Homebrew Beer Howto

oblivious

Saruman wrote: »

An all grain brew will take most of the day where as a kit brew can be in the ferminting bucket within an hour.
Extract takes 3 to 5 hours depending on how well things go. That time will drop as you get more experienced and prepare things better.

Once you get up and familiar with your system you can do an all grain in 4.5 hours

Saruman wrote: »

If you do not have any, do not use household sugar. Use glucose (any supermarket) instead..

To be honest simple sugar is simple sugar to the yeast, the bad rap sugar gets has to do with poor extract, yeast handling, brewing methods and fermentation. But replacing a kg of sugar with malt extract is a much better option and will produce a better final beer

Saruman

oblivious wrote: »

Once you get up and familiar with your system you can do an all grain in 4.5 hours

Sweet, I thought it was closer to 6+ and it probably will be for my first all grain batch.

Now if I only had enough space for a stacked almost automated system like some people have. Especially in the US. Or even a commercially made automated homebrew system like this! though it would be cheaper and more fun to put it together yourself assuming you have the space

Bill-e

I know ths question must have been asked a million times already but I'm feeling really lethargic today and if you of you gurus has the figure to hand...
How much malt extract should I use instead of the 1KG of sugar?
I have 2 bags of 500g...

thanks!

BeerNut

Bill-e wrote: »

How much malt extract should I use instead of the 1KG of sugar?

1 kg should be fine.

guildofevil

You can, more or less, substitute them 1 for 1.

The DME is less fermentable than sugar, so you will get a higher finishing gravity, and more body and flavour, but this also means a bit less alcohol. If you are really worried about it and want to compensate for the higher final gravity, you could add 100-150g of sugar, as well as the 1kg of DME.

100g of sugar will give dust under two extra gravity points. 100g of table sugar, in 23 litres = 1.0017. This would also have the effect of lightening the body slightly.

I, like most people, wouldn't bother though. 1 for 1 is fine.

baconsarnie

Ta for that- reckon i'll get a few more kits under my belt before i upgrade. Any other forum experts have any ideas on the Coopers Pilsner kit?

Bill-e

Thanks guys, well I decided to make a Diabolo beer. It required 500g of sugar which I swapped with 500g of DME.

I read the instructions poorly and I also put in 100g of white sugar. Which it meant for me to use when bottling...
My OG is 1075 :eek: It's like soup!

do you guy think this extra 100g of sugar will make it uncomfortably strong to drink? like it was already an 8% b4 the 100g and I'll be adding another 100g when it comes to bottling....

mayto

That will be fine Bill-e. Muntons Dme is about 80% fermentable so your addition of 100g of sugar is spot on really. The OG is meant to be 1075 anyway so alls good . I have a brewferm wheatbeer kit to do and I'll probably add dme and sugar ratio like you have done.

Bill-e

Cheers mayto, lets hope it goes well.

Another thing. I hear you can get these swing cap bottles in Dunnes for like 3 euro or so each. I'm tempted to grab a few. Along with Grosch I can't think of anyone else that has these type bottles here in cork. What do ye think?

mayto

If you want swing tops check out beerangel.com http://www.beerangel.com/product_info.php?info=p146_Hacker-Pschorr-Hefe-Weisse.html . Just pick 30 bottles of whatever beer you choose with swingtops. If you pick 30 bottles shipping is about 30 euro and works out cheapest for bottle i think. It'll come to about 65 euro incl. shipping. I ordered from them a few times and delivery takes about a week. note that customs could charge duty if checked afaik. The box they send just says fragile on it and is sent within the EU so should go through no problem.

BeerNut

Bill-e wrote: »

Another thing. I hear you can get these swing cap bottles in Dunnes for like 3 euro or so each. I'm tempted to grab a few. Along with Grosch I can't think of anyone else that has these type bottles here in cork. What do ye think?

Buy Flensburger: the Lorina bottles are clear glass, Grolsch is green: both will cause the beer to become lightstruck with minimal exposure. Flensburger are brown swingtop and any decent off licence, like the Abbot's, should have the pils and/or weiss. And they're nice beers too.

Alternatively, last month the Franciscan Well was offering empty 1 litre brown swingtops at €10 for 6. There may still be some left. Ask for Russell.

