If your going to make your own mash from raw ingredients keep an eye out for a copper jam kettle or something similar - The copper bit is the important bit. Makes a big taste difference, if your use cast iron, steel, aluminium or any type of coated pan you will end up with a metallic taste - not nice.
What I do to bottle is do the first fermentation (I use a 5 gallon plastic bin) for about a week to 10 days and then decant it into a second bin. If there still appears to be a lot of bits floating about I will leave that for a day or two and then decant back into the first bin. That gets rid of most of the used yeast and makes it easier to clear. Then after its settled for a day or so I decant into pint bottles with about half a teaspoon of powdered glucose and leave it to second ferment for at least a month. I use glucose rather than supermarket sugar as it has less impurities than normal white granulated sugar, dissolves better and makes it easier for the beer to clear. I end up with hardly any sludge in the bottle doing it that way which also makes it easier to pour.
But the equipment in the kit can potentially be used to do it from scratch, and once I've done a couple of successful batches that's what I'm going to do. there's a market near here which sells barley and hops from different regions, and if I can actually make something from scratch with fresh ingredients I can try to grow them myself when the weather gets better.
I've always wanted to brew my own beer, but I really want to make cider, however that seems like it could be a bit of a hassle.
What kit are you using, can it be ordered?
I used to home brew all the time back in blightly but it seems finding the equipment here (at a reasonable price) Is hard.
I've been looking at this 'toy' one just this weekend and thinking of getting one to start off with.
Quite a simple bit of kit really, but if it works OK I'll be happy with it, and it was probably a lot cheaper than that one, although it looks quite similar. I think the older Mr. Beer kits sell for about $30 now?
Yeah I was orginally looking at a Mr Beer and still might go that route...the Beer Machine is nicer because it has the CO2 injector...BUT a lot of people are complaining it's really hard to get a good seal (the keg is in 2 parts with an o ring).
Let me know how yours turns out and if it's good I'll probably go with the Mr Beer as they have a bunch more and varied refills anyway.
I shone a torch through it earlier on today to see what it looked like (the manual says to do that if you want to look at it). It looks a bit well dodgy tbh there's dark clumps in the foam on top, and I can't tell if they're supposed to be there or not? There does appear to be some bubbling going on just under the surface of the foam. The liquid does appear to be quite cloudy as well, so I assume it's working OK for now?
I'll just have to wait and see I guess, I'm bottling it in about 2 or 3 weeks time, but since it still needs to keep going after that I still won't know for a few more weeks, Apparently it's better if after it's been in the bottles in storage for a couple of weeks to refridgerate it for at least 2 more weeks before drinking?
Patience is the key (and sanitation). The dark clumps are probably just yeast floating on the bubbles, they will sink to the bottom when the fermentation is done.
I remember when I first started home brewing back in blightly and not being able to wait and drinking cloudy beer...it's a long time ago but I think frequent trips to the lavatory went along with it.
Really best just to wait until it's all settled and clear...I recall I used to buy some crap that you put in it to help clear it too...again best to avoid that if possible as anything 'unnatural' is sure to affect the results.
Just be patient and err on the side of waiting. Do you have it in a dark place like a closet or something? if not wrap a blanket or something around it to keep it dark.
EDIT:
My old setup in England was a fermentation bucket and a heavy plastic mini keg that replaced the need for bottles and also had a Co2 connector on the top...so you could stick it in the fridge and just dispense it from the minikeg...much nicer than having to bottle crap and as you drank it down you just put a few bursts of Co2 in it.
Just siphon from the fermentation bucket straight to the minikeg, couple of bursts of Co2 and stick it in the fridge, done.
Looked at bit like the Mr Beer keg but obviously you can't use that that way...been looking for something similar here but can only find the expensive steel/metal ones.
I got no fewer than 3 beer kits for Christmas, so it looks like I'll be putting the fermentation bin to use in the next day or so.
