HOMEBREW

chrishunter said:
Anyone make their own beer ,i thought i`d have a go. I need some advice ,where to buy the kits and equipment from etc.
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Check out The Malt Miller for supplies.
Practice with Can kits that you just add water and sugar, then move over to All Grain kits.
I have trouble with Malt Millers website. I can only view it when using a Vpn, something about valid certificates. Not sure why, it is a bonfide site.
Cheers
 
chrishunter said:
Anyone make their own beer ,i thought i`d have a go. I need some advice ,where to buy the kits and equipment from etc.
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You can get the kits from a few places have a look at Brewbitz I used to do it with a Grainfather but that costs a lot to get setup just try some kits it’s great fun and tastes great.
 
The best can kits are all malt - instead of one can and having to add sugar, you get two cans of malt. My go to preference when I don't want to experiment with ingredients is Woodfordes Wherry.
 
bartman said:
The best can kits are all malt - instead of one can and having to add sugar, you get two cans of malt. My go to preference when I don't want to experiment with ingredients is Woodfordes Wherry.
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Good advice, usually replacing malt with sugar is cheaper but a poor substitute flavour wise. You end up with homebrew like we made in the 70's, grim but effective. I usually do whole grain now but have made some very tasty kit brews using all dried ingredients. Spray malt, hops and yeast.
 
can kits are all malt - instead of one can and having to add sugar, you get two cans of malt. My go to preference when I don't want to experiment with ingredients is Woodfordes Wherry.
bartman said:
The best can kits are all malt - instead of one can and having to add sugar, you get two cans of malt. My go to preference when I don't want to experiment with ingredients is Woodfordes Wherry.
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Which of the woodfordes wherry in your opinion ,best taste should i try bearing in mind im a beginner. :unsure:
 
chrishunter said:
can kits are all malt - instead of one can and having to add sugar, you get two cans of malt. My go to preference when I don't want to experiment with ingredients is Woodfordes Wherry.

Which of the woodfordes wherry in your opinion ,best taste should i try bearing in mind im a beginner. :unsure:
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It depends what type of beer is your preference. Woodfordes do a range of kits, Wherry is described as an amber ale, I would say it's a typical bitter. If you like the golden beers you could try their Bure Gold. There are other kits which are all malt, all good homebrew retailers should have them. Alternatively, with the cheaper one can kits, instead of adding a kilo of sugar you can add a kilo of the dried spray malt as mentioned by Korky.
woodfordes.com

Home Brew Kits

We have an award-winning range of beers and cyders. Shop here to find your favourite Woodforde's beer available in a home brew kit.
woodfordes.com woodfordes.com
You'll see that there are stronger versions, like Nelson's Revenge and Admiral's Reserve. They are probably stronger because you add less water and end up with less beer!
 
What is included with the brew kits? Do you still need to bottle as in the old days of my yoof?

It use to be a large brew bucket, a heater belt, hydrometer, bottles, caps and of course the ingredients.
 
Some retailers will do a complete kit, basic ones won't include a pressure vessel to dispense it, in that case you'd have to bottle it.
A quick search on the web will show what's available.
I usually just run it into a pressure keg, but might fill a few bottles if it's a summer brew so I can put them in the fridge.
I don't think a heating belt for the fermentation is necessary these days now that we have screwed up the climate!
 
You can make your own 50lt boiler from a beer keg. (Do your own research on picking one up)
Two 2kw kettle elements and a tap. If you can get someone with a plasma cutter to cut the top out thats easier than a jigsaw. I used a lever valve as a tap and on the inside a 200mm long length of 15mm copper one end crimped with a load of 3mm holes drilled in it to act as a course filter. It lets the hop bed drain.
 
Don't use a plasma! the effort to clean will overtake the effort with a jigsaw better still use a skinny cutting disk.
 
My setup when I was young was a lot more primitive using a copper tank for boiling, a copper coil for cooling, an old Burco boiler for Sparging and we built our own grain crusher. We bottled some and the rest was put into aluminium Kegs donated by a local pub. The extractor you can see above the boiler used to send a huge pall of steam above our village which you could see and smell from miles away!

As I say, primitive, but we (me and my neighbour) had some great results.

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The fag in my hand was obligatory for brewing by the way.
 
Scotia said:
Don't use a plasma! the effort to clean will overtake the effort with a jigsaw better still use a skinny cutting disk.
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Well you are the man!.
I had a mate cut mine for me. He didnt make much mess but I bow to your greater metalwork knowledge. A thin disc on an angle grinder is probably more accessible though anyway. .
Whatever
A 50 litre keg boils out to fill a 30 litre fermenter which ends up with just over 50 bottles.
The easiest way to clean 50 bottles os with a pressure washer.
I Use a 25 litre fermenter as a mash tun which I place into my boiler as a bain marie to hold temp.
I like long mashes, often overnight
 
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