Beginner Homebrew

almostover

Hi- first time poster on this topic. Looking to get into the world of homebrewing and to have a few batches made for enjoyment over the long winter ahead. Have a spare storage room in my rented house which I can control the temperature of and have plenty of space in it. I'm not a beer aficionado by any means but am curios and would love to give this a try.

My first question is what are the vital equipment pieces for a basic homebrew kit? i was thinking of puchasing this kit from homebrewing.ie to get me started? http://www.thehomebrewcompany.ie/superior-beer-cider-starter-kit-includes-25lt-fermenters-p-213.html

Is there anything additional to that kit that I would need? I presume I'll need a large stock pot to boil water in for mixing with the brewing ingredients?

What beer style is easiest for a first timer to brew?

If there are any experienced homebrewers out there some guidance would be appreciated before I go spending my hard earned cash!

me_irl

There's a 96 page Stickied How-To at the top of the forum.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054869329

almostover

me_irl wrote: »

There's a 96 page Stickied How-To at the top of the forum.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054869329

Any recommendation on the starter kit I've listed?

BeerNut

almostover wrote: »

i was thinking of puchasing this kit from homebrewing.ie to get me started? http://www.thehomebrewcompany.ie/superior-beer-cider-starter-kit-includes-25lt-fermenters-p-213.html

Is there anything additional to that kit that I would need?

Just bottles. If you stick with it there'll be things you'll change, like upgrading the siphon or switching to an easier sanitiser, but that lot will get you started.

almostover wrote: »

I presume I'll need a large stock pot to boil water in for mixing with the brewing ingredients?

Nope, just boil the water in your kitchen kettle and mix the ingredients in the fermenter.

almostover wrote: »

What beer style is easiest for a first timer to brew?

The darker the better, generally. The Coopers white label stout is decent. The 3kg kits will probably give you even better results. If you do go with a 1.7kg kit, get a kilo of spraymalt to top it up rather than sugar.

almostover

I am a fan of good stout so may give that Cooper's kit a try. What about the Cooper's IPA? http://www.thehomebrewcompany.ie/coopers-brew-a-ipa-17kg-p-3522.html

Any good?

almostover

Another question, and pardon my ignorance on this one. Are all bottle necks the same diameter? What I'm trying to ascertain is if the bottle caps supplied with the kit will fit any empty beer bottles that I keep?

BeerNut

almostover wrote: »

I am a fan of good stout so may give that Cooper's kit a try. What about the Cooper's IPA? http://www.thehomebrewcompany.ie/coopers-brew-a-ipa-17kg-p-3522.html

Any good?

Never tried it. I've done this one though and it's really good.

almostover wrote: »

Are all bottle necks the same diameter? What I'm trying to ascertain is if the bottle caps supplied with the kit will fit any empty beer bottles that I keep?

Pretty much. There is a bigger size, which fits mostly large format bottles, designed for champagne bottles really. But any 33cl or 50cl bottle you'll buy will take the standard size.

um7y1h83ge06nx

BeerNut wrote: »

Never tried it. I've done this one though and it's really good.

I just do kit brewing and country wines and that's my go to beer, very good. Unfortunately that line is being discontinued by Cooper's and replaced by what the OP links to. I hope it's as good.

almostover

Harley Old-fashioned Summerhouse wrote: »

BeerNut wrote: »

Never tried it. I've done this one though and it's really good.

I just do kit brewing and country wines and that's my go to beer, very good. Unfortunately that line is being discontinued by Cooper's and replaced by what the OP links to. I hope it's as good.

That's my mind made up on the equipment and kit to try first. I'll purchase when I get paid at the end of the month. Now the unenvious task of consuming enough beer to leave sufficient bottling capacity for 23 litres of beer. Presume brown bottles are best?

BeerNut

Yes, brown is best. If using green or clear you should store them in the dark or the beer will get lightstruck.

Your local craft beer bar may be able to help you with bottles. Swingtops are particularly handy.

almostover

Ok so I've purchased this homebrew equipment kit: http://www.thehomebrewcompany.ie/superior-beer-cider-starter-kit-includes-25lt-fermenters-p-213.html

The siphon that was included seems hopeless so I've ordered an auto siphon too.

