complete newbie needs your help please South Yorkshire area

tony2stix · Jun 11, 2011

Hi all I am a novice. never brewed in my life,so I am after as much info I can find, so I have joined your very nice forum for help,
I am looking to brew mainly ales,lagers and for my wife cider, if this helps
I do not own any equipment (as yet) so advice there would be great full as well,I don't have a very big budget to get the brewing equipment, so pointers in the best direction wold be great, i have not been able to look properly, on the forum so i would be great full if there is a members area that sell stuff to us newbies
Anyway i will be looking forward to receiving any help thanks for your time Tony
: cheers:

bungouk · Jun 11, 2011

hi and welcome to the forum

Runwell-Steve · Jun 11, 2011

Hi, Welcome to the Forum.

You don't really need much stuff if you are planning on brewing from kits, which is what I would recommend for the ales and lagers as you are starting out.

Your essentials that you probably don't have at home already are

A fermenting bucket
A long spoon/paddle to stir everything
A hydrometer
Some syphon tube
Some bottles
Some bottle caps
A bottle capper

You can keep ale in a keg if you want, but not lager or cider if you want it fizzy.

All of the above can be got from wilkinsons fairly cheap, except the bottles which you can source from the local pubs, ask them for their empty Magners botttles.

To sanitise things you can just use household bleach.

For making cider don't bother with the kits as they do not tend to be very successful, have a look on the forum for 'Turbo Cider'.

Moley · Jun 11, 2011

Wilkinson's or some branches of Tesco also sell the Young's Brew Buddy starter kits. For about Â£24 you get a basic bitter or lager kit plus the fermenting bucket, hydrometer, syphon tube etc. and everything you should need for your first brew apart from a bag of sugar.

Later on you can try better beers or different types of sugars.

Welcome to the forum : cheers:

Dronfieldbrewer · Jun 11, 2011

whereabouts in South Yorkshire are you? I am in Dronfield nr Sheffield. If you need any help drop me a private message.

I started with kits about a year ago, bought from Brewmart from Woodseats. Took their advice as to what to do, the coopers kits are good for the results you get. If you want to do cider get a few demijohns and do the turbo cider stuff as mentioned before. It is really easy and the results will suprise you

I have now thrown myself into Allgrain brewing. I have a 3 stage set up in the garage. This is the way to go long term as you can adjust stuff to your palete. However the investment in bits is not worth it unless you are really serious. i can now produce a pint of beer as good as any bottled beer you will find in the supermarkets for a fraction of the cost and have the satisfaction of knowing that I brewed it. I took some camping last weekend

Tasted quite nice too

Once you get the bug, it bites and you will be always be looking to improve and be consistent