Homebrew Beer Howto

BeerNut

Cider is a lot easier than beer. People have been drinking cider for much longer than they've been drinking beer, I'd say.

I've you've time and transport, it could be worth going to have a chat with Cuilan Loughnane at the White Gypsy brewery in Templemore. He has big plans for near-self-sufficiency, using local barley, water from his family well and hops grown out the front of his brewery.

jonnybadd

Hi all, just a few questions to tap into your knowledge if I could.

First of all, I want to get into homebrewing, the plan is to brew up a batch for my birthday in July. Would I be better off trying something first then improving for the birthday, or just leaving it and hoping for the best in the weeks leading up to it?

Secondly the equipment I want to be using has been recommended from this thread, mainly the starter kit from thehomebrewcompany.ie and the Coopers English Bitter Kit from the same site. Would this be a decent starting kit or should I shell out the few extra bob for some extras or a better kit?

Thirdly and finally, the bottle issue, am I better off buying bottles fresh of a site or just collecting some brown bottles and sterilising when its time to bottle? Plus what bottle size would be the best for the above kit? A normal 33cl or go for the larger bottle?

Sorry if anything I ask is a complete newbie question, just want to get as much info as possible before I make the investment.

Blisterman

Short answers:
I'd brew a few batches. Maybe even keep a few bottles from each for your birthday. There's always the chance that your brew will turn out badly, so you don't want all your eggs in one basket.
Sounds like a decent starting kit. When you get a bit more advanced you can try using fresh hops and malt extract.
Collect bottles definitely. Only a small price difference between empty and full bottles, and you get beer included!

wobzilla1

Hey lads (and lassies), after brewing a few kits i've decided to take the step up to extract brewing. I was wondering if anyone has a good recipe for either a porter or old ale. Thanks in advance:)

wobzilla1

You can forget that last question, I decided to go straight to all-grain and found a decent porter recipe. Thanks anyway

mayto

wobzilla1 wrote: »

You can forget that last question, I decided to go straight to all-grain and found a decent porter recipe. Thanks anyway

Its a while since I made a porter but I remember I liked recipe below. It is by a really good US homebrewer. I have been all-grain brewing myself for a few years. What recipe are you planning on doing? Best of luck with the AG brewing:)
Brown Porter 23L
4.31 kg. Maris Otter Pale info
.45 kg. English Brown Malt info
.45 kg. Crystal Malt 40°L info
.284 kg. English Chocolate Malt info
40 g. Fuggle (Whole, 5 %AA) boiled 60 min. info
14 g. Fuggle (Whole, 5 %AA) boiled 10 min. info
Yeast : WYeast 1028 London Ale info
72% efficiency
OG = 1051
FG = 1012

wobzilla1

That's actually the exact one i found

jonnybadd

Cheers for that Blisterman, going to start a brew in a few weeks, no doubt I'll have a few more questions but thanks for now!

Saruman

Good straight down the middle porter recipe there. Nice and simple to get started on.

Personally I would like a bit more roast coffee going on so would add in some roast barley and/or Black malt but that is just how I like my stout and porter.

oblivious

mayto wrote: »

Its a while since I made a porter but I remember I liked recipe below. It is by a really good US homebrewer. I have been all-grain brewing myself for a few years. What recipe are you planning on doing? Best of luck with the AG brewing:)
Brown Porter 23L
4.31 kg. Maris Otter Pale info
.45 kg. English Brown Malt info
.45 kg. Crystal Malt 40°L info
.284 kg. English Chocolate Malt info
40 g. Fuggle (Whole, 5 %AA) boiled 60 min. info
14 g. Fuggle (Whole, 5 %AA) boiled 10 min. info
Yeast : WYeast 1028 London Ale info
72% efficiency
OG = 1051
FG = 1012

Looks very like a clone of fullers London porter is it?

mayto

oblivious wrote: »

Looks very like a clone of fullers London porter is it?

