UBrew

[Aarondapastyman]

Just wondering if anyone's done the UBrew all day brewing course? The wife has got it me for my birthday and I'm really looking forward to it but wanted to know if anyone had any hands on experience of the course or the facilities and if the membership is worth it?

It's expensive at £95 a month but I definitely don't have space at home to brew nowadays, so being able to use professional grade equipment could be too good to turn down. Even if I'm brewing on my own.

So if you've done it, would you recommend it? Cheers!

 

[Gerryjo]

Just wondering if anyone's done the UBrew all day brewing course? The wife has got it me for my birthday and I'm really looking forward to it but wanted to know if anyone had any hands on experience of the course or the facilities and if the membership is worth it?

It's expensive at �£95 a month but I definitely don't have space at home to brew nowadays, so being able to use professional grade equipment could be too good to turn down. Even if I'm brewing on my own.

So if you've done it, would you recommend it? Cheers!

Certainly have never done it and at £95 a month:whistle:
Is this a reoccurring fee and if so regardless how small your setup/accomodation is I'm qutie sure you could wrangle a small setup for a hell of a lot cheaper.I would nearly brew it myself and send it over to you at that price:grin:

 

[jceg316]

uBrew are not good, I used to work there and hated it, partly because their systems were really badly setup and I had no idea why people paid that much money for it. From afar it looks great - 3 vessel stainless steel system - but there is a lot they haven't thought about, like how to transfer liquids from one 50L vessel to another. This means there is a lot of very heavy lifting trying to get the kettle higher than the mash tun, or lowering the mash tun etc. I've also noticed my bosses giving not great advice to customers.

I've had a friend who went on uBrew not knowing any of this, he gave me really bad feedback about them. They made a saison run by someone from uBrew, they didn't really give them much attention and the beer came out bad. uBrew eventually gave them a refund.

That £95 can get you a stove toppers kit and many brews for it, which I'd recommend if you're pushed for space. Stove toppers are 5 litre setups, it's pretty easy to make a small mash tun and then get a 10 litre pot for a kettle. I think there are instructions for converting pots to kettles on here.

 

[MyQul]

I used to buy my grains from their but I always had to wait ages till they got around to serving me so I then switched to online.

I do stovetoppers partially because I have a small kitchen and partially because I have a bad back so dont want to lift heavy amounts. I used to do 5L but now I've recently switched to 10L as I can use the same kit and make it in exactly the same amount of time (about 1 1/2 hours if I do 30min mash/30 min boil). but get twice as much beer
I use a a 12L (actually 15L to the brim) pot from wilko (£22) and a 5L pot from asda (can remember how much it was) to heat up the dunk sparge liquor. A mash bag and 5L and 10L plastic buckets I got off ebay - All told a lot less than 95 quid

 

[simon12]

What do you actually get for £95 a month, the website is unclear. Can you brew every day, is it for 1 fermenter or something else?

 

[jceg316]

What do you actually get for �£95 a month, the website is unclear. Can you brew every day, is it for 1 fermenter or something else?

It's just access to their equipment. I think technically you could brew every day. You need to pay for the ingredients and materials you use on top of that each time you brew though. So it's £95 per month plus grains, hops, yeast, bottles, sugar used for bottling, caps etc.

 

[simon12]

So you could get value if you are permanently using 20+ fermenters and brewing most days its just noone does. In there defence I imagine there costs for the building and staff are likely quite high so it would be hard for them to offer good value without going broke.

 

[simon12]

Apologies for taking this thread into a business analysis as its not helpful to the question at all.

 

[MyQul]

I also see to remember one of the staff told me that there was a long waiting list for the popular brewing slots. such as at the weekend

 

[Aarondapastyman]

Cheers guys. As mentioned membership is for access to the brewing equipment etc. Which being in London means the space is at a premium price, although you can share the membership with up to 5 friends which obviously would bring the costs down.

I believe you can also sell your beer through UBrew if you’re so inclined (although you need to register with HMRC etc).

I think I’ll do the course as never ventured into AG and see how it feels before committing to membership. Might look at some of the more inventive ways to try brewing at home.

 

[Aarondapastyman]

After thinking it through I think I'll try doing stove topper AG at home, thanks for the advice guys!

@MyQul do you use two pots or three? Wondering if one for mashing, one for sparging and one for the boil? Is that right? Likewise if I buy a starter kit from BrewUK (I note they do them) are there any other must purchase bits of equipment (Except the pans I'll need to get)?

Most importantly SWMBO has signed off, probably the headline of saving £95 a month helped haha!!

 

[MyQul]

After thinking it through I think I'll try doing stove topper AG at home, thanks for the advice guys!

