what kits best?

[toasted]

hello everyone
its my step dads birthday soon so we have decided to get him started brewing his own but im not realy sure what would be the best way and what would be needed
basicaly he drinks around 4 pints a night so a 40 pint kit will last him about 10 days if hes lucky lol
so im guessing he will need about 3 kits to be self sufficient?

the thing is im guessing we dont need to get him 3 complete kits, possibly just the 1 full kit and 2 fermentation bins? or would it be cheaper or better to buy 3 bins and 1 or 2 kegs plus all the extras?
we can stretch to about £150

also he drinks mcewans export could anyone suggest say 3 brews he could try out that is something like that?

cheers :

 

[Wez]

The first thing to bear in mind is how he's going to serve it - bottles or kegs?

Getting through 40 pints in 10 days will need some stock rotation and thought.

A kit can take 10 days to ferment out, then 1 week to prime (secondary fermentation) (in bottles or a keg) then ideally 3 to 4 weeks to come into condition.

 

[BrewStew]

jesus... and i thought mine and my girfriends beer (or lack of) problem was bad :shock:

well, it takes between 6 and 10 days for beers to ferment... so you'll definitely need at least two fermenters if you want him to be able to build a stock up. it takes two weeks as least (ideally 4) for beer to age in a barrel, so if he can drink a 40 pint barrel per week, you'll need 3 barrels at least... so your typical scenario at any one point would be; one fermenter just started, one fermenter just finished and being racked into the first barrel that's just been drunk, one barrel would be at 1 week maturation, and the third would be at it's second week and ready to drink. but that's a tight schedule!!! to save dry spells at that drinking rate, a third fermenter and a fourth barrel would give you more room for slow ferments and give the beer time to age more.

the other alternative is to kirb his drinking!!!! seriously!

 

[arturobandini]

Beer wise what kind of stuff does he usually drink?

Coopers do an excellent range of beers that are really spot on for their price and taste pretty good if made with spraymalt.

If he's a fan of Belgian beers then get a few Brewferm kits for him as these too are quite highly regarded.

 

[toasted]

cheers Wez,BrewStew,arturobandini
yea he does drink a fair bit the thought of brewing his own was kind of to limit it a bit lol
4 was just a average , sometimes he will drink less/more

so idealy 3 bins and 3 barrels to keep it going? then if hes getting low he can cut back a bit which would be good for him to be honest
he can always get himself another barrel out of the money he will be saving if needed

arturobandini
he tends to drink mcewans export so something along those lines would be ideal , i think hed enjoy trying a few different ones to see what he likes the most

 

[Wez]

Hey T - Muntons Highland Heavy I think may be worth a look.

It's well documented on here that a few of us enjoy a few pints a night :thumb:

 

[percival]

Might be a good idea to create an account for him here too, he's bound to have lots of questions when he starts brewing ... we all did! There's heaps of good tips from folks here to help him along, although it'll probably be nothing more than reassurance that he needs while he finds his feet. That is assuming you are not an experienced brewer yourself :grin:

 

[derbyowl]

Basically all the 3kg kits will do the job very well indeed. Find what kind of beer he prefers and buy him a 3 kg kit for that kind of beer

 

[derbyowl]

BTW a great gift idea

 

[Wez]

Percival is right, like with most things in life, you "do know" how to do something but it's the confidence in your own ability/knowlegde that stops you doing it.

Good job we have an ace forum :thumb:

 

[toasted]

nice one wez il put that one on the list

to be honest percival hes a bit scared of pc`s i think and il most likely have to do most of it for him or atleast keep a eye on him doing it but its something hel enjoy and no doubt get into more as time goes by so he might join up in he future
this will also make it easier for ideas for xmas presents as i know hed love his own little mini bar with a pump and all that so il most likely end up knocking him one up for xmas
so il be sticking around for sure to try and learn more about it and suggest new things for him to try
i know bar possibly a half i wont be drinking it myself as im not realy into ale or even drinking that much , ive done my fair share and cant be doing with hangovers no more :sick:

so should i buy 3 complete kits or just something like the The Woodfords Wherry starter kit as that seems the most complete and then another 2 fermentation bins,2 barrels and 2 ale brew packs? is there anything else id need to get?

