Helping A Newbie

[jamie0691]

Hey, newbie here and looking to get a home brew kit started for my birthday.

I have been looking at the Coopers Austrilian Lager kit, read on here that this produces a good lager, unless someone can recommend something else?

From what I have read on here, will need the following

Fermentation Bin
Additional Keg
Bottles
Brewing Sugar
Hydrometer
Sphyon
CO2 Pelets?

Correct me if I am wrong but you put the sugar (can normal sugar be used or is brewing sugar best?) and yeast etc into the fermentation bin, let that ferment for a few days until the hydrometer reading is 1.080? Then you transfer this to a keg to rack (for a couple days at 18c and then a few weeks at a lower temperature?) then bottle by putting a couple of CO2 pelets into the bottle then sphyon from the keg into the bottles, then rack for a few more weeks and then refrigerate. I understand the whole process takes about 6 weeks?

Sorry for the newbie question but want to make sure I have everything before starting out on this adventure!

 

[Vossy1]

Welcome to the forum Jamie :thumb:

 

[joe1002]

Welcome to the forum :

Have a read of <<<this>>>. It should answer all your questions :thumb:

 

[chojo]

Hi and welcome to the forum, I would second joes suggestion to read that post it really helped me I've just started my first brew as well.

 

[rpt]

Welcome to the forum. Once you've read the howto come back here with any questions.

 

[happyhoppytaff]

its a bit dunting starting out. you will wonder if you are doing things right. your first brew will be a leap of faith but if you follow the 'how to' on here it will be less of a gamble.

it wont be long before you will be doing it with your eyes closed.

good luck and happy brewing

 

[jamie0691]

Hi all thanks for the replies, really helped. This is my shopping list, everything from Wilko as my wife gets discount.

2 x 25lt Fermenting Bins
1 x Hydrometer
1 x Trial Plastic Jar
1 x Long Plastic Spoon
1 x Siphon Pack
1 x Muntons Spay Malt Light or 1Kg Brewing Sugar
2 x Air lock with Bung
1 x Sterilizer

Now the plan was to get 2 taps and fit them to the fermenting bins, should that be ok? Can anyone advise if I have missed anything off the above, apart from bottles and a bottler, going to get these in a few weeks.

The guide is really useful, one question, when moving from one fermenting bin to another, should there be sediment? The siphon pack says it has a filter for this, but just a noob question :)

 

[marksa222]

I tried to keep it straight forward on my first one. I got the coopers kit which came with everything you need and countless tutorials on youtube. It's £70 from tesco direct but comes with everything you need including the beer and brew enhancer. Also quite a few people experienced brewers have said it's a very good kit. You might end up spending near that to get it all from wilkos if you have to get bottles or a keg. That is unless you get a really good discount ofcourse.

Good luck by the way

 

[joe1002]

Hi all thanks for the replies, really helped. This is my shopping list, everything from Wilko as my wife gets discount.

2 x 25lt Fermenting Bins
1 x Hydrometer
1 x Trial Plastic Jar
1 x Long Plastic Spoon
1 x Siphon Pack
1 x Muntons Spay Malt Light or 1Kg Brewing Sugar
2 x Air lock with Bung
1 x Sterilizer

Now the plan was to get 2 taps and fit them to the fermenting bins, should that be ok? Can anyone advise if I have missed anything off the above, apart from bottles and a bottler, going to get these in a few weeks.

The guide is really useful, one question, when moving from one fermenting bin to another, should there be sediment? The siphon pack says it has a filter for this, but just a noob question :)

If you use glass bottles you will need crown caps and a capper. If you are using PET bottles ignore that.

If you are going to syphon then you won't need taps on the fv, although they do make taking a sample very easy. I would suggest a little bottler on one but its not essential.

Re sediment, there will be a little but not a great deal. You will need to leave most of the sediment behind, at the bottom of the fv :thumb:

 

[jamie0691]

If you use glass bottles you will need crown caps and a capper. If you are using PET bottles ignore that.

If you are going to syphon then you won't need taps on the fv, although they do make taking a sample very easy. I would suggest a little bottler on one but its not essential.

Re sediment, there will be a little but not a great deal. You will need to leave most of the sediment behind, at the bottom of the fv :thumb:

Joe, not sure on the bottling yet, may see if my dad can acquire some glass bottles from the pub as he knows the owner. If not will get PET for now. I thought fitting a tap would make it easier to transfer between FV's and then bottle. I seen the little bottler, which was in the pack I looked at on eBay (but was mega expensive) so may get this later on, or just use the siphon.

I tried to keep it straight forward on my first one. I got the coopers kit which came with everything you need and countless tutorials on youtube. It's £70 from tesco direct but comes with everything you need including the beer and brew enhancer. Also quite a few people experienced brewers have said it's a very good kit. You might end up spending near that to get it all from wilkos if you have to get bottles or a keg. That is unless you get a really good discount ofcourse.

Good luck by the way

I have got the coopers lager kit and throught would get the spay malt after reading on here regarding sugar etc, will still use sugar for priming however. Comparing the prices Wilko seems cheaper with the discount that most places, and like I said above, not sure what I will be doing with the bottles yet. Thanks for the input though :)

 

[rpt]

Fit a little bottler to one FV (comes with a tap) and just a tap to the other one. The latter will make it much easier to take samples during fermentation - this is the only way to be sure it is ready to bottle. I've actually fitted little bottler taps to both my FVs as it means they are interchangeable (e.g. if I decide to do a secondary fermentation) but that is a little more expensive.

I wouldn't bother with airlocks. The FV lids probably won't fully seal anyway.