Raw ingredients or tinny??

[chassyp]

:thumb: Hello everyone. I am a shiney new member at this forum and have found the reading very interesting and helpful indeed. I have brewed in the past, some 25 years ago and used dry ingredients barley malts hops etc etc. Bringing up my children and running a business meant I found little time for myself and alas gave it all up and sold all my gear on a car boot!! My love for real ales has never left as I only drink in my local which have there own micro brewery (Ex Porters Brewery Rossendale, mmmmmm!) now owned and run in its owners capable hands. Now finding myself semi retired aaaaah!! I have decided I must have another go at brewing and wondered if anyone can help? I think I know the answer to this question but I`ll ask it anyway. Rather than use dry ingredients to start with, would I get a reasonable result from a tin and hopping a bit on secondary fermentaion? Please be gentle!! I still have my faithful bible (Brewing Beers like those you buy) but wondered if todays tinned results have moved on since I last used them??

Thanks in advance.
:

 

[Aleman]

tinned kits have come on leaps and bounds since you last used them results will be variable depending on the kit and your expectations coopers kits are made in australia and imported and are very good indeed you usually add a kilo of sugar or spraymalt to these to make the full five gallons of the uk produced kits 95% of them are now made by muntons and results with these can be hit and miss depending on whether or not they have let the children take control of the malting kilns on that particular day the heart of england and design a brew range are excellent and capable of producing very nice beer indeed none of the kits will produce beer of the quality that can be produced from all grain though brewing books have also came a long way since dave lines brewing beers like those you buy graham wheeler has a very good recipe book out with some up to date information on equipment and brewing methods

 

[drut]

Welcome Chassyp and congratulations to Aleman for the longest single unpunctuated sentence in the forum!
(this has to be from a hand-held or similar as Aleman's command of English is usually impeccable.. :lol: )

Chassyp - your situation is almost identical to my own (but no kids! ).
If you have been AG once, then you are unlikely to return to kits for long, but it may be an ideal way to start again.
The great danger is that, like me, semi-retirement means enough time to become fanatic :twisted:
Don't give up the exercise, this "hobby", particularly at this age, is girth enhancing!!

Otherwise, everything that Aleman said (he is superb source of knowledge here in case you had not realised :ugeek:).
GW's "Brew Your Own British Real Ale" is the current equivalent to DL's great books.

 

[dennisking]

If you have the time I would say go all grain.

 

[the shadow]

come to the dark side the door is open

 

[chassyp]

:thumb: Thanks guys! Yea just as I thought, dry ingredients wins the day!
I have been out today and purchased some bits and bobs. Fermenting bin, thermometer, siphon, hydromitor etc etc. I cant wait!! Anyway I couldn’t help myself and ended up buying a tin of concentrate! I know I know!! But the home brew shops are not open till Monday and I`m like a kid with a new toy. As said by drut it’s a starting point I guess.
When I started brewing many many moons ago there was no assistance at all other than books and what I could get from the local brew shops owner. Today however the good old tinternet is a mega source of information. Makes it really easy in finding help and assistance great!!

Looks like I need a new book also Brew Your Own British Real Ale sound good. There was no such thing as spraymalt or many other ingredients in my day so it looks like my old book is well out of date thanks again for that.
Oh by the way my next question is where does one sourse beer bottles? I was tempted in routing a few out of the local recyling skips but realised cart before horse thingy! Also didn’t want to look like a tramp either! I wondered if the local publican could be a source? I don’t fancy buying them as this add hard earned money to the project and defeats the object I feel. Many many thanks again to allfor your support. :

 

[dennisking]

Good luck with your new adventure. As for bottles I would buy supermarket beers until your 1st brews are ready. A reasonable selection in Lidl at the moment at 99p a bottle. Just make sure they are brown bottles.

 

[Springer]

Welcome to the forum C. The answers are all here
There is nothing wrong with kits and extract brewing.........but for choice and costs, once you have made a bit of investment in AG kit, there is no way back

 

[darrenwest1]

ive done kits for a year or so and had some great beer from them but recently ive moved over to all grain but am still waiting for the results