Disheartening return to homebrew

[ACBEV]

My three vessel brewing kit cost me under 200 quid and my beer is lovely jubbly... The most expensive bit of kit was a 40L Buffalo boiler (130 quid), which works really well.

 

[Drunkula]

Don't really see the point of Starsan

Once you've made up a batch you haven't got to worry about it going off if the water you used was right and it's fire and forget. Acidified bleach solutions need making up every time and if the thin bleach composition changes - and believe me, it does - you'll end up with a screwed batch of beer because it's actually not no-rinse any more. Having no extra steps and it being reliable is so worth it, and the initial outlay seems a lot but it's not. 15 quid gets you 300 litres of sanitiser - and it's reusable and it foams and it's a nutrient.

On a brew day measuring out 8ml of thing bleach and 1.3ml of vinegar per litre of water and then worrying that it might cause chloramine issues, plus having some of your clothes ruined by wayward spashes of bleach. No. Never again.

 

[JapanBrew]

I would say 2 things. Campden tablet for sure. I’ve got that taste due to chlorine and yeast. Second, after primary is done, get it off the dead yeast. Smaller batches have less effect from this but larger batches, it shows up. Primary fermentation could be as short as 2 days and as long as a week.

 

[An Ankoù]

Once you've made up a batch you haven't got to worry about it going off if the water you used was right and it's fire and forget. Acidified bleach solutions need making up every time and if the thin bleach composition changes - and believe me, it does - you'll end up with a screwed batch of beer because it's actually not no-rinse any more. Having no extra steps and it being reliable is so worth it, and the initial outlay seems a lot but it's not. 15 quid gets you 300 litres of sanitiser - and it's reusable and it foams and it's a nutrient.

On a brew day measuring out 8ml of thing bleach and 1.3ml of vinegar per litre of water and then worrying that it might cause chloramine issues, plus having some of your clothes ruined by wayward spashes of bleach. No. Never again.

Thank you, Drunkula, I begin to understand. While I don't go through the nightmare rigmarole you outline above, nevertheless, I see your point. Still not going to fork out 15 squids, though, and I always rinse.