Homebrew Beer Howto

guildofevil

Yes. It's just a tube coming from the top of the vessel into some water.

Random pic off the net to give you the general idea what I'm talking about:

http://webusers.physics.umn.edu/~nmoore/beer-log/beer_color.2.march13.jpeg

Ceddy

guildofevil wrote:

Yes. It's just a tube coming from the top of the vessel into some water.

Random pic off the net to give you the general idea what I'm talking about:

http://webusers.physics.umn.edu/~nmoore/beer-log/beer_color.2.march13.jpeg

Excellent, cheers for this guildofevil. Assuming that I can get tubes the right width then i can use the water dispender bottles that were mentioned by a previous poster.

oconn

anyone have a rough idea hwo many people brew in ireland ?
is there any ( get togethers ?) eg competitions not for me but they'd be great crack to see / taste other brews !

Hendrixcat

I have wondered this myself. I'm inclined to think it's really not that many. The paucity of decent homebrew suppliers in Ireland points towards the lack of market here. A better appreciation of beer and the growing diversity of good craft beer here will inevitably lead to an increase in homebrewing in Ireland. I hope so, anyway.

Conar

Hey all.
I'm looking to buy myself some pretty basic homebrew kit and see how I get on. I might get into it more and improve the kit but I don't wat to jump straight in without trying it a little first.
I've picked out the following, can anyone advise if this is a good selection for starting or criticise any choice?

BEER BEGINNERS EQUIPMENT STARTER KIT
http://www.art-of-brewing.co.uk/cgi-bin/ss000006.pl?PRODREF=308&NOLOGIN=1

PET PLASTIC CLEAR BEER BOTTLE 1000ml x24 (or should I buy a King Keg top tap barrel????)
http://www.art-of-brewing.co.uk/cgi-bin/ss000006.pl?PRODREF=637&NOLOGIN=1

RITCHIE BEER FININGS SACHET 35g, for 5 gallons x 3
http://www.art-of-brewing.co.uk/cgi-bin/ss000006.pl?PRODREF=1228&NOLOGIN=1

WINE & BEER HYDROMETER
http://www.art-of-brewing.co.uk/cgi-bin/ss000006.pl?PRODREF=879&NOLOGIN=1

CAMPDEN TABLETS - 125
http://www.art-of-brewing.co.uk/cgi-bin/ss000006.pl?PRODREF=1091&NOLOGIN=1

GLUCOSE POWDER - 1Kg x3
http://www.art-of-brewing.co.uk/cgi-bin/ss000006.pl?PRODREF=331&NOLOGIN=1

MUNTONS SANTA'S WINTER WARMER 3.6k
http://www.art-of-brewing.co.uk/cgi-bin/ss000006.pl?PRODREF=1557&NOLOGIN=1

BREWFERM DARK ABBEY (ABDIJ) BEER 9 litres
http://www.art-of-brewing.co.uk/cgi-bin/ss000006.pl?PRODREF=256&NOLOGIN=1

Should I also get a secondary fermentation bucket? I see this mentioned by some people but others don't seem to use it.
Anyway, how does that look to get me started?

beardybrewer

I started with this kit and its okay but was missing a lot of Items. This means unless you're in Dublin you'll feel some pain as you wait to order missing parts.

I would consider the wine starter kit because the fermenter is far superior to the bucket. It allows for a proper seal which the bucket is not capable of. I now just use my bucket when I bottle (I add the priming sugar melted in a pint of water to the bucket and then siphon from my fermenter).

There are some good posts on this thread plus other good threads which give a good list of equipment to get. I'd search myself but then I'm lazy and not the one asking Seriously though you'll want: properly sealing fermenter, bucket with tap, iodophor or other sterilizing agent, hydrometer, thermometer, large stock pot, siphon, bottling wand, brewing sugar, paddle/wooden spoon, large funnel, and 40 bottles. I'm probably forgetting several things so do a search and look thru this thread to find those posts.

Your kit choices look good, although I usually do 2 Brewferms at once. Their Triple is very nice although not available from art-o-brew.

noby

On the other hand, I have never used a proper sealing fermenter, just a bucket with a lid. This works perfectly fine.

For a first time with a basic kit you have more than enough, providing there's some steriliser coming with it. A lot of the equipment newkie lists out you'll probably gather together for subsequent brews

bigears

I've used both the fermenter and the bucket and they both have advantages. For a beginner there's a thrill in using the airlock with the fermenter that you just can't beat. You'll find yourself checking that little bubbler every time you walk past it I've recently switched to using the bucket with lid and I prefer it. For one thing it's easier to clean.

