Home brewing kits ....

Man of Honour
Man of Honour
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3 May 2004
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Kapitalist Republik of Surrey
Bought a press 50/50 with a friend, due to the bumper fruit crop this year. He's got an allotment, I've got abundant local fruit and there are more people offering apples than we can shake a stick at! Got three gallons of blackberry wine on last week and two gallons of blackcurrant. More to come :eek:

First apples through it this evening:

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cider4.jpg


Says it all really :p
 
Soldato
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19 May 2005
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Lancashire
One good thing about the end of the hot weather is I can now get another ki going. It was like 25o constantly in my room over the summer, so didnt want to ruin another beer with too high temp.

It's a comfortable 18o now, so perfect temperature, without the need for any heating mats etc.
 
Soldato
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18 Dec 2003
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heybridge, nr maldon, essex
My mate has recently started brewing his own beer and was down at his house on Saturday and he has convinced me to get it started myself. Just spotted this massive thread and looking for some advice before I go and buy a starters kit. Was going to pick up one of these tomorrow :D

http://www.brewstore.co.uk/premium-selection-beer-brewing-starter-kit-4191-p.asp

that's how i started, but with a micro brewery one from woodfordes. easy to do and great results. i find it takes 40 mins from sterilizing everything properly to getting it ready in the fermenter with it brew belt round it - get one of these. the wherry kit is a great starter kit, easy to brew, only need the kit as it is and it's 40 great pints. then develop from there if you like it. i still only brew using kit's due to space and not wanting an 8 hour brew - laziness - but the brews i have done from kit's have all been excellent and they are:

woodfordes Wherry - lovely drop
woodfordes sundew - very nice
woodfordes admirals reserve - lovely a little chilled!
cheap crap brewmaker freebie - brewed it to 6% and was not bad.
coopers pale ale - lovely
coopers real ale - ok, not my favourite
coopers mexican cervexa - lovely
coopers european lager - beautiful after 15 plus weeks, nice before

to come:
wilko golden ale
coopers stout - ditches receipe on the jims beer kit forums x2 - using different spray malts for this
woodfordes wherry
coopers euro

i love brewing, now have 2 kegs, one standard kit and one king keg, 24 ltr bottles x 2!

enjoy!
 
Associate
Joined
20 Sep 2003
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Scotland
Ok so went to homebrew store today and bought a kit for £50 and got my first brew on the go, Indian Pale Ale IPA. Got it sitting in the office room under the desk away from firect sunlight but so far have seen no bubbles in the airlock. Thought I would have seen something happening after 4+ hours?

homebrew.jpg
 
Man of Honour
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16 May 2005
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Manchester
Ok so went to homebrew store today and bought a kit for £50 and got my first brew on the go, Indian Pale Ale IPA. Got it sitting in the office room under the desk away from firect sunlight but so far have seen no bubbles in the airlock. Thought I would have seen something happening after 4+ hours?

homebrew.jpg

Give it 24 hours to be honest (it can be a little more sometimes but if all is well it should be less...still, not a big deal usually if it's slightly longer). What temperature is it at?
 
Man of Honour
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16 May 2005
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Manchester
I would say room temp, don't have a temp sticker so no idea and I don't want to open it to stick a thermometer in it.

Okay..presumably it had cooled down to room temperature by the time you pitched the yeast? If it was too hot you may have killed it is all (in which case you'd need to go out and buy some more yeast).

If it's around 25C the chances are that it's fine. If you've got a tap on the side then you can always tip a bit out and measure the temperature of that.
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
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Sussex
Give it 24 hours to be honest (it can be a little more sometimes but if all is well it should be less...still, not a big deal usually if it's slightly longer). What temperature is it at?

As quoted, give it 24 before you start to worry, both my starters didn't really kick off till the next day and they were stored at 22.

I have on Muntons single can kit thats done and I've just started to drink it, very nice :)

A wine kit thats currently clearing and should be ready to bottle next week. If this kit comes out ok too then i'm going to spend a little more and get a full height fridge for the garage :cool:
 
Soldato
Joined
21 Jan 2007
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8,704
In a ferm bucket I wouldn't worry too much either, often they like to leak air a little, I've known buckets to expell most of their CO2 via the "seal"

But luckily positive pressure will mean the no bad stuff can get in so don't worry about it if thats the case.
 
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