Howdo folks

[sausagefingers]

Quick intro before I start carpet bombing the entire forum with stoopid questions.

Probably a familiar story,bought one of the Coopers all in one lager kits and being honest it was rank awful.
Tried a St Peters Golden Ale and it was also rank.
Fortunately the local home brew shop has a really patient,helpful bloke who calmed me down and gave me all the advice I needed. So I stuck the stash under the spare bed for a couple of weeks then outside in the garage. The transformation was amazing, the St. Peters was fantastic! Easily as good if not better than any pint from the pub. The Coopers was just OK but definately drinkable.
Since then I've done a Festival Summer Glory,Festival Golden Stag, another St peters Golden Ale and every pint has been fantastic - I've not bought beer from the supermarket for 2 months now!
I'm genuinely surprised at how good the beer is from these kits and like trying the different varieties
Currently brewing a Young's American IPA and have just bottled a St Peters IPA so looking forward to a happy home brew new year
Righto that's enough waffle from me for now, I'm off for a pint :drink:

Cheers ,Mick

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Welcome to the forum Mick. :

 

[BeestonHop_John]

hi Mick, I'm a newbie too. Good to say hi, John

 

[Yeastmaster]

Welcome!

You've done some fantastic kits! Was going to put on the American ipa I got for Christmas today but did a wherry instead because I had it and it expires sooner.

 

[BruinTuns]

Hi Mick, welcome.
Do you have a favourite kit so far?

 

[sausagefingers]

Thanks for the warm welcome,much appreciated.

@ Bruintuns I can't really say which has been my favourite as I've enjoyed every one of them, but if I had to chose 1 it would be the St Peters Golden Ale. Not sure if it's just because it was my first kit and I was so amazed at the taste - I was making happy slurping sounds with every single pint and driving the mrs mad!
The only downside is that I didn't know how to work out the ABV so have no idea of the strength of any of my brews - the Festival Summer Glory blew my socks off :electric: . It was very strong and I had a wobble on after the first couple of pints but a very nice fruity pint.

Cheers, Mick

 

[BeestonHop_John]

hi Mick, you calculate the ABV of beer using a hydrometer.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_b57LaMG6E8[/ame]
http://www.wilko.com/homebrew-acces...o-hydrometer-loose-wine-and-beer/invt/0022575

 

[sausagefingers]

I'm embarrassed to say I have a hydrometer but I only use it to check that the reading is the same 3 days running then I bottle it.
My new years resolution is to learn more about brewing and calculating the ABV was on my list so thanks again for that.

 

[BeestonHop_John]

hi, no problem at all. We're all learning here!

 

[Yeastmaster]

I'm embarrassed to say I have a hydrometer but I only use it to check that the reading is the same 3 days running then I bottle it.
My new years resolution is to learn more about brewing and calculating the ABV was on my list so thanks again for that.

I do the same. Who cares what the abv is as long as it tastes good.

 

[Smileyr8]

So, if your OG was 1056 and your final gravity was 1010 it would be: 1056 - 1010 /7.54 = 6.1%

I you look at the navigation bar above it has a link Calculators This has a few methods for calculating various things and takes out all the need for calculating yourself, you also need to be aware that priming adds a little more alcohol, I usually add 0.2% for this but if you wanted to calculate this better there is a calculator for that too.

 

[sausagefingers]

I hadn't noticed the menu bar up there but now you've pointed it out there is a lot of info there for me as being new I struggle with a lot of the terminology, I didn't know what a FV was that everyone kept mentioning :?
So thanks for that :