New Brewer

RobBack · Jun 10, 2019

Hello, my name is Rob, I’m an electrical engineer for a blue chip company in Basingstoke but live in Southampton.
I have just taken up home brewing and have made a few kits, brown ale, cider and just ventured on to my first Honey Porter kit. I enjoy dark ales and IPA’s but not had the confidence to brew until now.
Most of my knowledge has come from reading books, forums like this and YouTube.
My experiments have only gone as far as using different yeasts to the ones provided and different sugars, which have created some great flavour ciders.
I plan to do some mash brews and get a little adventurous, first however I need to build my fermentation fridge. At the moment I am fermenting at room temperature which is not ideal, so my ciders are a little hit and miss.

Brewed_Force · Jun 10, 2019

Welcome to the forum Rob, don't be afraid to ask questions, we're a friendly bunch!

Gulpitdarn · Jun 10, 2019

Hi Rob, good to have you with us, I guess a fermenting fridge is a good idea, I've been okay up till this cold rain has arrived. Looking for a cheap one on Facebook market place now. Cheers!

An Ankoù · Jun 10, 2019

Welcome Bob.
Are you going to do all-in-one like Grainfather, for example, or brew-in-a-bag, or the more traditional mash tun/liquor tank/boiling copper?
Is a fermentation fridge the top priority of an AG brewer? I haven't got a dedicated one.

Rodcx500z · Jun 10, 2019

Hi all, just got back into brewing after 30 years, retirement is wonderful. bought a kit like you do, fv pb and an American amber ale kit came with siphon tube little gas bottle and hydrometer. amber ale was really nice, got a wilko ipa in the pb at mo and a wilko Mexican cervesa in the fv I used 500g of light spay malt in this 500g of light demerara sugar and 300g of ordinary sugar og was 1046 ish did a reading earlier and is down to 1010 smells ok and tasted ok lol, just ordered 40 pet bottles ready for the big day, think I may have a go at biab soon, happy brewing

Chippy_Tea · Jun 10, 2019

Welcome to the forum Rob :thumba:

stz · Jun 10, 2019

Hey Rob. While there is always a way around it to increase the chance of good outcomes, brew seasonable stuff for example, temperature control was one of the big milestones for me that took my home brewing from hit and miss to predictable. It allowed me to work with different yeasts and perform stuff like diacetyl rests, dry hopping etc in a far more reliable way. Also COLD CRASHING oh wow having to go back to not doing that, wow sod that. I used to get a lot of 'it got a bit colder than expected overnight' so the yeast would drop out and I'd have to warm it up to get it going again so it could sustain itself then risk it getting too warm. Not ideal fermenting with such swings.