Hi All,

I have bought some home brew equipment with the hope of initially making some beer and then maybe going on to some wine. I plan to buy a lager kit from Wilko as a starter and if successful will move on from there.

I have looked around the web and am struggling to find a good source of information for beginners. I guess I am thinking of things a step by step guide of what to do and top tips on type of sugar, cleaning technique/ chemicals, bottling etc etc. The ones I have found tend to be websites selling the kits so tend to recommend all their stuff.

Anyone found any good websites or youtube channels etc. which may help?

thanks

Lee.

On 26/09/2020 16:23, wrote:
Hi All,

I have bought some home brew equipment with the hope of initially
making some beer and then maybe going on to some wine. I plan to buy
a lager kit from Wilko as a starter and if successful will move on
from there.

It should come with instructions but the main thing is scrupulous
cleanliness and getting the fermentation going right. Things can and
will go wrong sometimes even so. The most spectacular I ever had was
elderberry wine than went berserk and foamed up out of the airlock.

It sprayed a great red stain on the wall. I wasn't popular...

I have looked around the web and am struggling to find a good source
of information for beginners. I guess I am thinking of things a step
by step guide of what to do and top tips on type of sugar, cleaning
technique/ chemicals, bottling etc etc. The ones I have found tend
to be websites selling the kits so tend to recommend all their
stuff.

Anyone found any good websites or youtube channels etc. which may
help?

This is perhaps one instance where you might be better off with a
traditional book. Follow recipes or use kits until you really know what
you are doing or you may be disappointed with the results. You may be
disappointed the first couple of times anyway depending on how good you
are at following the instructions and whether the fermentation takes off
properly first time and is maintained at the right temperature. eg

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=beer+brewing+for+beginners

My flat mates at university got pretty good at it after while.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

On 26/09/2020 16:23, wrote:
Hi All,

I have bought some home brew equipment with the hope of initially
making some beer and then maybe going on to some wine. I plan to buy
a lager kit from Wilko as a starter and if successful will move on
from there.

Long time ago - so details may be a bit fuzzy!

Yup kits are easy enough - although I found some produced beer that was
a somewhat acquired taste. (but drinkable certainly!)

Wine I had success with and was able to get some quite decent results
with a variety of fruits[1] (I was after a nice drinkable wine, I was
not trying to create something that tastes like a commercial bottle - in
fact I think after a couple of experiments with grape juice concentrate
wine kits, I never bothered with grape wines again).

[1] ISTR recall that apple made a very good wine, and Victoria plum was
quite interesting as well!

I have looked around the web and am struggling to find a good source
of information for beginners. I guess I am thinking of things a step
by step guide of what to do and top tips on type of sugar, cleaning

Ordinary granulated silver spoon / Tate & Lyle etc seems to work fine.

technique/ chemicals,

You can get sterilising solutions which work ok, or an old school
approach is Sodium Metabisulfite and Citric Acid disolved in water -
which I seem to recall evolves fairly strong fumes (not nice to
breathe!) that will also sterilise on exposure.

bottling etc etc. The ones I have found tend

For beer I found it often easier to just keep in a pressure barrel
rather than bottling - although you probably get a better result with
bottles.

to be websites selling the kits so tend to recommend all their
stuff.
Anyone found any good websites or youtube channels etc. which may
help?

Not looked to be fair. There used to be a number of good books on it
though.


--
Cheers,

John.

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"Martin Brown" wrote in message
...
On 26/09/2020 16:23, wrote:
Hi All,

I have bought some home brew equipment with the hope of initially
making some beer and then maybe going on to some wine. I plan to buy
a lager kit from Wilko as a starter and if successful will move on
from there.

It should come with instructions but the main thing is scrupulous
cleanliness and getting the fermentation going right. Things can and will
go wrong sometimes even so. The most spectacular I ever had was elderberry
wine than went berserk and foamed up out of the airlock.

It sprayed a great red stain on the wall. I wasn't popular...

And if you use a keg, make damn sure the spigot tap is *fully* screwed into
the barrel so the washer makes a liquid-tight seal. This afternoon I
discovered that my home brew started leaking from this tap after being in
the keg for few days - probably as the CO2 produced by the secondary
fermentation forced the liquid past what had initially *seemed* to be a
liquid-tight seal. I'm assuming the over-pressure valve in the top (where a
CO2 sparklet can be screwed) *has* been doing its job and venting excess CO2
as it is designed to.

Luckily I'd stood the keg on a sheet of bubble-wrap with cloths on top, on a
chair in the spare room. The cloths were sopping wet and there were a couple
of small patches of beer on the carpet, but it could have been a *lot*
worse. Luckily we have a carpet shampoo cleaner so I used that to suck up
all the beer on the carpet and then shampooed that area several times.
Hopefully there won't be a lingering smell of beer. Looks as if I've lost
about a pint (out of a nominal 36). I now need to find somewhere else to
keep the beer until it has finished its regulation 14 days "in a cool place"
after the initial 2 days in the warm.

"John Rumm" wrote in message
...
You can get sterilising solutions which work ok, or an old school approach
is Sodium Metabisulfite and Citric Acid disolved in water - which I seem
to recall evolves fairly strong fumes (not nice to breathe!) that will
also sterilise on exposure.