One thing I occasionally like to do is brew a 5-gallon batch of wine in the plastic bin. I put in 5 or 6 litres of different fruit juices - orange, grapefruit, apple, pineapple, grape and whatever else I can find, dissolve 5 kilo bags of sugar in water, add a few teaspoons of yeast and pectolase and leave for a couple of months. The results are usually very good, occasionally magnificent, and always strong. 30 bottles of wine last a while and I can put a few bottles away to age.
Am I looking at that right?. It only does 8 pint bottles at a time or they only give you 8 bottles and really you can do a decent sized brew in one go?. The vast majority of the kits you get here are for 40 pints at a time which at least lasts a couple of days when its done.
Also your time scales seem odd to what I use in the UK. First fermentation should be about a week @21" C and then a minimum of a couple of weeks in the bottle. The longer in the bottle the better.
Am I looking at that right?. It only does 8 pint bottles at a time or they only give you 8 bottles and really you can do a decent sized brew in one go?. The vast majority of the kits you get here are for 40 pints at a time which at least lasts a couple of days when its done.
Also your time scales seem odd to what I use in the UK. First fermentation should be about a week @21" C and then a minimum of a couple of weeks in the bottle. The longer in the bottle the better.
I think the Mr Beer does 16 bottles but they only give you 8....so I guess you have to buy 8 more or leave 1/2 in the keg thing until you drink the other 8...
Am I looking at that right?. It only does 8 pint bottles at a time or they only give you 8 bottles and really you can do a decent sized brew in one go?. The vast majority of the kits you get here are for 40 pints at a time which at least lasts a couple of days when its done.
Also your time scales seem odd to what I use in the UK. First fermentation should be about a week @21" C and then a minimum of a couple of weeks in the bottle. The longer in the bottle the better.
Well the first batch I'm doing is your bog standard lager/beer, it says for this one 7-14 days in the keg. I figured might as well leave it the 2 weeks? Then another 2 weeks in the bottles. Then 2 weeks refridgerated seems more of a suggestion than a necessity? But I figured like you say the longer in the bottle the better.
As for the kit yes it is quite modest, but I'm starting small, I want to see if I can actually successfully brew a drinkable beer, before I go buying barrels and things, and doing it on a larger scale.
I watched a video online showing you how to brew the Mr. Beer refills without even having a Mr. Beer, you just need one of those 2 gallon water jugs with the tap on, and you just mix it all in there, when it's ready you just tap it from the carton into bottles, and throw the carton away. The only really fiddly part seems to be getting the tap off without damaging it, and putting it back on afterwards. I may try this slap dash method if the kit works out, and see if I can brew a beer in a big water jug.
^ Wouldn't you need a 1 way pressure release value on the water jug thing?
Not 100% sure the guy who did it turned it end up so the tap was on top, and he covered it with plastic wrap and put a rubber band around the bottom of the plastic.
I assume perhaps he left the tap open and uses the bag as his seal? Still not entirely sure how much pressure that would help ease though if any?
Also whats this urge to add CO2 and ruin a decent beer?
Well if you have it in a mini keg the beer loses it's natural Co2 as it empties...when it's 1/2 full for example...a bit like drinking half a bottle of soda and letting it sit..it goes flat.
So as you drink it you keep the pressure by adding a squirt or 10 of Co2. Least that's how it worked with the minikeg thing I had 20 years ago...if you didn't give it a blast of Co2 the natural carbonation went out of the beer and into the empty part of the keg.
My point is why would you go to the trouble of brewing a "real ale" and then add artificial CO2. If you bottle it the problem goes away and if you have small barrels as mentioned above you have a week to drink it before it goes flat, equal to two pints a night which isn't excessive. I suppose its a personal taste but one of the reasons I home brew is that I don't want fizzy gas filled beer - I can go to the off license or the local lager hole and drink that all night long or as long as my stomach can stand it.
My point is why would you go to the trouble of brewing a "real ale" and then add artificial CO2. If you bottle it the problem goes away and if you have small barrels as mentioned above you have a week to drink it before it goes flat, equal to two pints a night which isn't excessive. I suppose its a personal taste but one of the reasons I home brew is that I don't want fizzy gas filled beer - I can go to the off license or the local lager hole and drink that all night long or as long as my stomach can stand it.