I've purchased this extract kit: http://www.thehomebrewcompany.ie/coopers-australian-pale-ale-ingredient-pack-p-1146.html

It comes with a bag of beer enhancer. What is this?

Also when I'm transferring to the secondary fermenter I will need some sugar to create carbonation. What is best used for this?

tommy2bad

almostover wrote: »

Ok so I've purchased this homebrew equipment kit: http://www.thehomebrewcompany.ie/superior-beer-cider-starter-kit-includes-25lt-fermenters-p-213.html

The siphon that was included seems hopeless so I've ordered an auto siphon too.

I've purchased this extract kit: http://www.thehomebrewcompany.ie/coopers-australian-pale-ale-ingredient-pack-p-1146.html

It comes with a bag of beer enhancer. What is this?

Also when I'm transferring to the secondary fermenter I will need some sugar to create carbonation. What is best used for this?

Good kit, it's got everything you will need. The auto syphon will help but isn't necessary, still handy to have.
Coopers pail ale is an easy kit, cant go wrong.
Beer enhancer is dextrose and spray malt, its used instead of sugar as an added fertable. Gives a better flavor profile and far better mouth feel, sugar can be thin if you know what I mean. Also improves the head. (though not your head the next day)
Not sure what you mean about adding sugar to the secondary,if it's for carbonation then it's added at bottling. I only use one bucket and add carbonation drops to the bottles, one to each 500ml bottle, works fine.
http://www.thehomebrewcompany.ie/coopers-carbonation-drops-250g-p-406.html
You can add sugar to the entire batch before bottling, get brewing sugar rather than a bag of tesco's own brand but tbh the carb drops are super easy to judge the right amount.
Oh I'd recommend getting starsan or some other no rinse steriliser as well as the VWP. Mix some in a spray bottle to keep everything clean as you go.
Good luck, you'll be drinking it about 3 to 4 weeks from brew day so let us know how you got on.

almostover

I may be a little confused on this. From what I've read the process I need to follow is this:

- Mix contents of beer kit can, beer enhancer and water in primary fermenter.
- Bring temperature of above mix to 25 Celsius and add hydrated yeast.
- Ferment until stable specific gravity. Fermentation complete then?
- Add sugar/water mix to bottling bucket and rack contents of primary fermenter on top.
- Siphon off into bottles and cap.

Any other things I'm missing other than cleaning and sanitising all equipment which I understand is the single most important thing when brewing?

BeerNut

almostover wrote: »

Fermentation complete then?

Yes, but do not rush things. Give it a minimum of two weeks even if fermentation is completed, and there's no harm leaving it for a week or three longer.

almostover wrote: »

Any other things I'm missing other than cleaning and sanitising all equipment which I understand is the single most important thing when brewing?

No, that's pretty much it. Just watch your fermentation temperature too -- though you start things around 25, you want to keep it lower during fermentation, ideally around 18 but never higher than 24, and that can be hard in the current weather.

You used the word "secondary" in your earlier post -- to be clear, you're not doing or using a secondary, that's when you rack to a new bucket and leave the beer to ferment/mature further. Obviously you wouldn't add priming sugar at this point as the gas would just escape.

Carawaystick

almostover wrote: »

Also when I'm transferring to the secondary fermenter I will need some sugar to create carbonation. What is best used for this?

Don't do this transfer to a secondary fermenter.
you have a risk of contamination and a risk of oxygenation of the beer, for very little gain. the beer will secondary ferment in bottles.

You might mean a bottling bucket, for bottling.
In this case what I do is mix equal amounts of the cheapest white sugar you can buy( usually aldi caster sugar) with the same weight of water. heat to dissolve the sugar and boil briefly to sanitize. let cool, rack the beer from fermenter onto this in the bottling bucket, and bottle.

almostover

Planning on getting the fermentation started this Saturday morning - excited! One question it normally takes 2 weeks or so for the fermentation to complete - is there any issue with leaving the beer in the primary fermenter after the fermentation has completed? I probably won't have time to bottle until the end of the month which will mean the beer will have been in the primary fermenter for 3-4 weeks.

Bogwoppit

Should be fine so long as the fermenter is sealed and you have an airlock.

