Hello from Kent... 12 hours to go...

[bradkb]

:

Wifey and my 11 month old son bought me the best present for xmas a dad who likes Ales could ask for, one I have been tempted to try for years but never had the bottle (pardon the pun).

Now at the ripe old age of 40 the wife thought I should join the homebrew brigade, and she bought me a Tom Caxton real Ale kit, and yesterday I ordered all the bits I will need to bottle. Much prefer bottles over a keg, as I only drink maybe 1-2 pints a night.

Already have my eyes on the next kit, looking at the St Peters IPA or Golden Ale kit, maybe both.

Cant believe how much I have spent on kit, but I know its going to last and I will get my moneys worth out of it. Wife knows she has lost me again to another hobby, and if its like any of the others she knows if I enjoy it, all hope is lost!

As the title says... 12 hours to go... until all my kit is here and I can start :)

Really cannot wait to start brewing. Only concern is I am a geek, full time, and I have a server and PC in my cellar on 24 hours a day, because of that the ambient temperature in the cellar is 21 C, is this too warm? Or should I start a thread in the relevant section?

So ... Hi all, and let the brewing start!

Brad

 

[Wendy1971]

Hi and welcome to a great freindly and helpful forum :thumb:

 

[dennisking]

Hi and welcome.

 

[oz11]

Hello from Tonbridge :

 

[PD]

Welcome. 21C ambient is near enough perfect for brewing beer. As long as its a steady temps. Beers don't like the temps going up and down like a groom...well they just don't.

I dont know what gear you have but you say your a bit of a geek, so I would suggest that you have a hydrometer to use (£3 ) they are a wonderful piece of equipment that can tell you a lot about the progress of your beer.
Also collect when you can some spare fermenting vessels of around 30 litres they dont have to have taps fitted but they do come in handy when moving beer around. Also an auto syphon will be invaluable if you don't have taps fitted so as you can get the beer out without disturbing the sediment.
Enjoy your brewing and look forward to some very good cheap bears.
From kits, always try and go for the toucan kits, better quality and no extra sugars to add.

 

[joe1002]

Welcome to the forum :

 

[bradkb]

Thanks all.

piddledribble - good to know about the temp, actually went a bit mad, bought FV with vent, bubbler, and little bottler, bottle tree and desktop bottler.

Bottles - no probs, got 48 of them.

Next month may splash out for a keg, not sure yet, like the idea of being able to top up the C02 levels.

Can see me enjoying this, love tasty and different ales. Also bought some beer enhancer, and spray malt to have an experiment with.

All kit arrives tomorrow.

 

[bobsbeer]

Welcome and good luck with your first brew. Come to the Spring Thing. Some great beers and a great time with other home brewers. :

 

[BeerEagle]

Hello from West Malling. Whereabouts in Kent are you?

 

[bradkb]

Gillingham

 

[BeerEagle]

If you're interested, the nearest home brew club meets at the Bottle Shop in the Goods Shed at Canterbury West (straight train journey for you) on the first Wednesday of the month (this month it's late - tomorrow) at about 7:30. Twitter @EKAB
Mike

 

[bradkb]

If you're interested, the nearest home brew club meets at the Bottle Shop in the Goods Shed at Canterbury West (straight train journey for you) on the first Wednesday of the month (this month it's late - tomorrow) at about 7:30. Twitter @EKAB
Mike

Sounds good, dont think I will make it tonight, wife is down with Bronchitis and my 11 month son is down with a cold and fever!

Dont think I will be starting my first brew today as planned when all the kit arrives...

 

[bradkb]

Disappointed to say the least this morning.

My delivery arrived, and there has been a number of screw ups, only 24 bottles delivered instead of 48, the FV does not have the grommit on the lid, and no hole for it, and the bottle tree is not in the package either.

FFS... what is wrong with these people... how hard can it be to package an order? Still at least there were no broken bottles.

GRRRRRR....

 

[Kyle_T]

Hard luck pal, thats just landed you with a morning full of phone calls. I much prefer to find a local shop and buy direct, Welcome to the forum anywho.

 

[guyb]

Disappointed to say the least this morning.

My delivery arrived, and there has been a number of screw ups, only 24 bottles delivered instead of 48, the FV does not have the grommit on the lid, and no hole for it, and the bottle tree is not in the package either.

FFS... what is wrong with these people... how hard can it be to package an order? Still at least there were no broken bottles.

GRRRRRR....

Don't worry, you'll soon get into the groove, reading your post made me remember my first order..ooh, it was like waiting for Santa!!

if you need a grommit, I've got a few spare, just let me know etc. :thumb:

 

[keith1664]

I suggest you don't worry about the missing grommet and hole and get the kit on while you chase up the other missing bits. Airlocks are something a lot of us don't bother with ( though others won't do without them ), basically the lid on your bucket isn't airtight anyway so the CO2 will find it's way out and not a lot else will find it's way in.
This does however change if your beer's going to spend a long time in the FV.

 

[bradkb]

Well the shop I ordered from were great, they immediately without question shipped out the missing items from the order by next day courier and Thursday evening I made my first kit!

Its the Tom Caxton Real ale - cant remember if I put it further up the thread.

But after reading many posts I decided to experiment on my first brew. I had bought brewing sugar, but also bought mild spraymalt and beer enhancer, so instead of brewing sugar, put in 500g of spraymalt and 500g of beer enhancer.

Added pretty much all of the hop packet as well that came with the kit, and transferred the bucket to my cellar to ferment, its pretty much constant 20/21 C in the cellar, and the first evening I started to get worried, not much was happening, checked it before bed and still not much.

When I came home from work Friday, wow.. what a head! looks like the yeast was very busy while I was at work.

Going to leave it until tomorrow evening at least and take a sample and check the gravity. Took an initial reading, so looking forward to seeing what it has got to. Will do a few readings over the week and possibly bottle next weekend.

You guys think it would be ok being in the FV for 10 days? Is that too long?

 

[joe1002]

So you brewed this on Thursday right?

I know it is hard, particularly when it is your first brew but you are better off leaving it well alone for at least 10 days, then take a hydrometer reading :thumb:

Patience is rule number 1 with brewing (along with sterilising :lol: )

 

[BeerEagle]

So you brewed this on Thursday right?

I know it is hard, particularly when it is your first brew but you are better off leaving it well alone for at least 10 days, then take a hydrometer reading :thumb:

Patience is rule number 1 with brewing (along with sterilising :lol: )

+1 to the above. The more often you open the FV the more chance there is that some little nasties will get in there.

 

[bradkb]

Thanks all.

Going to leave it until Friday and then draw off a sample to test, and do the same Saturday and Sunday, and if stable and good start bottling Sunday.

The FV has a tap/little bottler fitted, so should be easy enough. At the moment the FV is sat on my Black and Decker workmat in the cellar, so plenty of room around it to bottle.

Really looking forward to it.