Bill-e

Thanks guys!
OMG that beer angel website is unreal. Where's my credit card!?:D

IrishWhiskeyCha

Excuse my ignorance but I have been reading this home brewing thread with interest slowly but surely. I have noticed people mentioning demijohns but I have yet to figure out what they are being used for. Can anybody explain? I am half thinking of giving this home brew lark a try by buying a starter kit with buckets etc but I happen to have 2 demijohns in my shed. Are these any good for the job before I go spending like goodo... I fear not as they appear to be only circa 5L (1 Gallon) size.

Cheers in advance

oblivious

Some people use them to make small batches or beer or cider, I prefer to used them for starters

BeerNut

IrishWhiskeyCha wrote: »

Can anybody explain? I am half thinking of giving this home brew lark a try by buying a starter kit with buckets etc but I happen to have 2 demijohns in my shed. Are these any good for the job before I go spending like goodo

People use demis for fermenting in. As oblivious says, you can brew up 5 gallons and then separate out two of them for experiments.

You can also make Idiot Cider.

IrishWhiskeyCha

Thanks Oblivious & Beernut ...

Okay so you talk about expermients ....

This sounds interesting ... I reckon I have read enough to do a basic Kit brew thanks to all the knowledgeable people on this thread. However I like the idea of getting 3 slightly different beers from the one batch by transferring some to my 5l demijohns.

Firstly can this be done with Kit beers

And would ye have any ideas of what I could go with and how I can develope this idea (Having no clue of what I'm doing ).

I like most beers as long as they are rich & full of flavour but not overly malty. I have never come across a wheat beer that I disliked, IPAs, & stouts and even ale as long as it is not overly dull & flat are all good but Largers are the ones I most dislike due to lack of taste in a lot of them.

mazza

Its a long shot but has any used empty Perlenbacher (the beer sold in Lidl) for bottling homebrew?

Pros: They're half litre and brown glass.

Cons: They're noticably lighter in the hand and thinner glass than proper returnable bottles. Also, my capper won't put new caps on them, so the screw-on caps which I saved would have to be used.

All the good heavy bottles I have are tied up with the 2nd and 3rd kits I brewed. I could wait a while till I drink my way through some of them or use about 20 of the empty Perlenbacher bottles I have lying round.

I did try one of the Perlenbacher bottles for test purposes when bottling my last brew and its still fine heading for two weeks later - no explosions or caps coming off. But there's a big difference between losing one bottle and losing twenty if it goes wrong!

Anyone got any thoughts on it? Take a chance?!


PS Great to see so many newbies posting on this sticky and asking many of the questions which are going through my head. And fair play to the old-hands for the time and expertise in answering them!

BeerNut

IrishWhiskeyCha wrote: »

Firstly can this be done with Kit beers

Yep, I've tasted some lovely hacked kits.

IrishWhiskeyCha wrote: »

would ye have any ideas of what I could go with and how I can develope this idea

Dry hopping is an obvious one: if you're making an ale, say, rack off a gallon after a week or so of fermentation and bung 10g of hops into the demi with it.

Adding fruit is another alternative. Rack off two separate gallons of a wheat beer after a week. Throw half a kilo of strawberries which have been sanitised, frozen and then thawed into one; into the other, do the same for blackberries, say, or whatever you fancy. (Method shamelessly stolen from guildofevil. Hopefully he'll point out anything I've got wrong.)

IrishWhiskeyCha wrote: »

Largers are the ones I most dislike due to lack of taste in a lot of them.

One thing that fermenting at room temperature will always give you is taste

mazza wrote: »

thinner glass than proper returnable bottles.

I think they just look flimsy compared to the armoured returnables, but they'll be designed to cope with the beer pressure you need, I'd say.

mazza wrote: »

the screw-on caps which I saved would have to be used.

Screwcaps on glass sounds a bit iffy to me. What are these caps like?

