On a slightly related note: I was in Edinburgh over the weekend and BrewDog (the brewery) has a bar there. I thought it was pretty poor. I visited 8 or 9 bars in my four days there, and I did find a couple of pretty decent ones...but BrewDogs wasn't one of them.
On a slightly related note: I was in Edinburgh over the weekend and BrewDog (the brewery) has a bar there. I thought it was pretty poor. I visited 8 or 9 bars in my four days there, and I did find a couple of pretty decent ones...but BrewDogs wasn't one of them.
Boo! Off topic! :razz:
What didn't you like about it? I quite like the way they do things but have never been to a BrewDog bar. Was planning to visit the Manchester or Edinburgh one this year.
I've only been to one of their bars (Nottingham) but thought it was fine - a good place to get a decent drink, even if the decor was a bit 'old man's pub'
I've been to the Camden one a few times and I'd think that it's the sort of place that your impression of would depend very strongly on whether you like their beer or not. Other than that, the decor is decidedly on the industrial side, the prices are pretty normal for London, and the burgers are excellent.
What didn't you like about it? I quite like the way they do things but have never been to a BrewDog bar. Was planning to visit the Manchester or Edinburgh one this year.
I found it boring with a poor selection of beer (the ones I like anyway). ;)
There are absolutely better craft beer places with better selection elsewhere in Edinburgh.
Has anyone else used one of the Cooper's Australian Lager kits? I've done 4 previously and I put one on brew last night and something is a bit odd about it.
It's incredibly dark for a lager, almost stout-ish in colour and I had a quick sniff and the smell is very stout-ish too. I'm 99.9% sure none of the other brews I did with it were anything like it. I double-checked the tin, and yup, definitely the correct kit. I suppose it's possible they could have canned the wrong malt.
I think you may well be right. I double-checked the beer kit again this morning and it's definitely the beer I've brewed before. I'm quite keen to try this one as it looks a bit different and smells really nice!
Bump! That brew ended up looking like it normally did so god knows what was going on. Tried a bottle - very nice, think I prefer the Coopers to the Youngs (it's a bit too sweet even after leaving for about 3 months).
Can others post up their fave beer kits as I want to try something different? I recommend the Coopers Australian Lager. Comes out at 5.2% and has a rather crisp bitterness to it. Not bad at 14 quid a pop from Wilkinsons.
I have done a few Coopers and they have all been quite good, I especially like the Ginger beer which is very nice on a hot sunny day. (You know, the one hot sunny day we have each year).
I am very impressed with the "Design a Brew" kits which while a little bit more expensive but do give you the chance to get exactly what you want.
Muntons kits are always good and the Heart of England kits are very nice. IF you can get them at a decent price the Barons kits are fantastic as its all (7.5L) wort with no added sugar.
Although I haven't tried them I have had some very good reports about Slaters Staffordshire Brewery Kits (You might have heard of "Top Totty Ale" - Banned from the house of commons bar on the grounds it was sexist....) and the "Festival Beer" Kits.
Cheers ADJB. I've added them to the list and I'll be visiting the local home brew store over the holidays to see what different things I can grab.
Went into town today and popped into Wilkinson's. The Cooper's kits are down from ?14 to ?10.40 and the brewing sugar (which I think is good stuff) down to ?1.60 per kilo. Might grab another one tomorrow if we pop into town again.
Anyone else still home brewing? Haven't done any for over a year but I might have a bash at this next, I think it's in a similar style to Bishops Finger...
Yup, I'm still brewing away and I can see from this thread that I've been doing it for more or less exactly a year now. I've lost count of how many I've done, somewhere in the 15-20 mark which at 40 pints a go is a heck of a lot!!
I've gone from ordering online to simply picking it up at Wilkinson's now. I pop in every few weeks as they often have a 25% off sale on homebrew beerkits and sugar, so I stock up - I can make a batch for about ?12 this way.
Still not managed to balls-up a brew yet. I've stopped the almost surgery-like cleanliness that was taking hours to bottle up to being able to do it in 45 minutes :-) I don't bother with glass bottles much now either, 2l pet bottles are good, but I do the odd few in glass bottles as they're easier for the fridge.
