Hello from Newbury!

[sevorg]

Hi everybody! I've just signed up to the forum, having been lurking for the last few weeks, and thought it only polite to say "Hello".

I returned to home brewing a couple of years back with a number of Brupaks kits, and a couple of other two-can brands. I thought these were excellent compared with the kits of my youth, but I could still discern they were kits.

I'm presently playing with some Festival kits, drinking Landlord, fermenting my second Gold (having finished off the first one last week) and also have their IPA and Porter waiting patiently in the production line. I have to say the Gold is the single best kit I have ever brewed, and has changed my perception of kits completely. The Landlord is also proving to be an amusing glug!

I've done a couple of all grain brews with my Brother-in-law in the past and in my opinion this is the ideal if time and a bit of capital are available. AG is my goal and to this end I'm researching the various ideas for when I get more free time to build the equipment myself. In the meantime the Festival is a very good compromise.

I have taken the first step towards improving my game by building a fermenting fridge last week after getting the idea from this excellent forum. Thanks to everyone for sharing their knowledge and ideas!

 

[Dads_Ale]

Welcome to the forum.

AG does give you the opportunity to put your own twist on a beer,

 

[JamesMcS]

Hi, welcome, I'm a newbie too - going through the kits at the minute myself but doing a lot of research into brew in a bag.

I can definitely recommend the bulldog kits, the hop tea bags make a real difference IMHO

 

[mac.eightball]

screw the kits, go ag right off the bat, thats what i did and havent looked back, i bought graham wheelers book and followed that fir the first few brews, 12 months in and im creating my own recipes and they are great (mostly...)

 

[sevorg]

Thank you for the welcomes. I would like to go AG straight away, the few I have done with other brewers have been fantastic. I just need fewer working hours... I do have a plan but it will be a couple of months before it all comes together.

 

[JamesMcS]

Have you used both gas and electric? I can't decide if electric will be better for me - I may not have used thick enough cable when electrifying the shed...

 

[mac.eightball]

gas and electric are two very different beasts, you have more control over gas but its not as efficient, electric is easy, i just use 40l hot water boilers with modified taps and bazookas on them, the only thing you have to do is change the thermal cut out, very simple. I bought Buffalo boilers and they run off normal mains circuits, if you want more gen then shout, i built my setup from scratch for a little under 300 quid, costs me about 14p per pint now !!

 

[JamesMcS]

Thanks man, I'll have to get some saving going on! I've only just kitted an outhouse out with electric and working areas, so still recovering from that at the moment.

I was kind of hoping to get a second hand burner, a cheap stock pot and make my own bag for somewhere around half that (wish me luck).

That said, I've got 160 kit pints to get through before thinking about moving up the brewing ladder...