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RichyRich
Posts: 2,090 Forumite
Hey everyone
I recently got into home brew and thought it might be worth putting a thread together to show just how easy it is to get started up. I did a lot of reading beforehand on here and elsewhere, but couldn't find one single guide that showed everything in one place.
In the end I went down to a home brew shop near where my parents live and got tonnes of advice and all my gear from there, which I would recommend as the way in. Unfortunately, not everywhere is well served by home brew shops so I thought a quick guide might be useful.
The equipment to get started is quite simple and most of it you will already have, so here goes:
For a basic start, that's it! All you need in addition is some steriliser and a kit to get you started with. There are two basic types of kit:
A word on equipment - there is lots more you can get; this is the most basic set of equipment. So if you want to know how strong it is you need a hydrometer, for example - though a really good test of how strong it is, is to drink it and see how much it takes for you to fall off your chair! If you don't have a load of bottles, you can use any old pop bottle as long as what it used to have in it was carbonated, so cheap 2 litre supermarket fizzy water bottles will do the job just fine, and also mean you won't need a capper. Glass beer bottles are quite expensive; I just use old beer bottles.
I strongly recommend using your local home brew shop, if you have one. It might be slightly dearer than Wilkinson, but when you get more involved in the hobby and need more specialised bits and pieces, it will be a godsend, so an extra pound or two spent now will pay dividends in the future in the form of availability of more obscure equipment and ingredients.
That said, I've priced the equipment set out using the Wilko website, simply because it's easy to get the prices from there. I'm going to assume you already have a tin opener and a kettle, and are bottling up in cheap fizzy water bottles.
Enough bottles for your first brew will set you back £1.70 at Tesco.
You'll also need some sterilising solution. I use Milton. £1.25 for 28 tablets; you'll need about 5 per brew.
Total Equipment Outlay: £16.15/I]
A word on kits - Generally speaking, the more you spend, the better the kit. Your local homebrew shop will be able to advise you on a kit suited to your tastes. As a general rule of thumb, two-can kits will be better quality than one-can kits. Two-can kits contain all the ingredients except water. One-can kits require extra fermentables.
It's slightly cheaper to go down the one-can route. The cheapest way to brew up is using 1kg of extra fermentables in the form of ordinary granulated sugar. This is not recommended as it can create 'off flavours'. At the very least, use dextrose (£2.50 per kilo) which is special brewing sugar. At the other extreme, for extra body and flavour, you can use spraymalt (also known as dry malt extract), though at £4.40 for 500g - which is £8.80 per brew - your one-can kit is costing you the same as a two-can kit. A 'happy medium' is Beer Kit Enhancer, which is a 50/50 mix of dextrose and spraymalt, which is £6 per kilo. Prices can be beaten by shopping around. Tesco Direct, for example, have Beer Kit Enhancer at £5 per kilo.
Personally I normally use Beer Kit Enhancer if doing a one-can kit.
The cost of the kits themselves can vary enormously. The cheapest in Wilko at the minute is their own-brand, retailing at £10 per kit (these are actually manufactured by Muntons). The Coopers kits get very good reviews and are £14, with two-can kits such as the highly recommended Woodfordes Wherry starting at £19.
If your budget stretches, I would recommend the Woodforde's two-can kit.
Total Ingredients Outlay - £19
This puts your total outlay for your first brew at £35.15
The instructions on the kits reckon on brewing to 23 litres to get 40 pints. In my experience this may make your brews watery and with little body. Most people brew 'short' to 20 litres. Using this as a rule of thumb, your first brew will come out at 62p per pint. BUT REMEMBER: this includes all the cost of your equipment. So your next brew will only cost you the price of the beer kit, not all the equipment you've already brewed. Do another Wherry? Count on a cool 34p a pint.
So how do you actually do it? It's a lot easier than I thought. Get two under your belt and you'll be able to do it in your sleep.
Here are the simple steps:
Easy as that!
