Hello All, My Adventure Begins......

[DrunkArchaeologist]

Hi all, as you can probably tell I'm an Archaeologist who likes to get drunk, luckily not at the same time as digging. Live in the beautiful city of York, so plenty of good places to get a pint, like pretty much everything from Hazy IPA's, Flemish Red Ales, Stouts etc everything apart from the mass produced lager.

Been wanting to try home brewing for a while now, so I thought I'd join the forums for advice and help. Thought I'd start out very easy with the basic brewing with those tins etc and eventually try and build my way up to more advance stuff in the future.

As a question, where should I post about buying equipment? My partner wants to buy me the stuff as a Christmas present, so I said I'd find out here for her to get some links etc....

Cheers
Drunkarchaeologist

 

[Gerryjo]

In the forum sponsor you'll find a few suppliers certainly worth a browse through this is my go to as they are local to me.
Welcome to the forum....
Homebrew Microbrewery | Beer Cider & Wine Kits | All Grain Brewing

 

[Stevieboy]

https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/forums/general-home-brew-equipment-discussion.22/
Welcome aboard - this should do it.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Welcome to the forum DA

 

[Graz]

Hello and welcome!

I bought my brother a starter kit form this lot on year as a Christmas present: Home Brew Shop UK | Homebrew Beer Kits | Wine Making | Home Brewing

Seemed like good value at the time. I've used this company myself on occasion and had good service. And they're based in York!

Plenty of other good online retailers around though so do shop around.

 

[EsterBanana]

Welcome!

I started just like you with the Love Brewing kits, everything you need:

https://www.lovebrewing.co.uk/beginners-beer
You can reuse the bucket and other tools, just buy another kit.

The golden rule is make sure you clean and sanitise everything, other than that it's pretty straightforward.

I am happy to answer any questions about the BeerWorks kits, I think they are great value for money and perfect for beginners, well, they suited me perfectly anyway :)

 

[alfajerry]

I started with this kit (includes a very good beer):

https://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/american-ipa-microbrewery-starter-kit.html
Still use most of it but I have found bottles better than the pressure barrel.

 

[sifty]

My wife bought me a Brewzilla as a birthday present at a beer festival.

She's regretting it now...

 

[Horners]

My gateway drug was a Young's starter kit bought unsolicited by my wife for Christmas 3 years ago. It came with a Woodfordes Wherry 2 can kit, fermentation bucket, pressure barrel and all the other bits and bobs to get up and running. Made decent beer with it.

Now have 10 cornies,couple of 5l mini kegs, a keezer, tanks of CO2 and Nitrogen, a grainfather, a Klarstein, lots of stainless steel, a fermentation freezer, a brew fridge, a blichmann gun, a beer 365 hand pull, a much lighter bank account and a very full summerhouse.

I think an important consideration I choosing a starter kit is mode of dispense. So whilst my starter kit came with a pressure barrel I only used it a handful of times. They can be unreliable, lack portability and are generally only suitable for low carbed beers. The alternative from a starter kit perspective is bottling in which case you need to decide whether PET (plastic) or glass bottles. Pros and cons of each but with the latter you would need your kit to include a crown capper.

 

[EsterBanana]

It's a good point!!

I took the plunge and invested in a lot of swing top bottles and replacement rubber rings instead of that awful silicone they use these days.

Not cheap, but they are absolutely brilliant, I love them!

p.s. I am told they are also inherently safer as the metal cage will expand slightly and allow for the release of co2 from over-carbonated beer rather than the bottle exploding!

 

[Clint]

Although a few have issues with the plastic barrels with a bit of fettling they can be successfully used. There's a great guide on here from Hazelwood Brewery on such things.
I have three barrels now and hundreds of bottles. As said lower carbed beers are for the barrels plus kegging is so much quicker!

 

[Tess Tickle's Brewery]

Hi all, as you can probably tell I'm an Archaeologist who likes to get drunk, luckily not at the same time as digging. Live in the beautiful city of York, so plenty of good places to get a pint, like pretty much everything from Hazy IPA's, Flemish Red Ales, Stouts etc everything apart from the mass produced lager.

Been wanting to try home brewing for a while now, so I thought I'd join the forums for advice and help. Thought I'd start out very easy with the basic brewing with those tins etc and eventually try and build my way up to more advance stuff in the future.

As a question, where should I post about buying equipment? My partner wants to buy me the stuff as a Christmas present, so I said I'd find out here for her to get some links etc....

Cheers
Drunkarchaeologist

Yay someone else from York! Welcome to the forum!

 

[Harbey]

Hi all, as you can probably tell I'm an Archaeologist who likes to get drunk, luckily not at the same time as digging. Live in the beautiful city of York, so plenty of good places to get a pint, like pretty much everything from Hazy IPA's, Flemish Red Ales, Stouts etc everything apart from the mass produced lager.

Been wanting to try home brewing for a while now, so I thought I'd join the forums for advice and help. Thought I'd start out very easy with the basic brewing with those tins etc and eventually try and build my way up to more advance stuff in the future.

As a question, where should I post about buying equipment? My partner wants to buy me the stuff as a Christmas present, so I said I'd find out here for her to get some links etc....

Cheers
Drunkarchaeologist

Yay someone else from York! Welcome to the forum!

It's not quite York but I'm in Scarborough so only an hour away.

Personally, I'd skip past the kit beers and go for a Brew in a Bag (BIAB) set up. There are plenty of places providing a decent beginners kit and they give you far more flexibility for brewing what you're really wanting. I imagine you'll soon want to go all grain anyway so it just jumps you ahead a little. Not that there's anything wrong with kits of course. You just seem like you're eager to move forward.

 

[Tess Tickle's Brewery]

Hi Harbey!

 

[Harbey]

Hi Lisa