Hi from a Brewbie

[Kevin Falconer]

Hi all from a brewing newbie. Recently deciding I needed a more creative hobby, I chose home brewing. My first attempt is now being sampled.
I got a basic starter kit and bottles fro home brew online and chose a Coopers Dark Ale tin to start. I chose kits because of the ease, but may extend my repertoire to grain later in order to experiment a bit.

The Coopers Dark Ale was in the bucket for 2 weeks before bottling. After a further 2 weeks in the bottle I sampled some last night. I was very impressed, thanks Mr Cooper. I hope they may improve further over time.

My next attempt is going to be a Youngs Scottish Heavy. Here's to a second great batch.

I have been reading threads and getting lots of great info from the forum, so thanks all.

Kevin

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Welcome to the forum Kevin :Cheers:

 

[Stephenj]

Alreet.

 

[terrym]

My next attempt is going to be a Youngs Scottish Heavy. Here's to a second great batch.

Welcome to the forum.
Good to hear your first brew worked out for you. It should improve with keeping as many darker beers do.
Be aware that the Youngs one can kits (like Wilko's own) have less malt in than Coopers and many other one can kits. So if you brew to 23 litres and use lots of sugar you will end up with something that may turn out on the 'thin' side. The solution is to brew short (say 20 litres) and/or use more malt extract than sugar.

 

[Gerryjo]

Hi and welcome to the forum....
It's plain too see you've been reading quite a bit about your chosen hobby and rightly so as you seem to be off to a flyer.
Plenty of advice from past and present from a bunch of exceptional brewers so keep us all posted on how your first turns out...

Sent from my Kindle Fire using Tapatalk

 

[yeastinfection]

welcome, :

 

[LarryF]

Welcome to the forum Kevin, I've done the Coopers Dark Ale and really liked and as advised it will get better with time. Not done the Youngs Scottish Heavy, looking forward to hearing how it turns out.

 

[Duxuk]

Welcome. You might like to read up on the forum about brewing with extract (liquid or dried). It's a half way house without the complexities of grain. What it gives you is control of the hops. You just need a decent sized pan if you don't have a boiler. You don't have to boil the whole length of the brew to make some great beers. You can get extracts in light, medium, dark and probably a lot of other variations. To go a step further you can steep grains like crystal to get the flavour out, since they don't need mashing and no one will know you didn't use grain. Unless you give too much away on the forum!
Get more brews on ASAP to build up a stock.

 

[Kevin Falconer]

Terry, will definitely try making Youngs to 20 litres as per your advice. I'm using a brew enhancer rather than straight sugar so hoping this will be OK. Will let you know how it turns out LarryF.

 

[Kevin Falconer]

I have just received a Young's Scottish Heavy tin kit. The tin is soft and flexible. Is this acceptable for a home brew tin? I wouldn't accept it with a tin of beans. The tin seems to be whole and has no punctures or rust patches. An advice appreciated.

 

[Kevin Falconer]

Welcome. You might like to read up on the forum about brewing with extract (liquid or dried). It's a half way house without the complexities of grain. What it gives you is control of the hops. You just need a decent sized pan if you don't have a boiler. You don't have to boil the whole length of the brew to make some great beers. You can get extracts in light, medium, dark and probably a lot of other variations. To go a step further you can steep grains like crystal to get the flavour out, since they don't need mashing and no one will know you didn't use grain. Unless you give too much away on the forum!
Get more brews on ASAP to build up a stock.

I'd love to get more on the go and will gradually build up my bottle stock so I can do so.

 

[terrym]

As @Duxuk said above extract brewing is good half way house between doing kits and AG.
Try this for more
A Simple Guide to Extract Brewing