I might treat myself and try that IPA you link to.
I stopped before xmas after making a brew that made me feel like I'd been beaten around the head the following day (after 3 pints).
Not sure where I went wrong, the effect would suggest I let it get too hot and increase the proportion of fusel alcohols. Who knows, but it's the supermarket for me until I'm ready to risk brewing again.
I stopped before xmas after making a brew that made me feel like I'd been beaten around the head the following day (after 3 pints).
Not sure where I went wrong, the effect would suggest I let it get too hot and increase the proportion of fusel alcohols. Who knows, but it's the supermarket for me until I'm ready to risk brewing again.
I do wonder if certain kits produce too much fusels too. I used to make a Youngs and that was terrible for them - 2 or 3 pints would leave me feeling spaced the next day. Not had a problem at all with the Coopers.
40 @5 to 5.2% after secondary ferment. Only takes 2 weeks from mixing to drinking time too! 1 week for each ferment.
Blimey, that's good value! I've been buying the kits from my local brew shop www.easyhomebrew.co.uk - they're a bit more expensive (?21-?25) but there's loads to choose from. Plus they're really friendly and helpful and always have one or two beers for tasting :)
I must get into bottling really, 40 pints lasts me about a month (I only really drink on weekends and special occasions) but it goes a bit flat towards the end of the barrel.
Yup, it's not bad value at about 30p-ish per pint! I'm sure those more expensive kits produce a better quality beer, but I can't really complain about the Cooper's. It's better than 99% of named-brand lager and ice-cold it is very palatable.
I was going to try the barrel like yourself but it would annoy me too much it going flat - plus the fact our fridge is always full. For cheap bottling I do recommend the bog-standard 2l Coke PET bottles (although it is more satisfying popping a glass one!). The "feet" are very good for collecting the crud and you can tell when the secondary ferment is complete as the bottles will get quite hard. Problem is you do have to finish off the bottle in one sitting. It's such a hard life sometimes!
Haven't brewed anything since I overdid my stout last year, and I ended up with a barrel of lumpy greenish-brown sludge. Will get back into it again soon though, I've been neglecting everything recently.
Anyone else still home brewing? Haven't done any for over a year but I might have a bash at this next, I think it's in a similar style to Bishops Finger...
I've got a Mr Beer kit that I need to get around to starting. My concern is maintaining the right temperature during the brew process. Also, being Mr. Beer, all the measures are in American Imperial measures (which is different still to British Imperial) and so I have a load of conversions to work out before hand.
Off to Barcelona next week for a three day beer tour. Will make a change from our usual annual trip to Belgium/Czech/Baveria. Can't wait!
I've got a Mr Beer kit that I need to get around to starting. My concern is maintaining the right temperature during the brew process.
I was worried about this before starting too and unless you have a room that's either sub-zero or a sauna I wouldn't worry about it in the slightest. I've done every single brew so far (apart from two that I left in the shed during the sweltering summer last year) in the kitchen and that room fluctuates a fair bit over the course of a year. Anything from 5 to 10 degrees in the winter to 20+ in the summer (in the winter I've had it next to a radiator, but that's been turned off at night and all brews have been fine, even though it's been damn cold in there). It's not affected any brew in the slightest.
If you have room under the stairs or an airing cupboard, spare room, anywhere room temperature constantly really - shove it in there and don't worry about it at all.
Also, being Mr. Beer, all the measures are in American Imperial measures (which is different still to British Imperial) and so I have a load of conversions to work out before hand.
It's easy to get a bit anal about all the exactness when you first start out and I would advise to go with that. It's not a bad habit to get into as it teaches you good hygiene and other good habits that experience over time you just get a feel for. When I first started out everything was measured, I wouldn't bottle anything until the hydrometer was flatlined for 3 days in a row, etc. Nowadays I know from a quick sniff under the hood as it were when the exact time to bottle is, and the firmness of a PET or clarity of a bottle tells me that it's good to drink.
This thread is an absolute goldmine of information and I recommend reading it from the very start. I never would have had the guts to try homebrewing without the invaluable help of ADJB, Chaosmongers, Beanz, Boozie, etc, and I'm so glad I did.
I actually have a bit of a question about the Cooper's kits.
I've just made some Cooper's Australian Stout - and it tastes really good - but it seems to have a side-effect on me.
I find that whenever I drink any of it - even a couple of pints - I get a bit of a feeling of being 'out of it' for the next couple of days - like being in an altered mental state (and not in a good way.)
I made the same kit last year and (as it tasted so bloody good!) was drinking a few pints of it most evenings. I ended up in a right state and ended up getting a doctor to give me anti-depressants to straighten me out as I thought I was losing it.
(I considered the connection between the home brew and the condition, but I dismissed it as I was pretty stressed in my home/work life at the time and it seemed unlikely.
I mentioned it to the charge nurse at the surgery that I had been drinking home brew and asked if that could have anything to do with it, but she seemed to get hold of the wrong end of the stick and thought I meant moonshine or something, so I shut up about it..)
Anyway - did the same kit again this year and fortunately only drank a couple of pints at a time, and this weird 'out of it feeling' came back and lasted for a day or so every time I did.. Can only conclude that I'm allergic to the yeast or something..
I looked around on-line and found a review of Cooper's beer from Australia (actual pub-grade stuff) and someone was saying that every time he drunk it he 'got a hangover', which I guess this could be mistaken for.
I haven't really seen it reported anywhere else on Google, but just wondering if anyone else has had similar side-effects..
I've also got two more Cooper's kits to brew, but not sure I want to bother now.. I've got a mate who brews as well, so I might just give them to her and get others as I don't want to go through that again.. :(
It certainly sounds to me like a fusel alcohol issue. It could be an allergic reaction but I'd expect something a bit more outwardly obvious (like a rash or something).
Fusels are nasty little buggers and are usually added to the brew in the first couple of days of primary fermentation when it's a bit too warm. The Young's Pilsner that I used to brew was terrible for them and that's why I switched to Coopers Australian Lager which I've had no effect from. Thinking about it, I did brew the Young's last summer when it was stupid hot so that was undoubtedly the primary factor.
Cheers. Was not even aware that this was an issue.
I've always just kept my equipment clean and gone for it. TBH, since the first or second kit I've made, I've never even bothered about keeping it at a specific temperature, shifting it off the lees or taking specific gravity readings.
Basically, if the airlock starts 'chugging' after the first day or so and it's foaming nicely (I have translucent buckets, so I can see what's going on) I take it as read that it's working and leave it be. I expect it to chug pretty heavily for a week or so, then gradually slow down after that. After three weeks or so I move it to another bucket, mix in about a cup or sugar for carbonation and then bottle it with the intention of drinking in a couple of weeks or so.
I've never had any adverse effects from any of the other kits I've made, just this one - twice now - which makes me think that it's something to do with this kit in particular and the way it interacts with me.. Could quite possibly be the fusels you mentioned. It's a shame, as it's a really nice tasting stout, but the side effects aren't worth it.
Only other time something similar has happened to me was when my Father-in-Law passed away a few years back and we inherited his collection of spirits.
(He was never a big drinker, but he bowled, and his league had this rule:
'score a Turkey (3 strikes in a row), get a (bottle of Wild) Turkey'.
He didn't really like Wild Turkey, so they gave him a half-bottle of spirits of his choice every time he managed it - so he had a fair few half-bottles of Vodka, Rum and Rye kicking about. My Mother-in-Law didn't want them, so she said we could have them.)
He had a few bottles of Appleton's Jamaica Rum, which I hadn't tried before, but tasted pretty good with Coke.
I'm not much of a spirits drinker - might get a bottle at Christmas, but that's about it - I'm usually beer all the way, unless we have a bottle of wine for some reason, but that's rare too.
We had a few friends over one night, and I ended up getting pretty drunk on this rum. The next day I had a hangover, but also this really weird feeling of aggression - like I really wanted to punch someone or break something. I was tetchy with everyone that day and had to check myself a few times to stop it from escalating.
It really freaked me out as I'm the most chilled out person I know and I hate people who throw their weight around, so it was quite distressing really.. Fortunately it wore off within 24 hours, but it quite upset me and - needless to say - I haven't drunk rum again since then.
Festival Summer Glory golden ale, 5%, apparently it's similar to Badger Golden Glory. Hadn't done one for a couple of years, this was slightly different to the last kit I brewed as it included dried elderflowers and the hops are added separately after 5 days.
This is going to be my first bottled beer, a 40-pint barrel is too much for me on my own (Mrs Spoons has the odd half a pint but doesn't really make a dent in it) and I want to give some to my brother-in-law as I've drunk enough of his home brew over the years!
We don't have enough space for 40 glass bottles so I was going to stick half in the barrel, but thinking about it it's probably too much of a faff so I'll use half a dozen 2-litre lemonade bottles.
Will be reading back through this thread in the next few days, already seen some good tips about bottling like ADJB's "sterilise in the bath" trick :)
Comments
My games for the Spectrum: Dingo, The Speccies, The Speccies 2, Vallation, SQIJ.
Twitter: Sokurah
Boo! Off topic! :razz:
What didn't you like about it? I quite like the way they do things but have never been to a BrewDog bar. Was planning to visit the Manchester or Edinburgh one this year.
I found it boring with a poor selection of beer (the ones I like anyway). ;)
There are absolutely better craft beer places with better selection elsewhere in Edinburgh.
My games for the Spectrum: Dingo, The Speccies, The Speccies 2, Vallation, SQIJ.
Twitter: Sokurah
It's incredibly dark for a lager, almost stout-ish in colour and I had a quick sniff and the smell is very stout-ish too. I'm 99.9% sure none of the other brews I did with it were anything like it. I double-checked the tin, and yup, definitely the correct kit. I suppose it's possible they could have canned the wrong malt.
Anyone else had a similar experience?
Can others post up their fave beer kits as I want to try something different? I recommend the Coopers Australian Lager. Comes out at 5.2% and has a rather crisp bitterness to it. Not bad at 14 quid a pop from Wilkinsons.
I am very impressed with the "Design a Brew" kits which while a little bit more expensive but do give you the chance to get exactly what you want.
Muntons kits are always good and the Heart of England kits are very nice. IF you can get them at a decent price the Barons kits are fantastic as its all (7.5L) wort with no added sugar.
Although I haven't tried them I have had some very good reports about Slaters Staffordshire Brewery Kits (You might have heard of "Top Totty Ale" - Banned from the house of commons bar on the grounds it was sexist....) and the "Festival Beer" Kits.
Went into town today and popped into Wilkinson's. The Cooper's kits are down from ?14 to ?10.40 and the brewing sugar (which I think is good stuff) down to ?1.60 per kilo. Might grab another one tomorrow if we pop into town again.
Anyone else still home brewing? Haven't done any for over a year but I might have a bash at this next, I think it's in a similar style to Bishops Finger...
http://www.easyhomebrew.co.uk/FestPilgrim.aspx
It's a toss up between that and St Peter's IPA (fewer pints but stronger ABV): http://www.easyhomebrew.co.uk/stipa32pts.aspx
I've gone from ordering online to simply picking it up at Wilkinson's now. I pop in every few weeks as they often have a 25% off sale on homebrew beerkits and sugar, so I stock up - I can make a batch for about ?12 this way.
It's the Cooper's Australian lager which is quite nice http://www.wilko.com/cider+beer-brewing/coopers-original-series-beer-kit-lager-17kg/invt/0318913?VBMST=coopers%20australian and the Wilkinson's brewing sugar is very good.
Still not managed to balls-up a brew yet. I've stopped the almost surgery-like cleanliness that was taking hours to bottle up to being able to do it in 45 minutes :-) I don't bother with glass bottles much now either, 2l pet bottles are good, but I do the odd few in glass bottles as they're easier for the fridge.