Nah if you keep it pressurized it keeps until you don't keep it pressurized.
Bottling it a whole lot of extra work sanitizing etc (and space in the fridge). As you say personal preference, the minikeg was convenient for me and worked great, and back then I mostly made lagers anyway. "on tap" in the fridge was nice.
I guess if I was making real ale i'd probably have bottled it, but I wasn't. (Oh I recall I used to make cider too).
From what I've seen most commercial Kegerators uses Co2 canisters too.
The beer keeps its natural carbonation long enough for it to be sold before it goes flat. Once a barrel is tapped it will "keep" for up to 2 weeks but more normally about 10 days. That's why they order different beers in different sized barrels, buy a barrel size you can sell in about a week. It gets drawn from the cellar using a hand pump rather than being driven from the barrel by CO2 top pressure which is what happens with pub lagers.
It's just given the previous points about making beers from raw ingredients and even growing the raw ingredients I see little point in going to all that trouble and then (in my opinion) spoiling the final product by artificially stuffing it with CO2.
I can see that with real ale...as I say though most of my brewing used to be lagers and 'sparkling' cider hence my familiarity with the Co2 system.
Though it has been 20+ years since I did any brewing. I guess i had not really thought about the fact these days I'd be more likely to brew real ale than lager...so maybe bottling would be the way to go.
Funnily enough there are some American Craft beers that are surprisingly tasty and stronger than 5%. By which I mean they don't taste like metal.
Some nice ones made by Flying Dog (who I thought the thread was about at first), but once again pricey.
About $18 for a 12 pack.
I'm quite into well-hopped American-style beers and the likes of Brewdog have a style of that about them. The don't compromise on taste and don't worry about conforming to the CAMRA dogma on what decent beer should be. Got no qualms with them distributing in keg if it is the right delivery method for the type of beer brewed.
Don't like high alc% beers...if anything it KILLS the taste of the beer. If I want high alc% I'll drink liquor.
5-6% is just about right..anything higher starts to move from tasty craft beer to "I'm drinking this just to get drunk" type beer.
Currently I'm hooked on Shocktop Belgian White, best beer I've had in ages in the US....still, lets remember my second favorite is Natural light... :lol:
I don't think high ABV should mean a bad beer. A lot of belgium beer styles are well over 7% as are British Barley Wines. If brewed well, the ABV shouldn't hurt the taste (some of the brewdog gimmics like Tactical Nuclear Penguin and Sink the Bismark accepted of course - they are there to prove a point and raise publicity)
Rochfort 10 (though the 8 is also good), Duval, Chimay etc are all over 7 pr 8% and yummy
I've had all the Trappist beers (yes, including Westvleteren's trio). Pretty good but some of the Abbey bears can be just as good. The Oude Gueze lambics are by favourite Belgium beer style though.
My current favourite is Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Ahhhh. 5.6% bliss. Tesco stock their Torpedo IPA @7.2%... Very, very nice, but not something I could drink all night!
Yes, drink these regularly as they are easily obtainable, but as you say, only one at a time.
Didn't realise there were so many Wossers into (decent) beer! :grin:
My batch of beer is looking OK now, but my wife keeps turning the bloody light on in the walk in.
I keep telling her stop it or it'll end up stinking!
But that aside it's clearing up a little below the foam, the foam is now all one colour so all the nasty looking clumps have gone now, and there is still a nice layer of fresher bubbles below the foam. The yeast does not look very active any more, but since there are fresh bubbles below the gunk I assume we're still fermenting nicely?
I don't know weither to leave it another week come monday or to bottle it up, it looks like it's settling down quite a bit, and I don't want my yeast to get bored or anything like that :D
I think my first batch looks like it's ready to be bottled? It's quite clear a little bit of sediment around the bottom, and just a few little bits of foam on top now? Not sure if I should leave it until next monday or not?
