Hello from Bolton

Hi all, my wife bought me my first brewing kit at christmas, a Wilkinson's/Young's Lager kit which I bottled last night.

I finally decided to take a look around for some more information beyond the crappy instructions on the box which led me here. Bit worried about my brew now as it now appears that I should have taken the instructions with a heavy pinch of salt and 1 week fermenting isn't necessarily enough. Still, it smelled good, so finger's crossed!

Also, pretty ticked off that I now discover that the bottles need to be left for closer to 2 months than the 2 days that the instructions specified, so I guess getting good at this brewing lark isn't going to be a quick process

Already thinking about my next brew, looking for something as simple (open can, add water etc) as this one was, but a golden ale rather than lager (eww). Some of the recipes I've looked at on here sound awesome, and I definitely want to try my hand at tinkering with some of my own, but for now I'll keep it simple until I've got the fermenting/bottling process nailed down.

If anyone can point me towards a simple kit that tastes anything like any of the beers below then I'd really appreciate that.

(Greene King) Old Golden Hen
(Greene King) St Edmunds
(Badgers) Hopping Hare
(Badgers) Golden Glory
(Badgers) Golden Champion
Black Sheep

and finally, I haven't been able to find a guide that tells me what all the damn acronyms you guys are using mean.. FV means Fermenting Vat presumably, but that's about as much as I've figured out. Any help appreciated.

guess I found the glossary then :)

Welcome! I'm not that far away (Warrington)!

Not experienced enough to recommend kits that match those beers but i would suggest having a read through the kit reviews section viewforum.php?f=58
the only issue being some of the reviews are that great you will find yourself brewing a few more than expected!

As your experience grows in homebrewing you may find as I did how poor commercial brews can be sometimes. The beauty of homebrewing is that you can quite easily make better beer than you buy in a pub.

Don't take my word for this there are quite a few testaments on this forum and others to the fact. I use commercial brews these days more as research when I'm looking for a direction to go.

If you stick with the hobby you will probably find that you will want to migrate from kits to either extract or All Grain brewing, its once you do that and get some experience of those brewing methods that can really make some incredible beers.

I have been brewing for a while now and still make kits as they can also be a great basis for experimentation (adding hops, adding malt extract, try brewing short and trying different yeasts) there is a big canvas out there to play with. Homebrewing is a bit of a spectrum with kits at one end and AG at the other with lots of interesting stop off points in between

Good luck with your beer making but most of all you must have fun and share it with friends and family. :thumb:

Welcome to the forum Snetty and remember there are no silly questions only silly answers!

Hi and welcome.

Welcome :)

Hi and welcome :