BeerNut

Should be fine and the fermenter doesn't need to be sealed and you don't need an airlock.

The only purpose the lid serves is to stop stuff falling in: just sitting loose is grand. And the beer will keep improving if left for an extra week or two. Only around week six do you need to start worrying about getting it out.

almostover

BeerNut wrote: »

Should be fine and the fermenter doesn't need to be sealed and you don't need an airlock.

The only purpose the lid serves is to stop stuff falling in: just sitting loose is grand. And the beer will keep improving if left for an extra week or two. Only around week six do you need to start worrying about getting it out.

Good to know - thanks! One final question: my tapwater wouldn't be the best. It's safe to drink but tastes very chlorinated. Is it worth boiling water the night before, storing it in a sanitized bucket and then using the cooled boiled water to brew the beer?

vicwatson

Great thread. Can't wait to see pics

BeerNut

almostover wrote: »

It's safe to drink but tastes very chlorinated.

Never had this problem myself, but I've heard that if you just leave the water sitting out overnight -- no need to boil it -- chlorine will evaporate off.

Carawaystick

If the Water smells Chloriney, it'll by definition not have any bugs in it...

BeerNut

Yeah, but a chlorine off-flavour can be just as bad as an infection off-flavour.

loyatemu

if chlorine evaporates off overnight, it'll presumably do so whether you've added added the kit to the water or not. I can see how it might affect results if you're doing a mash, but for a kit I wouldn't bother leaving it overnight.

almostover

Ok time to report back on this. The brewing went fairly smoothly, the kits are very easy to use and almost foolproof. I sanitised my bottling bucket the night before brewing and filled it with tap water and left in a cool room overnight in an attempt to de-chlorinate the water. It smelled less chlorinated the following morning but I'm not 100% sure this was effective or as people have suggested on here that it will have any effect on the final beer.

Brewed the Coopers APA on Saturday morning. I purchased a bottle of star san in addition to the kit I listed here and I was glad I did. It's very easy to use and makes sanitising the equipment a doddle. I filled a small spray bottle with the star san solution and used that to keep any equipment sanitised during brewing. Once everything was clean and sanitised I steeped the can of Coopers APA in a sink of hot water to soften it, opened it with a sanitised can opener and poured into the fermenter. I had the kettle boiled and poured 2l of hot water on top of this and mixed. I rinsed out the can with some more hot water (approx 500ml) and added to the fermenter. I added the brew enhancer #2 then to the fermenter and stirred vigorously to dissolve it. Next time I'll dissolve this in hot water in a saucepan before adding as it took a lot of stirring to get rid of the clumps of brew enhancer. I topped up with the cold water from my bottling bucket then to 23l and gave the mix a final stir. Took an OG reading with my hydrometer which came in at 1044. Ran into a small issue then in that the wort was at approx 27-28 celcius which is a little warm to pitch the yeast. I read the instructions with the beer kit which said that anything below 32 Celsius won't kill the yeast and it's more important to pitch the yeast quickly rather than wait for the wort to cool so I pitched the yeast into the wort at 27 Celsius. Hoping that this won't affect the flavour of the final beer. Next time I'll bottle 5l of water and keep in the fridge so I can get the wort temp down faster. Then I put on the lid complete with airlock which had star san solution in it and put the fermenter in the cupboard under the stairs to ferment. I had left a thermometer in some water in a jar the previous night in the cupboard and it was at 20 Celsius the following morning so should be perfect for fermenting. Checked the fermenter there last night and it's bubbling away nicely so the yeast is doing its job. The temperature of the beer is down to 20 degress to so conditions appear to be ideal. Going to bottle up in 2-3 weeks and hopefully I'll have a decent beer at the end of this. I've attached a few images as one poster suggested. Thanks for all the advice folks and hopefully this will be a sucessful brew and the first of many.

almostover

I have no permission to attach images to this thread unfortunately

BeerNut

almostover wrote: »

Ran into a small issue then in that the wort was at approx 27-28 celcius which is a little warm to pitch the yeast.

Not at all, 27 is perfect pitching temp.

