LarryF
Brew Numpty
Hello all, just a quick post to say Hi, and run my plans for my first brew past you all and please feel free to give any advice you can. I'd much rather any hardship in the process before I start brewing rather than when I'm having my first taste. Anyway, I've been scouting around on here and on Youtube about how to do my first brew, I've decided to go with the Coopers kit as a first outing but as with all the best laid plans I've had to adapt. I had been looking at the Coopers starter kit with Tesco Direct for £52 which was by far the best price I could find but it's just permanently out of stock but I still want to go with the Coopers. I found a starter kit on Ebay for £37.95:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Home-Brew...pt=UK_Home_Garden_Food_SM&hash=item35ddb93b3e
These guys have clocked up nearly 80,000 sales with 100% feed back so I'm going to chance it. For the rest I went back to Tesco direct and I've managed to get :
2 x Coopers carbonation drops for - £4.43
2 x Coopers brew enhancer No.1 - £8.25
24 x Oxbar 500ml bottles (with caps) - £7.13
2 x Coopers DIY starter kit lager - £20.25
2 x 1l Milton Sterilizing fluid - £4.90
This gives me a grand total of £82.91 which I'm hoping should see me through my first two brew and if Coopers themselves are to be believed and I get forty pints a go that's a £1 a pint (and it's been a very long time since I paid a £1 a pint for anything). At the moment it's totaling at £16.47 or there about for my subsequent brews.
My two main concerns are firstly sterilization, everybody stresses how important that is, everything that will touch the beer has to be sterilized correctly, right down to sterilizing the tin opener you open the malt extract with. My worry is getting it right and not screwing up my brew but in the absence of a coach I'll go overboard and just give it my best shot. Secondly, I do have a concern about temperature, being December/January in London and with an empty house during the day I'm worried about the brewing process slowing down on the colder days but I suppose that I'll have to see how that goes unless anyone has any ideas about cheap heating pads or bands. Would this just be a case of the process slowing down this time of year but still completing eventually?
Any tips or suggestions would be very welcome and if there are any links within the forum that you think I should be reading as a complete novice please point them out.
I haven't started ordering anything as of yet but I am fair chomping at the bit to get going but I will wait for any feedback I get before doing so.
Thanks in advance,
LarryF.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Home-Brew...pt=UK_Home_Garden_Food_SM&hash=item35ddb93b3e
These guys have clocked up nearly 80,000 sales with 100% feed back so I'm going to chance it. For the rest I went back to Tesco direct and I've managed to get :
2 x Coopers carbonation drops for - £4.43
2 x Coopers brew enhancer No.1 - £8.25
24 x Oxbar 500ml bottles (with caps) - £7.13
2 x Coopers DIY starter kit lager - £20.25
2 x 1l Milton Sterilizing fluid - £4.90
This gives me a grand total of £82.91 which I'm hoping should see me through my first two brew and if Coopers themselves are to be believed and I get forty pints a go that's a £1 a pint (and it's been a very long time since I paid a £1 a pint for anything). At the moment it's totaling at £16.47 or there about for my subsequent brews.
My two main concerns are firstly sterilization, everybody stresses how important that is, everything that will touch the beer has to be sterilized correctly, right down to sterilizing the tin opener you open the malt extract with. My worry is getting it right and not screwing up my brew but in the absence of a coach I'll go overboard and just give it my best shot. Secondly, I do have a concern about temperature, being December/January in London and with an empty house during the day I'm worried about the brewing process slowing down on the colder days but I suppose that I'll have to see how that goes unless anyone has any ideas about cheap heating pads or bands. Would this just be a case of the process slowing down this time of year but still completing eventually?
Any tips or suggestions would be very welcome and if there are any links within the forum that you think I should be reading as a complete novice please point them out.
I haven't started ordering anything as of yet but I am fair chomping at the bit to get going but I will wait for any feedback I get before doing so.
Thanks in advance,
LarryF.
