Any Home Brewers Out There?

Please do share the recipe. This thread has got me thinking

 

My first post on a proper thread!

Like some others on here I too have been brewing for over 30 years. Years ago I worked in a famous distillery so learned all about mashing but I no longer make all grain brews - modern kits have improved a heck of a lot over the years and they are a lot less hassle. Still can't find a really good wheat beer kit though.

For a while I was using mostly Coopers kits but they had a re-branding operation a few years back and I am sure they also changed the quality of the ingredients. They also come from Australia so not exactly a short distance to travel.

I now mostly use Muntons kits. They seem to make about half the beer kits in the world under various names and qualities. The better two can kits seem to be best and I sometimes improve them to my taste with extra dry hops. You can also make up half the kit by using one can at a time. It works out cheaper to use the good quality kits rather than improving the lesser ones by adding extra malt extract. They don't provide a lot of yeast with some of their kits right enough.

The ones that I make again and again are:
St. Peter's; Cream Stout, India Pale Ale and Ruby Red Ale.
Woodforde's Nelsons (was called Nelson's Revenge).
Munton's Gold Highland Heavy (might not suit everyone's tastes this one) and am just waiting to bottle Gold Old English Bitter. (I did not think much of their Docklands Porter - very thin and flavourless).

After various suppliers I now use Brew2Bottle and they are still delivering orders at the moment. I also use Crossmyloof Brew for yeast and hops. They were recently a bit overwhelmed with orders but I think the eBay store is still running.

Hopefully that might be of use to someone - MB.

 

A newbie here (only done a brew in the bag kit in the past, just had to add water and the yeast), there's lots of useful info in this thread about different extract kits but assuming I have nothing, what kit would I need to do the brew? A simple list would be very helpful.
TIA.

 

I started botting but quickly got pissed of cleaning and sterilising 40 odd bottles for every brew. I switched to Cornelius kegs about 20 years ago and never looked back but you do need a CO2 supply to keep a top pressure and the air out. I have 2 kegs that I alternate. While I'm drinking one the other is maturing, although sometimes it hard to keep up

 

Just finished 40 pint extract ipa, very pleased with results, fermented like mad with airlock, now bottled, some 30 left after sharing at w/e, is the hydrometer reading of abiyt 1008 the strength!

 

My brew length is usually 5 gallons or 23 litres and I end up with about 22L in the conditioning vessel. The cornies are nominally 5 US gallons which is a touch under 19 litres and I can squeeze in maybe another litre or so. When filling them I also fill a couple of empty soda water bottles, they are already sterile so no effort, and this uses up the whole brew. The bottles get labelled and stored in a dark cupboard for future use, usually when I've run out of cask beer before the next one is ready

 

For the type of kits I was on about you would need:

Couple of 25l brewing bins with lids and airlocks.
Thermometer.
Hydrometer.
Syphon hoses (one with bottling valve thing on the end is helpful).
Bottle capping machine.
Bottles and caps.
Big stirring spoon.
Sanitiser/steriliser chemicals.
Patience - (difficult one that).

That is about all that I use now (although I have probably forgotten something!). Anything else you will probably have in the kitchen: kettle, tin opener... etc.

I have used kegs in the past but only use bottles now - they are a bit more work right enough but have their advantages too. I always thoroughly clean the bottles as soon as the beer is poured out, let them dry then store away in the cupboard. They then get half an hour on full steam from my wallpaper steamer autoclave just before bottling a new batch of brew.

Thanks. Glenlivet - sorry, 'The Glenlivet', just to keep the whisky historians happy.

I think the picture is St. Peter's Cream Stout, made as per the instructions on the box:

 

You don't need a huge pot for extract brewing as you are boiling the extract with some water and hops then diluting to the gravity you want before fermenting. A 10 litre pot should be big enough for a 25 litre brew.
For my grain brewing I use a 30 litre stainless boiler fitted with 3kw stainless heating element for boiling my wort, after sparging it off from the 26 litre insulated mash tun.

 

I suppose 10 litre is pretty massive right enough.

 

Been looking at ‘starter kits’.

They all seem to include only one fermenting bin, but most people seem to suggest needing two, my question therefore is why two ?

also P.E.T bottles - waste of money ? ( thinking a cheap option to start with).

 

Ferment in a bin then transfer it to a 5 gallon plastic container with an airlock. The beer will stay in there to condition and for the yeast to settle out for 2-3 weeks before transferring to a cask or bottles.

 

What about swing cap bottles or whatever they’re called, like Grolsch used to come in. Aldi had some German Christmas weisbier in store end of last year, they have the swing cap and I kept them all ‘just in case’.