Stepping up my game: From kit to on my own.

[mattjgalloway]

Hey all,

I've hovered on these forums for a few weeks now, and finally taking the plunge of getting involved!

Here's my story...

I've been interested in brewing beer for a while now (years) but only just started. I started because someone bought me a BrewDog Punk IPA brewing kit (the Brooklyn Brew Shop kit). I thoroughly enjoyed both the brewing and the tasting! It tasted a little too carbonated - but other than that it was pretty good!

So I decided to pick up another Brooklyn Brew Shop kit (without the fermenter, etc this time obviously), a rather cheeky Grapefruit Honey Ale. That's currently 1 week into fermentation and it looks like it's coming along well!

Now I have the urge to try out some of my own concoctions!! I saw a recipe for something like BrewDog's Dead Pony Club, which I might end up doing.

But a few questions for a n00b like me that I'm hoping to get answers to:

1) Where is best to buy malt, hops & yeast from in the UK?
2) Are there any "beginner" recipes anyone can recommend for someone like me who likes the rather hoppy beers?
3) Anything I should watch out for going from kit to doing it myself?

On question 3 - the one thing I see when looking around is the huge difference in ways you can do everything. The Brooklyn Brew Shop kits are all about simplicity really. So you keep everything from the boil and put that in the fermenter. No hop bags. 2 weeks ferment, 2 weeks in the bottle. It seems basically the same between each kit, even though they're all quite different. I worry that when I do it myself, I'll do something drastically wrong!

Any thoughts on all of that?! Sorry for the huge post - I'm just getting going and getting rather excited about the prospect of making up my own beers!

 

[Dixon9717]

If your near a LHBS they should have recipes on hand. Just explain you want something simple and they should help you get something that your looking for.

 

[AndytheBeave]

Welcome to the hobby. If you are just starting out, I recommend doing a smash ale (single malt and single hop). That way you can really learn about what different hops and base malts provide to the flavour profile.
Here is a mosaic/marris otter smash that looks good:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=420922

I am a proponent of using the KISS principle. If you get too complicated it is difficult to determine to what works and what doesn't.
Cheers!

 

[m1k3]

Stopping brewing kits was the best thing I did for my brewing. The shop I ordered the kits from would not disclose the recipe or even the hops included! (that is criminal in homebrewing, right?)

Anyway, I bought a copy of Brewing Classic Styles and also put every recipe I brewed into BeerSmith software. That is the best thing I could have ever done to learn recipe formulation and what makes up a given style of beer.

I wish you luck on your journey!

 

[AndytheBeave]

I agree with what m1k3 said.
Beersmith is great and so is www.brewersfriend.com
No matter what brewing software you choose, it is one of the most important tools you can have.
Oh I should have mentioned before, make sure you control your fermentation temps.
If you don't have a ferm chamber (aka old beer fridge with controller), you can get your fermentation temps down using a swamp cooler set up. Otherwise known as a big bucket with ice water. Put your fermentation vessel in the bucket and drape a wet towel or shirt over it. Change the ice as required. My fermentation chamber can only hold one carboy, so I often use this method to keep my pipeline going. The swamp cooler keeps the temperature of my fermenting wort at a nice consistent 17 Deg C.

 

[pshankstar]

Welcome aboard and I too am still fairly new to homebrewing. I recently tried a recipe I found online and it turned out pretty good!!

It's called the Hoppin' IPA:
http://beerrecipes.org/showrecipe.php?recipeid=1261#sthash.gWlw9iJn.dpbs

It's very straightforward for a novice and it was a hit with my family. I would recommend this one as a good starter to get under your belt.

Just my two cents!! Good luck and welcome to HBT!!!

 

[rodwha]

Check out How To Brew online. It's a free book, though a bit outdated with some info. Quite helpful though, and a good place to start.

As for a more simple hoppy beer how about an American pale ale? I'd be willing to help you work on a recipe after you find a place to get supplies so we know what you have to work with. And then I'd need to know what equipment you have and what your limitations are.

 

[flars]

You don't say where you are in the UK. Brouwland is pretty big in the UK and mainland.

