Brewing your own beer.

CelticRoots

CelticRoots

Joined
Sunday July 28, 2013
Hi All,

So I just discovered that the Mrs is going to get me a home brew setup for Christmas as I've been banging on about wanting to do it for quite a while.

After looking on YouTube I notice that a majority of people just use what I gather is malt extract from a can and dump it in the fermenter.

Personally I'd like to make my own from scratch so it's truly my own beer.

Anyway, I'm rambling a bit here so back to the point.

So basically she's said the budget is about £70. I know there are a few brewers on here and thought I'd ask advice on whether this is viable and If so if there is any essential advice you could give etc... I'd be brewing ale, bitter etc as I can't stand lager.

Apologies if this is a bit jumbled!!

Many thanks

Ben

.
 
I gave up brewing beer maybe 20 years ago. I know things have changed since, but the principles remain. The last wine I made was maybe 10 years ago.

Don't run before you can walk …

One rule: cleanliness. Clean everything. Clean it a lot and never put anything un-sterilised into a brew.

The other rule is time. Give it time, time and more time. You'll enjoy it more.

Okay, so simply put, beer is malt and hops with sugar for alcohol. Modern yeasts can go to quite ridiculous strengths, but it will taste poor if the body it not behind it. Belgian beers at 10% taste great because they are heavy in flavour.

Start out with a batch of quite simple malt extract (1kg) with 1kg of sugar. Kits come with hop extract, which is fine, but real hops are much nicer steeped in the liquor and recovered prior to pitching the yeast. Get a simple batch made, drink it and go from there …

Your first brew might well be quite horrible. They're not all like that. The next will be fantastic and beyond that you'll spit out good beers without thinking.

Don't over complicate after your first brew - refine. Some grain malts for flavour and perhaps a blend of hops. Go from there. If CJJ Berry is still in print, grab his book. I had a smashing brew after dropping his book into my brew bucket, mid-ferment. It was great! The book, washed, remains on my shelf today.

Start simple … don't overcomplicate, keep everything spotlessly clean and give it time.

Funny story? No quite so funny, but I laugh telling it …

I almost died homebrewing. No, really!

At college, I lived in one room in a large house. It was freezing cold, but the electricity was free, so room heaters and brew belts deployed, I had four 5 gallon buckets fermenting and maybe 10, could be 20 demijohns of wine plopping away.

In a small room …

Lashed, I went to bed. Turbulent night, not sure why … but when I woke, black, thick, heavy head, cannot see, cannot breathe … hit the floor … hard … crawl to door and open …

BREAAATHHHHHEEEEE!

The air hit my lungs like a punch! Yes, my room had quite literally filled with carbon dioxide up to the level of my bed (and beyond).

If something had not stirred me … I might not be typing this.
 
Jeltz said:
Join us over at http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk there is quite a crossover between traditional shavers and brewers.
Click to expand...

Top advice,

Aside from that I would start with kits if I were you, especially on a budget.

Brewing from hops and grains can be done but you have to be careful not to get addicted to shiny things as it becomes more expensive than shaving.

My beer, beer fridge and the brewery vessels in the background :)


DSCF0467.jpg
 
… that's why I gave it up. That, and I like Guinness, which is practically impossible to replicate in the home brewing arena. I like Guinness and little else.

Kits really are the best starting point. You can still "hop" a kit for that real ale freshness. Beyond that, malt and hops (and sugar) will glean a reasonable first proper homebrew. Malting, sparging and fermenting from grain is very applied. Walk first, run later … if you want to.

So, "Essex, UK", eh, Lose the Beard?

You have a fine setup there. If I ever find myself south of Sheffield, I'll give you a shout :D
 
You taunt me … I'll need some proof :D

I used to make a really good 'Russian' Stout in January and leave it mature until Christmas. That was always very good indeed. Just a gallon, because it was strong. It was made in a saucepan, fermented in a demijohn (custom bung and tube into a milk bottle airlock) and bottled into Newcastle Brown bottles (as I drank back then). It was a cracker!

