Hey, Ben from Leeds

[Ben Parker]

Brand new to home brewing, attempting my first lager kit this weekend, gone for youngs pilsner purely because its cheap and my first attempt I don't want to mess up a more expensive kit, any info on getting best possible results would be greatly appreciated

 

[Ghillie]

One of the most important things in brewing is cleaning and sanitising. It's also the most overlooked IMO.

Elbow grease for cleaning will suffice, but in terms of sanitiser - starsan is one of the best. It might seem expensive initially, but the bottle will last for years and years.

Enjoy it and try not to be too hasty at the start: continuously opening the fermenter to see how it's getting on, etc. Just sit on your hands

Temperature control is another one which is very important. Heating and cooling systems can be very complicated and expensive, or pretty cheap. A cupboard under the stairs and a sleeping bag might work just fine providing ambient temps are perfect and consistent. Something which would be worth looking into would be some sort of plug and play temp controller and a heat belt, certainly for starters. But just now as your doing a lager, the coldest room inside your house is likely perfect at this time of year ~12-15C or so.

 

[Bigcol49]

Hi!
Welcome to the forum.

 

[terrym]

Welcome to the Forum.
As you are starting with kits you may find this helpful.
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/...de-to-brewing-your-own-beer-from-a-kit.57526/
Since your kit is a Youngs Pilsner kit which comes in at only 1.5kg of liquid malt my advice, unless you have bought the ingredients already, is to substitute 500g of the brewing sugar which the kit recommends with 500g of light or extra light spray malt (alias DME). Brewing short i.e to less volume say 20 litres will also help to improve the flavours but if you do that reduce the sugar slightly, say 200g, to allow for this, but do not reduce any malt. And unless the kit instructons tell you to ferment at low temperatures, ferment at room temperature i.e around 18-21*c. This is because the kit is likely to be supplied with an ale yeast which needs a higher temperature to function rather than a lager yeast which works at lower temperatures. Either way follow the kit instructions.
Finally don't try to rush it. You should aim initially at 2 weeks in the fermenter, 2 weeks to carbonate the beer in a warm place, and then 2 weeks to condition and mature in a cold place before you try your first one. When your technique improves you will be able to adjust these timings to suit.
Best of luck with it.

 

[Ben Parker]

Welcome to the Forum.
As you are starting with kits you may find this helpful.
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/...de-to-brewing-your-own-beer-from-a-kit.57526/
Since your kit is a Youngs Pilsner kit which comes in at only 1.5kg of liquid malt my advice, unless you have bought the ingredients already, is to substitute 500g of the brewing sugar which the kit recommends with 500g of light or extra light spray malt (alias DME). Brewing short i.e to less volume say 20 litres will also help to improve the flavours but if you do that reduce the sugar slightly, say 200g, to allow for this, but do not reduce any malt. And unless the kit instructons tell you to ferment at low temperatures, ferment at room temperature i.e around 18-21*c. This is because the kit is likely to be supplied with an ale yeast which needs a higher temperature to function rather than a lager yeast which works at lower temperatures. Either way follow the kit instructions.
Finally don't try to rush it. You should aim initially at 2 weeks in the fermenter, 2 weeks to carbonate the beer in a warm place, and then 2 weeks to condition and mature in a cold place before you try your first one. When your technique improves you will be able to adjust these timings to suit.
Best of luck with it.

Cheers, what's the difference between bottling and kegging are there any significant gains from one over the other?

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Welcome to the forum.

 

[Bigcol49]

Cheers, what's the difference between bottling and kegging are there any significant gains from one over the other?

Hi!
Kegging = much more expensive, takes a lot of space, but you can force carbonate a keg and get your beer ready to drink more quickly.

 

[Eliot Bee]

Brand new to home brewing, attempting my first lager kit this weekend, gone for youngs pilsner purely because its cheap and my first attempt I don't want to mess up a more expensive kit, any info on getting best possible results would be greatly appreciated

Hey Ben, where in Leeds are you from? I'm a loiner myself, from Bramley originally but currently living the Burley Road/Park Lane area. Also new to home brewing, in fact I haven't taken the plunge yet, im still in research mode.

Eliot.

 

[terrym]

Cheers, what's the difference between bottling and kegging are there any significant gains from one over the other?

Bottles are used by many on here. Provided they have held a fizzy drink second hand bottles in good condition can be used. Glass seems to be used by most as far as I can tell but PET is still OK in my view but the purists will perhaps disagree. Bottles are better than plastic PBs since they will accept a higher pressure sometimes needed for highly carbed beers e.g a wheat beer. This may not apply to more expensive 'kegging' options. However bottles take a lot of time to prepare, and can take up a lot of space if you have several brews on the go.
'Kegging' usually covers plastic pressure barrels (PBs), Corny kegs or 5l minikegs. Some homebrewers have more sophisticated systems. The advantage of bulk storage is it can take up less space and less preparation. But given a budget 25 litre PB can cost upwards of £25 even without CO2 addition, and they don't have a particularly reliable track record, and other systems can cost more, its something people have to weigh up when they choose how to store and dispense their beer.
So in the end its down to personal choice principally governed by time, budget, space, presentation and the type of beer you are likely to want to drink.
My advice to anyone starting is to keep it simple at the beginning, then when you have decided you intend to stay with the hobby, spend some money as applicable. So in this case second hand bottles are probably all thats required to start with.

 

[Ben Parker]

Bottles are used by many on here. Provided they have held a fizzy drink second hand bottles in good condition can be used. Glass seems to be used by most as far as I can tell but PET is still OK in my view but the purists will perhaps disagree. Bottles are better than plastic PBs since they will accept a higher pressure sometimes needed for highly carbed beers e.g a wheat beer. This may not apply to more expensive 'kegging' options. However bottles take a lot of time to prepare, and can take up a lot of space if you have several brews on the go.
'Kegging' usually covers plastic pressure barrels (PBs), Corny kegs or 5l minikegs. Some homebrewers have more sophisticated systems. The advantage of bulk storage is it can take up less space and less preparation. But given a budget 25 litre PB can cost upwards of £25 even without CO2 addition, and they don't have a particularly reliable track record, and other systems can cost more, its something people have to weigh up when they choose how to store and dispense their beer.
So in the end its down to personal choice principally governed by time, budget, space, presentation and the type of beer you are likely to want to drink.
My advice to anyone starting is to keep it simple at the beginning, then when you have decided you intend to stay with the hobby, spend some money as applicable. So in this case second hand bottles are probably all thats required to start with.

Got this

 

[terrym]

Got this

You have a budget PB on the RHS it seems. Which is fine I run two (sadly the 3rd developed a pinhole leak on th seam )
Read this before you get started and hopefully it will avoid you coming back to us and saying the beer in your PB is flat!
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/guide-to-a-standard-home-brew-pressure-barrel.67042/

 

[Ben Parker]

Hey Ben, where in Leeds are you from? I'm a loiner myself, from Bramley originally but currently living the Burley Road/Park Lane area. Also new to home brewing, in fact I haven't taken the plunge yet, im still in research mode.

Eliot.

Ey up mate, lived seacroft all my life on eastdeans, just moved over to farnley, literally had my kit delivered yesterday, going to start it at the weekend I think and hopefully all goes well

 

[bikesandbeer]

From one Yorkshireman to another; "aye up, ah tha doin?"

 

[Ben Parker]

From one Yorkshireman to another; "aye up, ah tha doin?"

Not t bad old ****

 

[bikesandbeer]

Not t bad old ****

Champion