Oak Homebrew Beer kits - 5/19/23/25 Ltr Full Grain kits - Ideal for beginners and smaller bellies

[Bobtheblob]

Thanks for that @terrym. I'll give it all a whirl on Monday.

 

[Bobtheblob]

OP, how did your beer turn out? Any good?

 

[West wind]

Mine has been in the FV (demijohn) for 11 days so I'll get it bottled this weekend and prime with dextrose.

 

[slowdave]

Tried my Rutland Abbey last night after 1 week in the bottle ... I couldn't wait any longer .... unbelievably clean and fresh for this type of beer. Can't wait to try it after it's had another couple of weeks to mature.
Very impressed with my first AG attempt.

 

[Gerryjo]

Tried my Rutland Abbey last night after 1 week in the bottle ... I couldn't wait any longer .... unbelievably clean and fresh for this type of beer. Can't wait to try it after it's had another couple of weeks to mature.
Very impressed with my first AG attempt.

The just rewards from homebrew...

 

[mitch]

Just had a look at the website out of curiosity. Don't think I'd buy from anyone who delivers via Hermes. Have heard nothing but bad reports.
Don't GeterBrewed do recipe kits to order and in sizes to suit any brewer's pan?

Ive always found Hermes to be great.

 

[mitch]

Tried my Rutland Abbey last night after 1 week in the bottle ... I couldn't wait any longer .... unbelievably clean and fresh for this type of beer. Can't wait to try it after it's had another couple of weeks to mature.
Very impressed with my first AG attempt.

Ive just racked mine again and will bottle today. Tbh id suffered from cba...anyways it tastes ok to me. Not really my thing but maybe after a few more wks bottled. Its 4.6 as described!

 

[obscure]

Ive always found Hermes to be great.

Hermes is really dependent on who your local courier is, I find the one in my area to be great while the one where I work is awful. Point is with Hermes is that it can be really inconsistent though this seems to be the case with every courier.

 

[mitch]

Only just received my kit today after 10 days waiting. Had to chase them up before they'd send it. And it seems I do need 2 big pans according to the instructions.

Thats not too good bob. Considering its run by a lady from home. Its ok for me as i go to collect. Only 8 miles away you see.

 

[Bobtheblob]

Finally got round to brewing mine. It's in the demijohn and there's a good 2 inches of sediment on the bottom after 2 days. Took the bung out to top it up a tiny bit after the krausen had died down and it smells amazing. I wonder if I'll get 8 pints out of this...I'm guessing 7 pints. If it tastes as good as it smells then I'm converted to All Grain.

 

[West wind]

Three weeks after bottling I've sampled one and it seems my first attempt at AG is a success. Good head and retention, pleasant tasting and nice mouth feel.

I had a nightmare bottling after discovering my syphon wouldn't fit in the neck of the demijohn....doh....so improvised with a tube and made a mess. I only managed 6 x 500ml bottles and the rest ended up in the drip tray and over me.

 

[Begbie]

Just ordered the Steady On and Freckled Birdie kits. Christmas pressies to me from family. Looking forward to trying AG after a few successful extract kits, and the feedback on Oak Homebrew 5 Litre kits seems very good!

 

[Begbie]

My kits have arrived! Unfortunately I need to surrender them to the wife to be given to Santa for a Christmas day delivery.

'Boxing Day Brew Day' has a nice ring to it!

 

[Bobtheblob]

Just cracked one of my Freckled Birdies open tonight after about three weeks in the bottle. What an absolutely brilliant pint! A lot better than any of the kits I've done, so I will definitely be ordering more. I just wish I had the equipment, time and space to upscale this to brewing bigger all grain batches.

 

[Begbie]

Just cracked one of my Freckled Birdies open tonight after about three weeks in the bottle. What an absolutely brilliant pint! A lot better than any of the kits I've done, so I will definitely be ordering more. I just wish I had the equipment, time and space to upscale this to brewing bigger all grain batches.

Great to hear that Bob. My wife has given me the boxes back, saying that I can just brew them if I want. What a wife! Just need a big stock pot now!

Also...this is a biggie...just had an offer accepted for a house...which has an integral garage - just what I've always wanted! My own work space/brew room! All Grain system, here I come! (might be getting ahead of myself, having not actually made an All Grain batch yet, but, exciting times! )

 

[Bobtheblob]

Just had another pint, lovely. These are great kits for the small scale brewer.

 

[Begbie]

Just had another pint, lovely. These are great kits for the small scale brewer.

Today was my first chance to brew one of my Oak Home Brew small batch AG kits that I got from Santa - the Freckled Bird. Very hectic to say the least, as I've been trying to entertain my 7 year old son and making his dinner as well as making a pot of Butternut Squash soup! It's all revolving around the cooker anyway, so just a juggling act. Anyway, everything went well, I followed the instructions (which weren't the clearest but I managed) and ended up with a demijohn of about 5 litres of wort. Excellent! The wife wasn't too happy when she got home and the house reeks of wort and hops! A beautiful reek to me, not so much to my beloved!

What I'm not too sure about though, is that the demijohn, 2 hours after filling, has a clear 'divide' of dark lovely looking wort on the top third and what appears to be trub on the bottom 2/3. It's slowly settling but looks like I'm going to have a thick layer of trub in the end.

Did you have that too Bob?

Also, am I likely to need a blow-off tube? There's not much headspace left in my demijohn.

And lastly, did you notice a lot of difference in the quality from your bottle at 3 weeks after bottling, versus the bottle you opened a few days ago, which would be about 7 to 8 weeks old? (which is how long the instructions appear to tell you to wait).

 

[Bobtheblob]

Yes I had a really thick looking layer of sediment which did reduce over time and it wasn't very compact. In the end I got 7 bottles rather than 8 but I'm not complaining. I never used a blow off tube as there wasn't much krausen but I left a little headspace anyway and topped it up when it died down.

I can't say I noticed much difference with the recent bottles as it was very drinkable when only 3 weeks old.

The wife even tasted it and approved so it must be good

Good luck with it.

 

[Begbie]

Good to know that I won't need to wait 2 months to try the first bottle to appreciate how good the beer is!

Update - the 'trub' settled overnight and clumps of yeast had formed, seemingly suspended in the liquid, and the airlock was bubbling slowly. By midday today, the inside of the demijohn was like a snowglobe shaken up and on steroids...with krausen hissing out of the airlock like an angry snake! Quick sanitisation of my blow-off tube and now everything's rosy again. Won't leave such a small head space next time - got a bit greedy in my attempt to get 8 or 9 bottles.

Oh, and this kitchen doesn't smell of 'brew day' any more! Looking forward to moving house in a couple of months to get into my own workspace - a garage. No need to stink the house out or get in the way.

 

[Bobtheblob]

I had some lovely looking floating hop petals to look at while it was on the kitchen sideboard. The whole demijohn was like you say, a snowglobe on steroids