George's ipa

[sean03]

Good evening everyone.
Just another small introduction, I'm Sean and I'm based in Newark on Trent in Nottinghamshire.
Last Thursday I started my first ever attempt at a homebrew.
I've currently got 5ltrs of apple juice cider on the go and I've already got the ingredients together for my next batch.
I like the idea of making small batches that won't take up much room and get me into bother.
My question is, has anyone tried the George's beer kits, i just haven't got the room to make 40 pints and the 5ltr ipa caught my eye as potentially my 3rd brew.
It looks a pretty simple process to me so I'll gladly accept any input and advice.
Thanks
Sean

 

[sixstring]

Good evening everyone.
Just another small introduction, I'm Sean and I'm based in Newark on Trent in Nottinghamshire.
Last Thursday I started my first ever attempt at a homebrew.
I've currently got 5ltrs of apple juice cider on the go and I've already got the ingredients together for my next batch.

Welcome to the club. It's much more rewarding than going down to Sainsbury or Lidl (or that other place that does a lovely knock off of Kronenberg 1664. Forget the name of it) and buying cider or whatnot there. Plus if you do this first brew right, then you'll find it tastes better too.
Just be patient with it, don't rush it. I remember my first batch of beer I made. Left that in the fermenter for 4 weeks and then bottled it, left it another 2 weeks in the bottles and then put them in the fridge. Have to say that batch was still my nicest tasting brew I've made.
How long have you had the cider going so far? Remember, the longer you let it go, the drier the cider will be (if i remember right).
Hopefully it turns out how you want it. Do you like yours flat (like they seem to drink it over in the West country) or fizzy?
Are you bottling it or putting it in a keg?
If you're going for bottles, then make sure to get brown bottles (I used to just save bottles I'd emptied of beer I'd bought from the shops).

My question is, has anyone tried the George's beer kits

I haven't used those kits before, as I'm no longer living in my home country (bit further south than your neck of the woods when I was there, Essex), but I've been brewing from kits for the best part of a year now and I think they're worth trying out to get started.
I like that this one supplies the things you need to get started too. Sure it might not be great quality or what have you, but it's an easy gateway to the hobby. I was lucky that someone gave me all their gear (brew kettle, bucket fermenter, bottling bucket, thermometer, hydro, siphon, etc.). So I found it really easy to just pick up a Brewers Best kit and get started.

I like the idea of making small batches that won't take up much room and get me into bother.

I know it sounds like a great idea. But I will say that if you carry on brewing, you may find you don't like doing all the bottling that comes with those smaller batches. It was bad enough for me with 5 gallon batches. I got tired of washing 50ish bottles (which multiplied into about 100 bottles very quickly) and moved over to kegging instead. Now i wash a couple of very large bottles and spend a fraction of the time getting my homebrew from fermenter to keg. Yes there is some additional cost involved (kegs, C02 tanks, EVA Barrier tubing, another fridge/kegerator to hold your kegs in, etc), but I found the time I saved bottling has been worth every penny I've spent. I love the brewing part of beer making. I don't love the bottling part. I do love the kegging part. Oxygen free transfers are conversation starters when someone walks in and wonders what's going on during kegging time. They see C02 tank, tubes, fermenter, kegs, blow off tubes bubbling away, etc and it never fails to prompt a question or 50.

Anyway, I've rambled, but don't be afraid to ask any questions you have here. So many helpful people here. If you feel like something went wrong, then someone here will have an answer to help you fix it. Or if you just need advice on something, then you'll get it in spades here.

Look forward to hearing more about the cider too.

 

[Jim R]

I watched a YouTube video for one of those George's beer kits and it seemed to have turned out pretty well. There is nothing wrong with brewing kits like that although it probably ends up being pretty expensive beer. There is also a limit to how much someone is learning about home brewing when they are just following the directions on a kit. It would be like the difference between baking brownies from the directions on the back of a box versus learning how to make and design your own brownie recipe.

The approach that worked best for me early on was to spend time studying and reading about brewing - books like John Palmers How to Brew book. Once I did that, I didn't need a simple kit. I learned how to brew and also how to put together a pretty inexpensive set of brewing equipment. My very first beer was an all grain beer with a cheap cooler mash tun and cheap plastic fermenter that I am still using now. Everyone has their own goals though and their approach to learning. Good luck.

 

[sean03]

Many thanks for the relies

How long have you had the cider going so far?

As of today it has been on the go for a week. Fermentation has allowed down to the occasional bubble but hasn't stopped completely yet and there is definitely a change in the appearance from earlier in the week.
I'm really looking forward to sitting down with a glass of my own cider but I will be patient

Do you like yours flat (like they seem to drink it over in the West country) or fizzy?
Are you bottling it or putting it in a keg?

I prefer a flat cider, something like an Olde Rosie, I'd be chuffed if it turned out anywhere near that, I am tempted to try and get a bit of fizz in a couple of bottles though just to see what difference it will make

The approach that worked best for me early on was to spend time studying and reading about brewing - books like John Palmers How to Brew book.