One thing I would recommend is to get a tap added to your fermenter or bucket as it makes things much easier. You can buy the tap and fit it yourself or the homebrew shop might fit it for you for a couple of quid extra. I can't comment on those particular kits as I haven't used them, but if you like the style of beer that the kit is aiming for then go for it.

Conar

Thanks for the advice guys.
I went for that gear anyway and a few extra bits like "A blend of spraydried dextrose and spraydried malt extract" instead of the glucose. Does this make much difference?

Whats the quickest I could have a few beers ready?
Would there be any chance I could have some ready to drink in 3 weeks?
I'm just using the packs and would like to let the beer mature a bit in future but I'd love some before the end of the year.

beardybrewer

Conar wrote:

I went for that gear anyway and a few extra bits like "A blend of spraydried dextrose and spraydried malt extract" instead of the glucose. Does this make much difference?

Whats the quickest I could have a few beers ready?

Sounds like you went for Muntons Beerkit Enhancer. This will give you a bit more body than just plain sugar. As for whether to use sugar/enhancer/malt extract it depends on the beer style and your personal preference. If it was a bock, porter, or stout I would prefer a lot of body and use all malt. Whereas a refreshing bitter, maybe I wouldn't care as much. Take a look at the 3kg kits. These typically only require sugar for priming and are the top of the range kits.

In regards to how soon, 3 weeks isn't very long. In fact I generally let my beer ferment for 3 weeks and then bottle-condition in the hotpress for another 2 weeks (for carbonation). I'd say you could get away with fermenting for 2 weeks if you're certain its done fermenting. Using a hydrometer and knowing the estimated final gravity (FG) will tell you if its done. Also knowing the original gravity (OG) plus the FG can tell you the alcoholic strength. Once its bottled and in a warm place for bottle conditioning you can certainly test them after a week, but you will be rewarded with a better brew with more patience.

abakan

im in Vietnam at the mo and drinking Bia Hoi - Its a beer made to drink in 1 day and gone off by the end of the day - no preservities in the beer so thats why it goes stale. seemingly it came from the Czech Republic.

anyone know the secert of how its made

noby

Whatever about how they make it in one day, a beer without preservatives shouldn't go off in a day.

Conar, I sampled a bottle of my latest batch - one week primary, one week in the bottle. It's not fully carbonated, but being an ale, that's ok.
I would give it a good week in the primary, and maybe another in the secondary (or two week primary). You could then bottle, and try a sample after a week or so. It may not be fully cleared or carbonated, and may taste a bit green, but it's good to sample, and see the flavour develop. They will taste a lot better after a few weeks in the bottle.

Conar

noby wrote:

I would give it a good week in the primary, and maybe another in the secondary (or two week primary). You could then bottle, and try a sample after a week or so.

Thanks for the advice Noby.

When you mention the secondary, are you referring to another bucket/basin/thingemy which you transfer the beer into so as to remove any sediment from the equation?
I have only got the one 5 g bin.
Should I be thinking of another one?

Also, can anyone tell me how to best get the beer from the bin to the bottles?

beardybrewer

Conar, yes you'll want another bucket. Call it your bottling bucket for want of a better term. Maybe this would be a good time to get a wine fermenter to augment your current setup. I use that for fermenting and then a siphon with a sediment trap to drain to the bottling bucket. I boil a pint and melt 2/3 cup brewing sugar and then let cool and pour this quietly in the bottling bucket before siphoning. The siphoning action alone is enough to mix the priming sugar with the green beer.

Ideally your bottling bucket will have a tap and get a bottling wand. This device should be < €5 and is simply a rigid piece of tubing with a spring-loaded stopper at one end. The benefit is you open the tap you move the wand inside the bottle and have to press down to fill. The minute you release it stops filling. This allows you to easily fill to near the top and also does it all quietly, introducing as little air as possible.

For bottling here are the goodies I couldn't live without:
Bottle washer (screws on to tap)
Bottle tree
Bottle sanitizer (sits on top of tree)
Iodophor
Bottling wand
Bench capper

My methodology:
While sanitizing bottling bucket throw in bottling tree to sanitize
Attach bottle washer to tap
Fill bottle sanitizer with water and iodophor
Place bottling santizer atop freshly sanitized bottling tree
Spray wash a bottle
Inject sanitizer
Hang on tree
Repeat 40-odd times
Remove bottle sanitizer from tree, take to bottling area, throw in bottle caps

I do this while the beer is siphoning from the fermenter to the bottling bucket (and usually I'm starting to boil up the next batch as well ). Those collapsable crates are very handly for lugging around all your bottles. Once I'm ready to bottle and they are drained I load them in crates and move them right below the bottling bucket. Sanitized hose/wand at the ready I fill them all in the crate. Then place on caps, use bench capper which makes the job much faster, back in the crate, then haul them up to the hot-press for 2 weeks.

