Topic: Complete novice.

[Orfy]

I've just signed up to A4U and am pleased to see it covers quite a few of my past times.

Food , drink and Gardening......





I'm thinking of having a go at a bit of home brewing....for a complete novice with no availability of free fruit or acres of space to brew it, would you suggest buying a cheap kit to start with or go diy?

Whats easiest, quickest and cheapest beer or wine.

I love a good ale and a dry white.
What are the costs involved for a first timer?

I guess i need to spend a little time reading up.

Thanks.

[cleo]

Do you really want an answer? Beer kits are the pits-one has to learn how to mash to get something better than the commercial stuff.

The top of the range wine kits are not bad,not as good as Chateau expensive but drinkable after a year or so.

Costs?-to make a kit-not so much,see another thread.

It`s up to you-and it can get adictive-been `clean` for nearly 20 years now

Stephan

[Orfy]

Cheers,

so you reckon I need raw ingriedents to get a decent brew?

[philcooper]

I'm afraid I have to disagree with Cleo 100%, the large beer kits (2 cans, not one) cost ~£14 and produce with 3 weeks a good drinkable brew.

That's 40 pints so you can do the commercial sums yourself.

Wine takes at least 6 months to produce something drinkable and that, in my experience does not tastre like the stuff you can buy (if you like its taste ok)

For home brew beer all you really need is a 5 gallon brewing bucket, a bit of plastic pipe, a funnel and lots of bottles (from bottle bank?)

Total ~£10

All that is useable should you aspire to the hieghts that Cleo/Stephan suggests but we're talking a minimum of an extra £100 to get the boiler and mashing tun.

Starting with the kits and then adding a few extra ingredients allows you (at little expense) to get the hang of how to do it rather than jumping in at the deep end

Phil

[Orfy]

That sounds promising.

I'm sure I've seen home brew stuff in Wilkinsons!

Next question, is Bitter easier to do than lager and is there a difference in the method?

[Doris_Pinks]

Remeber to hit the charity shops, I have gotten loads of demijons from there for 50p! For fermenting buckets I go to our local pound shop place, and get ones with lids fairly cheapo. And always remember to ask around friends, a lot of their parents used to do home brew but have now stopped, and have loads of the stuff in their lofts! ;D

[DavidW]

I agree with Phil copper here, you need to start off slowly and build up your experience and equipment. If you are considering brewing beer rather than wine, there are some good kits about, I would suggest you use the 3kg kits where additional sugar is not required. Some of the other kits are c**p and will put you off making more homebrew for life. As stated, start off with a  5 gallon plastic fermentation bucket, and some 2 litre plastic bottles and make a start there, I would also get hold of a hydrometer as well. I started off in a similar way a number of years ago. I now use the full mash method of brewing and there is a considerable better taste with these brews that you produce. Brewing lager / beer form kits is quite simple, if you are looking to brew a lager by the full mash method, then the fermentation process requires a little more equipment to get down to the correct temperature. Also if you have a local homebrew shop go and speak to the owner or even E-mail your questions. If you need any additional info let me know and I can forward you some homebrew sites for basic brewing

Good
Luck David

[cleo]

Mea culpa-been away for a long time-maybe the  kits are better now-and it is true-mashing the stuff is not cheap initially-but for those that wish I stilll have a recipe book-won the `National` my first and only time of trying in 1984-Pale Ale-then I got married lol

Stephan

[Merry Tiller]

The better Muntons beer kits are fantastic

[philcooper]

MT and Orfy,

The kit makers suggest the same techniques for lager or bitter (though as a long time resident of Germany and visitor of several breweries there and in Holland would say that "proper" brewing of lager requires low temperature fermentaion.

I would agree that the Munton 3kg kits produce good drinkable bitters - the lagers are quite like UK "lager" but not like true pils

Phil

[Orfy]

Sounds good.

I'll let you know if I have a go.

[Orfy]

I,m thinking of starting with one of these.

http://www.mrbeer.biz/JShopServer/product.php?xProd=138&xSec=3

What do you reckon?

[mrsnesbitt]

If you are looking for demijohns try freecycle there is a local one near you in Warrington...http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WarringtonFreecycle/ ;)

[Orfy]

Thanks, that's a great link.

I'm now 2 weeks in to 80 pints. I'll let you know how it goes.
I have 2 mr beer kits and a 40 pint bucket.

[Orfy]

From little acorns.

Thanks for the start. I now brew real ale from all grain.

Cheers.

[Chris Graham]

I have just stared too and already on my 3rd Beer Kit  ;)

My website has a new section for brewing and I initially spent £60 on a starter kit. 

This home brewing is very addictive and I'm already thinking of starting up all grain. ;)

[davee52uk]

IF you can get the stuff, making beer from the basic hops and malt can produce beer which is a good or even better than pub bought stuff. I have proved this by taking a pint of my own brew into a pub and letting customers decide. In  additions the spent hops and barley are great for the compost bin and the price is baout 10 -  20 p per pint.

As homebrew shops are a bit rare these days the above may not be a viable option. In that case I can recommend making wine from blackberries, loganberries, or damsons. We have an old boy who makes vast amounts of blackberry wine each year sufficient for wine at every meal for a year.

Also you could try growing your own grapes. I live in the Midlands and have no problems with outdoor grapes. Once they take root they grow at an immense pace! Last year the vines growing round the side of my shed produced enough grapes for a gallon of wine.

Another approach is to make fruit type liqueurs - vodka, rum or brandy soaked in fruit like damsons - very nice on a cold Winter's day.

[timiano]

I've just banged together the Norfolk Wherry kit tonight from Wilkos.

I was quite suprised how treacly the mix was in the kits, and really stunk. I went for the yeast rehydration method before adding which I hope helps.

Fingers crossed!

[timiano]

 ;D





Tim

[betula]

Looks good to me Tim,are we all round to your place? ;D