Committed Newbie.

[decthebelly]

Hello,

Making a return to home brewing afer a 20 year absence. Difference is this time I have more than the 6.99 for the kit to spend.

Where did the Boots homebrew section go? Although tbh there's plenty available on line.

I am keen to establish the lazy man's all grain set up, if I can get close to a sierra nevada pale ale that would be good too.

As I said in another thread, just finished first coopers kit, and a flat glass while racking still tasted great. I just have to be sure my brew schedule stays ahead of my drinking schedule.

It's good to be back. Hope to chat to you all.

dec

 

Welcome back to brewing dtb!
Boots HB went many years ago, along with a lot of HB shops.
I think if the idea of "minimum price" for alcohol kicks off, we could see a resurrection.

 

[Dieseljockey]

Hi Ya Dec :thumb:

I'm the same....born again brewer after 15 or so years....did a couple of Boots kits...then found a HB shop local & started with Muntons..also did fruit wines...

It's a great forum any thing you want to know ask.....and the guys will put you right.

I'm in the middle of building my AG setup.....got the HLT/Pump/ Mash tun & a couple of Corni's sorted...& picked up a SS 100 L pot from MD this week so all I've got to do now is fix the elements/ pipe work & I have lift off :pray:

 

[Tony]

nice to meet you belly!

You've picked a great beer to try and replicate, it's definitely one of my favourites! Good luck with it, there are plenty of recipes around for it. If you can, don't go for the 'lazyman's', you'll regret it as you try to improve your set up and discover that what you bought originally was a waste of money.

Have fun and good luck!

 

[Moley]

Hello, Making a return to home brewing afer a 20 year absence.

And we're hearing that over and over and over again. :thumb:

I also had 15-20 years off, although I never brewed much beer back then. Let's face it, the kits were pretty naff.

Trouble is, after 5 kit brews this lot lured me over to the dark side, and now I'm properly into AG I'm having great difficulty drinking commercial beers, so I guess I'm back for good.

All you need to know is right here, welcome back :

 

[decthebelly]

Thanks for the response.

Ordered 23kg of pale malt extract from h&g, going to do an extract boil as a stepping stone, so I reckon I can have a good go at the sierra nevada pale ale with that. I see they have a wheat extract too, so if I can get a hefeweizen recipe, that's next.

I suppose the one thing I am having an issue with is the price of kit, I have two 22l fermentors that cost maybe £15 each, but a cracking conical is £600. Same for a brew kettle/mash tun/hlt. If I am willing to use the same plastic boiler as a hlt and boiler, using a £25 tank to take the wort and then transfer back to the hlt/boiler, I reckon I can have a good setup for £200 (with a insulated mash tun). Better than blowing £1k+ on a stainless setup.

Racking out of the cheap 22L plastic fermenters is so easy I am not sure that the conicals are that much help, they do look great i do admit.

Also with a conical and a four week fermentation I am limited to one flavour a month, which can't be good. So I think it is cheap and cheerful for the next few brews and then see how serious I want to get. I suppose better to spend a few quid on corny kegs since storing in the garge fridge is no big deal for me.

A few lager kits on order. Full reports to follow :-)

dec

 

[decthebelly]

Freaky,

"I also had 15-20 years off, although I never brewed much beer back then. Let's face it, the kits were pretty naff."

The first thing I have noticed is that the first coopers kit I have brewed looks like, bubbles like and tastes like a proper pint, my original kits were definately home brew, my first attempt tastes like british bitter. If the AG setups taste better than this, I may have to pack in the day job. I presume more people come back due to free time / hobby rather than the price, for me already, two hours of reading has me thinking of 20 variations to play about with. Already getting a bit of nagging about the amount of kit in the kitchen so some things don't change. :-)

dec

 

[decthebelly]

Diesel,

Thanks for the response. I reckon get into an AG as easy as possible and then see what I need to improve. PET has been good to me so far so when I am 240 pints in and break-even, I can start justifying more kit more easily. What sort of time are you seeing from start to good, conditioned beer?

dec

 

[Samarith]

Welcome to the forums Dec.

Sounds like you're moving in the right direction, towards AG that is!!

 

[Moley]

I presume more people come back due to free time / hobby rather than the price

Errm ..... no.

I came back because I haven't had a pay rise in 3 years and pub/supermarket prices only ever go in one direction. It's just got worse, we've taken a 10% pay cut to save jobs.

Even so, having properly got back into home winemaking and brewing, with the wealth of information on the interweb and the AG information on this forum, I seriously doubt that I could lower my standards to drinking commercially available p!$s even if I could afford to.

 

[31bb3]

welcome to the forum dec

 

Racking out of the cheap 22L plastic fermenters is so easy I am not sure that the conicals are that much help, they do look great i do admit.

I tend to have similar sentiments, but when you read about "Connie" giving multiple birth..... :shock: