Hello from Trysull

[James Jennett-Wheeler]

Hi,

I’ve just started my first batch of beer (stout).

Looking forward to the results.

Looks like a great forum for tips and tricks!

James

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Welcome to the forum James.

Can you check your messages.

 

[James Jennett-Wheeler]

Thanks Chippy!

 

[Gerryjo]

Hi and welcome to the forum....

 

[cerbera84]

Hi James, welcome - I cycle down to The Bell a few times over summer - great pub you have there!

 

[James Jennett-Wheeler]

Ha. Such a great pub indeed. Well priced and well cooked pub meals too!

I’m starting to feel a tad overwhelmed by all the information.

I naively bought a stout kit from wilkos, but didn’t realise it was a ready to ferment extract in a tin. Despite my disappointment (as I wanted to do it “properly”), it was probably a good starting point and a blessing in disguise.

Now that I’m looking up All grain and BIAB, I’m struggling to work out which would be best for me when I branch out.

I want to brew 10l batches (2 mini kegs)

Is BIAB the way to go to keep things simpler?

 

[Cwrw666]

I'd recommend BIAB. It is just all-grain anyway but with simpler equipment requirements.

 

[James Jennett-Wheeler]

Thanks, I did a bit more research and watched a couple of videos and it's started to click in to place.

From what I've read, its not worth the brew day effort to brew less than 5 Gallons (or 5 mini kegs (25L) in my case).

But as that means I'd need 2x sized kettle which is expensive, I'm thinking I'll hang on before starting All Grain.

I've very practical, and have some background in electronics (and I'm a software engineer), so I'm thinking I'll buy a plain 50L+ SS kettle (it looks like 56L is the magic number???) and a bag, and start brewing manually on my cooker, cooling overnight (until I decide to build a coil)

Then, when I've got a bit of experience, I'll consider investing in a SS tap, thermometer probe that can be hooked up to a raspberry pi / arduino and a relay that controls a kettle element. But I don't think it's purchase expensive equipment immediately ha.

 

[LarryF]

A bit late James but welcome to the forum, what stout are you brewing?

 

[James Jennett-Wheeler]

Hi Larry

It’s the Velvet Stout from Wilko. Just finished primary so will be transferring to mini kegs tonight. I tasted the final sample I took, and I’m not 100% sure about it yet. We’ll see.

There is a stout brewed locally that I like called Mud City which at some point I’d like to recreate and tweak to my tastes, but as an absolute beginner, I’ll probably try a dark ale like a hobgoblin clone next if I can find one.

I might still really like the velvet...