The one thing the kits won't tell you is that the most valuable ingredient is patience. The instructions will say you can bottle in 7 days. Forget it. Wait until it has stopped bubbling, you are looking at 2 weeks minimum. 3 weeks ideally, for all the sediment to drop out to the bottom.
When it comes to bottling, sterilise your bottles and rinse them out (if they are brand new and only had water in them before, they will be factory sterile and so you won't need to do this for the first brew but you will for subsequent ones). If you're using 2 litre pop bottles, you'll need about 2tsp of sugar in each one for carbonation if you're doing a bitter or stout; if you're using other sizes reckon on half a tsp per pint for a bitter or stout. You'll need more for a lager. Simply use your sterilised siphon to transfer the brew from the FV into your bottles being careful not to disturb the sediment at the bottom. I find this is easier with two people - one to hold the siphon, one to pour it into the bottles.
Now. Leave it in the bottles for two weeks to carbonate and at least two further weeks to condition. Preferably four weeks. This will be difficult for your first brew, but it will get better with age. Best get another one on to build your stocks up!
Now, there will be experienced brewers here who wince when reading some of this...using Milton, siphoning straight from the FV into the bottles, etc., can be frowned upon. But this is just to get you started. You can build your equipment later on. But getting started is easy, cheap and low-effort. Now here are some things to think about for down the line:
All of this can make homebrewing more fun and rewarding, but requires more investment and commitment. At the outset, the most important thing is getting your first brew on. The kits are much better these days than before - I'd happily pay £3.50 (more like £3.90 round here!) on a pint of Woodfordes Wherry in a pub. I have given it to people who would never have twigged it was homebrew unless I told them.
One last caveat - once you start, it's addictive. And, as I hope I've shown here, starting is very easy!
Cheers!
:beer:
I recently got into home brew and thought it might be worth putting a thread together to show just how easy it is to get started up. I did a lot of reading beforehand on here and elsewhere, but couldn't find one single guide that showed everything in one place.
In the end I went down to a home brew shop near where my parents live and got tonnes of advice and all my gear from there, which I would recommend as the way in. Unfortunately, not everywhere is well served by home brew shops so I thought a quick guide might be useful.
The equipment to get started is quite simple and most of it you will already have, so here goes:
- Kettle
- Tin Opener
- Fermentation bin
- Siphon
- Long spoon
- Bottles and caps
- Bottle capper
For a basic start, that's it! All you need in addition is some steriliser and a kit to get you started with. There are two basic types of kit:
- A 'one can' kit - with this, you will also need to add some additional fermentables (sugar, spraymalt or beer kit enhancer)
- A 'two can' kit, which does not need any additional fermentables
A word on equipment - there is lots more you can get; this is the most basic set of equipment. So if you want to know how strong it is you need a hydrometer, for example - though a really good test of how strong it is, is to drink it and see how much it takes for you to fall off your chair! If you don't have a load of bottles, you can use any old pop bottle as long as what it used to have in it was carbonated, so cheap 2 litre supermarket fizzy water bottles will do the job just fine, and also mean you won't need a capper. Glass beer bottles are quite expensive; I just use old beer bottles.
I strongly recommend using your local home brew shop, if you have one. It might be slightly dearer than Wilkinson, but when you get more involved in the hobby and need more specialised bits and pieces, it will be a godsend, so an extra pound or two spent now will pay dividends in the future in the form of availability of more obscure equipment and ingredients.
That said, I've priced the equipment set out using the Wilko website, simply because it's easy to get the prices from there. I'm going to assume you already have a tin opener and a kettle, and are bottling up in cheap fizzy water bottles.
Enough bottles for your first brew will set you back £1.70 at Tesco.
You'll also need some sterilising solution. I use Milton. £1.25 for 28 tablets; you'll need about 5 per brew.
