Home Brewing

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It’s really not that hard to go full grain, doing brew in a bag, especially if you have the kit for boiling heads etc!! Little equipment needed beyond kit requirements, other than a bag and big pan (35-50l) and something to heat it on, an old duvet to insulate during the mash and a thermometer.
Kit twang will be a thing of the past!
 
martin_b said:
Any home brewing experts on here?

Since lockdown Ive developed an obsession with Strong IPA's and have become a particular fan of the Verdant brewery line of products, however its not cheap! I'd say on average my prefered tipples run to anywhere between £6-£9 for a 440ml Can.

I know now I've retired I should be down the local Wetherspoons drinking end of life <4% bitter at £2.00 a pint but I just can't bring myself to do that! So my question is how easy is it to brew strong IPA's at home with all the modern automated kit that now seems to be available?

cheers

Martin
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Its very very easy. have a look at the auto kits like brewzillas etc. Then look at Beersmith. you punch all your kit detials in. look at other recipes or build your own. it will show you predicted ABV, IBUS and colour. never been easier. youtube is full of helpfull videos.
 
I picked up a 2nd hand 50l SS pot for doing some BIAB. The listing said it came with 100 bottles, sound.

Ot turned out that the 100 bottles were used and not rinsed, caked with Porter residue and mold. Every bottle had a label too.

Just spent 2 hours doing 50 of them with the DeWalt BottleBrush 3000, a tub of hot water and finally the dishwasher.

Still, cheaper than buying new glass.

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Welcome to the club @Morkai
I just brewed myself a pale ale from all grain yesterday, it's in the fermenter at the moment.

I'd recommend for your first brew, try and brew a clone of a beer that you like. You can find recipes online with a quick Google for most popular beers, and some retailers like The Malt Miller do premade all grain kits to recipe. As you brew more, you will start to understand the ingredients and the roles they play so you can then create your own recipes from scratch

Also for me at least, one of the biggest quality improvements I've made in my home brewing is doing water chemistry. Water chemistry can get a bit complex but happy to do the numbers for you once you know what you want to brew. Give me a shout before you put your order in as you'll need to order a fivers worth of stuff for water chemistry, so might aswell bung it in the same order
 
royalewithcheese said:
Welcome to the club @Morkai
I just brewed myself a pale ale from all grain yesterday, it's in the fermenter at the moment.

I'd recommend for your first brew, try and brew a clone of a beer that you like. You can find recipes online with a quick Google for most popular beers, and some retailers like The Malt Miller do premade all grain kits to recipe. As you brew more, you will start to understand the ingredients and the roles they play so you can then create your own recipes from scratch

Also for me at least, one of the biggest quality improvements I've made in my home brewing is doing water chemistry. Water chemistry can get a bit complex but happy to do the numbers for you once you know what you want to brew. Give me a shout before you put your order in as you'll need to order a fivers worth of stuff for water chemistry, so might aswell bung it in the same order
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Thanks for the offer.

I've done kits and wine before but experienced the difference of all grain from a friend's brew, hence my first comment about the twang difference between the two.

I've got a bit of stuff in my basket from The Malt Miller for two different brews.

One for a basic Czech Pilsner, like Urquell. One for a NEIPA.

Now I know its not recommended for a starter brew, but Im willing to take the risk and when something interests me I go down a research rabbit hole.

I've checked my local water just from the Severn Trent reports, not a full water report, and I know I need a 2:1 Chlorides to Sulphates ratio for NEIPA. I may use the Tesco Ashbeck water as the base as the profile is quite low in all minerals to make a Verdant profile. But I would appreciate some help on the maths for the Calcium Chloride etc.

I have some Lactic acid for the PH target.

Some Ascorbic acid is going in the boil too as part of the precautions for minimising oxidation. Got some other precautions in mind for bottling too. Bottling in purged bottles straight from the fermenter with a lance as well as replacing the airlock with a CO2 balloon to fill the headspace vacuum.

All theory for me at the moment but I like the research and challenge.

The NEIPA is for the late May bank holiday, so I'm working my dates back to have it fresh as possible.
 
martin_b said:
Thanks Guys lots to think about.. The Polypin option is certainly worth investigating.. (takes me back to student parties) however Im not sure if you can get them for keg IPA rather than cask bitter?
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You won't get a Verdant style or quality in this form.

You could get an IPA, but it would be more of a twig baron brew and not a hop bomb.

There is a problem with breweries like Verdant, and that is if you were once happy drinking Ghost Ship or Proper Job, you won't be happy drinking them once you've been spoilt by Verdant and the like.
 
Sounds like youve been doing alot of research! You may not need to do bottled water as youre in Shropshire, send me your postcode on a PM if you want and I'll have a look at your water report. Having to avoid tap water is mostly for the south east where the water is so ridiculously hard, you either have to add so much lactic acid that you can actually taste it in the finished product, or use other solutions like AMS which starts throwing your chloride/sulphate ratio out.

The ultimate answer for avoiding oxidiation in styles like NEIPA is a closed transfer (pressurised fermenter transferring into a purged keg), but you'll probably get away with it if you're planning on getting it all gone quick at a party on the bank holiday anyway!
 
royalewithcheese said:
Sounds like youve been doing alot of research! You may not need to do bottled water as youre in Shropshire, send me your postcode on a PM if you want and I'll have a look at your water report. Having to avoid tap water is mostly for the south east where the water is so ridiculously hard, you either have to add so much lactic acid that you can actually taste it in the finished product, or use other solutions like AMS which starts throwing your chloride/sulphate ratio out.

The ultimate answer for avoiding oxidiation in styles like NEIPA is a closed transfer (pressurised fermenter transferring into a purged keg), but you'll probably get away with it if you're planning on getting it all gone quick at a party on the bank holiday anyway!
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Will do.

Yeah, Im not getting into closed transfer as I really don't drink enough to justify the kit.

I shall be doing the NEIPA in a relatively small batch too so it wont be hanging around after the party.
 
This kit didn't provide a SG target, but Ive short brewed it to around 18l from 23l.

It has a gravity of 1060.
 
angusb1 said:
IPAs with plenty of hop flavour work well at that kind of strength
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Hopefully it gives it a bit more body and its not too sweet.

Ive put the dry hops in a mesh bag with a teaspoon under the lid, and then I have a magnet on the outside of the lid to keep them out of the liquid. I can pull the magnet to dry hop it without opening the lid.
 
Morkai said:
Hopefully it gives it a bit more body and its not too sweet.

Ive put the dry hops in a mesh bag with a teaspoon under the lid, and then I have a magnet on the outside of the lid to keep them out of the liquid. I can pull the magnet to dry hop it without opening the lid.
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That's smart, I will have to try that!
 
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