Recipe is for a brown porter. He has a very good recipe book although a lot of recipes in it have fairly high OG

oblivious

mayto wrote: »

Recipe is for a brown porter. He has a very good recipe book although a lot of recipes in it have fairly high OG

Should be a good one, with that yeast get you self a bottle of Fullers London porter of a side by side comparison

silliegillie

Hi Guys, I just got my first homebrew kitt and looking forward to trying it. I think I know what I am at but 1 question I do have is water type. The area I live in has very Hard water, so Bad in fact that for some time now I have been using a Britta Filter before making a cup of tea.The Limescale on my Kettle is Disgusting. Should I filter the Water First or Just let it come straight out of the Tap ?

BaZmO*

silliegillie wrote: »

Hi Guys, I just got my first homebrew kitt and looking forward to trying it. I think I know what I am at but 1 question I do have is water type. The area I live in has very Hard water, so Bad in fact that for some time now I have been using a Britta Filter before making a cup of tea.The Limescale on my Kettle is Disgusting. Should I filter the Water First or Just let it come straight out of the Tap ?

Well if the water is that bad that you can't make a cup of tea with it you'll have to filter it or maybe use bottled water?

BeerNut

I wouldn't say you have to, but it's probably a good idea to filter your water. Or you could just do the first batch untreated and see how it turns out.

Mjollnir

Well, as it turns out, we didn't go to the place in Culver City (waaaaaay too much 'tude) but we found a group that claims to be the oldest homebrew club not only in LA, not only in the US, but the world.

The initial class was last Monday night, and it was basic, informative and about 2 hours total. We were instructed through the process of making a 'London Pub Ale' (a specific recipe from the club) and this Sunday will be showing up at the store for their "IPAs of March" event, where they'll be brewing IPAs the hard way.

There are some real heavy hitters in the club (the guy who started Sierra Nevada, etc...)

If you're ever going to be in L.A., check 'em out: http://www.maltosefalcons.com/

Oh, and this father-son team are also club members, and were just featured in the L.A. Times!

http://www.latimes.com/videobeta/watch/?watch=8f3a0e2e-4b58-4488-a2a0-4216593d556c

wobzilla1

I just started my first all grain brew, it's in the mash bin at the moment. Just 1 question; Near the start of mashing I got distracted and the temperature went up to about 80 degrees . It spent 10 minutes max at that temperature and I was just wondering if it's okay or will the enzymes have been destroyed?

Saruman

I would say it is fine, has happened to me before with no issue and I got my expected OG.

wobzilla1

Cool thanks. I had a bit of a disaster when my grain bag came loose and pushed on the heating element and made the bin start leaking. Managed to save nearly all the wort though.:p


EDIT: Should have invested in an autosiphon. I got a faceful of boiling wort and now my lip's all swollen

eoinkildare

hi lads.
i recently bought the starter beer kit from homebrewwest and brewed my first beer. it was the coopers brewmaster pilsener. it turned out lovely and i was very happy with it.
i do have a few questions though;
(i) i dont have a brewbelt or heater and so i left it in a wardrobe in the box room. the house is quite cold and so the fermenting took a good long time. i also got a bit lazy and it was about two months before i actually bottled it. mind you, i did take samples a few times and it wasnt actually quite ready to bottle before that.
but did i get very lucky that it turned out so well after i had left it sit for so long??

(ii)i added the malt extract from the tin to boiling water and i boiled it for a while until the hot break stopped. i then cooled it rapidly by sitting the pot into ice water for a while before adding it to the fermenter.
however, i later read somewhere that what i had experienced wasnt a real hot break and that boiling is not neccesary, and in fact, can harm a malt extract kit beer. should i have boiled the extract with water or should i have just added it straight to the fermenter with warm water and saved myself the trouble??

(iii) the website howtobrew.com was where i was getting my information and it told me to ignore the instructions that came with the kit. the method he used on the website was much longer and more complicated than the kit instructions, so would i have been just as well off taking the easier option??

okay, i think thats it for the moment, but rest assurred i'll have more questions. i've bought three more kits, the coopers cerveza, coopers pilsener (again) and the coopers premium heritage lager so i'm looking forward to trying them all.

one last question actually. i also bought the beginner wine kit this time around. anyone on here make their own wine??

BeerNut

eoinkildare wrote: »

the house is quite cold and so the fermenting took a good long time. i also got a bit lazy and it was about two months before i actually bottled it. mind you, i did take samples a few times and it wasnt actually quite ready to bottle before that.
but did i get very lucky that it turned out so well after i had left it sit for so long??