The keg and pressure valve that I have come with a big warning not to use
sodium metabisulphate as a sanitiser because it will cause damage. They
supply something else as the sanitiser: disodium metasilicate/sodium
carbonate/troclosene sodium.

Interesting that all the info I received with my fermentation bucket and
keg, and with the beer kits, uses the term "sterilise" rather than
"sanitise". According to Wikipedia, the difference in those terms is that
sterilisation kills all "germs" whereas sanitisation reduces the level
considerably (but isn't 100% effective).

On 26/09/2020 21:33, Jethro_uk wrote:
On Sat, 26 Sep 2020 17:59:54 +0100, Martin Brown wrote:

On 26/09/2020 16:23, wrote:
[quoted text muted]

It should come with instructions but the main thing is scrupulous
cleanliness and getting the fermentation going right. Things can and
will go wrong sometimes even so. The most spectacular I ever had was
elderberry wine than went berserk and foamed up out of the airlock.

It sprayed a great red stain on the wall. I wasn't popular...

I've always found red wines energetic. Advice from more seasoned brewers
was simply to use a 10L bucket with a loose lid. The CO2 from fermetation
sits on top of the liquid keeping it free from bugs.

Yebbut - I didn't know that then! You learn by your mistakes.

Elderflower champagne was the most exotic home brew I ever made and that
was very good but it was so much work separating all the flowers from
the stems that we never did it again...

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

Thanks for all your replies. I have watched a load of YouTube videos but most of the ones I could find focused on making different types from scratch rather than the basics. At my stage in the journey, I will be happy enough to get something that resembles beer/ lager bottled, fizzy and drinkable

The kit I bought off eBay has the following
- 2 x plastic buckets with a lids. One lid with air lock
- a plastic barrel with a screw thread on top
- various bits like spoon, syphon tube, hydrometer
- a load of 1L clear plastic bottles
- a few what look like 5L clear square bottles (like the ones you get water in the supermarkets) with tops that look like will take an airlock

I have a couple of questions which hoping you all could point me in the right direction
1. The whole sterilise vs sanitise thing seems a bit of a mine field. As I understand it, I only need to sterilise if the equipment is dirty otherwise just need sanitising. Is that correct? The kit I have is second hand but looks clean, should I sterilise first then sanitise?
2. The various solutions to sterilise /sanitise vary massively in price and some seem to be no rinse (which sounds good). Also some videos suggest that you should not use washing up liquid etc. Any suggestions on a cost effective easily sourced way of doing this? E.g. was thinking of Milton or other baby sterilising chemicals?

This site seems to have fairly cost effective options (say £4) and for no rinse - although it says steriliser rather than sanitiser
https://www.lovebrewing.co.uk/chemic...-and-cleaning/

whereas Chemsan (seems to be popular with the online youtubers) are much more expensive (£18)
https://brew2bottle.co.uk/collection...sanitiser-1ltr

3. Looks like sugar seems to be another contested topic but looks from above suggestion is that normal granulated sugar should be fine?

4. Online they seem to use brown plastic bottles. With my clear bottles does that mean I should keep them in a dark place or does it not matter?

5. Given the equipment above, it feels like I could probably set up some sort of system whereby I start one then at some point start another and maybe put in the barrel before bottling or something. TBH I can't figure out the process to optimise what to do when. Any ideas?

Thanks in advance all

Lee.

" Wrote in message:r
Thanks for all your replies. I have watched a load of YouTube videos but most of the ones I could find focused on making different types from scratch rather than the basics. At my stage in the journey, I will be happy enough to get something that resembles beer/ lager bottled, fizzy and drinkable The kit I bought off eBay has the following- 2 x plastic buckets with a lids. One lid with air lock- a plastic barrel with a screw thread on top- various bits like spoon, syphon tube, hydrometer- a load of 1L clear plastic bottles- a few what look like 5L clear square bottles (like the ones you get water in the supermarkets) with tops that look like will take an airlockI have a couple of questions which hoping you all could point me in the right direction 1. The whole sterilise vs sanitise thing seems a bit of a mine field. As I understand it, I only need to sterilise if the equipment is dirty otherwise just need sanitising. Is that correct? The kit I have is second hand but looks clean, should I sterilise first then sanitise?2. The various solutions to sterilise /sanitise vary massively in price and some seem to be no rinse (which sounds good). Also some videos suggest that you should not use washing up liquid etc. Any suggestions on a cost effective easily sourced way of doing this? E.g. was thinking of Milton or other baby sterilising chemicals? This site seems to have fairly cost effective options (say £4) and for no rinse - although it says steriliser rather than sanitiserhttps://www.lovebrewing.co.uk/chemicals-and-ingredients/steriliser-and-cleaning/whereas Chemsan (seems to be popular with the online youtubers) are much more expensive (£18)https://brew2bottle.co.uk/collection...anitiser-1ltr3. Looks like sugar seems to be another contested topic but looks from above suggestion is that normal granulated sugar should be fine?4. Online they seem to use brown plastic bottles. With my clear bottles does that mean I should keep them in a dark place or does it not matter?5. Given the equipment above, it feels like I could probably set up some sort of system whereby I start one then at some point start another and maybe put in the barrel before bottling or something. TBH I can't figure out the process to optimise what to do when. Any ideas?Thanks in advance allLee.

Just checked the cupboard and we seem to have a bottle of Milton
but it expired in 2015!!!
--


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