Newbie questions

[Haversham]

Hi All,

Excellent forums - thanks.

I'm a total newbie though I have watched tons of YouTube videos and read a lot on these forums, so I hope I'm getting a rough idea of what's in store. My plan is to start my brewing journey with some well regarded beer kits before possibly moving to something more sophisticated.

First, a simple question I hope -- why are some fermentation buckets 25L and others 30L? Is one generally better than the other for brewing real ale-style beers?

Second, is this a reasonable beginner's equipment list, or am I missing something obvious? Some of these things are personal preferences but if you tell me that a pressure barrel is far better than bottles, I'll listen. (Have been a bit put off by all the nightmare stories about leaking PBs.)

- Fermentation vessel with tap and hole for airlock
- Thermometer
- Airlock
- Hydrometer
- Bottling tube
- Sanitising stuff
- Spoon
- Syphon (plan is to bottle with bottling tube but will probably buy syphon as well while I'm stocking up)
- Beer kit, probably Woodfordes or something from Wilko just to get me started.

Third, is one supplier much better than any other or is it a matter of shopping around?

I have plenty of bottles. And plenty of other questions but I'll leave it there for the moment.

Thanks in advance. I really appreciate any insights people may have.

 

[Agentgonzo]

There's not a very good reason why some fermentation buckets are different sizes. A larger one allows you to make more beer, or the same amount of beer but with more head space (so the bug foamy yeast head that develops (the krausen) doesn't go up into the airlock and make a mess).

A lot of homebrew recipes are scaled at 5 gallons/23 liters, and that became a bit of a "standard" batch size

 

[An Ankoù]

Hello Haversham.
1- no, but the 30s will give you more headspace. It depends on the batch size. Get the 30s.
2- seems good but what's the bottling tube; a syphon tube or some kind of bottling wand?
3- Yes, but wait for answers from others as I'm in France.

Get a book like Graham Wheeler and read it.
Happy Brewing

 

[Agentgonzo]

Kit list looks good as a starter. Other good advice I got when I got my starter kit was.

Get a tube clip. It costs about 2 quid and keeps the top end of your siphon tubes in place so you only need to worry about the other end.

If you do get a pressure barrel, get one with a 4" neck that you can get your whole arm into. It makes it a million times easier to clean

 

[Agentgonzo]

Pressure barrels Vs bottles.

One pressure barrel is easier to clean/fill than lots of bottles. But lots of bottles are easier to store and drink from. Unless you get co2 canisters, once you open a pressure barrel and let air in, you'll need to drink the whole barrel in 5 days or so before it goes off.

Personally, even with the increased hassle of bottles, I think they are better as a starter unless you're going to go through the whole barrel in a weekend

 

[devexwarrior]

I have a lovely stainless steel bottling stick but it doesn't fit any of my FV or barrel taps. I now bottle using a jug and funnel attached to a short length of tubing. used to for several brews now an seems to work fine.

 

[Redgrave_3]

Looking good and welcome. I would imagine you’ll need a bottle capper and some caps (unless you’ve been stocking up on swing tops). Also cleaning stuff and sanitizer are different so you’ll want both.

Re. Suppliers I usually find it pays to shop around, had good experiences with lots of different ones but do lookout for postage costs.

 

[Agentgonzo]

A tap on the end of the bottling tube, and a bottling/racking cane will make it easier to get the beer out of the fermenter and into the bottles, leaving the yeast trub behind. Most brew shops have them, and they can be anywhere from dirt cheap to mega fancy with autipriming siphons etc. Pick your price point.
Eg, 14


Oh, I just reread this and saw your fermenting bucket had a tap. You won't need anything more than the tube!

 

[Haversham]

Hello Haversham.
1- no, but the 30s will give you more headspace. It depends on the batch size. Get the 30s.
2- seems good but what's the bottling tube; a syphon tube or some kind of bottling wand?
3- Yes, but wait for answers from others as I'm in France.

Get a book like Graham Wheeler and read it.
Happy Brewing

Yes, bottling wand. My awkward newbie wording there.

