Evening All

[BrucetheFish]

Hi

Got to say this looks like a very friendly & helpful forum, decided to take the plunge and sign up.

Naturally I love most beer, ales, lager so I thought I would have a crack at making my own.

I’ve got a few bits of equipment over the last couple of months but will be trawling the forum looking for guidance on what I need and what’s recommended by the brains on here.

Cheers Bruce

 

[Gerryjo]

Hi and welcome to the forum...
Friendly place indeed and loads of advice so don't be afraid to ask...

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Welcome to the forum thumb

 

[An Ankoù]

Welcome Bruce. What are you planning on doing to start with?

 

[BrucetheFish]

Hi

I am totally new to this and have just been browsing and trying to understand what to do.

At first I was thinking to do all grain from the start.. but i think that might be starting too deep.

Seen a few threads were people recommended beginning with a kit/extracts.

At christmas i got a few bits of equipment, 16l stock pot, mash tun (picnic style !) thermometer... was just going to gradually buy bits.

So any suggestions on what direction to take would really be appreciated !

Cheers

 

[An Ankoù]

Hi

I am totally new to this and have just been browsing and trying to understand what to do.

At first I was thinking to do all grain from the start.. but i think that might be starting too deep.

Seen a few threads were people recommended beginning with a kit/extracts.

At christmas i got a few bits of equipment, 16l stock pot, mash tun (picnic style !) thermometer... was just going to gradually buy bits.

So any suggestions on what direction to take would really be appreciated !

Cheers

Good choice. I'd get a decent book if I were you and give it a good reading. Graham Hughes Homebrew Beer is a good one- not too complicated nor too simplistic. You need to start by mashing in the picnic box, but then you need to be able separate the liquid (wort) from the grain. You could do this by putting the grain in a mashing/sparging bag and then lift it out, drain the juice into your pot and then put it back into the picnic box with more warm water and repeat until you boiling pot is full. That's a workable approximation of how that side of things work. I use a big steamer and put my bag in the perforated part of the steamer which fits nicely over my brewing pot. I can then pour warm water through the grain to rinse the sugars out. I get the same efficiency as I do when i use my full-scale equipment. But most of all, do some reading first so you know what you're trying to achieve.

 

[BrucetheFish]

Cheers for the advice.

So I have my 16l pot and I was planning on heating the water for the mash on the kitchen electric hob.

Am i right thinking that for the boil I would need a separate brew pot/kettle ?

Is it possible to do the boil on a kitchen hob ? Any equipment advice really appreciated

Cheers

 

[dwhite60]

You'd probably be better off doing Brew-In-A-Bag (BIAB) if you want to go all grain. With a 16 liter pot you're probably looking at doing 10 to 12 liter batches. You won't need a cooler, just you pot. That's what I'm doing. It meets my needs.

I would start off with an extract kit to get the basics. Doing all-grain is a good four hour brew day. I'd avoid that kind of pressure to start. You'll have plenty of time for all-grain later.

 

[BrucetheFish]

Thanks for the advice, I think that's the right call. Slowly does it !