Hello from south east London

[emetres]

Hi all,

I'm a beer lover living in London. I have attended a couple gift sessions to make my own beer using a Braumeister and I loved the end product (thanks to Brew Club in Clapton) .

Considering to start homebrewing as I'm spending much more time at home and brewing is something I've always been curious about. After reading a lot of starter threads I think I would start with a home kit similar to one of these:

https://www.home-brew-online.com/starter-kits-c47/beer-lager-c50/complete-starter-t218#sort9
I have one (silly) question though, what do you guys do with all the beer from this starter kits? One person can take a while to drink the 20L in one batch, leaving less time to brew Any tips on how to speed up the number of brews needed to get more and more familiar with homebrewing?

Looking to spend a good few hours a day reading this fantastic forum.

Alex,

 

[colm89]

Welcome to the club, I started with 5 litre batches using this kit: Equipment :: Complete Brewing Kits :: Stovetop Starter Kit :: Stove Top Brewing Starter Kit - Homebrew Ireland | All Grain Home Brewing | Buy homebrew kits

it came with a free German blonde ale ingredients kit too

 

[Horners]

Hi all,

I'm a beer lover living in London. I have attended a couple gift sessions to make my own beer using a Braumeister and I loved the end product (thanks to Brew Club in Clapton) .

Considering to start homebrewing as I'm spending much more time at home and brewing is something I've always been curious about. After reading a lot of starter threads I think I would start with a home kit similar to one of these:

https://www.home-brew-online.com/starter-kits-c47/beer-lager-c50/complete-starter-t218#sort9
I have one (silly) question though, what do you guys do with all the beer from this starter kits? One person can take a while to drink the 20L in one batch, leaving less time to brew Any tips on how to speed up the number of brews needed to get more and more familiar with homebrewing?

Looking to spend a good few hours a day reading this fantastic forum.

Alex,

I started about 3 years ago with a Youngs starter kit which included a Woodfordes Wherry kit in there. It came with a pressure barrel (although not necessarily advocating those - plenty of threads discussing their flaws). I very quickly bought a second PB and started saving shop bought bottles. The beer lasts for ages whether in PB or bottles so the real challenge is building up storage capacity so that you can build up a critical mass of brews that are ready to drink. At first it is difficult to be patient so top tip is as soon as your first brew is packaged get the next one on.

Its a slippery slope though, I now have 7 full size cornelius kegs, one half size one and a couple of dark farm 5L mini kegs to store it all as my production outstrips consumption particularly when not having folk round to help get through it.

Where are you in se London- I have a couple of pressure barrels going free to a good home?

 

[emetres]

Where are you in se London- I have a couple of pressure barrels going free to a good home?

Thanks for that but I am trying to find the space first and I think bottles will work better in my case as the PB look too big to store in my limited space...

 

[NormanHurst]

Hi all,

I'm a beer lover living in London. I have attended a couple gift sessions to make my own beer using a Braumeister and I loved the end product (thanks to Brew Club in Clapton) .

Considering to start homebrewing as I'm spending much more time at home and brewing is something I've always been curious about. After reading a lot of starter threads I think I would start with a home kit similar to one of these:

https://www.home-brew-online.com/starter-kits-c47/beer-lager-c50/complete-starter-t218#sort9
I have one (silly) question though, what do you guys do with all the beer from this starter kits? One person can take a while to drink the 20L in one batch, leaving less time to brew Any tips on how to speed up the number of brews needed to get more and more familiar with homebrewing?

Looking to spend a good few hours a day reading this fantastic forum.

Alex,

Quite a few of us on here do smaller batches of all grain. I usually do half batches of 23L recipes. I usually get 18-20 x 500ml bottles after the usual losses.

That suits me as it means I brew every 3 weeks and keep up a good variety of styles whilst learning more as I go.

I also use really basic kit: a couple of large stockpots, some water tank insulation for the mash tun, some modified FM buckets and an old fridge. It's super low tech but it does the job.

I've considered upping to an all in one system and brewing bigger batches but at the moment, I don't want that much beer and enjoy the regularity of the smaller brews. It is horses for courses.

 

[Dulwich North]

In SE London consider Waterintobeer in Brockley, a friendly shop with car parking nearby (I don't know if there are any other brewing shops left in London). For me the best thing is when you're missing one ingredient and can just nip round, but they can offer good advice, and they do have a starter kit.

I'd never done any brewing before I started in late June with a basic starter kit from London Brew Lab in Brixton (they normally run classes) and two 5L ingredient kits, and their great instructions were the key for me. I already had a couple of 11L pans, and various thermometers.

The above advice about "the real challenge is building up storage capacity so that you can build up a critical mass of brews that are ready to drink" rings true. After 3-4 brews I scaled up to 10L batches, bought another fermenting bucket, and more PET and swingtop bottles, while adding extra shelves in a cupboard. At that point, I felt confident enough with basic techniques and in normal years I might have just chugged on like that. So a starter kit is the way I successfully got started, and maybe it'll work for you too.

 

[emetres]

Quite a few of us on here do smaller batches of all grain. I usually do half batches of 23L recipes. I usually get 18-20 x 500ml bottles after the usual losses.

That suits me as it means I brew every 3 weeks and keep up a good variety of styles whilst learning more as I go.

I also use really basic kit: a couple of large stockpots, some water tank insulation for the mash tun, some modified FM buckets and an old fridge. It's super low tech but it does the job.

I've considered upping to an all in one system and brewing bigger batches but at the moment, I don't want that much beer and enjoy the regularity of the smaller brews. It is horses for courses.

Thanks for your input. I understand all grain is more advanced way of brewing and I read that starting with a kit is recommended.

By halving the batch do you mean use half the ingredients

 

[NormanHurst]

Yes - basically halve all the recipe ingredients and brew half the amount of beer

 

[terrym]

Thanks for your input. I understand all grain is more advanced way of brewing and I read that starting with a kit is recommended.

By halving the batch do you mean use half the ingredients

Try this for starters. In it there is a shopping list.
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/...de-to-brewing-your-own-beer-from-a-kit.57526/My suggestion to anyone starting brewing is to get a few kits under your belt, then when you have gained a little experience and understanding of how it works, decide whether if and how you want to progress. All Grain (AG) brewing is fine for some but can take up several hours on brew day, and whether its stove top small volume or an expensive all-in-one the time rqeuirement is similar. However you can make perfectly good beer with most kits that are available, although AG beer gives you much more flexibility to brew what you want, and the outcome is more likely to be better, but not guaranteed
But be aware that advice given to new brewers is that steady temperature control of the primary fermentation goes a long way to producing good beer, that you can't rush beer, advice to newbies is to follow the 2+2+2 'rule' at least initially, i.e. weeks in primary fermentation, weeks to carb in the warm, and weeks in conditioing in a cool place before you sample to see if its ready.
And finally if you do buy a kit I suggest you avoid lager kits, and 1.5kg kits.