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For what it's worth, I'd say no, after having bought a bottle tree, rinser, and a range of no-rinse sanitisers last year. The bottle tree makes great storage - but I don't actually use it for sanitised bottles awaiting filling. I mostly use Grolsch bottles with swing tops (which also need...

Yup, 3 weeks in primary then straight to prime & bottle is what the last few brews have had (including 2 Czech Pilsners as it goes... both slow to condition but came out fine using pretty much exactly the same method you describe). Never let me down, either. I'm wondering when (and if) these...

I have 2 kits on the go, both started just over a week ago and fermentation is slowing down. I don't have a usable hydrometer, so my normal procedure in the past has been to leave it alone until there are no bubbles from the airlock for a while, plus a day or two, then rack it into another...

Yes, that's expensive. Last year I replaced my buckets with Brewferm 30L bins, £13.92 apiece including the airlock and tap. Very pleased with them; the stock taps accept a push-on bottle filling stick (i.e. a Little Bottler type) which is more convenient than using one on the end of a syphon.

Bottles are definitely more convenient than barrels for lager, because a) they hold a higher CO2 pressure, you'll struggle to achieve the carbonation you want for a lager in a pressure barrel. Expect to go through a lot of CO2 in the process. b) they fit conveniently in a fridge - lager wants...

This afternoon, it's time to get a couple of kits on the go. I'll document it here for comments, suggestions, future reference. My planned brews are: Brewferm Pils, an old favourite, double batch Bulldog Hammer of Thor, my first foray into Bulldog kits Both should hopefully be fairly easy /...

I have a bottle rinser, and a bottle tree. Then I realised that neither one is optimal for Grolsch bottles with swing tops, which is mostly what I use. Full submersion in 20L of StarSan may be a little messy/wet, but it seems to have yielded a 100% success rate so far. I debated making better...

Another +1 for StarSan, used it on 3 batches last year and all three were great. Also, a note: the previous advice "don't fear the foam" can be taken quite literally. It works fine as a no-rinse, no-drain, no-wait sanitiser. Using Grolsch bottles and wanting to sterilise bottle, cap and washer...

Time to de-lurk, I suppose, since I got around to signing up for the forum. I'm not new to home brewing, but I'm definitely a kit brewer (ales and lagers) as opposed to starting my own brewery. Last year's brews (Brewferm Oud Vlaams Bruin and a couple of Czech Pilsners) all went down very well...