Possibly. It depends on how cold it was, I guess. I've known of beers being safely fermented for longer.

eoinkildare wrote: »

should i have boiled the extract with water or should i have just added it straight to the fermenter with warm water and saved myself the trouble??

I've never heard of it harming the beer, but you don't need to boil kits: they've already been boiled. If you're adding extra hops (apart from dry-hopping) then you need to boil.

eoinkildare wrote: »

the website howtobrew.com was where i was getting my information and it told me to ignore the instructions that came with the kit. the method he used on the website was much longer and more complicated than the kit instructions, so would i have been just as well off taking the easier option??

Not looked at Palmer's instructions. ICB's is here. It is true that kit instructions often contain bad advice: too-high fermentation temperatures, adding sugar, not enough time for fermentation etc.

Happy brewing!

mazza

I've a few boxes of bottles (30 - 40 bottles each) which would be good for homebrew if anyone wants them.

All brown, 500ml and a few pint bottles, good quality reusables, perfect for homebrew. No swingtops though ;-)

Collect in Howth area of north Dublin or anywhere between there and Fairview by arrangment.

PM or reply on thread if you want some of them.

Saruman

eoinkildare wrote: »

one last question actually. i also bought the beginner wine kit this time around. anyone on here make their own wine??

Yep, I let my wife do the wine and I do the beer

Hard to imagine till you get in to brewing that beer is way more complicated and takes much longer than wine.
My brew day can be about 8 hours, though kit brewers can do it in an hour. Wine kit is even quicker than a beer kit and if you have a 7 day kit you can be drinking the wine on the 7th day.

Adding fruit to cheap wine kits can yield great results.

Good results from the wine actually.

silliegillie

Thanks for the Advice on the water, Think I be safe and Filter it trough the britta, Although if ive to use 23 litres of water might take a while.
I have 40 * 500ml brown bottle.
The Brew im using is the Coopers Australian Lager(Beer Kit-Hopped Malt concentrate) I have 1kg of brewing sugar(dextrose monohydrate ) Now this is where Im confused. I need to add sugar to the bottles before I bottle. Should I order another bag of this stuff or can I use regular house sugar ? Or is this stuff just Glucose that can be baught in supermarket. Ive read a few threads about the sugar and am still a little confused.
Also Ive also done a temp check on a few rooms and the best option in the house is in the hotpress, Over a four day period the Min Temp has been 17C and highest Temp has been 23C. How you think this would fare out (I have nightsaver Electricity so the water only heats up at night for a few hours and nothing else in there), I prob need to leave in the fermenter for about a week in there ?
Any Advice on these 2 points would be greatly appreciated.

BeerNut

silliegillie wrote: »

Should I order another bag of this stuff or can I use regular house sugar ? Or is this stuff just Glucose that can be baught in supermarket.

I use supermarket glucose, but ordinary sugar will do for priming.

silliegillie wrote: »

Over a four day period the Min Temp has been 17C and highest Temp has been 23C. How you think this would fare out

It's on the high side. 18C is optimal.

silliegillie

Thanks for that,Just an additional question

BeerNut wrote: »

I use supermarket glucose, but ordinary sugar will do for priming.

Priming Is that just adding sugar to the bottles? Basically what exactly is the definition of primingb

slayerking

silliegillie wrote: »

Thanks for that,Just an additional question



Priming Is that just adding sugar to the bottles? Basically what exactly is the definition of primingb

When you ferment your beer, the yeast turns all the sugars into alcohol and it releases CO2. It ferments until theres no more sugars left. Then its time to bottle.

When you bottle the beer, you want to kick off a little bit more fermentation so that the yeast will naturally carbonate the beer with the CO2 it releases. Only a small bit of sugar is needed. This is known as the priming sugar.

Theres a good guide to bottling here

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Here's the results of the iBrew Ale Kit, which I've just poured for myself. All these pics are of the same pint, with different camera settings








It's quite a nice ale.:)

BeerNut

Well done. Looks like the dispenser gives it a good head too.

mayordenis

Ok I'm going to try get back in the brewing ring this weekend, about 9 months since my last brew and I'm going for an outlandish hop nazi of a beer.