Brewing newbie - equipment questions

[animalmother90]

Hi all

First time posting to this forum. Just recently completed an all-grain home brewing course and my first batch is happily bubbling away!

So obviously now, I'm completely obsessed with it and looking to buy the equipment to get brewing at home, but it's a bit overwhelming!

Any help on the following questions would be much appreciated! :rockin:

1. Does anyone have an UK based suppliers of boil/stock pans they could recommend? I'm looking for a 24+litre stock pan and they all seem crazy expensive!
2. My first brew is fermenting in a demijohn but I'm looking at fermentation vessels. I've seen some with and without taps. Are the taps useful for bottling? Or would you recommend going tapless? Also, does there need to be an airlock like in the demijohn or just lid it?
3. For bottling, are swing top bottles a good idea, or better with capping? how about barrels, would I need to pitch for a pressurised barrel or just a standard tapped one? Is there any difference on the beer with pressurising?
4. With regards to my current demijohn. The course leader suggested letting it ferment for 10 days before bottling, but is there any issue leaving it for longer? What's the maximum time to leave and does this affect the beer itself?

Thanks all!

 

[rodwha]

2) A spigot is not necessary for a fermentation vessel if you have a siphon to transfer it to a bottling bucket. With tubing you could forgo the siphon. You certainly do need an airlock.

3) Swimg tops are very nice and simple but more expensive. I repurpose commercial bottles after I remove the labels and glue.

4) Generally speaking most standard gravity beers do well with 3-4 weeks of fermentation. There are some more simple lower gravity beers that can be done in 10 days or so, but another week won't hurt it.

I made two ~5% ABV lighter SRM beers (honey wheat and blonde) to see if I could produce good beer with 2 weeks of fermentation, 2 weeks of conditioning, and 3 days in the fridge, which is 31 days. I wanted to see if I could produce beer for those last minute get togethers. The blonde was great but the honey wheat was not.

 

[Kharnynb]

2. spigots are debatable, they can and rather often do leak, so a basic brewing bucket is safer for fermentation, a bottling bucket with spigot is nice, or just get an autosiphon with bottling wand.

3. as a british person you might be able to get grolsch at a decent price to get swingtops, sadly they switched to green bottles, but it's ok if you keep them in the dark

4. i never open a batch before 14 days, or 7 days after the waterlock stopped bubbling, whichever is longer. You can leave a beer in the primary fermenter for 2-3 months before really having to worry about anything too bad happening.

 

[Kharnynb]

http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/acatalog/Deluxe-All-Grain-Mashing-Setup.html

and

http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/acatalog/Brewferm-Superior-Mashing-Starter-Kit-for-Electric.html

are very decent full on kits with everything you'll need, the second one would be my preferred kit

The site also has a lot of loose gear at okay prizes.