New homebrewer

[Bezland]

Hi all,

I was fortunate enough to be involved with brewing a one off brew in honour of the lions tour with my local brewery ("Brentwood brewing company" & "elephant school brewing company" - if you see their beers they are always absolutely superb and well worth a pint - IMHO) recently and it has definitely piqued my interest in brewing. I never realised just how scientific but also almost artful it could be creating the perfect pint. As a design engineer by trade, this plays to every part of my personality.

As a result, I have spent all of my time recently reading about home brewing and i think it's safe to say that I am absolutely hooked! This has lead to an issue though, I have managed to read so much that I am a little but muddled on what I need and what I don't need kit wise. I plan to start off with very simple kit brewing as this makes the most sense from an educational and monetary outlay view, however I do plan to move onto extract brewing after a handful of successful kit brews and then once I've become proficient in extract brewing I'd love to move on to BIAB and eventually (in many years time) full all grain brewing. So hopefully as you can see, this is a bit more than a passing fancy for me.

Now I've had a look at wilkinsons for some starter brewing gear (as there happens to be a rather large one up the road from me) and for an entire starters kit/a vaguely custom built set up it seems to be very good value. So I guess my main question is, what is absolutely vital to be able to produce a good first brew? I've read so many forums recently that I can barely discern what's opinion and what's fact!

Also, what is a pressure barrel? It looks like something I could quite happily stick my brew in and drink out of as if it was a polypin but it looks like it needs a CO2 canister or something, will this make the beer fizzy like a lager or still keep it flat like a prer ale? (I understand that due to the second fermentation process the will naturally be a certain amount of carbonation but I'm still unsure as to what exactly the effect of this will be?)

A massive thank you to anyone who has actually bothered to read this far down, and hopefully you are still intested enough to answer my probably mundane questions.

I look forward to hearing from you all!

Rich

 

[dennisking]

Hi and welcome Rich, good to see another potential Essex brewer. Lot of questions there for this time of a Friday night when a drink has been taken :whistle: You might want to browse our kit review section for kit ideas. I use polypins as I am not a lover of fizzy beers, they suit me. Others use cornies that give you more control over the amount of pressure compared to pressure barrels that I find to gassy. Keep asking questions this is the best pastime in the world.

 

[PD]

Welcome to the hobby.

Why are you looking at all grain brewing " many years down the road " ? Lots of folks take the plunge in a very short space of time... :grin:

I agree kit beer brewing is a sensible place to start it will give you a feel and an understanding of the general processes involved. Purchasing a starter kit is a sensible and prudent method of collecting together the kit needed. Most of the equipment will last you and be used in all branches of the hobby.

There are various starter kits available in shops and on line, one of the better ones is the Coopers kit at around £60 ( tescos had it on offer for £55 a few days ago )

Have a good read of the tips and advice on the forum, especially the How to guides, all brewing info is there.

But don't delay, if possible get your starter kit and get a brew on the go, its the best way to learn.
A simple one can kit will set you back around £10 ( or may even be included with the starter kit )

Collect free beer bottles from your local pubs and restaurants, and keep away from kegs and barrels till you have got the process clear as they just add another level of complications when your starting. ( and expense)

Have fun.

 

[mattrickl06]

Welcome Rich
Get saving for your AG now. I said in a few years that I would move onto this. 4 months later I was buying 50l pots and mashtuns

 

[Bezland]

Hello again all,

Thanks for the kind welcome, it's really nice to find such a friendly community of like minded people! Following my usual mindset, I went out today and invested in some basic kit to get myself going, I learn far better by doing rather than reading anyway!

The kit I have picked up so far is:

- 25L fermentation bin
- Big long spoon
- Camden tablets
- Sanitizer powder
- 5 gal pressure barrel (I know bottles are probably a slightly easier place to start but I know that a barrel of beer will disappear very very quickly in my house so will be much more practical than a few crates of bottles)
- Siphon tubing
- Hydrometer
- Test jar
- Woodforde wherry two can kit
- Bewing sugar

I think that's the list. I do have two more questions however:

1) I don't have an airlock and there isn't a corresponding hole for one in the top of the fermenting bucket either. Is this likely to be an issue? Am I better off drilling a hole in the lid and fitting an airlock?

2) On another thread I saw someone add some co2 to their pressure barrel once the beer was in to displace the oxygen (I assume). Is this necessary or am I going to be ok without doing this?

Cheers,

Rich

 

[PD]

you don't need brewing sugar with a two can kit

dont bother drilling a hole in lid, just leave one edge loose during first vig ferment then snap it down

dunno about barrels...

 

[joe1002]

Welcome to the forum :

I spent a day at BBC recently, top guys (and girl) :thumb:

 

[jonnymorris]

Welcome and yes, you will need to add CO2 to get your beer out. The first half may well come out due to the priming sugar but sooner or later you'll need to add CO2. You can get either a refill-able cylinder that fits an S30 valve or little one-shot capsules that need a different type of valve, one with a pin (forget the name).

You can use CO2 to displace the O2 immediately after barrelling but the real need is to replace the beer when drinking.

Best of luck.

 

[rpt]

As PD says, no need for an airlock and you don't need brewing sugar. You don't add it to the fermenter as the Wherry kit contains all the fermentables needed. When you barrel your beer you will need to add priming sugar. Ordinary white granulated sugar is fine for this, but it will do no harm to use brewing sugar.

 

[winelight]

As jonnymorris says, the priming should take you about half-way down the barrel, and if you buy the CO2 injector cap from Wilko that takes the individual non-refillable cylinders, then if you're lucky one cylinder should take you to the end of the barrel, pretty much.

Warning: the barrel tap appears tight on a new one, but it isn't tight enough. Remove it from the barrel, grease both the threads and the washer with Vaseline, and then tighten it really, really tight. Some would say not too tight or it deforms the washer, but I did mine as tight as I can.