I like that idea, I may have a trip to the library to see what they've got in way of research material.
Thanks again for taking the time to reply
Sean

 

[RM-MN]

Many thanks for the relies

As of today it has been on the go for a week. Fermentation has allowed down to the occasional bubble but hasn't stopped completely yet and there is definitely a change in the appearance from earlier in the week.
I'm really looking forward to sitting down with a glass of my own cider but I will be patient


I prefer a flat cider, something like an Olde Rosie, I'd be chuffed if it turned out anywhere near that, I am tempted to try and get a bit of fizz in a couple of bottles though just to see what difference it will make

I like that idea, I may have a trip to the library to see what they've got in way of research material.
Thanks again for taking the time to reply
Sean

The first edition is available online for free at:
http://howtobrew.com

 

[sixstring]

The first edition is available online for free at:
http://howtobrew.com

I like that idea, I may have a trip to the library to see what they've got in way of research material.
Thanks again for taking the time to reply
Sean

I think that the How To Brew book by John Palmer is really all you need as far as literature goes to get started. There's probably more that's worth looking at later, but that one's really informative and doesn't put you to sleep reading it.
I've got the 4th edition.

As of today it has been on the go for a week. Fermentation has allowed down to the occasional bubble but hasn't stopped completely yet and there is definitely a change in the appearance from earlier in the week.
I'm really looking forward to sitting down with a glass of my own cider but I will be patient

Cider brewing is a bit different from beer, so I don't know how long you should leave it in the fermenter before bottling it.
But I'd hazard a guess that a lot of instructions probably advise something similar about how you should move your brew from primary fermenter to a secondary. I have never done this ever with beer. Just leave it in the primary fermenter until it's ready to keg/bottle. There's a lot of people on this forum that told me not to worry about it and told a lot of others not to worry about it. There's really no need. And after a year in, I can safely say I agree.

I prefer a flat cider, something like an Olde Rosie, I'd be chuffed if it turned out anywhere near that, I am tempted to try and get a bit of fizz in a couple of bottles though just to see what difference it will make

I had to look up Old Rosie, not heard of that one, but I was never a big cider drinker. Most I ever drank was whatever rubbish I could buy in a 2 litre bottle when I was about 14 from the local Offy. And one year at Glastonbury Festival (1995 i think it was, we were boiling and I bought some cider, only to promptly spit it out after it felt like i'd just drank sand and it was warm, flat and so dry i was left more thirsty than I was before I took a drink , terrible stuff)

Old Rosie is a dry, still and cloudy cider, much like a traditional scrumpy but lightly sparkling, and currently produced with an alcohol strength of 6.8% ABV.

Yeah, that's definitely not my cup of tea. I never enjoyed dry, still, cider. Then definitely leave it in the fermenter a little longer than you think it should be in there. Even if it's not bubbling anymore. An extra week or two won't hurt it.

I have no idea how to make cider cloudy/not cloudy (not sure if it's a similar process to how beer will clear up over time in the fridge)

 

[worlddivides]

One of the benefits of making cider at home if you like dry cider is that it's more difficult to make sweet cider as a homebrewer (since apple juice is mostly simple sugars and the yeast will devour almost all of those simple sugars unless you specifically stop them since you don't have the option of making complex sugars like you do in brewing beer).

Can't comment on George's IPA, but while I did 19 liter (5 gallon) batches for my first 5 years of brewing, nowadays I do 11 liter (3 gallon) batches. And there are plenty of others who do 9 liter (2.5 gallon) batches. And if you search the site, you'll also find plenty of people who do 1 gallon (a little under 4 liters) batches. Most beer kits are for 5 gallons, though.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Just another small introduction, I'm Sean and I'm based in Newark on Trent in Nottinghamshire.

Just as a general comment - HBT is global but mostly US-based, there is a sister site based in the UK where you won't confuse people with talk of litres and celsius, and people will understand references to Old Rosie etc :

https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/forums/new-member-introductions.13/

https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/forums/beer-kit-brewing-discussion.76/

has anyone tried the George's beer kits, i just haven't got the room to make 40 pints and the 5ltr ipa caught my eye as potentially my 3rd brew.
It looks a pretty simple process to me so I'll gladly accept any input and advice.

No direct experience but the George's look like pretty standard entry-level kits - they don't expect you to contribute extra sugar to bump up the alcohol like the absolute bottom-end ones do (it makes the sticker price cheaper but white sugar doesn't taste as beery as barley malt).

They use liquid malt extract (LME) which makes OK beer when it's fresh. The big problem with LME in the real world is that it stales quite quickly (which gives that "homebrew twang" to the taste) and you never quite know how long a particular kit has been sat on a shelf. Dry malt extract is rather more robust - in the UK it's also known as spray malt - but malt extract of whatever kind is always going to be a lot more expensive than malted grains.

Also they use hop extracts, which in general are OK but not brilliant - fine when you're starting out and it "makes the process pretty simple" but you'll soon want to use real hops.

The two general things to consider are that while in general you get what you pay for, for a given volume - there are big economies of scale, so 20 litre kits cost about twice as much for four times the beer.

And the effort doesn't vary much whether you're making 5 litres or 20 litres or 100 litres, so you may find 5 litres a bit frustrating in the ratio of work required to beer made. 20 litres doesn't need *that* much space.... <g>