Sounds like it's all working as it should be. The next difficult bit is leaving it alone

almostover

Just one thing I've noticed while observing the fermentation - There was never any major Krausen layer on top of the beer so far during fermentation. The most I ever observed was a 3/4" to 1" layer of Krausen on top. Have I anything to be concerned about?

BeerNut

Nope, fermentation is fermentation. Now stop opening the lid and go away.

rubadub

loyatemu wrote: »

if chlorine evaporates off overnight, it'll presumably do so whether you've added added the kit to the water or not. I can see how it might affect results if you're doing a mash, but for a kit I wouldn't bother leaving it overnight.

heating would drive a lot of the chlorine off too. Some add campden tablets which is supposed to neutralise it or something. Stirring it well can also reduce it.

I had a kit brew made with high chlorine water and it tasted of TCP, it was horrendous, stank of the stuff. Many sites say the chlorine is the cause of this, it can be infections too I think. In summertime if reservoirs are low in water they can have loads of added chlorine.

Most say to have the lid off to make the chlorine dissipated, if people are putting airlocks on kit brews I can see how it would remain.

macnug

almostover wrote:

Just one thing I've noticed while observing the fermentation - There was never any major Krausen layer on top of the beer so far during fermentation. The most I ever observed was a 3/4" to 1" layer of Krausen on top. Have I anything to be concerned about?

Most of my beers ferment like this, I've never had the mad krausen explosions you hear some people talk about. Even my last beer which fully fermented in about 3 days with an og of 1.06 didn't look mad when fermenting.

almostover

BeerNut wrote: »

Nope, fermentation is fermentation. Now stop opening the lid and go away.

Haven't opened the fermenter, the fermenter plastic isn't quite fully opaque so I can see through it with a torch. This patience malarkey is the toughest part

BeerNut

Nobody likes nosy people shining a torch at them when they're trying to work.

almostover

Going to bottle up this brew later today. Siphoned off a small sample with a sterilized syringe yesterday and tested with the hydrometer. Final Gravity was 1006 so fermentation is complete. OG was 1044 so ABV is looking like 5% which is ideal. Drank down the sample and it tasted fairly good considering it was at 20 celcius. I washed out my bottles (65 x 330ml brown bottles) with the bottling brush and hot water. Worked up a good old sweat at that.

Plan for today is:

- Mix star san solution ~ 15L in the bottling bucket and sanitise the siphon, bottling wand, bottle capper and bottle caps.
- Boil 2 cups of water and add 130g dextrose and dissolve. Got this from a carbonation calculator and will yield 2.5 volumes of CO2.
- Pour out star san from bottling bucket and add sugar water.
- Siphon beer on top of sugar water.
- Siphon beer into bottles and cap.

What are the pitfalls when bottling?

BeerNut

Things to avoid when bottling are splashing and spillage.

I don't think you need to sanitise your capper, but you do need to sanitise your bottles.

almostover

Beer all bottled up. A lot of hard work is the bottling and very messy. I had purchased an autosiphon which was a saviour. Sampled some of the beer and tasted fairly good so hopefully in 2-3 weeks I'll have some good beer. Thanks for all the advice folks

macnug

almostover wrote:

Beer all bottled up. A lot of hard work is the bottling and very messy. I had purchased an autosiphon which was a saviour. Sampled some of the beer and tasted fairly good so hopefully in 2-3 weeks I'll have some good beer. Thanks for all the advice folks

Yea I gave up bottles a long time ago, korny kegs the way to go, way easier, cleaner and less off flavours imo.

almostover

I've about 15L of capacity available in bottles so going to make some cider this weekend. Will be purchasing pressed apple juice in Aldi at 1.49/L. Want to make a good strong medium dry cider at an ABV of approx 6%. The juice is 10% sugar so how much additional sugar would be required to boost the ABV to 6%?

BeerNut

I've found that the OG of store-bought juice varies between 1.046 and 1.054, all of which will give you 6% ABV and higher without any added sugar.

topper_harley2

Following this thread with great interest, going to attempt similar myself in coming weeks. Currently trying to get the equipment together.
@OP, which size auto syphon did you get to go with that kit? There's small/medium/large auto-syphon listed here: http://www.thehomebrewcompany.ie/beer-wine-equipment-syphons-c-2_30.html?

