Homebrew Beer Howto

sunnyjim

Another poster asked this, could anyone answer it?

My fermenter has a tap at the bottom. I plan to attach some tubing to this and pouring the beer into my keg with it.
Is this ok or will the tap, being so low down allow much of the sediment out?

I need the same answer too Except that I'll be using a bottling stick and putting it straight into swing-top bottles.

BeerNut

I can't see it being a problem. Why would they put a tap there if it wasn't appropriate to pour beer out of it?

glic83

never really though of home brewing but after hearing them going on a bout it on the last word today think i will order a wine starter kit and see how it goes from there how have most people founf there 1st batch of wine,drinable?or trial and error for the next batch?

oblivious

glic83 wrote: »

never really though of home brewing but after hearing them going on a bout it on the last word today think i will order a wine starter kit and see how it goes from there how have most people founf there 1st batch of wine,drinable?or trial and error for the next batch?

Good for you and good to the interview went is having some effect, sorry but I don't do wine

kenmc

Not having done wine either, I can't offer much in the way of suggestion, but would suggest that you go for a middle-of-the-road kit first up, to get your process down without spending TOO much money on something you may have to pour down the drain, but at the same time to hopefully get you something you can drink at the end of it.
I'd also go with a 6 bottle kit rather than a 30!

You could also drop an email to the retailer and see what they suggest.

guildofevil

That was me on the radio

It's been a good few years since I did wine, but I do remember that wine from kits is damn easy and you can get some really great results. The problem I had was patience. Wine takes months to mature where beer takes weeks.

As Kenmc said, get a middle of the road kit and give it a bash. You can offset the waiting period by making a batch every few weeks, so you have wines in various stages of maturation at all times. That way, you have a wine coming to maturity every few weeks. Just make sure you keep good notes and label everything. The last thing you want is to taste a really great wine and then realise that you don't know how you made it.

There are also lots of books and websites out there with recipes and techniques for making wine out of fruit and vegetables, without kits. I know a few people who make mead and I remember my Black Cherry Burgundy being a hit.

Best of luck with the wine making and if you remember one thing from this post, make it this: make sure you sanitise everything. There is nothing worse than putting time and money into making a batch that you have to throw out because of an infection.

Bill-e

Is there a podcast of this interview?

On the wine making front. My old man and his buddies made a wine out of banana skins and drank it at my christening many years ago. Supposedly it was amazing and half the family got demented on it...:D

I only heard the story a few weeks back, didn' know you could make wine out of bananas...

BeerNut

Bill-e wrote: »

Is there a podcast of this interview?

Here, starting 9 minutes in.

Bill-e wrote: »

I only heard the story a few weeks back, didn' know you could make wine out of bananas...

Anything with sugar in it can be fed to yeast to make alcohol.

gaz wac

hmmmm interesting !!! WINE: Slice a kilo of peel,add 4cups water then boil. Extract the juice of banana peel.decant and filter through a cheesecloth. add 1cup of sugar.Pasteurize,then add 1/4 teaspoon ammonium sulfate to reinforce nitrogen defeciency.cool then add wine yeast.allow to ferment for 8 days.the alcohol content is 11-12 percent.set aside for a month to age.

sunnyjim

BeerNut wrote: »

I can't see it being a problem. Why would they put a tap there if it wasn't appropriate to pour beer out of it?

Cool! I'll let yous know how I get on. Should I try avoid letting sediment enter, or just let it go?

I've amassed so much stuff, a lot of it from just asking around.

72 swing top bottles
Tons of tubing
25L Fermenter (from homebrewcompany.ie)
23L Tipperary water cooler for adding sugars prior to bottling
Bottling stick
Giant wooden box for making my hot box (DHL have tons)

Someone is offering me a few demi-johns, which I'm going to use for my berry wine. That's something I'm just gonna mess about with.

oblivious

sunnyjim wrote: »

Someone is offering me a few demi-johns, which I'm going to use for my berry wine. That's something I'm just gonna mess about with.

There are also great for making starter if move move on to liquid yeast;)

sunnyjim

I don't know too much about that. I'm gonna go look all this up, but would that be some form of condensed flavour extract?

edit: Sorry. I know what you're talking about now. How do people find making LY?

BeerNut

sunnyjim wrote: »

would that be some form of condensed flavour extract?