I might treat myself and try that IPA you link to.
Not sure where I went wrong, the effect would suggest I let it get too hot and increase the proportion of fusel alcohols. Who knows, but it's the supermarket for me until I'm ready to risk brewing again.
I do wonder if certain kits produce too much fusels too. I used to make a Youngs and that was terrible for them - 2 or 3 pints would leave me feeling spaced the next day. Not had a problem at all with the Coopers.
How many pints does it make?
40 @5 to 5.2% after secondary ferment. Only takes 2 weeks from mixing to drinking time too! 1 week for each ferment.
Blimey, that's good value! I've been buying the kits from my local brew shop www.easyhomebrew.co.uk - they're a bit more expensive (?21-?25) but there's loads to choose from. Plus they're really friendly and helpful and always have one or two beers for tasting :)
I must get into bottling really, 40 pints lasts me about a month (I only really drink on weekends and special occasions) but it goes a bit flat towards the end of the barrel.
I was going to try the barrel like yourself but it would annoy me too much it going flat - plus the fact our fridge is always full. For cheap bottling I do recommend the bog-standard 2l Coke PET bottles (although it is more satisfying popping a glass one!). The "feet" are very good for collecting the crud and you can tell when the secondary ferment is complete as the bottles will get quite hard. Problem is you do have to finish off the bottle in one sitting. It's such a hard life sometimes!
That's called Guinness - and your problem is?...... :)
If there was no green I'd probably have agreed with you ;)
I've got a Mr Beer kit that I need to get around to starting. My concern is maintaining the right temperature during the brew process. Also, being Mr. Beer, all the measures are in American Imperial measures (which is different still to British Imperial) and so I have a load of conversions to work out before hand.
Off to Barcelona next week for a three day beer tour. Will make a change from our usual annual trip to Belgium/Czech/Baveria. Can't wait!
I was worried about this before starting too and unless you have a room that's either sub-zero or a sauna I wouldn't worry about it in the slightest. I've done every single brew so far (apart from two that I left in the shed during the sweltering summer last year) in the kitchen and that room fluctuates a fair bit over the course of a year. Anything from 5 to 10 degrees in the winter to 20+ in the summer (in the winter I've had it next to a radiator, but that's been turned off at night and all brews have been fine, even though it's been damn cold in there). It's not affected any brew in the slightest.
If you have room under the stairs or an airing cupboard, spare room, anywhere room temperature constantly really - shove it in there and don't worry about it at all.
It's easy to get a bit anal about all the exactness when you first start out and I would advise to go with that. It's not a bad habit to get into as it teaches you good hygiene and other good habits that experience over time you just get a feel for. When I first started out everything was measured, I wouldn't bottle anything until the hydrometer was flatlined for 3 days in a row, etc. Nowadays I know from a quick sniff under the hood as it were when the exact time to bottle is, and the firmness of a PET or clarity of a bottle tells me that it's good to drink.
This thread is an absolute goldmine of information and I recommend reading it from the very start. I never would have had the guts to try homebrewing without the invaluable help of ADJB, Chaosmongers, Beanz, Boozie, etc, and I'm so glad I did.
Good luck!
I've just made some Cooper's Australian Stout - and it tastes really good - but it seems to have a side-effect on me.
I find that whenever I drink any of it - even a couple of pints - I get a bit of a feeling of being 'out of it' for the next couple of days - like being in an altered mental state (and not in a good way.)
I made the same kit last year and (as it tasted so bloody good!) was drinking a few pints of it most evenings. I ended up in a right state and ended up getting a doctor to give me anti-depressants to straighten me out as I thought I was losing it.
(I considered the connection between the home brew and the condition, but I dismissed it as I was pretty stressed in my home/work life at the time and it seemed unlikely.
I mentioned it to the charge nurse at the surgery that I had been drinking home brew and asked if that could have anything to do with it, but she seemed to get hold of the wrong end of the stick and thought I meant moonshine or something, so I shut up about it..)
