Herne Hill hello

[tonight_we_fly]

Hello, and happy new year. I'm Mark, from London (Herne Hill), and I have both a story and a question.

I'm about to have a go at home brewing as a result of our new Dyson vacuum cleaner. Or to be more specific, since buying my wife a Dyson last month I've now finally been given permission to ditch the other three old vacuum cleaners which we previously had taking up room in the cupboard under the stairs, and will be allowed to make homebrew in the space instead.

I'm right at square one with my brewing, and my question is about buying a starter kit. I've had a rummage around the information which is already available on the forum, but I fear that my question may actually be even too elementary to have been covered. Well, here goes...

I hope to start brewing at the end of this month, and intend to bottle the beer at the end of the process; I've been collecting glass beer bottles for a few weeks (Christmas/new year was a very handy time for this!), and of course when I reach the appropriate stage will sterilise them before use.

Some of the kits which I've been looking at include a plastic barrel for use when the beer is finished in the fermentation container (“to complete the fermenting process”), whilst other kits to produce bottled beer apparently do not. My question at this stage is simply whether I should be looking to purchase a kit which includes a barrel, or whether for bottle conditioned beers I would not actually be using one?

Some friends I know have hops growing in their garden which I hope to end up trying out one day, but for now I'll start off with one of the basic beer ingredients kits for my first couple of goes. I'm also planning to get a step-by-step book as well, but haven't ordered one yet as I've noticed that some of the starter kits come with a free book so I'll wait until I've selected a kit before ordering a book.

Anyway, thanks in anticipation for any advice which can be offered.

 

[Moley]

Welcome to the forum :

The basic equipment you need is a 25-30 litre fermenting bucket with lid, a hydrometer and trial jar, a length of syphon tube, and as you have been collecting glass bottles, a crown capping tool and a bag of caps.

Most people start into this hobby with one of the budget kits which required the addition of a bag of sugar. Look out for the Cooper's kits, for the lower end of the market they really can be pretty good.

After you've done one or two of those, you may want to consider tweaking or improving those kits by replacing the sugar with ‘brew enhancer’ or additional malt extracts.

The next step up are the two can Premium kits, and there's a useful guide here.

Many people use the plastic pressure barrels because they find cleaning, sterilising, filling and capping 40+ bottles to be a pain in the backside. Personally, I quite enjoy bottling. The choice is yours, but plastic kegs should only be regarded as an optional extra. In my opinion, not a particularly desirable option. Most people (if they are honest) will agree that bottle is best.

 

[RobWalker]

When you want it in a barrel, basically. If you don't want it in a barrel, then don't buy one! Main difference;

Barrells

Can take force carb through gas, beer ready quicker because of this.
Handy pouring, easy to clean. Bulky, can only achieve low level of carb (the level lager/wheat carb isn't possible) and expensive to first buy.

Bottles

Almost free, high level of carbonation possible, easier to store due to size.
Have to collect loads, need to avoid the sediment at the bottom on every brew, small risk of exploding beers.

You can bottle directly from the Fermentation Vessel, but it's a little fiddly at the end because you need to avoid the trub. You might lose a pint or two to it that way, but no real issues. The "completion" of the fermentation process just means carbonating, and you do this in bottles or the keg, it's up to you. It's handy to have a secondary vessel for bottling - you rack off the trub, then bottle from the next one, which also allows you to stir in the priming sugar to the entire batch - but it's not essential.

apologies if moley already answered this, i see now that he has just posted before me :p

 

[RobWalker]

Oh and, in response to moley - a small bottling attachment for your syphon tube is cheap, and i'd almost say essential - it makes it soooo much easier!

 

[Runwell-Steve]

Hi, Welcome to the forum :drink:

Looks like your questions have been answered. I know the area well, my Nan lived in Pynnersmead for many years and my Grandad was greenkeeper on Brockwell Park, and alternated his time between the park and the Half Moon.

 

[sugar567]

Hi Welcome to the forum.

 

[shocker]

Welcome ! I have happy memories of schlepping down your way from finsbury park to see my girlfriend

 

[dennisking]

Hi mark, welcome to the forum, seems a few of us know your area. Both my kids lived around that way while at university in London so I did a lot of picking up and droping off around that way.

 

[tonight_we_fly]

Wow, I wasn't expecting such a prompt and enthusiastic range of responses. Many thanks for your helpful and welcoming comments!

My question's been answered and much more above, so I'm now going to get on with ordering my initial basic equipment this week. I'll report back at a later date on how it's going!

Thanks again, seems like a great bunch on this forum.

 

[Runwell-Steve]

I hope you will find we are a friendly bunch, and we try to be helpful as well.