@MyQul do you use two pots or three? Wondering if one for mashing, one for sparging and one for the boil? Is that right? Likewise if I buy a starter kit from BrewUK (I note they do them) are there any other must purchase bits of equipment (Except the pans I'll need to get)?

Most importantly SWMBO has signed off, probably the headline of saving �£95 a month helped haha!!

I use two, one (15L ) to mash and boil in and a second (5L) to heat sparge water. You just need a mash bag too. You've probably got almost everything else. I'd also suggest getting some appropriatly sized FV's. I use 5L and 10L buckets that I got off ebay http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Plastic-B...var=650547896362&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649 I just cover them with cling film after pitching the yeast

 

[Aarondapastyman]

I use two, one (15L ) to mash and boil in and a second (5L) to heat sparge water. You just need a mash bag too. You've probably got almost everything else. I'd also suggest getting some appropriatly sized FV's. I use 5L and 10L buckets that I got off ebay http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Plastic-B...var=650547896362&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649 I just cover them with cling film after pitching the yeast

Next noddy question - The mash bag is for taking out the grain from the mash/boil pot right?

I just went through Geterbrewed create an AG kit process, it would cost about a fiver for a 5L brew.

Also wondering if a Wort Chiller is needed for 5/10L batches? Geterbrewed do a starter kit for stove toppers that comes with one. But wonder if at that volume it's worth it?

 

[dad_of_jon]

Next noddy question - The mash bag is for taking out the grain from the mash/boil pot right?

I just went through Geterbrewed create an AG kit process, it would cost about a fiver for a 5L brew.

Also wondering if a Wort Chiller is needed for 5/10L batches? Geterbrewed do a starter kit for stove toppers that comes with one. But wonder if at that volume it's worth it?

i'd say a 10 litre would be able to be chilled in the sink using running water without a chiller( assuming you're not on a water meter otherwise freeze a 2 litre bottle of water and starsan the outside then drop into the fv. that will cool it down.

 

[MickDundee]

At £95 a month you could get a Grainfather in 6 or 7 months!

 

[robbym123]

i'd say a 10 litre would be able to be chilled in the sink using running water without a chiller( assuming you're not on a water meter otherwise freeze a 2 litre bottle of water and starsan the outside then drop into the fv. that will cool it down.

Another way that I have chilled small batches is to boil some water to sterilise, then put in the freezer in an appropriately sized starsanned Tupperware. You can then drop the ice straight into the wort and stir. That, combined with sitting your brew pot in a sink of iced water will chill the wort super fast. If you get down to target temperature just fish any remaining ice out.

Only headache with this method is that the melting ice will dilute the wort slightly, so bear this in mind

 

[Aarondapastyman]

At £95 a month you could get a Grainfather in 6 or 7 months!

I did try that suggestion on the wife. It didn’t get me very far haha!!

Thanks for all the suggestions guys, much appreciated!

 

[MyQul]

Next noddy question - The mash bag is for taking out the grain from the mash/boil pot right?

I just went through Geterbrewed create an AG kit process, it would cost about a fiver for a 5L brew.

Also wondering if a Wort Chiller is needed for 5/10L batches? Geterbrewed do a starter kit for stove toppers that comes with one. But wonder if at that volume it's worth it?

Yes, after mashing you just lift the mash bag and sit it in a colander/sieve on top of the pot to drain. Then when most of the wort is drained into the pot dunk it in your second pot with the sparge water in. Give it a good stir, leave it for a few mins then lift again.

All of the the above suggestions for chilling the wort are good and valid. However I just no-chill because it's so easy to do. After the boil, jug the wort into your FV, (through a seive, to strain out hop debris). Then cover with cling film held on with an elastic band. Leave it over night and it should be at ambient temp the next day. If ambient temp isnt pitching temp, I star san some frozen 500ml ice bottles and put them in the wort till I hit pitching temp. Then pitch yeast. The only downside to this is you get chill haze in the beer if you put the beer in the fridge (doesnt effect taste you just dont get clear beer)

 

[Aarondapastyman]

Awesome cheers. :)

 

[MyQul]

A 'nice haves' for small batch brewing is some digital jewellers scales. Because your weighing out such small quanties of hops (especially if you like beers with not many hops in anyway, like me) these can be really useful.

They neednt be expensive. Just a cheapo chinese one from ebay will do the job. That's the type I've got and I had it for years. Every so often I test the accuracy with small coins like 1p's and 2p's and they're still accurate.

This is the one I've got

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/JEWELLER...776582?hash=item19db616906:g:X-wAAOxy1RZSYXJd