From memory, dark mark extract powder, roasted black malt, coffee, Hallertauer hops, hop extract (quite a bit) and the brew fermented with a stick of root liquorice in. Yeast was started from Guinness - we got bottle fermented back then. White Shield was the other reliably good brewing yeast that could be grown from bottle, for bitters, pale ales and lighter stouts.

Memories … or, lack of them ...
 
Re: RE: Brewing your own beer.

pjgh said:
I gave up brewing beer maybe 20 years ago. I know things have changed since, but the principles remain. The last wine I made was maybe 10 years ago.

Don't run before you can walk …

One rule: cleanliness. Clean everything. Clean it a lot and never put anything un-sterilised into a brew.

The other rule is time. Give it time, time and more time. You'll enjoy it more.

Okay, so simply put, beer is malt and hops with sugar for alcohol. Modern yeasts can go to quite ridiculous strengths, but it will taste poor if the body it not behind it. Belgian beers at 10% taste great because they are heavy in flavour.

Start out with a batch of quite simple malt extract (1kg) with 1kg of sugar. Kits come with hop extract, which is fine, but real hops are much nicer steeped in the liquor and recovered prior to pitching the yeast. Get a simple batch made, drink it and go from there …

Your first brew might well be quite horrible. They're not all like that. The next will be fantastic and beyond that you'll spit out good beers without thinking.

Don't over complicate after your first brew - refine. Some grain malts for flavour and perhaps a blend of hops. Go from there. If CJJ Berry is still in print, grab his book. I had a smashing brew after dropping him book into my brew bucket, mid-ferment. It was great! The book, washed, remains on my shelf today.

Start simple … don't overcomplicate, keep everything spotlessly clean and give it time.

Funny story? No quite so funny, but I laugh telling it …

I almost died homebrewing. No, really!

At college, I lived in one room in a large house. It was freezing cold, but the electricity was free, so room heaters and brew belts deployed, I had four 5 gallon buckets fermenting and maybe 10, could be 20 demijohns of wine plopping away.

In a small room …

Lashed, I went to bed. Turbulent night, not sure why … but when I woke, black, thick, heavy head, cannot see, cannot breathe … hit the floor … hard … crawl to door and open …

BREAAATHHHHHEEEEE!

The air hit my lungs like a punch! Yes, my room had quite literally filled with carbon dioxide up to the level of my bed (and beyond).

If something had no stirred me … I might not be typing this.
Click to expand...

Jesus!

Very lucky escape there by the sounds of it!

There are a few books of been looking at so I'll definitely investigate that one.

Thanks for the advice mate. :)




Jeltz said:
Join us over at http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk there is quite a crossover between traditional shavers and brewers.
Click to expand...

I'll be over there and signed up in a jiffy :)


Lose the beard said:
Jeltz said:
Join us over at http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk there is quite a crossover between traditional shavers and brewers.
Click to expand...

Top advice,

Aside from that I would start with kits if I were you, especially on a budget.

Brewing from hops and grains can be done but you have to be careful not to get addicted to shiny things as it becomes more expensive than shaving.

My beer, beer fridge and the brewery vessels in the background :)


DSCF0467.jpg
Click to expand...

That's an impressive setup to say the least.

My first few attempts will definitely be with the kits. I might add a few extra hops or something but I'm not going to mess too much until I've found my feet.




Again,

Thanks for the advice guys it's much appreciated.

pjgh said:
… that's why I gave it up. That, and I like Guinness, which is practically impossible to replicate in the home brewing arena. I like Guinness and little else.

Kits really are the best starting point. You can still "hop" a kit for that real ale freshness. Beyond that, malt and hops (and sugar) will glean a reasonable first proper homebrew. Malting, sparging and fermenting from grain is very applied. Walk first, run later … if you want to.

So, "Essex, UK", eh, Lose the Beard?

