oxygen away from spoiling the contents, but - the lifespan of the product inside will be relatively limited, thus I'd only do it this way if the contents were going to be consumed relatively quickly.
The steel Cornelius type are similar to what a commercial brewery would use. The product is injection carbonated via a CO2 cylinder under high pressure due to the higher strength of the keg, and delivery will be via a proper tap linked to a CO2 line. I'd suggest the contents will keep a lot fresher for quite a while longer in this kind of setup.
Sanitation of a keg, versus bottles is a lot quicker - only 1 large vessel to clean Vs perhaps 40 bottles.
However, bottles do have the advantage of being able to keep the product freshest for the longest, and due to the size you can chill a few when they are ready to drink (as opposed to a keg system where you will need a dedicated fridge to do so).
Kegs generally come in two varieties - the plastic type, and the steel Cornelius.
With a plastic keg, the brew is normally carbonated using sugar and left for a couple of weeks to condition, and pressurised with a CO2 bulb via the cap to provide the pressure for delivery and to keep oxygen away from spoiling the contents, but - the lifespan of the product inside will be relatively limited, thus I'd only do it this way if the contents were going to be consumed relatively quickly.
The steel Cornelius type are similar to what a commercial brewery would use. The product is injection carbonated via a CO2 cylinder under high pressure due to the higher strength of the keg, and delivery will be via a proper tap linked to a CO2 line. I'd suggest the contents will keep a lot fresher for quite a while longer in this kind of setup.
Sanitation of a keg, versus bottles is a lot quicker - only 1 large vessel to clean Vs perhaps 40 bottles.
However, bottles do have the advantage of being able to keep the product freshest for the longest, and due to the size you can chill a few when they are ready to drink (as opposed to a keg system where you will need a dedicated fridge to do so).
Moved "home" back in 2011. Pheebs was/is but that ended.
I'm on my second batch. My first brew I'm sure has failed. Not exactly sure why, but I'm wondering if it was the old old old fermentation bin which has some cuts in the plastic.
My second brew (wilko thirsty devil) didn't get the same sulphurous off smell whilst fermenting and I used a new bucket for it bottled it yesterday.
I managed 37 bottles - lost a couple of litres from moving off the yeast into a second bucket for batch priming and bottling from.
Next time I need to buy a better siphon as y current one is fully flexible making it hard to keep stable AND I've been using mouth suction to start... Whoops .
Standard twin lever type affair...
The cleaning and sterilising of the bottles was horrendous... Need a good few hours to get it all done!!
True - nobody wants warm beer!
I
I made one... Sheet of ply/MDF and drilled an array of holes 50mm I think, then added some feet to raise it 10cm off the ground. Took a few mins. Job done!!
Well my Bitter was alright. I polished of 30 pints of it, but I wouldn't say I'd do it again. Just isn't as nice as a well made one I can buy from Lidl for 90p. Sad I know, because it's about the process etc but I didn't like the final results enough for the effort involved...
However I would like to try a cider. Does any recommendations on a good kit?
However I would like to try a cider. Does any recommendations on a good kit?
I dunno. It tastes very similar to what I remember my dad brewing and he did it a fair amount. I guess what I'm saying is a don't favour a bitter as much as a lager or cider so I don't really want to brew one again regardless of how good it becomes