Total Equipment Outlay: £16.15/I]
A word on kits - Generally speaking, the more you spend, the better the kit. Your local homebrew shop will be able to advise you on a kit suited to your tastes. As a general rule of thumb, two-can kits will be better quality than one-can kits. Two-can kits contain all the ingredients except water. One-can kits require extra fermentables.
It's slightly cheaper to go down the one-can route. The cheapest way to brew up is using 1kg of extra fermentables in the form of ordinary granulated sugar. This is not recommended as it can create 'off flavours'. At the very least, use dextrose (£2.50 per kilo) which is special brewing sugar. At the other extreme, for extra body and flavour, you can use spraymalt (also known as dry malt extract), though at £4.40 for 500g - which is £8.80 per brew - your one-can kit is costing you the same as a two-can kit. A 'happy medium' is Beer Kit Enhancer, which is a 50/50 mix of dextrose and spraymalt, which is £6 per kilo. Prices can be beaten by shopping around. Tesco Direct, for example, have Beer Kit Enhancer at £5 per kilo.
Personally I normally use Beer Kit Enhancer if doing a one-can kit.
The cost of the kits themselves can vary enormously. The cheapest in Wilko at the minute is their own-brand, retailing at £10 per kit (these are actually manufactured by Muntons). The Coopers kits get very good reviews and are £14, with two-can kits such as the highly recommended Woodfordes Wherry starting at £19.
If your budget stretches, I would recommend the Woodforde's two-can kit.
Total Ingredients Outlay - £19
This puts your total outlay for your first brew at £35.15
The instructions on the kits reckon on brewing to 23 litres to get 40 pints. In my experience this may make your brews watery and with little body. Most people brew 'short' to 20 litres. Using this as a rule of thumb, your first brew will come out at 62p per pint. BUT REMEMBER: this includes all the cost of your equipment. So your next brew will only cost you the price of the beer kit, not all the equipment you've already brewed. Do another Wherry? Count on a cool 34p a pint.
So how do you actually do it? It's a lot easier than I thought. Get two under your belt and you'll be able to do it in your sleep.
Here are the simple steps:
- Remove the sachet of yeast and set aside
- Fill your sink with boiling water and put the can(s) into the boiling water. This is to loosen the concentrated malt which is very thick
- Thoroughly clean your fermentation bin and long spoon with detergent
- Rinse all the soap off - you don't want any getting in your brew!
- Chuck your long spoon, fermentation vessel lid and tin opener into your fermentation vessel.
- Add enough sterilising tablets for the size of the bin - with Milton, this is one tablet for every five litres, so 5 tablets for a 25 litre bin, but make it up as per the instructions on the pack. Top up with water
- Leave to sterilise for as long as the instructions say
- Empty the bin of water and rinse thoroughly - you don't want your brew tasting of bleach!
- Open the tin with the sterilised tin opener and carefully (use oven gloves) pour the mixture into your fermentation vessel. Do the same for the second tin, if there is one.
- Pour boiling water into each tin and mix with your long spoon. Tip into your FV (this is to ensure we don't waste any!)
- If extra fermentables are required, add these now.
- Mix really well with your long spoon so that everything is dissolved
- Top up with cold water (I use the kettle) to the 20 litre mark
- Sprinkle the yeast on top of the 'head' that has formed, put the lid on, and keep behind the couch, in the spare bedroom, or wherever is between 18 and 22 degrees C.
Easy as that!
The one thing the kits won't tell you is that the most valuable ingredient is patience. The instructions will say you can bottle in 7 days. Forget it. Wait until it has stopped bubbling, you are looking at 2 weeks minimum. 3 weeks ideally, for all the sediment to drop out to the bottom.
When it comes to bottling, sterilise your bottles and rinse them out (if they are brand new and only had water in them before, they will be factory sterile and so you won't need to do this for the first brew but you will for subsequent ones). If you're using 2 litre pop bottles, you'll need about 2tsp of sugar in each one for carbonation if you're doing a bitter or stout; if you're using other sizes reckon on half a tsp per pint for a bitter or stout. You'll need more for a lager. Simply use your sterilised siphon to transfer the brew from the FV into your bottles being careful not to disturb the sediment at the bottom. I find this is easier with two people - one to hold the siphon, one to pour it into the bottles.