 

[Wez]

I'd say but the kit just to do 1 brew - see if he likes it :thumb: Wherry is a good kit but not like Mckew E

If you want him hooked get a 3kg kit :thumb: Try that Muntons kit

 

[percival]

to be honest percival hes a bit scared of pc`s i think

aren't we all :lol: :lol:
if you win something on the lottery you could get him a mac, much more intuitive, stable and user friendly, tho also more expensive

 

[BrewStew]

or a pc without windows (£100 saved, much cheaper than a mac) and go for Linux (not as hard to use as you think, especially with the likes of Ubuntu and Mint around nowadays).. not a dig at mac btw... i love mac as i do graphic design... they're just too damn expensive when Blender, Gimp, Openoffice, firefox, Thunderbird (the list of free and cross compatible software between windows, mac and linux goes on ) works on Linux

 

[toasted]

cheers Wez
im pretty sure hel like it, especialy when he goes camping and gets to sit back having a bbq and drinking his own brew
most of all i think hel love saving himself getting on 100 quid a month :grin:
i think il go with getting the 3 setups, buy the muntons 3kg kit and let him choose the other 2 kits so he feels hes had more input to it

i was going to start the first one for him in the next day or 3 so its not far off ready for him on his birthday and i could wrap the other 2 up
theres a shop in town so we can take him there on his bday to buy the other 2 kits and get them started straight away

do you think we will need to get barrels with the co2 cannister fittings or will they be ok with just a bit of sugar added after fermenting to prime it?

if i got him a pc it certainly wouldnt have winblows on it lol linux all the way for me proud ubuntu user although my mum has xp on hers
ive never tried mac but i know id like it for protools as im keen on music, thats ubuntu`s only downfall in my opinion im not keen on the music software its a bit buggy but this pc isnt that powerfull
im running ubuntu studio at the moment and havnt even managed to set it up to run midi with my 2 synths so im half tempted to dual boo win98 with cubase,acid and soundforge

 

[Wez]

I'd say get the kegs with c02 fittings (s30 valves) you will need a s30 cylinder too.

 

[BrewStew]

as a beginner dont worry about co2 cannisters etc to start with... just prime it and make DAMNED sure the lid is properly sealed (i've had trouble with it when i did kits) :thumb: (oops... we've got conflicting opinions now :? )

lids with S40 valves for C02 are cheap enough and can be swapped out without needing to buy another barrel at a later date

i was about to suggest ubuntu studio actually when i got halfway through reading your post. shame it's not working out... the key i've found is getting JACK to work properly as JACK is used by shed loads of audio software in linux.... i'm a fellow Ubuntian btw :thumb:

i use Ardour GTK2 for mixing tracks onto CD's for my car... and there's another one that's similar to Fruit loops but the name slips my mind.. i used it and though it was excellent, but wasn't what i was looking for so uninstalled it.

 

[tubby_shaw]

Just my opinion but, if he's going to be taking out 4 pints a night you are going to need a gas source other than priming sugar.
Get kegs with valves fitted and an S30 canister from the off.
There is nothing worse than having good beer available and not being able to serve it

 

[toasted]

well i was going to say thatl save a few quid on setup costs without the valve and he can buy that if he wants from his first months savings..... but hel end up eating his way through the plastic to get a the beer so i best get them with the valves by the sounds of it , cheers for that tubby_shaw

yea i found jack confusing all the ins/outs patching for midi but never realy took the time to read up on it
it might be more down to my pc not being fast enough to run some of the programs most i tried were way too glitchy, plus i always tend to spend more time learning new software than making music so in a way id like to go back to cubase and acid

gotta keep promoting ubuntu though, stop all that money going in to bills pocket :thumb:

 

[Vossy1]

The Brupaks pride of yorkshire kits are very good, Fixby Gold being a firm favourite when I made kits :thumb: