Just ordered my first kit

rameire

Just made my order for equipment.
and brew kits.

From Homebrewwest

Have been skimming over this area on boards and on beoir.

was thinking of firstly going with the coopers dark ale with the provided brewing sugar, then moving on to the cider and then the 3kg ale kit.

am really looking forward to this.

I shall be spending more time looking over the boards and beoir areas before I start, but before I do, just wondering if the kit purchased is sufficient and ideal for a newbie.
I believe I dont need the heat belt as the house is warm all the time,
also are the x-Bar bottlles good, or should I start looking at glass bottles.

Kit purchased.

• HB 33 Litre Fermenter Fitted With Airlock, Tap And Bottle Filling Stick
  
• BrewSmarter Premium Starter Beer Kit WITHOUT Heating Belt (Best Value)
  Fermenter size:: 33 litre upgrade
  Free Beer Kit Upgrade:: Coopers Dark Ale
  
• Muntons Gold Highland Heavy Ale 3 Kg
  
• Magnum Apple Cider 1.7kg
  Bundle Options: Brewing Sugar And Carb Drops

BeerNut

rameire wrote: »

was thinking of firstly going with the coopers dark ale with the provided brewing sugar

It's not a great idea to use sugar as your top-up fermentable -- malt extract is better.

rameire wrote: »

also are the x-Bar bottlles good, or should I start looking at glass bottles.

They're fine, but they don't last forever. Start hoarding your empty beer bottles.

rameire

cheers Beernut,

I was thinking of doing the first brew with the brewing sugar so that I could have a base line.

If doing the brew with the brew sugar is really not worth it, I will not do it that way.

invaderzimirl

well how about split your batch and do half with the sugar if you have it and half with DME. so you can get a true comparison of how the brewing sugar compares to the DME

rameire

So kit turned up today and I got my first brew on.

its a Muntons Gold Highland heavy ale 3kg kit.

some things I picked up on straight away are
the need to use very hot water when sitting the tins in to heat up.
the water I used was not hot enough.

the requirement for a proper thermometer that I can stick in things to get correct temps.
the stick on thermometer I got is stuck on 30 degrees.

my initial reading it was showing was 1.045, so that is a good start.

I have a second bucket,
should I re-bucket it after a few days or just wait until bottling time and re-bucket it when adding the sugar syrup?

Hopefully it will be fine in time for christmas day.

BeerNut

rameire wrote: »

should I re-bucket it after a few days

No, there's no need to rack it to secondary.

rameire

bottled it last night,
it stayed steady at 1.020 so thought it was time, its a low alcohol volume but that is fine.
did the sugar in boiling water and into a second bucket before bottling, and got 40 bottles.
taste is nice.
cant wait to try in two weeks and then the main session will be on christmas day.
Gave the brew the name H1N1.

next brew is starting tomorrow and will be a cider, now to read up on that.

rameire

tried the ale tonight, still not blind so all is going well,
had the bottle chilled to 11*c
poured with a great head on it, I was a bit quick pouring so the head was half the glass.
taste was lovely once the head had reduced in size,
I think the taste is going in the right direction anyway.

also bottled my cider on friday. got 22 litres, with an end reading of 5.3% vol.
I gave it a taste with and without the added flavouring pouch and im not sure its good or not,
im not really a cider drinker,
I suppose most people would compare with Bulmers, I know its not a bulmers, Im just hoping its drinkable, and not a cider vinegar.
I bottled it using the boiled sugar and using glass bottles ( I invested in 90 glass bottles from alpack. )
Think I will leave it a month before tasting.

Will be getting my next brew on this week, it will be a Coopers Dark Ale and I will be using 1kg of spray malt with that.

rameire

[IMG][/img]

Just thought id throw a pic of what my first brew looks like.

rameire

I only have 4 bottles of my first brew left,
Think I have drunk too many of them and not saved them for when they could have tasted better.
unfortunately the first brew seemed to have had too much sugar when bottling as in the last while, the beer has been exploding out of the bottle when being opened.
thankfully I havnt drunk too much of the cider brew ( brew 2 ) I have a good amount left but it is very tasty now and really enjoyable.

I bottled the third ale last sunday a Coopers Dark Ale, used less sugar when bottling, and also transferred to the spare bucket twice before bottling to try and reduce the sediment as much as possible.
There seemed to be a huge amount of sediment in the original ale brew, that is definitely something I would like to improve.

Started my fourth brew last night, its a coopers aussie pale ale, used the beer enhancer, ( both bought in tesco naas )
has a nice golden colour and is bubbling ferouciously away.

I dont think I will be ever able to sell my brews as I drink them to quickly.

blueshed

rameire wrote: »

I only have 4 bottles of my first brew left,
Think I have drunk too many of them and not saved them for when they could have tasted better.
unfortunately the first brew seemed to have had too much sugar when bottling as in the last while, the beer has been exploding out of the bottle when being opened.
thankfully I havnt drunk too much of the cider brew ( brew 2 ) I have a good amount left but it is very tasty now and really enjoyable.

I bottled the third ale last sunday a Coopers Dark Ale, used less sugar when bottling, and also transferred to the spare bucket twice before bottling to try and reduce the sediment as much as possible.
There seemed to be a huge amount of sediment in the original ale brew, that is definitely something I would like to improve.

Started my fourth brew last night, its a coopers aussie pale ale, used the beer enhancer, ( both bought in tesco naas )
has a nice golden colour and is bubbling ferouciously away.

I dont think I will be ever able to sell my brews as I drink them to quickly.

fair play, you have being nice and busy. if you got this bundle http://www.homebrewwest.ie/coopers-international-australian-pale-ale-17kg-beer-kit-153-p.asp it would be a euro cheaper than just the kit from Tesco.

for your next cider you should try the Aldi/Lidl apple juice brew, plenty of info on here about it.
im was not a cider drinker and would not be a bifg fan of Bulmers but love the cider made from the AJ.

rameire

got your msg blushed, cheers,
will also look into the juice cider, interesting.
cheers for that link,
was short a brew so had to pick one up at short notice, hence the tesco purchase.

I will be getting a third bucket so will be able to get two brews on at a time.

ian_m

rameire wrote: »

[IMG][/img]

Just thought id throw a pic of what my first brew looks like.

How did you get it to float? :pac: