Got my gear

[TartanSpecial]

,she likes Ikea..Me though,i would rather chew my own face off than go there ever again.

+1 +10 +100 :lol:

 

[Godsdog]

This is what I use for a general temp reading the little digital thermometer,less than £3 off ebay,I attatch it to the outside of the FV half way down from the top level of the wort and use 2 elestic bands pulled around the FV fastened together with a plastic clothes peg and tuck the probe underneath it,I find them pretty accurate and OK for monitoring the tempature of the wort to keep it from getting too warm,even though the kits say between 18 and 28

 

[Davdandy]

Thanks again guys,The thermometer will be bought over the weekend,i am only going to start the brew next week anyway so i can enjoy the big day and watch Wizard of Oz.:mrgreen:

I will be bottling for now,got a few saved up and downed a few last night.(hic). :drink:

When i get more experience will bottling be the best method or keg it,keg seems the easier option but you are the experts not me?

 

[terrym]

Bottling more fiddly, and unless you batch prime (look this up) you have to be precise with your priming sugar additions to each bottle. And unless you use screw caps you will probably need a capping tool. And they take up more space. However the advantage of bottles is that you can put them in the fridge before serving if you need to, say in the summer, and you can take them other places if you want to.
Pressure barrels (PBs) are a lot easier. The cheapest barrel is usually the Youngs which is currently in stock and on offer from Tesco Direct at �£18.50, but they come without a CO2 injection system. That's not a problem since you just prime as normal, but you may have to add more priming sugar if the top pressure runs out. That's what I use. If you want gas injection as well there are two sorts one using smallish capsules of CO2, the other from a larger cylinder, There are other sorts of PB available and as you get more sophisticated the price goes up (surprise, surprise).
And there are other methods of storing your beer including easykegs/minikegs and Cornys but that's another story.

 

[clibit]

Barrels are easier probably, though I don't find bottling a big hassle now I have refined my method.

If something goes wrong with a barrel you can lose all the beer in it, infection or leak for example. And serving cool beer is tricky in summer.

There are pros and cons of both bottles and barrels.

Mini kegs seem like a good option, 5 litres, and you can buy a tap system that includes a CO2 injector. The CO2 maintains the pressure abd protects the beer from oxidation. They fit in the fridge. The tap system is quite pricey at about �£37 I think, but the kegs are about �£7 each. You could keg part of a batch and bottle the rest.

 

[LarryF]

http://m.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/art/20103016/

I use one of these mate. Every brew you do will make you a better brewer - as I am fond of saying 'every day is a school day'.

You've mentioned this thermometer a couple of times now MM, it's definitely on my hit list. As I very slowly edge towards the dark side I think I need to upgrade from the £1.99 ebay thermometer.

 

[Davdandy]

Got a few more bottles readying for my first brew.Just need a few more so i`ll have to drink more at home.Oh,the suffering.:drunk:

 

[Davdandy]

From your photo you seem to have bought a 1.5kg Youngs kit and 1 kg brewing sugar.
If you use those ingredients alone to make up your brew and go to the full 40 pints you will probably end up with quite a 'thin' bitter lacking in body. There isn't really enough malt in what you may have bought, one reason being that the Youngs one can kit is only 1.5kg.
To get round this I suggest you use all of the kit contents, but only half (0.5kg) of the brewing sugar and only make your brew up to 15 litres. This will give you something with an OG of about 1.042 and an abv of around 4% which is quite respectable, and the brewing sugar won't have drowned out the malt. The slight downside may be it will turn out slightly more hoppy than the 40 pint version, because you have concentrated your brew, but you may not worry about that.
Your wild card option is to get down to Holland and Barratt and buy two 0.5kg jars of their liquid Malt Extract and use that with the kit and 0.5 kg brewing sugar and make it up to 40 pints. I have used H&B malt before and its OK for brewing. This will give you a better balanced brew with an OG of about 1.040.

Which of the H&B malt extracts would you recommend.I can see that there are a few on offer,one being a Meridian barley malt for example for £1.99,another a H&B one at £2.65.

 

[terrym]

Which of the H&B malt extracts would you recommend.I can see that there are a few on offer,one being a Meridian barley malt for example for �£1.99,another a H&B one at �£2.65.

I have only used the H&B one. The Meridian one is (from their website) 'An extract of organic barley and organic malted barley which contains a complex mix of carbohydrates, trace elements and vitamins' and is probably not suitable for home brewing, so I would steer clear of it.

 

[Davdandy]

Once i have done the process and start to bottle how should i carb the bottles,add sugar or tablets and how much per bottle.Currently i have a few San Miguel 330ml bottles at the ready?

 

[Davdandy]

Ok chaps,i now have a Hydrometer and thermometer,some finings and carb drops and a few other bits and bobs.Going to make my first brew this weekend,been a tad busy over Chrimbo so starting later than intended.

I also bought a tin of Mexican cerveza from Wilko,so which should i try first,the Young's bitter or the cerveza?

I have saved a lot of 333ml bottles,San Miguels to be precise.When i get to bottling would one carb drop be enough for each bottle?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Davdandy]

A cheeky bump.

 

[Dads_Ale]

Afraid I don't use carb drops but prime my bottles with brewing sugar (batch prime with sugar syrup) at the rate of 4g per litre

 

[Davdandy]

By batch prime do you mean you add the sugar to the mix in the fv just before bottling?

Sorry if i sound a numpty.

 

[Dads_Ale]

Not quite. I use a bottling bucket.
I transfer the beer from the FV (syphon or via tap depending on which FV I am using) into the bottling bucket that has a sugar water mix in. Once the beer is in I stir gently to mix and then bottle.
I have two bottling buckets depending on the volume of beer for bottling - one is a 10l FV with tap added, the other a King Keg. In both cases I use a little bottler connected to the tap with a short bit of silicone hose (gives flexibility when tipping the bucket to get the last of the beer out.

 

[ManseMasher]

I use a second bucket to bottle from. I make up the required amount of sugar into a syrup by boiling it in some water. I then cool it to the same temp as the beer, syphon from the fv into the syrup (try to keep the end of the syphon under the liquid so as not to introduce o2), then bottle from the second bucket, with a bottling wand attached to the tap. Doing it this way means every bottle gets the same amount of priming, and I find it a lot easier than priming every bottle.

 

[Davdandy]

Got it,thanks DadsAle. and ManseMasher

I might try the cerveza first if that is ok as my virgin brew.As i currently drink San Miguel it would be the logical step i think.Though bitter is my drink round the boozers.

 

[Dads_Ale]

I must admit that I bottles straight from the FV (adding sugar solution to each bottle) for many brews without a problem.

Good luck :)

 

[Davdandy]

How much sugar should i add per 330ml bottle?

 

[ManseMasher]

http://www.brewersfriend.com/beer-priming-calculator/