BeerNut

The descriptions of the small and medium include the amount of liquid they're designed for: at 4.5L the small is designed for demijohns; the medium is 23L, so that's for normal sized fermenters.

almostover

topper_harley2 wrote: »

Following this thread with great interest, going to attempt similar myself in coming weeks. Currently trying to get the equipment together.
@OP, which size auto syphon did you get to go with that kit? There's small/medium/large auto-syphon listed here: http://www.thehomebrewcompany.ie/beer-wine-equipment-syphons-c-2_30.html?

I actually purchased one off Ebay. But it would be equivalent size to the medium syphon listed there.

almostover

Have put a batch of cider brewing now too. 15L of Aldi juice as previously described with 5g Safcider yeast. OG of 1052 so it's going to be potent when fermented out fully. Sampled a bottle of the Coopers Australian Pale Ale too after one week of bottle conditioning - couldn't resist! The beer tasted good, somewhat similar to Guinness Hop House 13 but more flavoursome. Beer wasn't very carbonated though and had no head retention, hopefully that's just down to time and leaving it condition in the bottle more will improve that.

One question to the cider experts here. I'm aiming to make a medium dry cider. My plan is to back sweeten with apple juice once fermentation is complete. What concentration of apple juice will be required to achieve a medium dry finish?

Carawaystick

almostover wrote: »

One question to the cider experts here. I'm aiming to make a medium dry cider. My plan is to back sweeten with apple juice once fermentation is complete. What concentration of apple juice will be required to achieve a medium dry finish?

How will you kill the yeast that will turn the apple juice into stronger cider?

almostover

Carawaystick wrote: »

almostover wrote: »

One question to the cider experts here. I'm aiming to make a medium dry cider. My plan is to back sweeten with apple juice once fermentation is complete. What concentration of apple juice will be required to achieve a medium dry finish?

How will you kill the yeast that will turn the apple juice into stronger cider?

Will I not need some active yeast to provide cabonation ? or what is the best way to both sweeten and carbonate the cider?

BeerNut

almostover wrote: »

Will I not need some active yeast to provide cabonation ? or what is the best way to both sweeten and carbonate the cider?

Easiest is to add the apple juice to taste when you serve it.

rubadub

BeerNut wrote: »

Easiest is to add the apple juice to taste when you serve it.

I wondered about doing this. You can get concentrated apple juice in some health shops, so as not to dilute it with too much uncarbonated liquid, though I suppose you could overcarbonate it to begin with.

I also though about setting aside some of the original concentrated kit juice, maybe freeze it.

Lovely Bloke

you CAN pasteurise the bottles after a certain amount of time having backsweetened, but it would be trial and error as to when to do the pasteurisation.

almostover

Right opened a bottle of the Coopers APA that I bottled 3 weeks ago. Fairly happy with the result. It's very drinkable, mild hoppiness and superior to most bottled mainstream lagers that I would drink from the bottle so a success in that regard. Only issue I'm finding is head retention, pours with a 1 cm head that lasts only a minute! Carbonation a little on the low side too so may have underestimated the priming sugar, may switch to the carbonation drops in future. It's very very drinkable though and overall I'm pleased with it as a first effort. Any ideas how to improve head retention and carbonation in future brews?

Also, my Aldi turbo cider is more or less ready for bottling! Fermenting now for 10 days and it'll be next weekend before I've time to bottle so it will be well finished by then. Some posters here have suggested to serve it with the apple juice if it's a little dry for some people which I will do. My question is how will I carbonate it in the bottle?

Lovely Bloke

you can add more apple juice to carb it.

or sugar as with beer.

or honey.

or pieces of actual apple.

anything with sugar in it will re-start the fermentation in the bottle, but with actual sugar you can measure correctly, with apple juice, honey and pieces of apple you won't have an accurate measure of the amount of sugar you are adding, so could end up under-carbed, or with bottles exploding.

rubadub

Lovely Bloke wrote: »

but with actual sugar you can measure correctly, with apple juice,

Most commercial juice will have the % on the side. Most is about 10-11% sugar, so you can work it out from that. You could use a syringe or shot glass or just weigh it if you have a small scale. Or you could prime it in bulk, i.e. add a fair amount of juice to the entire batch and bottle it.