First ever AG brew - advice needed

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ben9792

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Having been recommended this recipe for my first AG. I need to buy some new kit, but have a few things from past brews I have done. Here's a list of what I think I'm going to need, with a few questions. Please let me know if i'm forgetting anything, and if you can help with my questions that would be great!

http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=51779&page=2

Demijohn - Will I need 2 to help make bottling easier?
Air trap
Maris otter 1 kg, and Hops. Choosing Amarillo, as this was one of the hops in a recent beer I had.
Yeast - is there much difference between them, how do I choose?
Big Pan and Thermometer
Large Sieve
Hydrometer - What should the final gravity be, and approximately how long will this take?
LCD thermometer for the side of the Demijohn - what temp does it need to be kept at?
Brew Belt - Does it need to be kept in a dark room, if so I will need a brew belt to keep it up to temp, my "dark rooms" are all quite cold.
Funnel to get it into the Demijohn
Bottles - will I need to add sugar to give it fizz?
Syphon

Quite a long list with lots of questions, apologies! Hopefully this will help others too though.

Oh, and can anybody recommend a good youtube video to watch for guidance, the link to the video in the original post is missing.
 
DJ - You wont really need two to bottle such a small amount but having two might be useful in the future

Yeast - Differerent yeasts will make a huge difference to the final beer -I'd go for either US-05 yeast or Nottingham/GervinG12/Wilko ale (all the same yeast different name). As they're both clean yeast which will let the amarillo flavour come through.

Brew Belt - Beer doesn't need to be kept in the dark just out of direct sunlight. How cold is it in your dark room/brewing area? Ideally you should ferment at 18C-20 but US-05/Notty have a large temp range. so can be fermented at colder temps but will take longer to ferment. Consistancy of temp (no large temp swings) is what your aiming for. Brewbelt can be a bit of a faff as you have to kee moving them up and down the DJ. A popular way to keep fermentations warm in winter is using a water bath and an aquarium water heater

Hydrometer - Based on 70% efficiency and 75% yeast attenuation, the OG will be 1.044 and the FG 1.011.

Bottles - Yes you'll need sugar to carbonate your bottles. Ordinary table sugar is fine

Edit: A lot of people work on the 2+2+2 principle. Two weeks to ferment, two weeks in the warm to carb up,two week in the cold for further conditioning
 
Thanks for the reply!

Can I bottle straight from the DJ, or will I need something for bottling to avoid catching sediment?

I'll have to take a measurement of the temps in a few rooms around the house, but water bath sounds like quite a good idea, keeps the fish tank heater out of the brew, which previously caused one of my brews to go bad. Too many parts I couldnt reach to clean properly :( I could actually buy a brewing bucket, which would double as a water bath and could be used for bottling!

For the 2 weeks in the warm to carb up, what sort of temp is that? 18-20 again?
 
Yes, you can bottle straight from the DJ. Most 'beer syphoning kits' include a racking cane that has a sediment trap on the end. You can buy em for about £2 from wilko.

Right, 18C-20C to carb up then put the bottles in one of your colder rooms
 
Im shopping around for some Malt and yeast - already found hops on ebay for a good price.

Only problem is, the shipping is more than the ingredients for the small quantities I need. On ebay, they are all quite expensive. I've checked all the sites we get discounts for on the forum too.

Any pointers where is good to try? I visited my local brew shop and he doesnt sell Malts, hes closing down sadly so is just selling old stock
 
I'm going to Wilko this week to get the rest of the kit, so thats perfect!

Thanks for the ebay link, I had searched on ebay but didnt come across that one.

I've found a HBS in a town close to me, so I will give them a call too. But at the price it is on ebay, it wont be worth my travel cost unless I go there for another reason.
 
It is 4.5, but the recipe says I need 5L. So Im not sure if the 4.5 is an under-estimated!
 
Would the rear left DJ be a good guide for me to use, leaving enough room for foam?

also, whats that floating on the top of the others? Hops? The recipe I have has me taking the hops ok, guessing this is a different method to make it more hoppy?
 
I would say the far right dj is good. They have hops floating in them yes, this is dry hopping, worry about that later, it's not necessary, it just adds more hop aroma. But is fiddly when bottling from a dj.
 

If you want to save a couple of quid (to off-set the cost of the malt) don't even bother with an air lock, I've never used one. Just Cover the top with cling film held on with an elastic band. Thats what i do with all my FV's and is what I do when I make the odd 5L brew in my 5L jerry cans. I do however sanise the cling film with star san non rinse sanitser* in a spray bottle just in case the foam (krausen) touches the cling film and drops back into the beer. You could get around this (as you dont have any star san) by putting some tin foil in the oven for 40 mins at 150C and use that instead of cling film

* on your list of things to buy you'll need something to sanitise everything. When I started out I used milton fluid. You just need to rinse it thoroughly. You could save some money though by using heat to santise. Anything that wont melt (e.g. DJs) put in the oven for 40mins at 150c any thing that will melt, boil for 15mins
 
When I use a dj I just put a piece of foil over the top and scrunch it down tight around the top. Gas escapes ok.
 

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