You might even find some one down the street from you here; http://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/forum/viewforum.php?f=12

 

[william_shakes_beer]

There are 3 books that I think should be on every brewer's shelf:

1. How to brew by John Palmer, gets the basics down. Sanitization, fermenting, bottling, conditioning.

2. Brewing classic styles: gives you base recipies for the traditional styles along with the history of how and why the style was developed (spoiler alert, the tax man had as much to do with it as the maltster!!) Gives you a starting point for any beer you care to brew.

3. Designing great beers: helps you move from the traditional recipies to how you translate your desired taste adjustment into a recipie adjustment.

Also, be ready to brew a recipie several times before you get it where you want it. The first year or so brewing I was constantly changing recipies to correct what I perceived as flaws. Now I don't have time to develop new recipies, I'm too busy pushing out rebrews of family favorites.

 

[MadHomebrewer]

I highly recommend the 15 pale ale recipe for your first non kit. I converted it down to a one gallon batch because I too had a BBS one gallon kit. Came out great! I'll see if I can find the one gallon recipe I used. You can use your favorite hop, I chose Citra and it was fantastic!

 

[mattjgalloway]

This is all great advice! Thanks everyone!

I'm even more excited now about what I'll brew next. The problem is already that I'm finding I want to be brewing more than 1 gallon at a time.

@flars: I live in London.

@rodwha: that's awesome! I've ordered some supplies to get me started so I'll PM you and I'll tell you what I'm thinking about brewing first, and you can rip it apart!

@MadHomebrewer: great that you went from BBS kit also! Any tips on moving from that in particular? Like timescales, following their instruction but with own ingredients, anything to watch out for?

 

[MadHomebrewer]

This is all great advice! Thanks everyone!

I'm even more excited now about what I'll brew next. The problem is already that I'm finding I want to be brewing more than 1 gallon at a time.

@flars: I live in London.

@rodwha: that's awesome! I've ordered some supplies to get me started so I'll PM you and I'll tell you what I'm thinking about brewing first, and you can rip it apart!

@MadHomebrewer: great that you went from BBS kit also! Any tips on moving from that in particular? Like timescales, following their instruction but with own ingredients, anything to watch out for?

Here are my steps, I found it much easier using a paint strainer bag.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=532283

 

[flars]

This is all great advice! Thanks everyone!

I'm even more excited now about what I'll brew next. The problem is already that I'm finding I want to be brewing more than 1 gallon at a time.

@flars: I live in London.

@rodwha: that's awesome! I've ordered some supplies to get me started so I'll PM you and I'll tell you what I'm thinking about brewing first, and you can rip it apart!

@MadHomebrewer: great that you went from BBS kit also! Any tips on moving from that in particular? Like timescales, following their instruction but with own ingredients, anything to watch out for?

Nineteen liters will take about the same amount of time. Just need a little bit more room for the equipment and fermentor.

 

[jamina1]

I went straight in flying by the seat of my pants with all grain, but with a small batch.

I used several of the recipes available from BeerSmith's cloud and used the free trial to scale them down to my equipment. I managed to come up with (what I hope) will be a good Cream Ale, but it's still in the fermenter so we'll have to see.

If anything I realized that I need a better bag if I'm going to do all grain BIAB, and that my procedure needs work.

But it was my first time so I'm proud of it!

Check out this series if you're interested in getting started with smaller all-grain batches: http://www.thekitchn.com/collection/beerschool-521

 

[mattjgalloway]

Well, I've done my first own recipe brew today! A Maris Otter and Mosaic SMaSH. Everything went suspiciously well. So I'm of course thinking now that something will go wrong with fermentation!

It got 1.054 OG, and I estimated I'd get 1.051. So I'm pretty happy with that!

Kicking back now, with a BrewDog Punk IPA in the fridge, ready to drink later!

 

[mattjgalloway]

Another update (for posterity, and anyone following along!).

I just did a gravity reading, and taste test. It's 7 days on, after a good start to the fermentation. I have a gravity reading of 1.014.

I had a cheeky taste. It was pretty good! I detected some fruityness, which I'm guessing/hoping will clear during conditioning. But overall it was a rather tasty drop!

Roll on Tuesday when I dry hop!