Kit list looks good as a starter. Other good advice I got when I got my starter kit was.

Get a tube clip. It costs about 2 quid and keeps the top end of your siphon tubes in place so you only need to worry about the other end.

If you do get a pressure barrel, get one with a 4" neck that you can get your whole arm into. It makes it a million times easier to clean

One pressure barrel is easier to clean/fill than lots of bottles. But lots of bottles are easier to store and drink from. Unless you get co2 canisters, once you open a pressure barrel and let air in, you'll need to drink the whole barrel in 5 days or so before it goes off.

Personally, even with the increased hassle of bottles, I think they are better as a starter unless you're going to go through the whole barrel in a weekend

I would use CO2 if going down that route but the plan is to bottle as I want to see how the beer develops (for better or worse) over time I.e. weeks/months.

Looking good and welcome. I would imagine you’ll need a bottle capper and some caps (unless you’ve been stocking up on swing tops). Also cleaning stuff and sanitizer are different so you’ll want both.

Re. Suppliers I usually find it pays to shop around, had good experiences with lots of different ones but do lookout for postage costs.

Thanks. Yes, I have a stock of swing top bottles, bequeathed by a mate who’d been in the army in Germany who used to bring over crate loads of beer. Re suppliers, yes I was/am hoping to find the ideal supplier where I could order everything to avoid postage. Most seem to not charge if ordering over £X worth.

 

[Agentgonzo]

Suppliers - I tend to figure out what I want, then spend an hour putting it into the different sites and see what comes out cheaper.

 

[IceQueen]

Hi,

You would do yourself a big favour to invest in a new can opener. If you have a good look between the gears of your currently owned on, you will know why.
Some nice new oven gloves are great too (especally the silicon striped once for good grip), because handling a hundred degree hot can with a tea towel, not so much fun.
ond an indicator at best.
A personal scale to calibrate the fermenter, the printed on one is quite bad And a kitchen scale to meassure the priming sugar.

LG Maddy

 

[ecirpian]

• Get the bigger bucket, saves dealing with the mess of an over zealous brew. But in my opinion the fermzilla all rounder or flat bottom (if you’re not fermenting under pressure or doing pressure transfers ) are the way to go, particularly if you’re likely to nurse the brew as it avoids the need to open the lid to see what is going on.
• I would probably get two buckets though if you’re going that route
• Use bottles, PB are much quicker and seem better but I have found to be a pain unless you drink it quick. Plus you can save your pennies for the inevitable journey in to kegs. Though these could be expensive and may not suitable space wise etc
• I really like Woodfords wherry, but it can be a pain to complete fermentation, but don’t let that put you off. In all honesty, if I had my time over I would go straight to AG brewing rather than extract kits and buy kits from places like Worcester hop shop, maltmiller and get er brewed. I get hops, yeast and salts from crossmyloof (the gentlemen of brewing supplies)I haven’t used yet but another place is brew at home.
• Bottle wand a must and a clip as mentioned. I also find a bucket wedge of huge benefit when transferring ( simply something to securely tilt the bucket to get all the good stuff out)
• Carbonation drops are easy if you are lazy like me, but if not using I would suggest either batch prime or maybe get a syringe to squirt a measured dose of sugar solution in each bottle
• Above all patience and cleanliness are the two things you need to master
• One or two large jugs come in handy

Welcome and enjoy your journey

 

[DocAnna]

One small thing to add to your starter list is some brewing sugar (dextrose) for bottle priming. Don’t use a plastic funnel to add the sugar as it often sticks, instead take a sheet of clean A4 , half it and roll it into a simple cone - the sugar won’t stick to this. A simple kitchen measuring spoon will help with dosing the bottles too.

 

[Twopan]

No rinse sanitiser changed my life! So easy. I don't know why 23L became a standard - smaller batches are easier to handle and keeps variety as it takes me a long time to drink that much. When you have developed confidence consider going down the extract brewing route - it's the stepping stone between kits and all grain and IMHO produces just as good results. And it's easy to scale the recipe up and down in size. Check out John Palmer's book How to Brew which takes you through the process in the early chapters. Good luck.

