Hiya From Scotland

[GilBrew]

Evening everyone..

I'm sneaking in nervously. I am a newbie pretty much, I have made fruit wines and liquers in the past (sloe gin etc) but I have gave in to requests from my dad and husband to turn my hand to ales and/or beers. quite difficult as I do not like the taste of them but i will give it a go.

Today I have been trying to get a kit together as I would rather use seperate equiptment from my wine making, I fancy making a nice cider or 3 for myself if possible.

I have 1001 questions, firstly am I best strating with a kit? if so who do you recommend? Bottles? can i reuse commercial beer bottles assuming de labelled and run through dishwasher/steriliser or should I buy new? Do you have any reccomendations for books? How much space do i need to brew?

sorry I am a total novice really

 

[howyoubrewin]

Welcome to the forum.

Starting with a kit will probably be the best way to wet your feet in brewing beer. Coopers kits are great to start out with. Easy to throw together and once you get more experience you can start playing around with the kits by adding some hops or specialty grains to alter the flavour to hubby and Dads taste. I'm not an advocate of coopers and hasten to add that there are a wide variety of fantastic beer kits out there as many of our fellow brewers on the forum will tell you. I just remember how I got started brewing beer and it was a coopers kit i started with.
How much space do you need to brew beer? I use a corner of my worktop and a small cupboard for bottle/equipment storage. You really don't need that much room. Brewing kit beers means you'll really only need a fermenting bucket, plastic spoon, syphon tube and maybe a bottle capper depending on how you plan to store beer so small cupboard somewhere in the house should do.
As for the bottles. Yes you can re use glass beer bottles over and over again as long as you sterilise well. Glass doesn't absorb the flavour of the beer where as i find plastic bottles after a time will hold onto the smell and taste of previous beers.
Books. I am not an expert on what brewing books to look for so hopefully someone will chip in with some advice. Everything i needed to know when starting out i learned from craigtube. Check his channel out on youtube. He does a series called easy homebrewing where he brews a simple kit beer and you will be able to watch as you brew. I also learned a lot from just asking questions on this forum. Everyone on here will jump in with advice,tips and opinion if you need it and theres no such thing as a stupid question.
Good luck with your brewing.

 

[wheazy_joe]

welcome on board Gilbrew.

I echo pretty much exactly what howyoubrewin says. Kits are great to start off with and coopers are as good a place to start as any. They generally come with an ale yeast meaning brewing at ambients house temperatures (20degrees) is perfect.

I have a mix of bought glass and plastic bottles as well as commercial beer bottles I re-use. I even have my family and friends putting their empty beer bottles aside for me now!

Good luck with the beer brewing, lots of really experienced (not me!) and helpful folk on here so shout out if you need help.

 

[TitanicStruggle]

Welcome to the forum

 

[joe 90]

welcome to the forum:drink:

what part of Scotland are you from?

 

[eezybrewer]

Welcome. :)

 

[Sonnal]

Hi GilBrew. I too am relatively new to brewing.
Like howyoubrewin said you don't need a lot of space. I've moved things around a bit in my utility room and have my fermentation bucket on the surface above the washing machine. ( I can just fit 2 on there). I started with 2 can type kits ( see my signature) as I thought that it would be easier as all the ingredients are in the pack.

If you don't have any particular preferences in beer styles I'd ask your other half what he likes and then get recommendations from the forum for kits that will produce something similar. Ask lots of questions and as above watch some YouTube tutorials-craigtube is really good for beginners.

Read the forum for equipment recommendations but basically you need a 25ish litre fermentation bucket with a lid and and airlock ( although the airlock is optional for some), a long spoon or paddle, a large plastic or glass measuring jug, a Syphon, a hydrometer for measuring the amount of sugar in your brew and a tall sample jar to do the measuring and of course somewhere to put your beer when it's ready, so bottles or a pressure barrel. If you're using glass bottles a bottle capper is needed along with the crown caps. You'll also need some cleaning fluid and sanitiser.

As you make wine you probably already have some of the above so a kit may not be necessary but there are plenty of kit options. There's lots of other equipment that you can buy like a bottling wand later but they're not strictly necessary to start. Have fun with it, I am enjoying it immensely as is my husband, well he's enjoying the results anyway. :-D

 

[clibit]

Books wise, I suggest Brew Your Own British Real Ales by Graham Wheeler and How to Brew by John Palmer. Coopers kits are a reasonsble starting place. If you like stout, try that. Very popular kit.

 

[GilBrew]

Thanks for the welcome.. Joe 90 I'm just outside Dundee, its quite nice here today.

I'm now scouting Amazon as i have prime so it means i can get going tomorrow and it be ready for fathers day ;-)

 

[Twostage]

Thanks for the welcome.. Joe 90 I'm just outside Dundee, its quite nice here today.

I'm now scouting Amazon as i have prime so it means i can get going tomorrow and it be ready for fathers day ;-)

Don't tempt me with Prime, I'm still resisting the temptation. Mind you I've bought quite a bit of stuff recently so maybe I should go for it.

Welcome aboard.

 

[GilBrew]

Don't tempt me with Prime, I'm still resisting the temptation. Mind you I've bought quite a bit of stuff recently so maybe I should go for it.

Welcome aboard.

you should its awesome. i have 2 things come damaged under normal amazon then one of their reps was rude on phone i complained they gave me a year of prime for nowt so i use it lots ;-)

 

[GHW]

You spoke to Amazon on the phone?! Didn't realise that was actually possible. Must be for prime only?

Anyway, yes re-use glass beer bottles, you'll need a crown capper and crown caps though. Get yourself a bottling wand too, indispensable imho. Don't dishwasher the bottles, just give a good rinse with hot water once emptied of beer then sanitise with star San or something else. I don't even bother taking the labels off half of mine.

 

[Twostage]

you should its awesome. i have 2 things come damaged under normal amazon then one of their reps was rude on phone i complained they gave me a year of prime for nowt so i use it lots ;-)

I'm now primed. Tested out the beginning of a film on our Samsung tv. Quality was excellent.

 

[GilBrew]

I love prime.

I have decided first brew will me a Mexican cerveza, something refreshing for summer. After that then who knows, I am resisting the urge to have multiple brews going at once as I need to walk first. I want to try a cider or 2 using my own flavours then maybe a ginger beer with a chili kick or similar.
I love messing with flavours. I can see this being moved from home to work at some point in future.

 

[Ally_sives]

Hiya, you could pop into the homebrew shop down at South Clark street it's pretty good. Can always go to Krafty brew as well it's an all grain microbrewery where you make your own beer. Ingredients and equipment are supplied haha.