Conar

Thanks for the info Newkie. Sorry for the delay in responding.
Would I get away with having just one bucket for both fermenting and bottling? For the first batch anyway?
Its a 25L bucket with a tap and a lid. I was hoping to do all the fermenting in it and bottle direct....is this crazy?

beardybrewer

Sure, I did it that way for the first few brews. The main drawback was I was priming each bottle individually. Not only is that a pain in the hole, but its inaccurate and inconsistent. I suppose you could stir in the priming sugar slowly and w/o introducing oxygen directly to the fermenter before bottling. You might wait 20-30 minutes after stiring so the yeast re-settles. Ultimately it is easier with 2 buckets.

Conar

Nice one, I'll try to pick on up. It'll be after my first brew though.
Whats the best way to siphon from the basin with tap into the bottles?

Energizeer

Hey guys,

I have just started thinking about homebrewing in my shed. I have a few questions I hope you guys can help me with.
1. Where can I buy the equipment? I don't think there is a brew shop here in Cork, but maybe there is.. Where might I get the thing that measures the Gravity etc..?
2. Is it true that the stronger % homebrew you make the more hangover you get and that it isn't very nice to taste?
3. Where can I get the ingredients? Like The extract and the hops etc..? If they were in Tescos that would be great
4. I will be doing this in my shed which is cold. Will this have much of an effect?
5. Where can I get these ingredient kits?
6. How much does an avg batch cost to produce?

Thanks!

P.S. Is it possible to recycle old beer bottles and recap them? Like can I get new caps and a capping thingie...?

oconn

I am not brewing long so all I can really offer as a definite answer is there is a shop in Glengarrif ( actually about 5 miles outside in the hills). you can get the number in yellow pages glengarrif hb supplies.. Theguy there Bob Tansey can sort you out with a full starters kit and he has any extras also. If there is somthing you want but he doesnt stock he does runs over to his sister shop in kent and he will arrange to meet you either in skib, in city by the viaduct inn, youghal or rosslare. he is sound.

guildofevil

I did up a little primer on getting started home-brewing in Ireland, which you can find here: http://irishcraftbeer.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=3

Also have a look at www.howtobrew.com which is a free home-brew book on line. I still refer to this site regularly.

1. Where can I buy the equipment? I don't think there is a brew shop here in Cork, but maybe there is.. Where might I get the thing that measures the Gravity etc..?

In addition to the one in Glengarrif, there are a few mail order shops in Ireland, like these:
www.beersmugglers.com/
http://www.thehomebrewcentre.ie
http://homepage.eircom.net/~wexbrew/

And loads in England, for example:
http://www.hopshopuk.com/
http://www.hopandgrape.co.uk/

2. Is it true that the stronger % homebrew you make the more hangover you get and that it isn't very nice to taste?

Lies! Filthy lies I tell you!
The drunker you get the worse your hangover is. That has nothing to do with how strong the beer is, or if it's home-brew or not. The reputation for poor flavour from strong home-brew comes from people adding piles of white sugar to increase the alcohol content. This causes a nasty off flavour. A strong home-brew based on malt, like a Belgian style Abbey beer or a barley wine, can be delicious.

3. Where can I get the ingredients? Like The extract and the hops etc..? If they were in Tescos that would be great

That would be great, but I wouldn't hold my breath. You need to buy this from your home-brew shop.

4. I will be doing this in my shed which is cold. Will this have much of an effect?

Yes. Temperature is important. Ale yeasts needs to be at about 17C – 24C while lager yeasts need about 9C – 14C. If there is electricity in your shed you can get an immersion heater from your local pet shop. These devices are used to keep fish tanks at a specified temperature but they will do the same for your fermenting beer. Just make sure you sanitize it well before use.

5. Where can I get these ingredient kits?

Home-brew shop again.

6. How much does an avg batch cost to produce?

How long is a piece of string? I buy 25Kg sacks of malted barley, so my cost per batch is very low, but I have spent quite a bit on equipment. Malt extract beers cost more but require less equipment.

P.S. Is it possible to recycle old beer bottles and recap them? Like can I get new caps and a capping thingie...?

Yes. Get yourself 40+ brown pint bottles. You can get crown caps and a crown capper in any home-brew shop.

beardybrewer

In response to Energizer:
1. Links to Irish stores are probably buried in this thread if you look. This is your mail-order option inside Ireland: http://www.thehomebrewcentre.com/ I have found http://www.hopandgrape.co.uk/ and http://www.hopshopuk.com/?page=2 and http://www.art-of-brewing.co.uk/ to be good
2. There is no reason for a big beer to not taste great. I often make Belgians in the range of 6-7%. You may have heard this from someone who used vast amounts of sugar to bump up the alcohol which would create a watery bodiless beer.
3. You can get a few kits and straight malt extract from the homebrewcentre (link above). Hops and specialty grains try hopandgrape. There is a wide variety of kits available as well. I would recommend 3kg kits (no sugar required) to get an idea of how good homebrew can be.
4. Yeast converts the sugars from the malt to carbon dioxide and alcohol. It is a living organism and temperature does matter. You will have to find a way of keeping the fermenter at a steady 20-22C (exact temp depends on strain of yeast).
5. See #3
6. I average .40 to .60 a bottle.

