What would you ask for?

[Tony C]

I mainly brew cider, turbo and aunatural, and wine kits when I can afford them.
But would love to have a go at ale, it's what I drink in the pub.
But haven't brewed beer since the days of Boots being the only place to buy the kits from.
A chat with one of my in-laws came up with the fact he works in a brewery and could get me anything I wanted.

So what would you ask for?
What equipment am I going to need and what would be a good simple recipe to start with?

Cheers TC

 

[An Ankoù]

A chat with one of my in-laws came up with the fact he works in a brewery and could get me anything I wanted.

So what would you ask for?

I'd ask for a cask of their very finest once a week.

or, even better: The hand of the head brewers daughter.

Joking aside, is it likely they're going to have small-scale ie 20-30 litre batch equipment going begging? They may have hydrometers, testing cylinders and stuff like that, but I would think your outlaw was suggesting malt and hops and yeast. Very much worth having.

 

[fury_tea]

If you are going to be extract brewing from kits, I'd definitely suggest asking him what hops, specialty grains and yeast he can get hold of for you.

 

[Clint]

You can brew some great beer from kits...have a look at the Young's range.

 

[Tony C]

Sorry, it was the ingredients, not equipment he was offering.

 

[Clint]

I'd go with a SMASH...Single Malt And Single Hop..
5kg of Maris otter...hops depending on what type of ale you like.... EKG,fuggles in a UK style,or you could do cascade, Amarillo for an American style..the list is endless really.

 

[Hengoedbrewer]

Definitely some hops; especially if they have some of the more expensive / harder to find stuff, like Citra / Galaxy, and free malt not to be sniffed at either.

 

[Tony C]

Thanks to everyone for their answers, I guess I need to look into what goes into making beer without a kit.
Read some more and then ask more specific questions.

Cheers TC