Nope, just yeast. Only packaged differently.

oblivious

sunnyjim wrote: »

Sorry. I know what you're talking about now. How do people find making LY?

Is LY liquid yeast?

boopolo

Hi everyone here. I am new.

Been reading this thead for some time and am finally taking the plundge. Read Irish Craft Brewer articles (thanks to link here). My conclusion is that hygiene/satitization is of upmost importance.

I ordered this starer kit

I also ordered this brewferm wheat kit plus 500g of spraymalt instead of sugar.

Am a Guinness drinker but drink beer sometimes. This kit is only 26/27 pints. Should I bottle this in pint bottles or in 375ml bottles or would it make any difference. I have access to either.

Will try a stout next time.

BeerNut

boopolo wrote: »

My conclusion is that hygiene/satitization is of upmost importance.

Absolutely. It's the one thing you'll kick yourself about most if you make a mistake and have to dump an infected batch.

boopolo wrote: »

Should I bottle this in pint bottles or in 375ml bottles or would it make any difference.

You could always do a mix. Small bottles are a good way to test samples in the first couple of weeks after bottling. Bigger bottles means you don't have to clean and fill as many.

Good luck, and let us know how you get on.

Jugs82

Right - ive been reading this forum for a while and am taking the plunge

Im planning to order the same kit as boopolo

I was reading on the craft brewer site that lager is not recommended for 1st timers but that getting a lager kit with an ale yeast would leave you with a nice Pale Ale agreeable to most lager drinkers

Would those experienced at this recommend this for a 1st timer or should i stick to Ale?

Also, everyone has said not to use Sugar - Ever!! is it best to use the dry malt extract, spraymalt or the enhancer? or does it make a big difference...

Sorry for all the qsts but im excited about starting

Cheers

BeerNut

Any lager kit I've ever tasted has not resembled an agreeable pale ale; they were all awful. But I don't know whether that's down to the kit or the skill of the brewers.

Even kit weissbiers I've tried were fairly unpalatable, and I'm told it's a much more forgiving style.

My recommendation, based on my limited personal experience, is that the darker the beer the better the end result from a kit. But if you don't normally drink dark beers you'd have to balance that against your preference for paler styles.

Dry malt extract and spraymalt are the same thing. I don't know what the enhancer is or does, but I'm sure someone here can tell you. Apparently, using these instead of sugar does make a huge difference. And your best bet is to buy an all-malt kit that doesn't require adding your own fermentables.

It's not strictly true to say sugar should never be used: it's perfectly OK to use in very small quantities for priming your bottles -- about a teaspoon full or less each.

Good luck, and happy brewing.

oblivious

Jugs82 wrote: »

Also, everyone has said not to use Sugar - Ever!! is it best to use the dry malt extract, spraymalt or the enhancer? or does it make a big difference...

Sugar is used in brewing but combined inexperience, poor yeast handling, too high fermentation and it can go bad. Best with any kit is to replace the sugar with some malt extract

BeerNut

So what's the enhancer made out of?

kenmc

BeerNut wrote: »

So what's the enhancer made out of?

Coopers Brew Enhancer 1 contains dextrose and maltodextrin. The dextrose will ferment out completely with no residual cidery flavours whilst the maltodextrin does not ferment thus improving the body, mouthfeel and head retention.


Coopers Brew Enhancer 2 contains dextrose, maltodextrin and Light Dry Malt. The dextrose will ferment out completely with no residual cidery flavours whilst the maltodextrin does not ferment thus improving the body, mouthfeel and head retention. The Light Dry Malt, being 100% pale malt, will further add to the body and increase the malt character of your favourite brew. Great for use with any beer styles where a fuller, maltier flavour is preferred.

guildofevil

Bold flavours are best in kit beers.

It's not really the yeast that's the problem with lager kits. It's probably not great yeast and that certainly won't help, but I think the kit manufacturers know that people who buy beer kits aren't going to have fermentation temperature control and provide ale yeast with lager kits anyway, not lager yeast.

The problem is that lager is a subtly flavoured beer.

There will be flaws in any beer made from a kit. You are making beer from concentrate, which is never going to be as good as fresh.

