Hello from the Arctic Circle!

[montyrm]

Hello!

I'm a complete newbie to home brewing, and after moving to Tromsø in Norway was keen to get around the astronomical beer prices. Was lucky enough to get a kit from the Mrs for Xmas so currently have my first lot fermenting, with a few days left to go.

The first batch is from a Mangrove Jack's bag. Made a mistake from the first step as I filled an additional 23 l of cold water after the initial 3 l of boiling water, instead of topping up to 23 l. Does anyone know what difference this will make?

Currently toying with the idea of buying a keg instead of bottling as it looks much less hastle!

:thumb:

 

[BarnBrian]

Should still work, it'll be weaker both in strength and flavour probably.
I'm guessing by your name you're ex Royal?

 

[HoppyTommy]

Welcome

I reckon the brew will be fine. Will make it a bit weaker obviously but by only about 0.5-0.7% at a guess.

Take your time choosing the right kegs. Cheap ones are a faff to seal in my experience. King kegs are better as long you can get the co2 easily in Norway. I've just swapped to corny kegs which are great but they are a big outlay. However, with the cost of booze in Norway you are probably in the best place to help to justify home brew spending!!!!!

Happy brewing!!

 

[montyrm]

Should still work, it'll be weaker both in strength and flavour probably.
I'm guessing by your name you're ex Royal?

I'm impressed you spotted that Brian! Left in 2010 and moved here :mrgreen:

 

[BarnBrian]

I'm impressed you spotted that Brian! Left in 2010 and moved here :mrgreen:

****, I left in 72!!!! Worked offshore ever since, still offshore now.

 

[terrym]

First, welcome to the Forum.
Next, without doubt, for me, PBs are much more convenient than bottles. But for everyone else plastic PBs seem to be like Marmite, you either like them or you don't. I run three cheap standard PBs without injection and they are fine, although I recognise they can cause problems, but even leaks can usually be avoided by taking a few basic precautions.
So in the end you will hear good arguments from all sides for using plastic PBs, or metal kegs, or minikegs or bottles, but in the end you have to sort through it all and decide what suits you best.

 

[montyrm]

From what I can find out, the most common kegs available here are either Cornelius kegs or G system kegs, the latter seem very simple to use but cost more than the Cornelius kegs. I'm sure there are pros and cons with both types though?

 

[Braufather]

Pressure barrels aren’t very good if you like your beer carbonated to a decent level. I used mine once before plumbing for bottles. After a year I upgraded to corny kegs and haven’t looked back, but as a newbie that’s probaly a step to far at this stage.

You could well try a pb, if you don’t like the results you can always use it as a bottling bucket going foward. I’d also put some in bottles to compare, the carbonation will be far better.