If you were starting again what would you buy?? Beer-kit brewing

[damienair]

Hi damienair, how do you stop sediment or hops from clogging the tap on your FV? When I syphon from the fv I put a muslin bag over the tube but you wont be able to do that? Agreed though...syphoning is a pain and not easy on your own.

Firstly I clean and sanitise my bottling bucket. I boil some muslin cloth in hot water and drop it into sanitiser along with an elastic band. I then attach the muslin cloth to the tap on the inside of the bottling bucket using the elastic band. The inside of the tap also has a sediment trap to prevent sediment from being sucked up. I stop the transfer as soon as I see sediment getting close to the inside of the tap.
I then transfer the brew into the bottling bucket on top of the priming solution. When transferred over I give the beer a very gentle stir. I attach the bottling wand and fill away. The muslin cloth prevents the hops and excess sediment transferring into the bottling wand.
I used to use a hop sock, but this is working well for me now. Sounds like a faff, but way easier than siphoning.

 

[Knuckles]

Thanks for that, sounds good, I will have to try it.

 

[phildo79]

Hi All,

A newbie to the forum and first post, and doing what I think a lot of people do and asking for a bit of a steer on that first set up/gear purchase. So thanks in advance and hopefully not too many silly questions/assumptions!

I've been thinking of doing some homebrews for some time and finally have the room to do it (built in garage which I can claim 50% from the wife for brewing), time might be a bit of a struggle with 2 kids but hoping kits will make the process doable based on what I've read so far.
Given the amount I'm spending on good beer atm and the fact I'm pretty certain I'll brew a good bit (to be able to drink it!) I am fairly happy with throwing up to 100 notes at a starter set up including a decent brew kit.

Beer wise, as I know that makes a difference, I'll mostly be trying to bre APA/AIA/IPA/NEPAs etc. Pretty much anything in the realms of Brew dog/Goose Island/Sierra Nevada/etc. or Brighton Bier/Laine/Bison given my current Sussex locale, although I have a soft spot for Boundary Brewery as its from back home (Northern Ireland).

Equipment
I've been looking at the starer sets on Brew2Bottle and had nearly settled on the Youngs Micro Brewery Ultimate starter kit until reading a thread on Pressure Barrells (hopefully this doesn't trigger anyone) and realising I'd rather have the convenience of bottling for chilling, so the PB included would likely go to waste and I'd still need to get some bottles (purchased with/without beer included).

I was then looking at picking up the Brew2Bottle Complete Deluxe 40 Pint Home Brew Starter Kit and a seperate beer/brew kit but just wondering if anyone has any reason why picking up things seperate/different spec to what is included in this kit would make sense?
Essentially would buying individually and adding say 10 or 20 quid now save pain/and money from rebuying in the long run?
I would probably be brewing in the garage so might need to think about some sort of heating element. Any smart ideas - I've seen a heat pad but uncertain if that the job or not.

Bottle wise I'm happy to go with the Coopers PET in the Brew2Bottle kit but just as happy to pick up a case of Lidl/Aldi glass bottles and a capper as have read for long time storage glass wins outright.

Beer-kit
Given what I like drinking I was thinking of starting with Mangrove Jacks Juicy IPA which I've read is top notch and possibly just starting with half a pouch.
Happy to be guided by others/input if this a good/bad place to start or better alternatives to begin with.

Any other newbie starter hints/tips/things you wish you'd read I'm all ears

If you've made it this far then well done and hopefully you'll be kind enough to share your experiences/thoughts etc.
Thanks,
Keith

If you really think this is something you are going to get into, then don't spend over the odds on basic starter equipment. A natural progression for a lot of people is kits, partial mash and then AG. As soon as you get to AG (time varies from person to person), most of your starter equipment will be defunct (I think the only thing I still use from mine is the thermometer*).

If I could start all over again, I wouldn't bother with kits and go straight to partial mash. The difference between the two is quite staggering. Get yourself a copy of Charlie Papazian's 'The Joy of Homebrewing' (free pdf download, I believe) and look through the intermediate section. Basically all you need is a large stockpot, an FV with airlock, ingredients and bottles. A few other bits and bobs but those should come with the very basic starter equipment package.

