new and ready to brew!

[dj_jaimej]

Hello folks, total newbie here! Have been browsing the forums a bit recently while getting ready to jump into the world of home-brew. Hoping to initially use the forum as a resource for all my newbie questions (apologies in advance), hopefully as time goes on and i become a bit more learned myself i'll be able to contribute and help others along their journey.

I'm a lager lover at heart, not actually into too much variation to be honest, love a consistent tasty lager... my go to beers are Moretti, Perone, stella, kronenberg etc... nothing to fancy there.

The reason i'm getting into home-brew is that I live in the republic of ireland where minimum pricing is an absolute killer for those who like to enjoy a few beers every evening in the house, with 24 cans costing no less than 40 euros, buying a 6 pack can of still will be about 15 euros, so i've decided to stick it to the man and brew my own.

I'm starting off by fermenting under pressure to see how i go, primarily because of the quick turnaround times. It's not exactly been cheap, but hopefully it will be worth it in the long run.

Equipment;

brewing kettle - 35L Klarstein mash kettle - £200 with discount code on their website
30L fermzilla all rounder - from GETERBREWED who have been an excellent resource also on my start-up journey
fermentation chamber - 198L Chest freezer (Logik) from curry's €199. Was going to go with the ferminator enclosure but i felt like i would have more longevity and better response (for heating/cooling) times with a chest freezer
for heating i have a slate on the bottom with an 8w reptile heating pad
for cooling i have the freezer itself
for control I'm using an ink bird wifi controller
i also have a fan inside the freezer to keep the air moving and hopefully keep the temperatures more constant

plus all the other bits and bobs.

already had a few hurdles to cross which i'm hoping to share my experiences and feedback in other areas of the forum.

 

[dj_jaimej]

 

[dj_jaimej]

in the 'chamber'

 

[Rwilts]

Welcome.

 

[Tongue In Cheek]

Welcome, glad to have you. Happy to answer questions - it gives us more chances to talk about something we all love!

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I'm a lager lover at heart, not actually into too much variation to be honest, love a consistent tasty lager... my go to beers are Moretti, Perone, stella, kronenberg etc... nothing to fancy there.

Welcome to the forum and your new hobby.

Back in the day i only drank lager i did try real ale but didn't like the strong taste, due to health issues i had to stop and with advice from forum members moved to beers like Bishops Finger and Old Speckled Hen (see below) and i was amazed at the different taste to the ones i had tried years before, i have now tried most types of beer and am glad i made the switch, i don't want to sound like a beer snob but it would be a shame if you bought all that kit just to make lager when there are so may recipes and advice here on how to make other beers.

Bishops Finger - Fashioned on a firm, fruity foundation of Crystal malt, this rich, ruby-coloured Kent classic belies its burly appearance with a complexity of flavour. Mouth-filling fruit, prunes, plums and dried apricot spiked with palate-prickling pepper, cinnamon and a soft bitter blood-orange finish

Old Speckled Hen - A high proportion of Crystal malt in Old Speckled Hen provides the key toffee/caramel flavour. The yeast used to ferment the beer provides the other key character - estery or banana/pear drop. This estery note provides the fruity and refreshing balance. The hops used add a palate cleansing herbal note and very slight orange citrus. A very malty, full bodied and warming ale.

 

[The Baron]

Welcome to the forum

 

[Its 6pm somewhere]

Welcome to the forum!

I'm starting off by fermenting under pressure to see how i go, primarily because of the quick turnaround times.

I brew everything under pressure but lagers really do benefit from time regardless.

I love drinking a lager but had a love hate relationship with brewing them for a long time. ALDC is a great insurance policy if you're using lager strains. I found Lutra great but had to get it shipped over here from England as no Irish retailer stocks it. Have had great results with Novalager but if you're looking for a quick turnaround you'll defo need to hit it with gelatine.

Try brewing an ale, you might surprise yourself. TheApartmentBrewer did a harp clone and the base malt he used was Ale Malt. Cold IPAs have a lagerish crispness to them too. Beauty of brewing your own is being able to dip your toe into something new but tweak it to suit your taste.

 

[Madhouse]

Hello & welcome!

Looks like you've done plenty of research, let us know how your brews go. Are you planning on doing all-grain or extract brews?

I recently made a Kolsch which could be something that you'd be interested in.

 

[dj_jaimej]

Hadn’t even considered extract to be honest. I think I want to tinker with a single recipe initially, really get it down in terms of flavour and consistency so kinda figured all grain would be the way to go for that, easier to make recipe adjustments to hopefully fine tune it.

Either that or I’m going to spend years trying and failing to make a single lager I like

Wouldn’t mind trying a Guinness clone at some point mind

 

[Madhouse]

To be fair I did extract for one starter kit brew - the one that got me in to brewing - and then went all-grain straight after that. I enjoy the infinite possibilities that it brings too.

Follow the basics and you'll surprise yourself at how straight-forward it is to make very drinkable beer! Lots of stout recipes out there, Guinness uses a nitrogen/carbon dioxide mix so your clone would be closer to 'original' unless you fancy investing in additional carbonation kit.

 

[dj_jaimej]

To be fair I did extract for one starter kit brew - the one that got me in to brewing - and then went all-grain straight after that. I enjoy the infinite possibilities that it brings too.

Follow the basics and you'll surprise yourself at how straight-forward it is to make very drinkable beer! Lots of stout recipes out there, Guinness uses a nitrogen/carbon dioxide mix so your clone would be closer to 'original' unless you fancy investing in additional carbonation kit.

I spotted that when I was buying the gas that some would be a mix. I just went with plain old co2 as lager was my main priority, but keen to play about.

Made an absolute mess of my first batch… literally… I accidentally put my spunding valve on the liquid out line, so when I opened my chest freezer I found a swimming pool of fermenting wort at the bottom of my chest freezer. I know I’m going to make mistakes so I just pumped it all back into the fermenter and have carried on. That was a couple of days ago.

Done specific gravity checks and I’m sitting around 4.85% which would be perfect for me, just about to crash cool it now and see how it goes. I did taste the samples I took for doing the SG checks and they actually seemed ok.

see how I go… mentally prepared to pour it all down the drain, but want to go through all the processes still to
Get the practice and make any further mistakes on this very likely spoiled batch.

 

[Madhouse]

Haha! that'll test how well you cleaned the freezer before you used it! Mistakes are a great way of learning though, we all make plenty of them - I seem to leave at least one tap open on every brew day, so maybe we don't learn from all of our mistakes.

I cold-crashed a pilsner which was on a blow-off tube and forgot that physics applied, so the cooling fermenter sucked a pint of sanitiser into the beer. Tasted pretty funky so it went down the drain - only one to have done so thus far though.