Anyway - did the same kit again this year and fortunately only drank a couple of pints at a time, and this weird 'out of it feeling' came back and lasted for a day or so every time I did.. Can only conclude that I'm allergic to the yeast or something..
I looked around on-line and found a review of Cooper's beer from Australia (actual pub-grade stuff) and someone was saying that every time he drunk it he 'got a hangover', which I guess this could be mistaken for.
I haven't really seen it reported anywhere else on Google, but just wondering if anyone else has had similar side-effects..
I've also got two more Cooper's kits to brew, but not sure I want to bother now.. I've got a mate who brews as well, so I might just give them to her and get others as I don't want to go through that again.. :(
Fusels are nasty little buggers and are usually added to the brew in the first couple of days of primary fermentation when it's a bit too warm. The Young's Pilsner that I used to brew was terrible for them and that's why I switched to Coopers Australian Lager which I've had no effect from. Thinking about it, I did brew the Young's last summer when it was stupid hot so that was undoubtedly the primary factor.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusel_alcohol
What I do nowadays is not solely drink my homebrew. I'll grab a couple of cans from the offy and top it up with a couple of pints of homebrew.
I've always just kept my equipment clean and gone for it. TBH, since the first or second kit I've made, I've never even bothered about keeping it at a specific temperature, shifting it off the lees or taking specific gravity readings.
Basically, if the airlock starts 'chugging' after the first day or so and it's foaming nicely (I have translucent buckets, so I can see what's going on) I take it as read that it's working and leave it be. I expect it to chug pretty heavily for a week or so, then gradually slow down after that. After three weeks or so I move it to another bucket, mix in about a cup or sugar for carbonation and then bottle it with the intention of drinking in a couple of weeks or so.
I've never had any adverse effects from any of the other kits I've made, just this one - twice now - which makes me think that it's something to do with this kit in particular and the way it interacts with me.. Could quite possibly be the fusels you mentioned. It's a shame, as it's a really nice tasting stout, but the side effects aren't worth it.
Only other time something similar has happened to me was when my Father-in-Law passed away a few years back and we inherited his collection of spirits.
(He was never a big drinker, but he bowled, and his league had this rule:
'score a Turkey (3 strikes in a row), get a (bottle of Wild) Turkey'.
He didn't really like Wild Turkey, so they gave him a half-bottle of spirits of his choice every time he managed it - so he had a fair few half-bottles of Vodka, Rum and Rye kicking about. My Mother-in-Law didn't want them, so she said we could have them.)
He had a few bottles of Appleton's Jamaica Rum, which I hadn't tried before, but tasted pretty good with Coke.
I'm not much of a spirits drinker - might get a bottle at Christmas, but that's about it - I'm usually beer all the way, unless we have a bottle of wine for some reason, but that's rare too.
We had a few friends over one night, and I ended up getting pretty drunk on this rum. The next day I had a hangover, but also this really weird feeling of aggression - like I really wanted to punch someone or break something. I was tetchy with everyone that day and had to check myself a few times to stop it from escalating.
It really freaked me out as I'm the most chilled out person I know and I hate people who throw their weight around, so it was quite distressing really.. Fortunately it wore off within 24 hours, but it quite upset me and - needless to say - I haven't drunk rum again since then.
http://www.home-brew-online.com/beer-kits-c1/summer-glory-golden-ale-ltd-edition-p1248
Festival Summer Glory golden ale, 5%, apparently it's similar to Badger Golden Glory. Hadn't done one for a couple of years, this was slightly different to the last kit I brewed as it included dried elderflowers and the hops are added separately after 5 days.
This is going to be my first bottled beer, a 40-pint barrel is too much for me on my own (Mrs Spoons has the odd half a pint but doesn't really make a dent in it) and I want to give some to my brother-in-law as I've drunk enough of his home brew over the years!
We don't have enough space for 40 glass bottles so I was going to stick half in the barrel, but thinking about it it's probably too much of a faff so I'll use half a dozen 2-litre lemonade bottles.
Will be reading back through this thread in the next few days, already seen some good tips about bottling like ADJB's "sterilise in the bath" trick :)