Youngs APA microbrewery kit

BrewMonkey · Oct 25, 2014

Hi all,

I bought a youngs APA microbrewery kit yesterday from Bilston homebrew and I am intending to get it going either today or tomorrow but I am still in the information gathering stage. From what I have read so far I am going to use bottled water as the water around here has a distinct chlorine smell. I am also going to get an immersion heater and put the brewing container in an old small chest freezer in the garage and wrap it in old clothes. Any tips you guys can put my well will be most welcome.

Thanks to everyone on here as I have learned loads already and I know I have only scratched the surface.

Thanks guys. :razz:

Kenny

Dads_Ale · Oct 25, 2014

Sorry didn't complete my reply to your other thread.

You may be able to remove the chlorine smell in your mains water by using campden tablets.

BrewMonkey · Oct 25, 2014

Dads_Ale said:
Welcome to the forum and good luck with your brew.

Regarding fermentation as long as you can find somewhere that is about 18c to 20c then it should be fine (most yeast work between 12c and 25c). I use my study :-)
Cleanliness is also important so don't scrimp on cleaning and sterilisation. I use a combination of VWP (cleaning and sterilisation) and StarSan (sterilisation before use).

Cheers :

Hi Dads_Ale,

Thanks for your replies. Chippy_tea split my welcome post to make it more relevant. My need for brewing in the garage is down to the wife not wanting it in the house so I think I may be stuck with the garage unfortunately... :| I was going to go for an immersion style heater as they seem to have a built in temperature controller set to about 22 degrees C which would take some of the worry out of the fermenting stage with the temperature dropping outside now.

I like the sound of the campden tablets instead of lugging water from the supermarket. I did see that somewhere in a guide on here but I can't find the guide again to find out how many I would need for 23L of water. half a teaspoon rings a bell? Any pointers would be very welcome.

Thanks

BrewMonkey · Dec 12, 2014

Well after quite a bit of waiting and testing of my patience I have pulled my first pint of home brew from my keg and just finished it. It was pretty clear with a really good head and nice lacing. The taste is hoppy with quite a decent bitter finish. Nice amount of carbonation and the mouth feel isn't bad at this temperature (6C straight from my garage) The strong hop aroma that I experienced when I kegged it has pretty much all gone which is a little bit disappointing but the flavour makes up for it.

My SG was 1.050 and it finished at 1.006 which according to my brewing calc app puts it app 5.63% pre carb which isn't bad but is a bit off the claimed 6.5% strength of the kit.

Overall I am pretty pleased with my first attempt and I am well and truly hooked on brewing. I have a wherry cold crashing in the garage at the moment which looks finished at 1.014 (SG 1.041-3.5% pre carb) so I am going to bottle the wherry to get some experience of bottling so I can keep my FV in use when my keg is full.

I must thank everyone on here who shares their experiences and information as it has been a great help.

Thanks everyone. :razz:

mirsultankhan · Dec 13, 2014

BrewMonkey said:
Well after quite a bit of waiting and testing of my patience I have pulled my first pint of home brew from my keg and just finished it. It was pretty clear with a really good head and nice lacing. The taste is hoppy with quite a decent bitter finish. Nice amount of carbonation and the mouth feel isn't bad at this temperature (6C straight from my garage) The strong hop aroma that I experienced when I kegged it has pretty much all gone which is a little bit disappointing but the flavour makes up for it.

My SG was 1.050 and it finished at 1.006 which according to my brewing calc app puts it app 5.63% pre carb which isn't bad but is a bit off the claimed 6.5% strength of the kit.

Overall I am pretty pleased with my first attempt and I am well and truly hooked on brewing. I have a wherry cold crashing in the garage at the moment which looks finished at 1.014 (SG 1.041-3.5% pre carb) so I am going to bottle the wherry to get some experience of bottling so I can keep my FV in use when my keg is full.

I must thank everyone on here who shares their experiences and information as it has been a great help.

Thanks everyone. :razz:

thats awesome, congratulations :grin: