Homebrew Beer Howto

I guess I should do more reading so cos I hadn't factored in the mashtun. I thought it was instead of a boiler.

Ok from this tutorial comes the quote below:

Cooling the Wort

Once the boil is complete, turn on the water to the coils of the wort chiller. This will cool the wort, usually in around 30 minutes.

How much water is used/wasted in this process?
Is this not a huge cost to factor into extract brewing? :eek:

Also, it seems from several of these tutorials I've read this morning that most pictures seem to be taken outdoors. Is this a smelly process? :P

One way of using that water is as you run the chiller, the water coming out is going to be pretty hot. Use it for cleaning like doing the dishes or cleaning out kegs/bottles etc.
If it's winter and there is a chance of frozen pipes then fill up a load of containers just in case.
Or summer and a chance of water shortages then do the same.
Water the garden.
Make soup.
Wash the car.

Or if you are going to brew again that day or the next. Keep it for tomorrow, though what you do with the water for the next brewday is up to you

24 to 36 hours depending on the teperature.

Isn't shed too cold? Like below 18C on average?

if you can put it somewhere in your house where it will be out of the light would be perfect

wandatowell wrote: »

I'll bang it up into the attic there so, cheers gents!

Be careful about putting it in the attic because on a hot day the temperature can get too high. Plus I'd imagine its a killer having to lug it up there and back down again.

beazee wrote: »

Prepared new batch on Wednesday evening and on Sunday it was happily bubbling (clear bubbling sound every minute or two). I keep it in the kitchen cupboard, temperature stabilizes at 18C after few days.

Sound, I moved it to a spare bedroom and it seems to be fermenting away. Plenty of noise coming from the airlock anyway*


*especially when I remembered to put water in the airlock


Exciting times I gotta say, really enjoying learning about the whole homebrewing process. Everybody seems interested when I was talking about it over the weekend.

Just opened my first bottle of my first home brew. Its the standard Coopers Australian Lager and made it as per instructions. I did make a balls of the carb drops, only putting in 1 drop, and realising my mistake 3 days later, I opend them up and added another drop.

Anyway, the beer is only very mildly carbonated, but it also has an odd taste.....not sure how to describe it though, kind of a chemical taste. All in all, I'm going to say it wasnt a successful attempt.

Anyone wrote: »

Just opened my first bottle of my first home brew. Its the standard Coopers Australian Lager and made it as per instructions. I did make a balls of the carb drops, only putting in 1 drop, and realising my mistake 3 days later, I opend them up and added another drop.

Anyway, the beer is only very mildly carbonated, but it also has an odd taste.....not sure how to describe it though, kind of a chemical taste. All in all, I'm going to say it wasnt a successful attempt.

You shouldn't have opened to further carbonate, your interrupting the bottling conditioning period

Anyone wrote: »

Just opened my first bottle of my first home brew. Its the standard Coopers Australian Lager

Same kit, 1.5 drops per bottle, 2 week in and a carbonation is very mild. I'd blame the kit. As for the taste - all grand here, at least it's not different to what I would expect.

Anyone wrote: »

Just opened my first bottle of my first home brew. Its the standard Coopers Australian Lager and made it as per instructions. I did make a balls of the carb drops, only putting in 1 drop, and realising my mistake 3 days later, I opend them up and added another drop.

Anyway, the beer is only very mildly carbonated, but it also has an odd taste.....not sure how to describe it though, kind of a chemical taste. All in all, I'm going to say it wasnt a successful attempt.

How long has it been in the bottle ?


I'd say with a kit ( and beginners always hate to hear this ) add a month to six weeks to whatever the instructions said to leave it


also with beers around the 4% mark you get a short window of when they're at their best . They come good about 7 - 10 weeks after bottling and last for about three weeks at their peak , after that they staqrt to taste off


Just my experience .

but keep on brewing one or two bad batches can happen , but on the whole the good ones outweigh the bad by a huge amount !!

avfc1874 wrote: »

hi i,ve made a few brew kits brewbuddy (lager) not great. (cider) tasted really good. i then got some cheap apple juice so have made up 16 litres its on the go now. the only thing i'm not sure about is when i made this before at about 9% i added 5tsp per 2 litre bottle. it was very flat and didn't have the crisp taste a good cider should. any one with any advice on what i should do to make it better . thanks

plenty of good info in here http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056866958