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Although the bottle is OK, unfortunately it does not compare to the draught version of this beer. I wrote a review of both of them on my blog recently, you can read it here: http://riverroadbrewery.blogspot.com/2010/05/beer-review-same-beer-different-results.html Hope you enjoy the beer ;)

You could tap it using a party style (flexible) tap and then in order to keep cold all you need is a bucket/large pot to put the keg in and fill with ice water. As the corny pulls beer from the bottom of the keg you only need to have the last 8 or 10 inches submerged in the ice water.

Not necessarily, you could have just had the perfect fermentation conditions which led to a rapid fermentation, or you could have a leak which means the bubbler isn't indicating that fermentation is happening. The key rule is, do not trust the airlock, take a hydrometer reading, this is the...

I would say that there is no need to do anything yet. Some yeasts can be slow starters and so leave until thursday or friday, if still no activity by then, then you will probably need to pitch more yeast. I would be surprised if it is not going by then, the only cause would maybe be that there...

The key is always patience, I find the best beers are those that you forgot you had a few bottles of and you find them a few months after you have finished the rest of the batch

Are you taking a corny or bottles? I think the main issue is rousing sediment, in the bottles this could take quite a long time to clear and so after you arrive your going to need to let them settle for 1/2 days. However with a corny it should be much faster.

just one of those wait and see instances, water should be fine, but you should be able to tell in a few weeks what effect, if any, it has had.

It should be fine, although the top blew off there still should have been a layer of CO2 blanketing the liquid and this wouldn't all have rushed out once the top came off . I would say its fine.

Definitely try the dry-hopping, however I would recommend going for only one week. When dry hopping for longer periods the hops can sometimes impart a grassiness. I normally dry hop for 5-7 days and I get the results I want.

traditionally a red ale in Ireland was a robust beer, very much focussed on the malts and the hops played little or no part in the beer. However there are some microbrews in Ireland that are starting to make very good red ales that are nice and medium bodied but have a really good hop presence...

The most important part of the brewing process is the yeast, as the saying goes 'yeast makes beer, not brewers'. So if you have the opportunity you should always use a good quality yeast and the generic yeasts in the kits give you no information, so definitely go for the WLP001

you could try splitting the batch and dry hopping one half and not the other, this will give you a very good feel for what dry hopping can add to the beer.

You have to be careful when choosing your fridge as the placement of the compressor and temperature control unit varies in each design. The way I did it was to sit my cornys on a sheet of paper and draw around the bases of them so that I got a floorplan of the space needed. I then went to a few...

I use a carboy carrier which is very handy and cheap. It is simply a set of nylon straps, stitched together that provides a 'basket' in which you place the carboy

I would be a bit worried about this. It has been a while since I did a kit brew, however I remember that you had to mix/stir very vigorously to make sure the wort and water mixed thoroughly. If it looks like it has separated in the carboy I would say that it wasn't mixed up enough initially...

That is the real key, you could have a leak in your feremter seal that means that the CO2 is escaping elsewhere and so really you should rely on your hydrometer all of the time and only use airlock activity as an indication.

Everything looks fine, the only thing is that it appears to have quite a lot of fermentation going on (based on the frothy head). I would tend to see little or no fermentation when I move to secondary. How long did you leave it in primary, and did you take a hydrometer reading before moving...

I always rehydrate my yeasts and find that this makes the early stages of fermentation faster. Simple put 150ml of 25c water into a small PET bottle (coke bottle will do), sprinkle the dried yeast on top (do not mix/stir) put a bit of aluminium foil on tope and leave for 15-20 minutes, then...

totally agree with this, as a relative novice you should not be worrying about the small differences plastic v's glass will make to your beer. Once you are brewing beer you enjoy that is the battle won, once you start to take iot more seriously you can then look at tweaking your process and...

Wheat is probably not the best beer style to try and make a light hoppy beer. I would suggest going for a pale ale, this kind of beer is really suited to american hops like cascade and amarillo. A wheat beer should be more about the wheat and yeast and the hops really should take a back seat.