 

[ecirpian]

One other thing… write everything down or get Brewfather app. A little ott at the start but great to look back on and a fantastic brewing resource

 

[Twopan]

Plus I find or easier to have two or three buckets. When bottling you can then rack off into a second sanitised bucket into which you mix the correct total amount of priming sugar, gently mixed in (you don't want too much oxygen at this stage). You then bottle from this bucket.

 

[Ale House Rock]

You have a ton of good advice here. The only thing I can think of that no-one else has mentioned is that if you are dry hopping - and many kits do have a pack of dry hops to add at the end of fermentation - the kit will/should contain a hop sock to put around the end of your syphon when transferring to 2nd bucket which you are gonna have to do to leave the spent hop gunge behind. However, the hop sock will be drawn into your syphon by the flow of liquid whereupon the sock will become clogged with hop gunge and really slow down the transfer from fermentation bucket to bottling bucket. You might have to stop several times to clean the sock - infection risk. Get a hold of one of the metal cages that hold the corks in champagne/prosecco bottles in place. Pop out the disc at the bottom, stretch/straighten the frame of it out so that you can slip it inside the hop sock and place the tip of your syphon inside the frame before securing the hop sock. This will prevent the sock being drawn into the syphon and you will be able to transfer your 20L or so in one go - less risk of infection and no hop gunge transferred to bottling bucket.

 

[allotment_fox]

Great advice most been said by others but from memory the Woodford kits are a two can kit so you would only need a priming sugar of your choice. The can opener advice is spot on get a decent strong one and keep it just for brewing, keep oxygen out of your brew as much as possible, as for buying if there is no local homebrew which I would advise you to use for their help and advice. Love Brewing i noticed are a on topcashback along with Balliihoo homebrew, I've used both without any issues along with Malt Miller who also give a 5* service
good look happy brewing

 

[nickjdavis]

I have a lovely stainless steel bottling stick but it doesn't fit any of my FV or barrel taps. I now bottle using a jug and funnel attached to a short length of tubing. used to for several brews now an seems to work fine.

Just use a short length of silicone tubing to connect the steel bottling stick to the FV tap.

 

[Haversham]

• Get the bigger bucket, saves dealing with the mess of an over zealous brew. But in my opinion the fermzilla all rounder or flat bottom (if you’re not fermenting under pressure or doing pressure transfers ) are the way to go, particularly if you’re likely to nurse the brew as it avoids the need to open the lid to see what is going on.
• I would probably get two buckets though if you’re going that route
• Use bottles, PB are much quicker and seem better but I have found to be a pain unless you drink it quick. Plus you can save your pennies for the inevitable journey in to kegs. Though these could be expensive and may not suitable space wise etc
• I really like Woodfords wherry, but it can be a pain to complete fermentation, but don’t let that put you off. In all honesty, if I had my time over I would go straight to AG brewing rather than extract kits and buy kits from places like Worcester hop shop, maltmiller and get er brewed. I get hops, yeast and salts from crossmyloof (the gentlemen of brewing supplies)I haven’t used yet but another place is brew at home.
• Bottle wand a must and a clip as mentioned. I also find a bucket wedge of huge benefit when transferring ( simply something to securely tilt the bucket to get all the good stuff out)
• Carbonation drops are easy if you are lazy like me, but if not using I would suggest either batch prime or maybe get a syringe to squirt a measured dose of sugar solution in each bottle
• Above all patience and cleanliness are the two things you need to master
• One or two large jugs come in handy

Welcome and enjoy your journey

Thanks or taking the time to respond @ecirplan. Some great info there though as I said I've watched endless YouTube videos so I've seen some of these issues/choices discussed, and have a fairly fixed idea of how I want to start. I hear what you say about going straight to AG. My thinking is that I want to understand and witness the basic process first and then, over time, decompose the process into manageable parts (if I want to do that). TBH, if the kits turn out to produce a very drinkable result I might just stop there. Although I love my ale, I'm no great afficionado. We'll see.

I agree that large jugs are desirable.