Evenin' all - first time tips required!

[CornishGreen]

Greetings all,
I'm a newbie to the forum. Having read previous posts with interest and discussed at length with like-minded friends, I have just purchased the Woodforde's Wherry starter kit from BrewUK. Eagerly anticipating its arrival and looking forward to unleashing the end product on friends at my stag do in May.

I'm particularly interested in whether I'll need to treat the liquor I use or at least get it up to a certain temperature for my brews (living in a soft water area with quite ferrous mains supply, BUT ALSO access to completely untreated borehole water as well). Also, trying to work out how critical (constant) temperature will be to getting a decent end result.

The kit I'm going to use comes with a keg rather than bottles, so I'm wondering whether I need a CO2 cannister to keep it pressurised as we work our way through it and as I'd like to bottle a few pints from each batch I make up, I'm wondering what the best and most cost effective bottle capper to buy might be and where to get it from.

Thoughts on these and any other common first time mistakes would be much appreciated!
Cheers!

 

[EskiBrew]

Hi and welcome to the forum :thumb:

I'm a newbie to the forum. Having read previous posts with interest and discussed at length with like-minded friends, I have just purchased the Woodforde's Wherry starter kit from BrewUK. Eagerly anticipating its arrival and looking forward to unleashing the end product on friends at my stag do in May.

The Wherry is a nice reliable kit so you are on the right track there as a starting kit. When you get your stuff, you'd do well to follow this guide.

I'm particularly interested in whether I'll need to treat the liquor I use or at least get it up to a certain temperature for my brews (living in a soft water area with quite ferrous mains supply, BUT ALSO access to completely untreated borehole water as well). Also, trying to work out how critical (constant) temperature will be to getting a decent end result.

With soft water, you are lucky as you'll be able to brew most beers more easily than those with very hard water. I'd stick to tap water because it is likely to have less organisms in the your bore hole water although as you will see in the guide, you are advised to remove the Chlorine and Chloramine from the water using either campden tablets or similar - very easy to do.

The kit I'm going to use comes with a keg rather than bottles, so I'm wondering whether I need a CO2 cannister to keep it pressurised as we work our way through it and as I'd like to bottle a few pints from each batch I make up, I'm wondering what the best and most cost effective bottle capper to buy might be and where to get it from.

The guide shows kegging. Whether you need gas depends how quickly you will consume it. If you are going to have a couple of pints a week, the CO2 is likely to be replaced naturally throughout the time you are drinking it meaning no CO2 required. If you will drink it more quickly then you are likely to need to add CO2 to gas it as you consume otherwise air can glug back through the tap which can cause rapid oxidation of the beer and bad tastes. If you are likely to consume it on one session (sounds likely for a stag do) then just release the cap to allow air to be drawn in from the top and let gravity push the beer out (assuming you have a bottom tap in the keg rather than a top tap). If you do have a top tap king keg for example, the gravity trick will not work so you will need CO2 to push the beer out.

Have fun and good luck with the wedding :thumb:

 

[bobsbeer]

Welcome. :

 

[joe1002]

Welcome to the forum :

 

[CornishGreen]

Thanks All.
Can't wait to get the brew up and running!