Best way to start brewing? Barrel or Bottles?
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My best advice is to spend some time studying on this site.
My personal advice would be to go for Cornies as they are a lot less hassle than bottles and easier to dael with and about the same price as a cheap plastic barrel. In any case no matter which route you take you will probably end up with cornies anyway. most people do. If you go straight to cornies you wont be left with plastic barrel you dont want.
The cheapest route will be bottles, scrounge Magners / bulmers pint bottles from yue local bozzers , they will be going to waste anyway. Soak em in hot water and the labels come off and they are free. On the downside it is a real PITA washing and sanitizing 40 of the little darlings and you will need to invest in a crown capper of some kind.
Once you have made that decision then spend some time in your local home brew shop if you have one. Reading between the lines you have no kit. So you may want to consider looking down the road a bit and seeing if you can future proof yourself a bit. If you buy a so say Kit you might not get what you want or need.
You may want to consider the most basic equipment to be.
A fermenting bucket. My advice would be to get one that is marked up to / holds a full 30L. I would avoid anything smaller as a bit of space in there for the yeasties to expand into is a good thing.
A big plastic spoon ( dont go for wood its nasty nasty nasty) or if you can find one get a big stainless one as they are less likely to get scratched and hid nasty germs.....
A syphon tube, usually clear plastic and not a lot of cost.
Some cleaner and sterilizer, I use Soda crystals from tesco for those stubborn stains, and Idophor which you can order from boots as a sterilizer. you get 1L for under £4 buy a baby feeder syringe from boots at teh same time they are pennies, Buy a £1 1L hand sprayer . use the baby feeder to measure 1 1/2 Ml of Idophor. and mix it in with 1L of hot water in the sprayer and there you go a spray on contact sterilizer.....
Some Knowledge from The Fabulous homebrew forum.... there is no such thing as a silly or stupid question on here....
Non essential but really usefull bits
A hydromoter and Tube..... Now When I say non essential I mean for barreling ... if you are bottling a hydromoter will be a top investment... If you bottle too early your bottles run the risk of exploding... and beer gets wasted, Using a hydromoter lets you know when fermentation has slowed enough. i.e. the same reading on 2 consecutive days .
A thing called a little bottler, these are about £3 or 4 and come with a tap. now If you get your HBS to drill and fit this tap to your fermenter bucket when its bottling time you can fill your bottles ( assuming you use bottles) without too much mess. just put 1/2 a tsp of sugar in teh bottle and fill from teh bucket using the tube.
What to brew? well the simplest way is to buy a brew in a tin from your HBS. Then its a case of follow the destructions on teh label, mix with water. This will depend on how much cash you have spare. 3kg Kits are considered better than the cheapies and that is one of the reasons why you want to loiter in your homebrew shop.
From this point on you will find yourself buying extra fermenters, and toys. I warn you you will get sucked in and You will start reading up on all grain brewing before long If you want to dive straight into that or just need some friendly advice just shout out and the peeps on here will help.
Happy brewing...
My personal advice would be to go for Cornies as they are a lot less hassle than bottles and easier to dael with and about the same price as a cheap plastic barrel. In any case no matter which route you take you will probably end up with cornies anyway. most people do. If you go straight to cornies you wont be left with plastic barrel you dont want.
The cheapest route will be bottles, scrounge Magners / bulmers pint bottles from yue local bozzers , they will be going to waste anyway. Soak em in hot water and the labels come off and they are free. On the downside it is a real PITA washing and sanitizing 40 of the little darlings and you will need to invest in a crown capper of some kind.
Once you have made that decision then spend some time in your local home brew shop if you have one. Reading between the lines you have no kit. So you may want to consider looking down the road a bit and seeing if you can future proof yourself a bit. If you buy a so say Kit you might not get what you want or need.
You may want to consider the most basic equipment to be.
A fermenting bucket. My advice would be to get one that is marked up to / holds a full 30L. I would avoid anything smaller as a bit of space in there for the yeasties to expand into is a good thing.
A big plastic spoon ( dont go for wood its nasty nasty nasty) or if you can find one get a big stainless one as they are less likely to get scratched and hid nasty germs.....
A syphon tube, usually clear plastic and not a lot of cost.
Some cleaner and sterilizer, I use Soda crystals from tesco for those stubborn stains, and Idophor which you can order from boots as a sterilizer. you get 1L for under £4 buy a baby feeder syringe from boots at teh same time they are pennies, Buy a £1 1L hand sprayer . use the baby feeder to measure 1 1/2 Ml of Idophor. and mix it in with 1L of hot water in the sprayer and there you go a spray on contact sterilizer.....
Some Knowledge from The Fabulous homebrew forum.... there is no such thing as a silly or stupid question on here....
Non essential but really usefull bits
A hydromoter and Tube..... Now When I say non essential I mean for barreling ... if you are bottling a hydromoter will be a top investment... If you bottle too early your bottles run the risk of exploding... and beer gets wasted, Using a hydromoter lets you know when fermentation has slowed enough. i.e. the same reading on 2 consecutive days .
A thing called a little bottler, these are about £3 or 4 and come with a tap. now If you get your HBS to drill and fit this tap to your fermenter bucket when its bottling time you can fill your bottles ( assuming you use bottles) without too much mess. just put 1/2 a tsp of sugar in teh bottle and fill from teh bucket using the tube.
What to brew? well the simplest way is to buy a brew in a tin from your HBS. Then its a case of follow the destructions on teh label, mix with water. This will depend on how much cash you have spare. 3kg Kits are considered better than the cheapies and that is one of the reasons why you want to loiter in your homebrew shop.
From this point on you will find yourself buying extra fermenters, and toys. I warn you you will get sucked in and You will start reading up on all grain brewing before long If you want to dive straight into that or just need some friendly advice just shout out and the peeps on here will help.
Happy brewing...
hi and welcome!
I used to have plastic barrels i got from wilkos when i started back up last year, but i got rid of them, mainly because of space they took up and keeping it cold!, i had nowhere to keep 40 pints of beer cold!, i didnt want to be trekking up to the shed now and again, so i went the bottle route, and this method i stick with, they sit in the crates upstairs, and when i want some beer, then i simply fill the fridge when i want!, there's always bottles in the fridge..yes it can be a pain to some people, but in the end its your hobby, so i don'[t think of it like that, it generally takes me 1.5 hours from getting prepared with the bottles to bottled and tidyed away!
Wilkos do a lot of brewing kits, recommend a Geordie scottish export, and a victorian bitter by brewmaker to you, Happy Brewing!
I used to have plastic barrels i got from wilkos when i started back up last year, but i got rid of them, mainly because of space they took up and keeping it cold!, i had nowhere to keep 40 pints of beer cold!, i didnt want to be trekking up to the shed now and again, so i went the bottle route, and this method i stick with, they sit in the crates upstairs, and when i want some beer, then i simply fill the fridge when i want!, there's always bottles in the fridge..yes it can be a pain to some people, but in the end its your hobby, so i don'[t think of it like that, it generally takes me 1.5 hours from getting prepared with the bottles to bottled and tidyed away!
Wilkos do a lot of brewing kits, recommend a Geordie scottish export, and a victorian bitter by brewmaker to you, Happy Brewing!
shaunyp
Active Member
Hell some great tips ther :thumb: :clap: just one question i want to go for the little bottler gizmo thingy, i have a plastic brew buddy bin, so what hole size do i need to drill and do i need a grommet of some sort etc. Thanks for your help and happy brewing
Frisp said:
