Any brewers In the Suffolk area of England?

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Greetings,
Just found this section of the forums. I'm an American home brewer living between Cambridge and Peterborough. Both my co-worker and I have been brewing since end-2012. Both mostly AG. I just got my kegs up and running.
 
The more the merrier! It's great that there are people close by that share the addiction! So I had the first taste of the honey (bee) ale tonight. Turned out great. I thought it maybe a little dry, but I really can't tell a difference. So, I'll chalk it up to operator error on the hydrometer reading. Not sure how I could've done that though. I was soooo careful! Anyway, I'm considering brewing on Saturday, probably start around 1100. Anyone is welcome to join. I'm no expert, but would welcome the company and a critical eye on my latest brew. (If you dare... There WAS a bee in it during fermentation after all)

image-3015427345.jpg
 
Cool, unfortunately we work a shift schedule and will be working all weekend. He (Mike) brewed a coconut porter yesterday. I (also Mike) planned to do a fresh hop harvest ale with my cascades yesterday, but with finding a place to fill my propane tanks and bottling a pumpkin ale there was no time. I had important things to do last night like drinking beer (Brandy-Barrel Hunahpu!).

Do you all belong to any home brew club? I've been looking for one, but it appears any craft beer type club is in London.
 
Sorry boomer, missed your post. We should plan in advance. I'm bad about last minute decisions as well.
 
Rendomike said:
Cool, unfortunately we work a shift schedule and will be working all weekend. He (Mike) brewed a coconut porter yesterday. I (also Mike) planned to do a fresh hop harvest ale with my cascades yesterday, but with finding a place to fill my propane tanks and bottling a pumpkin ale there was no time. I had important things to do last night like drinking beer (Brandy-Barrel Hunahpu!).

Do you all belong to any home brew club? I've been looking for one, but it appears any craft beer type club is in London.
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I couldn't find a brew club. But I'm sure we can start One.
 
It's no big deal. I didn't end up brewing today anyhow. I was debating on whether or not I should... I have a pumpkin ale in my only primary right now. It's ready to bottle or keg, but I'm basically out of bottles, and can't keg yet because I'm still waiting for the CO2 coupler nut to get here. I don't regularly use a secondary, but I have one if I need to free up the primary. The short version: I got lazy. I might do it next weekend.
 
boomer135 said:
It's no big deal. I didn't end up brewing today anyhow. I was debating on whether or not I should... I have a pumpkin ale in my only primary right now. It's ready to bottle or keg, but I'm basically out of bottles, and can't keg yet because I'm still waiting for the CO2 coupler nut to get here. I don't regularly use a secondary, but I have one if I need to free up the primary. The short version: I got lazy. I might do it next weekend.
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I have plenty of bottles. How much? My wife made me throw bottles away yesterday. But I have like twenty empties.
 
cpl-america said:
I have plenty of bottles. How much? My wife made me throw bottles away yesterday. But I have like twenty empties.
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I have hundreds of bottles also if you need some, but I'm a bit far from you. I may be taking a Taco Bell trip this week out that ways and could always bring some.

cpl, I like the idea of starting a brew club. I've attempted here, but although we have quite a few home brewers around, it just never happened. There really are people who look at this hobby as just a way to save money. Crazy!
 
Rendomike said:
I have hundreds of bottles also if you need some, but I'm a bit far from you. I may be taking a Taco Bell trip this week out that ways and could always bring some.

cpl, I like the idea of starting a brew club. I've attempted here, but although we have quite a few home brewers around, it just never happened. There really are people who look at this hobby as just a way to save money. Crazy!
Click to expand...

it's more like a lifestyle. that's like making your own pasta because it's cheaper, it's already inexpensive. you make your own because it tastes better, and because you love doing it.

sure brewing is cheaper than drinking store bought. at least until, you start buying more equipment. $$$$$$$$$$$$

i'm in for the club. but i can't see too many meetings. maybe one a month. i've got a seven month old. and everyone seems to have a different schedule. anyone else in?
 
Don't worry about the bottles, fellas. I appreciate the gesture though. I'm still holding out on the current batch to keg it, but I'm still waiting to receive the regulator nut in the mail. The online welding supply place that I ordered it from had them on back order apparently. So it should be here next week, then I can just keg the beer instead. I was just trying to avoid moving the beer to a secondary.

As far as the club goes, I'm for sure in! I'll be away for some training in November, but other than that, my schedule is clear!

Why do I brew my own? Not because its cheap, in my experience, it's way more expensive (up front) than just buying from the store. Especially after I bought all this kegging stuff the last month or so... I brew because I needed a hobby, and I like the feeling of accomplishment I get when I consume one of my delicious homebrews! Plus I like to drink beer, so homebrewing them was a no-brainer.
 
Suffolk Brewing

There, Official. now there is a brewers club for our area, feel free to join, we just need to set up a meeting day. open to any input, just rushed through the setup, and didn't think much about the name or anything.

-cheers
 
Cool, signed up. Told my co-worker about it also. I suggest a Saturday or Sunday which probably works better for most people. Currently work weekends, but will have the last weekend of this month and first weekend of next month mostly free.
 
my house isn't large enough for any large sort of meeting. any volunteers?

and i do work weekends, but i can adjust. As a civilian, i can only plan a week ahead on whether it's morning, or evening. but we can shoot for a week end though. let me know guys.
 
I'm sure I could be convinced to hold a gathering at my house once a month! Not sure my place is bigger than anyone else's though....
 
It is more the baby toys and too much stuff crammed in One place that is restricting. A Friday night would be best for me.
 
Once a month sounds great, but it's tough to say what works for us. We work 4 days every 4 days alternating between nights and days. I'm just as willing to host also. For the next couple weeks, we have off weekends.

We've both been brewing fools lately after not brewing for a while. My keg system took roughly three months to get and I pretty much didn't want to bottle anymore.
 
Quiet around the thread lately... I'm sure we've all been busy with real life and such.

Anyway, I'm reporting back on the CO2 nut from the UK company weldability Sif (not a typo). I finally got it in the mail today. They even sent me a hat. I was so excited that I put it right on the regulator and it fit perfectly. Once it was all said and done, it did take quit a bit of time to finally get It here, but it was on back order. Including shipping, the cost was about $15. I'm still not sure as to the availability of a part like this at a local welding shop, because I never looked. Although after waiting about 2 months for this one, I probably should've tried to source the part locally first.

Soooo, all this happens 3 weeks before I head out to Ramstein for a 6 wk TDY. I won't even be able to enjoy my keg beer for long. Nonetheless, I'm excited to finally have the ability to keg my beer. How's everyone else doing lately?
 
just emptied a keg myself, so monday is brewday if you are interested.

most of the keg might be gone before ramstein. lol. and if it isn't i'm sure it will taste all the better when you get back.

as for monday, i'm finally getting with the program and making a pumpkin ale.

have fun in ramstein... last time i was in germany, it was the hospital. don't fall too much for their beer, only to come home to fruity english ales.
 
boomer135 said:
Oh man, I wish I would've known you needed items before I left. They've got some grains and things there at BB and I could've picked the up for you. He charged me £45 (£10 deposit) for the full tank. The tank is nice and big, maybe double or triple the size of my US CO2 tank... I have a feeling it'll last a while...

View attachment 143918
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Hey guys, sorry been super busy and not around to brew, but i just ordered all the stuff i need to build a new kegerator and I got a CO2 cannister shipping in from the states from Midwest brewers...I need to find where to get it filled...any ideas? Oh and I may have time one weekend before december to brew but i'm deploying again.
 
jimhenning said:
Hey guys, sorry been super busy and not around to brew, but i just ordered all the stuff i need to build a new kegerator and I got a CO2 cannister shipping in from the states from Midwest brewers...I need to find where to get it filled...any ideas? Oh and I may have time one weekend before december to brew but i'm deploying again.
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sorry bro, they don't fill in this country because of regulations. more the company's rules than a law i believe. but you can rent one from beautiful beers as boomer found. i ended up bumming one off a friend who works for a brewery. boc used to do it, but because of insurance decided not to anymore. so unless you want to go with small 1lb tanks, beautiful beers is the only locally accessible co2.

if you wan't help with your kegerator, i'd love to. i think i even have some spare parts.
 
cpl-america said:
just emptied a keg myself, so monday is brewday if you are interested.

most of the keg might be gone before ramstein. lol. and if it isn't i'm sure it will taste all the better when you get back.

as for monday, i'm finally getting with the program and making a pumpkin ale.

have fun in ramstein... last time i was in germany, it was the hospital. don't fall too much for their beer, only to come home to fruity english ales.
Click to expand...

Actually, I'll be driving there, so there should be plenty of room in the car for beer if anyone wants me to bring back the German Flip tops. I have been in there a few times the last few weeks so, each time I try to bring back 2 cases of them. I'm up to 6 cases of them now, 2 of which I want to return cause they're nasty inside and I can't get them to come clean in the oxyclean bath. I plan on staying at 6 cases of thos bottles though.

jimhenning said:
Hey guys, sorry been super busy and not around to brew, but i just ordered all the stuff i need to build a new kegerator and I got a CO2 cannister shipping in from the states from Midwest brewers...I need to find where to get it filled...any ideas? Oh and I may have time one weekend before december to brew but i'm deploying again.
Click to expand...

I think the best current option is to mod your US regulator to fit a UK CO2 bottle. Weldability Sif.co.uk has the nut you'd need for 5 pounds. plus another 5 for shipping, so in total about $15. I got my bottle from Renee over at beautiful beers in Bury. That was 45 pounds.

I just got my kegs filled last night, and set the pressure. this morning I checked them and heard a hissing which wasn't there last night. I had to tighten one of the connections. luckily I don't think I lost very much CO2.
 
Hey all. Life has been incredibly busy. Going through a lot of changes at work and the government shut down made it fifty times as painful. Been staying off here to avoid getting new ideas to spend money on.

As for kegging here:

I get my CO2 from http://www.angliagascentre.co.uk/. Costs about £16 a fill and there is a £2 per month rental I have to pay for the canister. Not cheap, but also not horrible.

I got my regulator nut off ebay here http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/151109337646?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649
The stem was unusable, as it didn't fit the regulator. I just had to put an extra o-ring, which came with the original nut, in the new one.
 
This talk of leaks just had me checking all my connections with starsan. You can see how huge my tank is, should last over a year even with excessive purging; however, I recently had to replace it after about two months because there was two very slow leaks on the regulator. Tore it apart and put it back together replacing all the plumbers tape.
 
cpl-america said:
sorry bro, they don't fill in this country because of regulations. more the company's rules than a law i believe. but you can rent one from beautiful beers as boomer found. i ended up bumming one off a friend who works for a brewery. boc used to do it, but because of insurance decided not to anymore. so unless you want to go with small 1lb tanks, beautiful beers is the only locally accessible co2.

if you wan't help with your kegerator, i'd love to. i think i even have some spare parts.
Click to expand...

Wait, so i can't get a CO2 tank filled? I read you just need an adapter and they will? Wahts the deal...Appreciate the offer to help, I plan on painting the fridge first with a Batman sign, then doing the operation...shouldn't take too long but yea might be worth an afternoon to brew and build the kegerator
 
and i have a summer cottage (shed) out back that may serve as a "tasting room" as well a large 2 car garage we can brew in for the club...again i don't want to promise too much as I deploy about 200-250 days a year.
 
cpl-america said:
You can use the gas at bb. But as fat as I know, no One will fill your personal tank.
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I concur. I searched high and low for some type of business that would fill my US tank, with no results. I recommend buying the DACO2NUT from a UK company called Weldability Sif, (google company name, or find the nut on UK amazon) for about $15 including shipping. Here's the amazon link. http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00E9Y8LXQ/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20 They have them in stock now, I know because mine just came in the mail last week. And shipping was about 2 days straight to my house near Mildenhall. (After about 1.5 months waiting for the part to come back into stock) So, you can replace the us nut with this one, and buy the UK CO2 tank from beautiful beers in bury. You'll just have to make sure that the tank will fit inside your kegerator if that where you want to put it. Mine was kind of large, pics compared to the 5# US tank are above. This whole thing for me was obviously not ideal, but the only way I could figure out to get my kegerator set up.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Hello to all. Just joined the Suffolk Brewing club. Just wanted to add a few comments in regards to your thread here. I purchased a CO2 cylinder from someone off of bookoo as I sold my US tanks before I came here. I acquired an old UK regulator from a british local and used the coupling nut on my US regulator to mate it to the tank. That is the best way in my opinion. The problem is getting a tank and re-filling it from what I can tell. I have ordered grains from the-home-brew-shop.co.uk. I was able to get everything I needed form the. I do want to ask if anyone has ordered any grains or hops from the US, like from Northern Brewer or Midwest and had any problems getting it into the UK. I see that boomer135 has kits from Midwest, so I am assuming they included hops, grains, yeast? Anyway glad to finally contact some fellow homebrewers in this area.
 
boomer135 said:
I've been doing some reading on high attenuation and low FG, I think I may have over pitched. See, I've had this US 05 in the fridge for quite some time and I was worried about its health. So I did my first yeast starter and just eyeballed the amounts of DME and water. I eyeballed them so well I'm not sure how much I used. I think it was a cup of light DME with a few cups of water.

I think the beer did taste a little dry, but I think it'll be drinkable.

I may not be able to come by this weekend, but don't wait up for me, they'll be other chances for me to watch. But let me know when you brew and Ill see if I can leave for a few hours.
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Dry yeast has a longer shelf life as opposed to liquid yeast. 24 months vs 6, somwhere around there. Without knowing the your exact pitching rates(billions of cells) and from the sound of your starter, a packet of saf05 wouldnt necessarily propogate that much. if you pitched a packet that could ferment a 5gal batch into a low gravity starter you maybe only doubled that packet in viable yeast. for best propagation in a starter you want to be around a 1.040 OG. this allows the yeast to get right to work, and not have to work hard. healthy, happy, easy going yeast=better propagation. even if your starter was a higher gravity you maybe tripled the cell count. in that case your pitching rate would be closer to optimal for a 5gal batch. anyway i have a few resources on yeast i can share. first check out yeastcalc.com, which is a site my buddy built. this can help you figure out where you need to be in cell counts for your batch. i also have a really good article on yeast propagation that i can share if you give me an email. regardless, making starters has many benefits. i am aobut to start one right now myself for a brew this weekend. "Yeast autolysis or self-lysis is the breaking open or rupturing of the yeast cell and the transfer (leaking out) of undesirable substances and off-flavours to the beer. The flavour is described as yeast-bite, broth-like, meaty, sulphury and dirty diaper." this is a good description of what an overpitched beer would be like. sounds like you mashed low and just used a very high attenuating yeast. nothing to worry about, definitely not overpitched. hopefully this wasnt post too much.
 