You have a fine setup there. If I ever find myself south of Sheffield, I'll give you a shout :D
Click to expand...




pjgh said:
You taunt me … I'll need some proof :D

I used to make a really good 'Russian' Stout in January and leave it mature until Christmas. That was always very good indeed. Just a gallon, because it was strong. It was made in a saucepan, fermented in a demijohn (custom bung and tube into a milk bottle airlock) and bottled into Newcastle Brown bottles (as I drank back then). It was a cracker!

From memory, dark mark extract powder, roasted black malt, coffee, Hallertauer hops, hop extract (quite a bit) and the brew fermented with a stick of root liquorice in. Yeast was started from Guinness - we got bottle fermented back then. White Shield was the other reliably good brewing yeast that could be grown from bottle, for bitters, pale ales and lighter stouts.

Memories … or, lack of them ...
Click to expand...


It all sounds very technical haha

So much to learn!

I think I'll be crawling before walking based on the above conversations :)
 
another brewer here,
i just bunged a few kits in the other week to get stocks back up

go for the two can kits and get a couple of buckets

and as stated CLEAN everything and sanitize
other than that its just time
 
Lose the beard said:
Jeltz said:
Join us over at http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk there is quite a crossover between traditional shavers and brewers.
Click to expand...

Top advice,













Aside from that I would start with kits if I were you, especially on a budget.

Brewing from hops and grains can be done but you have to be careful not to get addicted to shiny things as it becomes more expensive than shaving.

My beer, beer fridge and the brewery vessels in the background :)


DSCF0467.jpg
Click to expand...




Wow. That's quite amazing. Certainly beats my two plastic FVs under the stairs!
 
I started brewing from a kit that cost approx 70 quid. I got a copy of How to brew by John Palmer & i like it. You can read it cover to cover or just the first chapter then look up specific areas as and when you need to.

After three kit brews i got into Brew in a bag ( BIAB ) which is the "cheaper" way to get into all grain brewing. My bro in law & I went halfs on an 40lt urn & a grain mill & between us ( mostly him ) we mounted the mill to fit over a bucket & made a counterflow chiller. To date we have done 10 brews each on it.

Good luck & enjoy the "hobby with benefits"
 
Brew in a bag! Blimey! My mate and I back in college tried one of those - it tasted of Germoline! We drank it all. Very memorable. From there, I got really into it … more wine than beer, since a bag o' sugar and a can of fruit made a gallon … who was going to complain at that?
 
Its quite popular as the results are very good for the cost of the kit. We get 75-80% efficiency out of the mash, that is better than some of the fully automated bling units available. But the main thing is we are getting some very nice beers out of it & having fun doing it.

We have put in AUD $ 315.00 each. We can brew in 6hrs from milling the grain to pithing the yeast into the wort at 18c. Then its time to crack a brewski & get into the clean up which is 1 hour.

Jeltz kindly directed me to BIABrewer forum. There is a wealth of info on their for anyone interested.
 
I homebrew! It's great.

I'm strictly an extract brewer (with steeped speciality grains). This means I can get a basic brew done in about 2hours (including cleaning) the marginal cost saving from brewing All Grain is more than offset by the time saving (in my opinion). In etrms of quality i'd say my brews are as good as most of the standard supermarket fare, if not better. More HOPS!

Kits are a good place to start, but the step to extract brewing is very small and the results are then your own. there are tons of resources available, the aforementioned forum and homebrewtalk.com are excellent. pretty much any question you have has already been answered, just type it into the search engine of your choice.

let us know how you get on.

Adam
 
I've had a period of home brewing up to about 10 years ago.
I started with malt extract brews but quickly moved on to full mash so I could fully create the beers I wanted. I used to buy the Maris Otter malt direct from Fawcetts in Castleford.
There's some lovely shiny stainless brewing equipment available now :icon_razz:
I can see it being an expensive hobby as is shaving :icon_biggrin:
Bottling beer can be time consuming I used to have a cask beer party once a month and put a pin of beer on handpump we managed to consume 4 1/2 gallons in the one evening :icon_eek:
I've helped set up 2 commercial micro breweries but haven't brewed now for about 7 or 8 years.
As for Guinness there's far more tasty stouts out there and recipes for the home brewer.
 
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