Leave it if you can..longer the better (Within reason). Don't forget to sanitize the bottles too before you use them.
I bought an extra 8 pack of bottles not realizing they were 1ltr bottles with the kit(I thought they were 12oz bottles)..I guess it's good though as I can always have some in the fridge ready...assuming I don't drink them all in a couple of days.
Leave it if you can..longer the better (Within reason). Don't forget to sanitize the bottles too before you use them.
I bought an extra 8 pack of bottles not realizing they were 1ltr bottles with the kit(I thought they were 12oz bottles)..I guess it's good though as I can always have some in the fridge ready...assuming I don't drink them all in a couple of days.
Yeah I was thinking about buying some extra bottles as well, as I'll probably need them. I need some more of the sanitiser as as well, and I think it's only 95c a packet so I might as well buy a load of them, but you only need 1 packet per batch which isn't bad.
So I'll probably order the sanitiser today or tommorow some time so it arrives before I bottle up my first batch, cos' the second the barrel is empty I'm starting batch number 2.
Did you buy any more beer mixes? I'm assuming the Gold Edition had a beer mix in there with it? If so what was it? Mine was just American light beer or was it lager? I don't remember now? So even if the brew process is perfect it'll probably still taste like sh*te :lol:
My next batch will either be Porter or Mexican Style Cerveza? Probably do the Porter since I have a Lager type beer on the go right now?
Did you buy any more beer mixes? I'm assuming the Gold Edition had a beer mix in there with it? If so what was it? Mine was just American light beer or was it lager? I don't remember now? So even if the brew process is perfect it'll probably still taste like sh*te :lol:
My next batch will either be Porter or Mexican Style Cerveza? Probably do the Porter since I have a Lager type beer on the go right now?
I got 2 mixes with the premium gold, Aztec Mexican Cerveza, and Grand Bohemian Czech Pilsner...I'm going to buy the Bavarian Weissbier Deluxe Refill next if the first 2 are successful.
Comments
What I do to bottle is do the first fermentation (I use a 5 gallon plastic bin) for about a week to 10 days and then decant it into a second bin. If there still appears to be a lot of bits floating about I will leave that for a day or two and then decant back into the first bin. That gets rid of most of the used yeast and makes it easier to clear. Then after its settled for a day or so I decant into pint bottles with about half a teaspoon of powdered glucose and leave it to second ferment for at least a month. I use glucose rather than supermarket sugar as it has less impurities than normal white granulated sugar, dissolves better and makes it easier for the beer to clear. I end up with hardly any sludge in the bottle doing it that way which also makes it easier to pour.
What kit are you using, can it be ordered?
I used to home brew all the time back in blightly but it seems finding the equipment here (at a reasonable price) Is hard.
I've been looking at this 'toy' one just this weekend and thinking of getting one to start off with.
http://www.beveragefactory.com/draftbeer/home_brew/beer_machine_machines/The+Brewery+2006.shtml?CAWELAID=1372130950&catargetid=1601522405&cagpspn=pla&gclid=CJOIhce7uLQCFZGPPAodHCAAXw
Mine's a Mr. Beer.
Quite a simple bit of kit really, but if it works OK I'll be happy with it, and it was probably a lot cheaper than that one, although it looks quite similar. I think the older Mr. Beer kits sell for about $30 now?
Let me know how yours turns out and if it's good I'll probably go with the Mr Beer as they have a bunch more and varied refills anyway.
I'll just have to wait and see I guess, I'm bottling it in about 2 or 3 weeks time, but since it still needs to keep going after that I still won't know for a few more weeks, Apparently it's better if after it's been in the bottles in storage for a couple of weeks to refridgerate it for at least 2 more weeks before drinking?
Dunno if I can wait that long? :D
I remember when I first started home brewing back in blightly and not being able to wait and drinking cloudy beer...it's a long time ago but I think frequent trips to the lavatory went along with it.
Really best just to wait until it's all settled and clear...I recall I used to buy some crap that you put in it to help clear it too...again best to avoid that if possible as anything 'unnatural' is sure to affect the results.
