First Brew

[BennyBB]

So, I've been putting some equipment together and really eager to get going, My only brewing experience is a Weissbier i helped my brother with and some elderflower wine..
I've got a 35l boiling pot, with bag for BIAB
An outdoor gas burner
a few 5 gal fermenting buckets
some tubes, siphons, funnels and a spoon
a hydrometer..
some bottles/caps

So what can i make with what I've got so far? I'd like to make an IPA or even a NEIPA but the recipes look complicated to me, is there a good style for beginners to try first?

What should i think about getting next, I'm looking around for a 2nd hand fridge to build a fermentation chamber... not had much luck so far, might possibly buy new. Also thinking about kegs...

Also, what do people do with water, my bro used bottled water for the Weissbier, but can i use tap water, i found a report that says my water is moderately hard, see pic below. Could i use this with campden tablets to remove chlorine or better to stick to bottled?

 

[Dutto]

1. Write EVERYTHING down in a Journal for future reference.
2. Suggest a Wilko Bitter KIT to start. (Cheap, quick and if it goes wrong at least you won’t have wasted your time.)
3. Try laying out your gear before you start.
4. Don’t worry about a Brew Fridge just yet.

The photo is what I used before I went back to Kits.

Enjoy!
:hat:

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

It sounds like you want to go straight into all-grain rather than kits? There are lots of great kits out there that will make your brew day simple and short which might be of interest if you’re a busy parent trying to squeeze a brew into your day.

If you want to go down the all-grain route you can start with most things but a NEIPA might not be the best because it’s not an easy style to get right and the results might put you off. A nice bitter, pale ale, IPA, lager, stout, weissbier are all good contenders.

Your water isn’t bad but is more suited to beers other than lager which could do with being softer. You can dilute your tap water with bottled or even use 100% bottled if you want to brew a lager. Without a brew fridge though you will need to use a lager yeast suited to warmer temperatures like Mangrove Jacks M54 California lager yeast.

Assuming IPA is where you want to go you could try this. Start early in the morning and ideally do this outside because there will be a lot of steam.

Water : 30 litres of your tap water with one heaped teaspoon of Calcium Sulphate (gypsum) and 1/2 a crushed Campden tablet.

Put about 20-22 litres of treated water (above) into your boiler and heat it to 65C.

Put in your mesh bag and sprinkle in 5Kg of pre-crushed grain making sure to mix it well so you don’t get any dough balls forming. The grain could be half and half Pilsner malt and pale ale malt to give you a nice light colour. Soak (mash) the grain for an hour ( you can leave it as long as you like actually do by all means go off and do something else here). Make sure you wrap the boiler in a quilt or something that will hold the temperature.

Warm the remaining water to about 70C and put it in a bucket, the temperature isn’t critical but don’t take it above about 75C. Lift your bag of grain out of the boiler and put it in the bucket of water you just prepared. You’re trying to get any residual sugars in the grain into the water do feel free to give it a stir or dunk it a few times. Lift the bag and put it on an oven grill over the bucket to drain. When you’ve captured as much as you’re likely to (you can give the bag a gentle squeeze but don’t wring it out), dispose of the grain and add the water in your bucket to the water in your boiler.

Bring the sugary water (wort) in your boiler to a rolling boil and just let it boil with the lid off or partially off for about 20 minutes. In another mesh bag (a mesh veg bag from the supermarket will do just fine) put 25g of Mosaic hops and put this in the boiling wort using the string to anchor the bag because you’re going to add some more hops shortly. After another 20 minutes (total 40 min boil) add another 25g of Mosaic hops into the bag. 20 minutes later (boil has now been for an hour) turn off the heat and remove the hops. Allow the wort to cool to about 80C. When the wort has cooled to about 80C add the remaining 50g of Mosaic to the hop bag and put this in the wort. After 30 minutes remove the hop bag and allow the wort to cool to 20C - this might take until the next day.

ALL THE EQUIPMENT THAT TOUCHES THE BEER FROM THIS POINT MUST BE SANITISED.

Put the wort into a fermenting bucket and take a hydrometer reading, you’re looking for something like 1.050 but anywhere near is great. Sprinkle a couple of packs of yeast into the wort - Mangrove Jacks M36 Liberty Bell is one of my favourites. You didn’t say if you have a bubble trap - fit it if you have one, just place the lid loosely on the bucket if you don’t (put a bubble trap on your shopping list). Put the fermenting bucket somewhere where the temperature is fairly stable at around 20C and no one is going to mess with it. Ideally place the bucket on a tray in case the foam from the yeast (krausen) spills over. Don’t keep opening the lid to see what’s going on because this will expose your beer to oxygen and that might spoil the beer.

After 7 days tip in 50g of Citra hops and put the lid back (loosely if you don’t have a bubble trap). 3 days later syphon the finished beer into another bucket for bottling. Take another hydrometer reading using a sanitised hydrometer.

Your bottles need to be sanitised and you will have to add priming sugar to the beer but we need to know how much beer you have so we’ll pick up at that point.

 

[BennyBB]

Thanks both for the advice, i do want to try all grain rather than kits, just to get a more home-made feeling, although i might go to wilko and give a kit a try too.
I do have some bubble air locks, i can also borrow a spiral chiller.
If weather permits i'll plan a brew day next weekend