Now. Leave it in the bottles for two weeks to carbonate and at least two further weeks to condition. Preferably four weeks. This will be difficult for your first brew, but it will get better with age. Best get another one on to build your stocks up!
Now, there will be experienced brewers here who wince when reading some of this...using Milton, siphoning straight from the FV into the bottles, etc., can be frowned upon. But this is just to get you started. You can build your equipment later on. But getting started is easy, cheap and low-effort. Now here are some things to think about for down the line:
- Want to know how strong your brew is? Get yourself a hydrometer! Simply take a reading before pitching your yeast at the beginning, another one at the end, and this calculator will tell you how strong your brew is!
- Want properly consistent carbonation levels between your bottles? Get a second FV. Then simply add the desired level of sugar for all your bottles to the sterilised, second FV and siphon from the 'brewing' FV to the 'bottling' FV. Bottle from the second FV.
- Fed up of rinsing all that Milton off? Get a guaranteed no-rinse steriliser such as Star San!
- Too many bottles hanging about? Invest in a Basic Keg or - if you're feeling flush - a Corney keg!
- Want to 'tinker' with your brews? Experiment with adding hops, or other additions, to change the flavour and feel of your brews!
All of this can make homebrewing more fun and rewarding, but requires more investment and commitment. At the outset, the most important thing is getting your first brew on. The kits are much better these days than before - I'd happily pay £3.50 (more like £3.90 round here!) on a pint of Woodfordes Wherry in a pub. I have given it to people who would never have twigged it was homebrew unless I told them.
One last caveat - once you start, it's addictive. And, as I hope I've shown here, starting is very easy!
Cheers!
:beer:
#145 Save £12k in 2016 Challenge: £12,062.62/£12,000.00 Beginning Balance: £5,027.78 CHALLENGE MET
#060 Save £12k in 2017 Challenge: £11,03.70/£12,000.00 Beginning Balance: £12,976.79 Shortfall: £996.30:eek:
This is the secret message.
#060 Save £12k in 2017 Challenge: £11,03.70/£12,000.00 Beginning Balance: £12,976.79 Shortfall: £996.30:eek:
This is the secret message.
0
Comments
-
Liverpool is one of the wonders of Britain,
What it may grow to in time, I know not what.
Daniel Defoe: 1725.
0 -
Thank you for the link.
As I said before, I am not trying to tread on anyone's toes; my intention was simply to put together the type of thread I would have found helpful when starting out. Laying out the list of equipment, what the options for fermentables are, etc.
The information is out there; I just thought it might be helpful for it to be in one place. I found it very overwhelming when I began. I thought it might help to lay everything out together to show that it's not complicated at all and there is less dark magic than might be expected.
Couple of mentions:
If you buy from Wilko, don't forget Quidco. They do free delivery to store if your local one doesn't stock it.
The forum at jimsbeerkit.com is great if you're starting out. Very friendly and supportive.#145 Save £12k in 2016 Challenge: £12,062.62/£12,000.00 Beginning Balance: £5,027.78 CHALLENGE MET
#060 Save £12k in 2017 Challenge: £11,03.70/£12,000.00 Beginning Balance: £12,976.79 Shortfall: £996.30:eek:
This is the secret message.0 -
Oooh - excited :j
I did dabble with wine making many years ago & it went well - sure I've got some of the kit somewhere.
But now I'm older I much prefer a pint of proper beer - although I can't see home brew helping with my weight loss
but I can convince myself its MSE, & therefore good quite easily :rotfl:
Thanks RichyRich - very helpful post, & SailorSam for the link.& as for some happy ending I'd rather stay single & thin
0 -
Actually you don't need that much stuff if you're just making a gallon of homemade wine. All you need is:
One gal/5l plastic water bottle (the big ones with a handle from supermarkets; just drink the water before using!)