pintslayer said:
I do want to ask if anyone has ordered any grains or hops from the US, like from Northern Brewer or Midwest and had any problems getting it into the UK. I see that boomer135 has kits from Midwest, so I am assuming they included hops, grains, yeast? Anyway glad to finally contact some fellow homebrewers in this area.
Click to expand...

I haven't had a single issue with it. The customs form is always labeled "hobby supplies" or some such. So I doubt it flags at customs.
 
boomer135 said:
I haven't had a single issue with it. The customs form is always labeled "hobby supplies" or some such. So I doubt it flags at customs.
Click to expand...

That's great to know. I can handle getting grains over here, but hips are expensive as hell at 100g per pop. I'm going to try and order a couple of pounds from the states. Way cheaper in bulk. Thanks a lot, was worried about that.
 
pintslayer said:
Hello to all. Just joined the Suffolk Brewing club. Just wanted to add a few comments in regards to your thread here. I purchased a CO2 cylinder from someone off of bookoo as I sold my US tanks before I came here. I acquired an old UK regulator from a british local and used the coupling nut on my US regulator to mate it to the tank. That is the best way in my opinion. The problem is getting a tank and re-filling it from what I can tell. I have ordered grains from the-home-brew-shop.co.uk. I was able to get everything I needed form the. I do want to ask if anyone has ordered any grains or hops from the US, like from Northern Brewer or Midwest and had any problems getting it into the UK. I see that boomer135 has kits from Midwest, so I am assuming they included hops, grains, yeast? Anyway glad to finally contact some fellow homebrewers in this area.
Click to expand...

yeah, i order from the states sometimes. but i usually get it locally, as i'm impatient. drive to beautiful beers, or order from http://www.brewuk.co.uk/store/ as i reciever orders from them in a couple of days. but there is definitely a price difference.
 
cpl-america said:
yeah, i order from the states sometimes. but i usually get it locally, as i'm impatient. drive to beautiful beers, or order from http://www.brewuk.co.uk/store/ as i reciever orders from them in a couple of days. but there is definitely a price difference.
Click to expand...

I hear you. I use cascades a lot and I do have some now so not worried about lag time, just want to build a stash. Was just at BB today. He's pretty good for grains and CO2. Hops really pricey and I just bought his last pack of Wyeast he'll be getting for a while he said. Cheap sacks of Maris Otter though.

Brewing tomorrow if anyone would like to stop by for a couple. Let me know.
 
I got the nut and the CO2 tank from BB, the regulator is from America so the link you gave me helped and it fits i just tested it, however, I have to get the old one off the American regulator. I don't want to damage the regulator...best way to get this thing off without screwing something up? Photos attached for reference.

Rendomike said:
Hey all. Life has been incredibly busy. Going through a lot of changes at work and the government shut down made it fifty times as painful. Been staying off here to avoid getting new ideas to spend money on.

As for kegging here:

I get my CO2 from http://www.angliagascentre.co.uk/. Costs about £16 a fill and there is a £2 per month rental I have to pay for the canister. Not cheap, but also not horrible.

I got my regulator nut off ebay here http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/151109337646?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649
The stem was unusable, as it didn't fit the regulator. I just had to put an extra o-ring, which came with the original nut, in the new one.
Click to expand...

20131102_133140.jpg


20131102_133143.jpg
 
Posted 2 of the same pic, here is a better look

Rendomike said:
Hey all. Life has been incredibly busy. Going through a lot of changes at work and the government shut down made it fifty times as painful. Been staying off here to avoid getting new ideas to spend money on.

As for kegging here:

I get my CO2 from http://www.angliagascentre.co.uk/. Costs about £16 a fill and there is a £2 per month rental I have to pay for the canister. Not cheap, but also not horrible.

I got my regulator nut off ebay here http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/151109337646?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649
The stem was unusable, as it didn't fit the regulator. I just had to put an extra o-ring, which came with the original nut, in the new one.
Click to expand...

20131102_133131.jpg
 
The whole arm to the right of the regulator should be able to unscrew, and you can slip off the threaded part.
 

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