Just be patient and err on the side of waiting. Do you have it in a dark place like a closet or something? if not wrap a blanket or something around it to keep it dark.
EDIT:
My old setup in England was a fermentation bucket and a heavy plastic mini keg that replaced the need for bottles and also had a Co2 connector on the top...so you could stick it in the fridge and just dispense it from the minikeg...much nicer than having to bottle crap and as you drank it down you just put a few bursts of Co2 in it.
Just siphon from the fermentation bucket straight to the minikeg, couple of bursts of Co2 and stick it in the fridge, done.
Looked at bit like the Mr Beer keg but obviously you can't use that that way...been looking for something similar here but can only find the expensive steel/metal ones.
One thing I occasionally like to do is brew a 5-gallon batch of wine in the plastic bin. I put in 5 or 6 litres of different fruit juices - orange, grapefruit, apple, pineapple, grape and whatever else I can find, dissolve 5 kilo bags of sugar in water, add a few teaspoons of yeast and pectolase and leave for a couple of months. The results are usually very good, occasionally magnificent, and always strong. 30 bottles of wine last a while and I can put a few bottles away to age.
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Am I looking at that right?. It only does 8 pint bottles at a time or they only give you 8 bottles and really you can do a decent sized brew in one go?. The vast majority of the kits you get here are for 40 pints at a time which at least lasts a couple of days when its done.
Also your time scales seem odd to what I use in the UK. First fermentation should be about a week @21" C and then a minimum of a couple of weeks in the bottle. The longer in the bottle the better.
I think the Mr Beer does 16 bottles but they only give you 8....so I guess you have to buy 8 more or leave 1/2 in the keg thing until you drink the other 8...
(12oz bottles btw, not pints).
Well the first batch I'm doing is your bog standard lager/beer, it says for this one 7-14 days in the keg. I figured might as well leave it the 2 weeks? Then another 2 weeks in the bottles. Then 2 weeks refridgerated seems more of a suggestion than a necessity? But I figured like you say the longer in the bottle the better.
As for the kit yes it is quite modest, but I'm starting small, I want to see if I can actually successfully brew a drinkable beer, before I go buying barrels and things, and doing it on a larger scale.
I watched a video online showing you how to brew the Mr. Beer refills without even having a Mr. Beer, you just need one of those 2 gallon water jugs with the tap on, and you just mix it all in there, when it's ready you just tap it from the carton into bottles, and throw the carton away. The only really fiddly part seems to be getting the tap off without damaging it, and putting it back on afterwards. I may try this slap dash method if the kit works out, and see if I can brew a beer in a big water jug.
If it works I can get a load on the go at once :D
Not 100% sure the guy who did it turned it end up so the tap was on top, and he covered it with plastic wrap and put a rubber band around the bottom of the plastic.
I assume perhaps he left the tap open and uses the bag as his seal? Still not entirely sure how much pressure that would help ease though if any?
http://www.defalcos.com/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&page=shop.browse&category_id=55&Itemid=53&TreeId=1
Tempted to splash out and get the 'stupenous colossal beer brewing kit at @ $229
http://www.hamstead-brewing-centre.co.uk/itmidx9.htm
Dearest 40 pint kit is under ?70 and all the stuff is reusable. Also whats this urge to add CO2 and ruin a decent beer?
Well if you have it in a mini keg the beer loses it's natural Co2 as it empties...when it's 1/2 full for example...a bit like drinking half a bottle of soda and letting it sit..it goes flat.
So as you drink it you keep the pressure by adding a squirt or 10 of Co2. Least that's how it worked with the minikeg thing I had 20 years ago...if you didn't give it a blast of Co2 the natural carbonation went out of the beer and into the empty part of the keg.
Nah if you keep it pressurized it keeps until you don't keep it pressurized.
Bottling it a whole lot of extra work sanitizing etc (and space in the fridge). As you say personal preference, the minikeg was convenient for me and worked great, and back then I mostly made lagers anyway. "on tap" in the fridge was nice.