Kid's balloon for an airlock - poke a hole in it with a pin first.
Rubber tubing for syphoning
Plastic funnel and fine grade tea strainer/sieve
Plastic or glass bottles (screw tops are best as you don't need corks or a corker)
Something to sterilise with (a few drops of bleach are ok but I prefer Milton's tablets as they don't leave a smell)
Wine making yeast (you can use bread yeast but it's not always as good) - get from Ebay
Nutrient - helps the fermenting process - buy in bulk on Ebay
That's all you need...
Method:
Absolutely simplest wine I've made is herbal teabag wine. Buy the biggest cheapest box of herbal teabags (hibiscus is good).
Sterilise all your stuff first. Dump about 40 bags in a big saucepan with a gallon of water and simmer it on a low heat for an hour or so until you get a nice thick red brew. Squeeze out the bags then remove. Add 1kg of sugar (cheap supermarket stuff is fine) and stir until dissolved.
When lukewarm, pour into the demijohn (the big plastic bottle) DON'T DO IT WHEN THE WATER IS TOO HOT OR YOU'LL MELT THE DEMIJOHN!. Stir in a teaspoon of nutrient then sprinkle a teaspoon of yeast gently. Put the balloon over the top of the bottle tightly.
Within 12 hour or so the mixture should start fizzing and bubbling and the balloon will fill up. Positive pressure from the pinhole lets the air out but not in.
After 2-3 weeks the balloon will become flaccid (no sniggering at the back please) which means the fermentation has ended. Add half a Milton's tablet to the brew to stop anymore fermentation.
Syphon out into bottles and it's ready to drink but is usually better if kept a few weeks.
You can do this with pretty much any fruit or vegetable (avoid the brassica/allium families - cabbage and garlic types) though you'll need to use the strainer when pouring the brew into the demijohn.'Never keep up with Joneses. Drag them down to your level. It's cheaper.' Quentin Crisp0 -
Hi. Thanks for sharing this wine method. I haven't 'done' wine yet!
I just wanted to check with you on one thing: you say add half a Milton tab to the wine to halt the fermentation process; I've never heard of Milton being used in this way in my limited experience, though I have heard of using half a Campden tablet for the same thing. I just wanted to check whether you meant to put Milton or meant Campden?
Cheers!#145 Save £12k in 2016 Challenge: £12,062.62/£12,000.00 Beginning Balance: £5,027.78 CHALLENGE MET
#060 Save £12k in 2017 Challenge: £11,03.70/£12,000.00 Beginning Balance: £12,976.79 Shortfall: £996.30:eek:
This is the secret message.0 -
Hoping someone can advise me or at least point me in the right direction.
Hubby and I tried to bottle our first batch of cider from the wilko kit tonight, and it worked great for the first half, but then the syphon (also from wilko) just stopped working! We tried to get it going again by refilling it with water and letting that drain out, in the hope it would pull up more cider from the fermenter, but it failed to get more than a few millilitres, then stopped completely.
It does have a slight kink at the top but that didn't seem to make much difference to the first lot, so I've no idea what's going on with it. Help please!
Also, how long should we leave it in the bottles before opening? We primed them with half a teaspoon of sugar per 500ml bottle, and I don't want to leave them too long if all I'm going to end up with is a sticky apple-y and glassy mess!0 -
Are your bottles below the bottom of the FV? For your siphon to work the bottom of the FV needs to be higher up than the top of the bottles you're siphoning into.
As long as the cider fully fermented out, you should be fine priming with half a tsp per 500ml bottle.#145 Save £12k in 2016 Challenge: £12,062.62/£12,000.00 Beginning Balance: £5,027.78 CHALLENGE MET
#060 Save £12k in 2017 Challenge: £11,03.70/£12,000.00 Beginning Balance: £12,976.79 Shortfall: £996.30:eek:
This is the secret message.0
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