IrishWhiskeyCha

Thanks beernut all very helpful. Need to have a think what I want to brew before I go barreling in. But while I am thinking I have 21 bottles of German beer on order from Beerangel.com all with the flip tops ... thinking ahead you know ... all for an average cost of 2.38each including p&p :cool:

Saruman

I have always thrown out the perlanbacher because they are screwcap so I can not use a crown capper on them. I never thought to use the original caps. Its just easier to get better quality bottles from drinking a better quality beer

BeerNut

So they're crown screwcaps, with a groove on the bottleneck? That really doesn't sound reliable to me.

guildofevil

I would not use try to those bottles. The last thing you need it to have your beer primed and in bottles that don't seal properly.

Go out and buy a load of Flensburger and Hacker-Pschorr then you never worry about crown caps again.

mazza

I think they just look flimsy compared to the armoured returnables, but they'll be designed to cope with the beer pressure you need, I'd say.

Screwcaps on glass sounds a bit iffy to me. What are these caps like?

Thanks for the good replies and opinions guys - appreciated.

Yes, they most definitely are lighter duty than the returnable ones - no arguing with that.

The lid / bottle combination is a bit strange in that the neck of the bottle is has a few full rotations of thread on it and looks like you could screw a lid on with two or three full rotations, if you get my meaning. Like a Coke bottle or similar.

But the lid they put on them only actually screws half a turn, leaving the lower threads untouched. It may be some kind of generic bottle which different caps can be applied to?

Anyway, the lids come off without any damage if you unscrew them (rather than use an opener) and go back on the same amount of turns as when taking them off. Once on they can't be pulled off by hand and don't really know how to test the quality of the seal any more than this.

As per previous post, the one Perlenbacher bottle I put the last brew in is fine: no explosions and not leaking as far as I can see.

Yes, the best route to go is to either drink up the existing brews quicker to free bottles or to buy more beer and drink it up. Just trying to limit the aul' intake somewhat...

I'm not sure when I'll do the next brew, so will put the decision off till then and maybe have enough better bottles free or just take a chance. Will let you know.

Thanks again,

Mazza

PS For the record, the only reason I was drinking the Perl was for the bottles...barely tolerable... ;-)

Bill-e

I ordered 21 swing cap bottles from beerangel.
Their stock guy is going to hate me. I ordered pretty much one of every kind they had. I think they had 23 in total but i brought it to 21 to save a tenner on shipping. What a fantastic site, I'm going to have a new beer every day for nearly a month
Is the 2-4 days shipping an accurate estimate or would that be more for around centre of Europe?

IrishWhiskeyCha

I would imagine they ship by DHL who are usually fairly good time wise. You'll have to wait till you get a mail saying that they have been 'Conveyed' before you can start the count down . And with a bank holiday that may also hinder your progress. I'd say end of the week. just in time for the week-end :cool:

Saruman

Nice site that, might give them a go next time I want some beer.

DBCyc

Hey guys - great thread! It has inspired me to give this home brewing a go.

I have used this beer kit, following these guidelines.

The problem that I had was that after mixing the beer kit with the DME in boiling water, and topping up with cool water - I couldn't get the wort cooled to 23 degrees before pitching the yeast.

The lowest I could get it cooled to was 28 degrees (maybe cos today was so warm?) and after hours in a sink of cool water, it wouldn't go any lower. So I pitched the yeast at this temperature, covered the bin and left to ferment.

Do you think that it will be okay at this temperature or will it be spoiled? Next time I suppose that I should make sure to have some ice in the water in the sink to cool the wort sufficiently

Saruman

28 should be fine, it is at the higher end of the scale but should not kill the yeast. It is a fine line at that temperature though.
When you are ready to go a little more advanced you will need a wort chiller as you will be boiling your full volume.

How much wort did you make? If you made a 25L batch with a kit (no boil needed) then you should only have heated perhaps a little water (if steeping anything) and the can of extract. The cold water should have cooled it way down.

DBCyc

Hi Saruman,

I made a 25L batch with a kit where I boiled 3L of water with the DME, added this to the beer kit in the fermentor and topped up to 25L with cold tap water. Maybe the tapwater wasn't cool enough?

After that I left it in the sink full of tapwater for at least an hour and a half and it cooled to 28 degrees. I just measured the wort temp there (a couple of hours after steeping the yeast) and its 25 degrees - at least its cooled a bit!

Does this sound okay?

Saruman

You should be grand. You will find out tomorrow though
If worst comes to worst, use some more yeast.