*No I don't. My original thermometer broke some years ago. Think the one and only thing I still have is the black twin lever capper. Which I NEVER use.

 

[Sadfield]

Give or take the odd tweak or addition like a hop spider I'd buy the same again.

Start where you intend to get to, do what inspires you. Research and plan well, and buy once. If that's AG, start there, kits or partial mash won't teach you anything you won't learn from the first AG brew. It's not that difficult and for the price of a beer kit you can buy a couple of good brewing books.

 

[Agentgonzo]

With hindsight, I would probably buy almost exactly the kit that I have now. But that's because I upgraded all of my kit last year from the hodge-podge of assorted things that I'd been brewing and upgrading over the past 15 years. I now have a grainfather G30, a stainless steel brewmonk fermenter, tea-urn (sparge water heater). Previously, I had a plastic 3-tier setup with a thormos-cooler mash-tun and copper immersion chiller. I don't begrudge my 15-years of plastic-based brewing as the all-in-ones weren't available back then, and it was a lot of fun collecting/constructing the kit.

Probably the one thing I were to do it all over again would be to buy a big stock of all-the-same bottles. At the moment, I have a collection of:
* 500ml swing tops
* 500ml crown caps
* 1 pint crown caps
* 330ml crown caps

If I were to buy it all again, I would just go for
* 500ml swing tops (so much easier than crown caps)
* 330ml crown caps (stronger beers are better in smaller quantities, and 330ml is a better quantity for my wife). Shame they don't do 330ml in swing-tops.

 

[phildo79]

Shame they don't do 330ml in swing-tops.

They do but you won't see them very often. Most likely beers that use them are Belgian beers.

 

[wildbrew]

better brew export lager or czech pilsner lager.
are very good for the money

 

[twopoint]

For kit brewing I'd recommend a couple of buckets with good fitting lids, have a grommet hole to add a bubbler or a tube into a jar of starsan. Have the buckets fitted with bottling taps.

A decent electronic thermometer - glass is too fragile.

The biggest improvement I'd go for is a fermenting fridge (loads of fridges cheap on Gumtree/Facebook Market) with an Inkbird two plug output and a greenhouse heating tube. The ability to brew at a specific temp really improves the quality and being able to cold crash a beer down to drop all the yeast and hops to the bottom of the fermenter is a game changer.

For bottles my preference is the brown PET ones, easy to clean/sanitise, easy storage and they don't smash when you drop one!


An all grain setup can be fairly cheap - I've got this one - Klarstein | Discover the Online Shop for Home & Living £219 - the Masischfest Mash Kettle

 

[Clint]

I started with the basics and kits. Made loads of decent beer then progressed to part mash then AG.
You're on the right track I think as although you may like drinking beer you may find you don't like brewing it! Even brewing kits takes some time. It's good practice to get your cleaning and sanitation right plus your routine.
If I were to replace or start again what I'd buy would depend on the time I had spare.
Not much time would be premium kits,temp control,corny kegs.
Plenty of time I would quite possibly get an all in one system, temp control,corny kegs.
My kit now is a three vessel system I have a few plastic pbs but mainly bottle everything. I don't care much for bottling.

 

[Agentgonzo]

A decent electronic thermometer - glass is too fragile.

100% this. It's so lovely just being able to chuck it around without worrying about it breaking. One less hassle on brewday. I do wonder why they never made metal/plastic hydrometers

For bottles my preference is the brown PET ones, easy to clean/sanitise, easy storage and they don't smash when you drop one!

How do these stack up in the long run? Some of the yeasts that I use stick to the insides pretty hard and need scrubbing out with a bottle brush. I'm always a bit concerned that the bottle brush would scratch the inside of the PET bottles. At the moment, I just steal my stepson's coke bottles out of the recycling bin, and use them once then recycle.

PET bottles are great (even though I use glass mostly). You can squeeze all the air out of them when bottling to get rid of oxidation, and also you can judge carbonation progress by just squeezing them. And they are much safer/easier to post off for bottle swaps/comps. I normally fill 2 PET bottles from each batch to check carbonation. If I want to do a swap/comp, these then go in the post.