Yes, you will indeed use bottles preferrably not screw-offs. You will buy caps and a capper. A cheap wing-capper typically is included in most starter kits.

I would highly recommend immediately purchasing The Joy of Homebrew and reading through this site for much more detailed information: http://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html

Energizeer

Thanks for the replies guys.
This has shed a lot of light on the matter, I have a list of items that I'm going to order today or tomorrow. I'm really looking forward to getting started on my first brew.

I was thinking of getting a fermenter/keg with a tap. Does this mean that I won't need to get siphon equipment?
I am hoping that my local will give me some bulmers pints bottles.

Thanks

oblivious

You will still need to siphon in the keg, as you will want to reduce the chance of oxidation. The only time you want a lot of oxygen near you wort or beer is when it cooled after the boil, to allow the yeast to grow.

Energizeer

Hey guys, I got all the kit and my beer is brewing as I speak. I have a few worries tho:
I started it yesterday at about 12 and it had a good amount of foam by about 12 last night. Now this morning it has calmed down a lot and doesn't have half the amount of bubbles...
Is this normal? The instructions said that the temp needed to be between 65 -75F for the yeast to 'start'. But the temp has dropped to 61f this morning. I'm a little worried that it has died... I will measure it with the hydrometer today and see if it has changed by tomorrow...

noby

Relax. It's fine. The foam lastnight was the krausen (or however you spell it). 12 hours is pretty good. This falls back and you'll find with your hydro reading that you're getting closer to your expected final gravity. If you leave it a week or so in the primary the activity will fal off altogether.

Things are going along perfectly well, it appears.

beardybrewer

Its not unusual for yeast activity to calm during the night even when the fermenter is heated. Do try the keep the temp up a bit higher, if it will fit try the hotpress. However, try to disturb the fermenter (including taking readings) as little as possible.

FWIW, I was certain my first batch was (A) contaminated, (B) stuck fermenation, (C) undercarbonated once bottled. In the end, despite my inpatience, it turned out great. Now that I have a stockpile, a ferment 3 weeks and bottle condition 3 weeks. That extra patience has given me the final gravity I was failing to acheive in my first few batches and the level of carbonation and flavor I wanted in the finished product.

Conar

I have my first brew bottling at the moment but I think I may have cocked up.
I was not thinking straight the morning I bottled and I put the sugars into the bottles before the beer.
Now I have deposits of sugar stuck to the bottom of the bottle.
Will it still carbonate do you think?

guildofevil

As Noby said, you can't really go by krausen levels. Take a hydrometer reading, it really is the only way to know what it happening to your beer.

What yeast are you using? They have different comfort zones, when it comes to temperature.

61F, that's 16C; is that the temperature in the room or the temperature of the beer? The beer is often a couple of degrees higher than the room, as it generates it's own heat while fermenting.

Even if it is too cool, don't worry. Yeast that gets too cool doesn't die, it just slows down and eventually goes dormant.

If the fermentation gets stuck, which is unlikely, all you have to do do is warm it up again and gently rise the wort with a large sanitised spoon.

bigears

Conar wrote:

I have my first brew bottling at the moment but I think I may have cocked up.
I was not thinking straight the morning I bottled and I put the sugars into the bottles before the beer.

Nothing wrong with that. It's probably preferable to heat the sugar in a small amount of beer/water to ensure it's sterile but I've done it your way too with no ill effects.

Now I have deposits of sugar stuck to the bottom of the bottle.
Will it still carbonate do you think?

You'll be fine. The deposit is yeast, it may also be sugar if you haven't been keeping the bottles warm enough. Give them a shake or invert them a couple of times to get the sugar and yeast on friendly terms again. Generally you'll want to keep the bottles at low to mid 20s for a week or two for carbonation to get going and then move them somewhere cooler to allow them to mature.

Conar

Thanks bigears (wow I feel like noddy)!

I only left them in a warm place for 3 days as per the Grape-n-grain howto guide:
http://www.grapengraindublin.com/beermaking.html

Should I have left it longer?
It has been moved to a cool place (16-18C) for about 3 days now too.
Should I bring it back to a wamr place and shake it around and give it another week or so or would you just leave it to mature at this stage?