Using large quantities of sugar makes matters worse, so buying a 3Kg beer kit, which doesn't need extra fermentables, or using spraymalt or a beer kit enhancer (a blend of spray dried dextrose and spray malt), instead of sugar with the cheaper kits, removes this flaw but you are still rehydrating beer concentrate and fermenting it.

If you choose a beer kit with lot's of bold flavours, like an ale or a stout, the flaws will be covered up by those flavours. Light coloured, subtly flavoured beers leave nowhere for the flaws to hide, so they stand out a mile. This is why lager kits taste foul.

BeerNut

guildofevil wrote: »

There will be flaws in any beer made from a kit.

I disagree with this. I've tasted kit beer which has been not noticeably or unpleasantly kittish. Some were customised, with added ingredients, and I think all were boiled to some extent. All were certainly in the amber-to-black colour range. But I think it is possible to get good beer from kits with practice.

guildofevil

My position is that the flaws were there, but they were concealed.

I'm not saying that you can't get a tasty beer from kit's. You can. But you need to choose the right style of beer. Hop flavour, roasty flavours, caramel flavours, fruity esters, all of these will give your senses something else to latch on to and enjoy, so the kit beer appears flawless. If the other flavours are not there the flaws will stand out and you get that lager kit flavour.

BeerNut

guildofevil wrote: »

My position is that the flaws were there, but they were concealed.

That's a bit zen, isn't it? If a flaw exists in a beer and you can't taste it, is it fair to call it a flaw? And how do you know it exists?

guildofevil

I think you are missing the point. All I am trying to do is explain why subtly flavoured beers do not come out well, while ones with more bold flavours do.

Beer kits are made from hoped liquid malt extract. The flavours people describe as "kit tang" are due to the oxidation of lipids and certain other constituents of the liquid malt extract in the can. It will be worse in older kits than it is in younger kits, because it is a progressive deterioration, so as the kit sits on the shelf, the kit tang is getting more pronounced.

That is a flaw and whether you can taste it or not, it is there. Nothing zen about it, it is a chemical change.

The best way to make good beer from a kit it to acknowledge this and figure out how to compensate for it, which is exactly what happened in the kit beers you said were not noticeably or unpleasantly kittish.

Bill-e

Guys, I had to move my beer from fermenter to keg then back into the fermenter and then back to the keg. My syphon was a bit short and My beer had a half foot drop in the air each time. I know getting oxygen into the beer is good b4 the yeast but I think I recall someone saying that it's bad after wards. Hence things like bottling tubes etc...

Willl my larger taste even worse?

Also, on the points mentioned above. My first brew was a kit larger and it can out really well. It was pretty bland almost as much as bud or coors but did a fine job of getting me tipsy.

oblivious

Bill-e wrote: »

Guys, I had to move my beer from fermenter to keg then back into the fermenter and then back to the keg.

You dont have to do a secondary, you can just leave it in the primary and after a couple of week transfer to the keg

Bill-e wrote: »

I know getting oxygen into the beer is good b4 the yeast but I think I recall someone saying that it's bad after wards. Hence things like bottling tubes etc...

Willl my larger taste even worse?

Yeast need oxygen for sterols for their cells menbrains, this general advise to reduce as much oxygen contact as possible. but since the yeast are still present the will hopefully mop up some of the oxygen that their

boopolo

BeerNut wrote: »

Even kit weissbiers I've tried were fairly unpalatable, and I'm told it's a much more forgiving style.

Ah well. Will see how it turns out. The Tarwebier I'm about to try is a weissbier. Read a few good reviews on it.

BeerNut wrote: »

My recommendation, based on my limited personal experience, is that the darker the beer the better the end result from a kit. But if you don't normally drink dark beers you'd have to balance that against your preference for paler styles.

Will make a black one next time

Will have to wait another day for it to arrive, as the couriers misplaced/mis-sorted my order in their warehouse.


Speaking of lager and the cool temperatures required; has anybody here attempted to make one of these Son Of Fermentation Chiller or a 38DD Son Of Fermentation Chiller

10-10-20

Hi guys, another new homebrewer here...

I placed an order for the beer starter kit and also some of the kits last night on thehomebrewcompany.ie but any of the kits I ordered didn't list malt as a requirement.

For example: Brewferm Grand Cru
http://thehomebrewcompany.ie/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_10&products_id=316

Am I correct in thinking that this is a mistake or is the sugar/malt in the kit already?