I guess if I was making real ale i'd probably have bottled it, but I wasn't. (Oh I recall I used to make cider too).
From what I've seen most commercial Kegerators uses Co2 canisters too.
Edit: This is about the closest thing I could find to the 'keg' I used..though mine was plastic and had a tap built in.
http://www.beveragefactory.com/draftbeer/home_brew/kegs/5_gallon_ball_lock_strap_keg.shtml?bstr=1
The beer keeps its natural carbonation long enough for it to be sold before it goes flat. Once a barrel is tapped it will "keep" for up to 2 weeks but more normally about 10 days. That's why they order different beers in different sized barrels, buy a barrel size you can sell in about a week. It gets drawn from the cellar using a hand pump rather than being driven from the barrel by CO2 top pressure which is what happens with pub lagers.
It's just given the previous points about making beers from raw ingredients and even growing the raw ingredients I see little point in going to all that trouble and then (in my opinion) spoiling the final product by artificially stuffing it with CO2.
Though it has been 20+ years since I did any brewing. I guess i had not really thought about the fact these days I'd be more likely to brew real ale than lager...so maybe bottling would be the way to go.
I'm quite into well-hopped American-style beers and the likes of Brewdog have a style of that about them. The don't compromise on taste and don't worry about conforming to the CAMRA dogma on what decent beer should be. Got no qualms with them distributing in keg if it is the right delivery method for the type of beer brewed.
I don't think high ABV should mean a bad beer. A lot of belgium beer styles are well over 7% as are British Barley Wines. If brewed well, the ABV shouldn't hurt the taste (some of the brewdog gimmics like Tactical Nuclear Penguin and Sink the Bismark accepted of course - they are there to prove a point and raise publicity)
I've had all the Trappist beers (yes, including Westvleteren's trio). Pretty good but some of the Abbey bears can be just as good. The Oude Gueze lambics are by favourite Belgium beer style though.
Yes, drink these regularly as they are easily obtainable, but as you say, only one at a time.
Didn't realise there were so many Wossers into (decent) beer! :grin:
...just got an email from the seller...sorry out of stock for now, do you want to keep the order or get a refund....
I keep telling her stop it or it'll end up stinking!
But that aside it's clearing up a little below the foam, the foam is now all one colour so all the nasty looking clumps have gone now, and there is still a nice layer of fresher bubbles below the foam. The yeast does not look very active any more, but since there are fresh bubbles below the gunk I assume we're still fermenting nicely?
I don't know weither to leave it another week come monday or to bottle it up, it looks like it's settling down quite a bit, and I don't want my yeast to get bored or anything like that :D
I think my first batch looks like it's ready to be bottled? It's quite clear a little bit of sediment around the bottom, and just a few little bits of foam on top now? Not sure if I should leave it until next monday or not?
I bought an extra 8 pack of bottles not realizing they were 1ltr bottles with the kit(I thought they were 12oz bottles)..I guess it's good though as I can always have some in the fridge ready...assuming I don't drink them all in a couple of days.
Yeah I was thinking about buying some extra bottles as well, as I'll probably need them. I need some more of the sanitiser as as well, and I think it's only 95c a packet so I might as well buy a load of them, but you only need 1 packet per batch which isn't bad.
So I'll probably order the sanitiser today or tommorow some time so it arrives before I bottle up my first batch, cos' the second the barrel is empty I'm starting batch number 2.
Did you buy any more beer mixes? I'm assuming the Gold Edition had a beer mix in there with it? If so what was it? Mine was just American light beer or was it lager? I don't remember now? So even if the brew process is perfect it'll probably still taste like sh*te :lol:
My next batch will either be Porter or Mexican Style Cerveza? Probably do the Porter since I have a Lager type beer on the go right now?
I got 2 mixes with the premium gold, Aztec Mexican Cerveza, and Grand Bohemian Czech Pilsner...I'm going to buy the Bavarian Weissbier Deluxe Refill next if the first 2 are successful.