Hi i'm new here

[Julia]

Hi I am new here to. I used to brew beer in England in a micro brewery for my own pub. I now live in the south west of France. I have a small bed and breakfast, I have just recieved my restaurant licence to serve achohol. I now want to open a micro brewery here. All my English friends here think it is a good idea. A lot of the french do to. Does any of you know of some one who has done it before. I just worry that the cost of importing decent malts and hops let alone firkins may be to high. Do the french grow good stuff. my french is not good enough to search the french internet. Thanks for any thoughts. :

 

[A T]

Welcome to the forum Julia, i'm afraid i'm no help to you but i wish you all the best and hope it works out for you :thumb:

 

[gerrytds]

This is strange My wort has just gone very very quiet, No bubbles at all since i got in an hour ago. I can even see little bubbles building up in the air lock. its as if its just died or has finished. i only stuck this in the fermenter Tuesday evening. Surely it can be finished is this normal guys, I mean last night it was going nuts and pushing all the water out now it seems like the water i put in the airlock hasnt even moved and ideas guy....

Gerry

 

[Aleman]

Do the french grow good stuff. my french is not good enough to search the french internet. Thanks for any thoughts. :

There is good French Beer about, Jenlains Bierre de garde comes to mind . . . but these tend to be brewed in the North East near Belgium. The weather up there is also good for growing wheat and barley, so there might be French malts available. . . Of course Malt is available from Belgium and Germany . .www.candirect.de is a good place to start as is www.brouwland.com . . . we use them on occasion but the exchange rate is now not in our favour. . . . depending on the quantities you are thinking of brewing you might find that you can deal direct with www.weyermann.de who supply truly excellent malts.

Firkins - Try maisonneuve, or Cypherco who do plastic ones

 

[gerrytds]

Ok new brew on Youngs Harvest Pilstner kit Reading at 1020 and has started bubbling after 2 hours already, mmmm very nice

Have cheated at bit here after thinking on something wez said about the yeast cake, My muntons had not moved again so i have sugared and kegged it, I then made up the youngs in a fresh FV but moved it into the muntons FV with the yeast cake on the bottom.

Now i thought about this for a bit but as the yeast was with the kit and the same size as the one i added with the muntons kit i thought hell with it and added it to the wort.

Now i dont know if i was being naughty but ive now seen the diffrence, 2 kits ive brewed did not bubble until the 2nd day, then they would die off and nothing. So now that ive used the yeast cake from the first brew and added the yeast that came with the third kit.(Harverst Pilstner) I am now seeing bubbles on the 2nd hour.

So we will wait and see if this acheves something, I took a reading without adding the yeast or sugar is this right or should i take one now that the yeast is in i dont know it seems diffrent as its 1020 i wait till i get some feed back but at moment FV is cooking away......Smile.....G

 

[gerrytds]

Since you guys like pics, Here is the latest going on with my brew.....

http://i586.photobucket.com/albums/ss30 ... /beer8.jpg
http://i586.photobucket.com/albums/ss30 ... /beer7.jpg

Waiting on a stout arrive will brew that later in the week, just got to get my stock up so that i can relax and Drink.......G

 

[damfoose]

Quick rule of thumb for kits ( Yep I started on kits last year now all grain )
If the kit is in 2 large tins it wont need sugger
If the kit is a single large tin to make 23 litres it will need sugger or better still DME ( dried malt extract )
If the kit is a single large tin to make 9 - 11 litres it wont need sugger or DME