Got my first Brew on today :)

[Alkaseltzaa]

Hi everyone,

I'm new to homebrewing but I got my Woodfordes Wherry starter kit today and it's now on the go.

Hopefully i'll be able to get a few hints and tips from people on here. I'm currently wondering how i'm going to siphon the stuff from my primary FV into the Keg that came with my kit after fermentation. As the FV I got with the kit does not have a tap on it.

 

[abeyptfc]

get yourself an auto syphon,http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Auto-Syphon-T...390084213448?pt=Home_Brew&hash=item5ad2d4bac8
Its much easier to use if you are bottling yourself and you don't have to get mouthfulls of warm flat beer using an ordinary syphon tube.

 

Welcome to the Forum, great to hear you've made a start.

 

[Aleman]

and you don't have to get mouthfulls of warm flat beer using an ordinary syphon tube.

Please explain the downside of that to me :wha: :wha: :wha: :wha: :wha: :wha:

 

Please explain the downside of that to me

It leaves a little less to mature to perfection :whistle:

 

[Alkaseltzaa]

I forgot to come back on here to tell people how my first attempt turned out.

I actually got some praise from a few friends who tasted it. We all felt the Woodfordes wherry kit tasted a little like Deuchers IPA which is brewed literally a stonesthrow from my house and a pint of that stuff from a pub in Edinburgh tastes beautiful. Obviously mine didn't taste as good but it had subtle hints of citrus in it I felt. Do you think that brewing beer with Edinburgh water will give my homebrew some Edinburgh elements in it? Does the location of your water source affect taste?

Only problem I had with my 1st brew was that it didn't carbonate very well. I was keeping it in a plastic keg which I couldn't force carbonate as it only has a one way release valve. I'm now going to get some bottles for the next batch so hopefully I can get better carbonation until I save up enough for a corny keg.

At the moment i'm having a go at a cider. Just finished racking it into a secondary tonight and added some gelatin to it to hopefully clear it. Will it be ok to carb this cider in some plastic 2 litre coke bottles after the gelatin has done it's work?

Cheers

Andy

 

[Dunfie]

Hi Andy

Glad you are enjoying your wherry - it is probably one of the better kits.

Your question about the water in Edinburgh is an interesting one. Our water in Scotland is generally very soft which means that brewers need to utilise some water treatment to get the best out of both the yeast and hops. The use of gypsum or calcium is the most popular way of doing it. The difference is more pronounced for pale ales but darker beers benefit from some additions too. No point it doing it for kit beer as it is designed to give you everything you need without worrying about water treatments. However there are some brewers on here who have had some success with late hopping in the keg to give it that little bit of extra zing.

Good luck with the cider but be careful with the gelatin. The idea of using finings is to remove the yeast before decanting into your favoured dispensing system where you will probably add CO2. If you remove the yeast you will find that you will struggle to get any condition in the bottles (or it might take a very long time to carbonate).