Want to get involved in home brewing- going to purchase the Brew Share Enjoy Homebrew Starter Kit; couple of questions:
(1) I live in Bermuda where the indoor temperature at the moment without AC is around 74 will this cause issues with brewing? I have a storage area in the basement of the apartment complex that’s cooler though
(2) I’m looking for a beer that will be suitable for summer… hoping to brew a batch and then serve it chilled at a pool party so stouts are out of the question- what would you recommend?
(3) wife likes Hoegaarden so was going to make a 2nd batch of something similar for her- don’t want to poison her - what would you recommend?
(4) I have to ship everything in all at once so wanted to know what else I should get as everything comes at once; Hydrometer? beer bottles?
Depends on the yeast. For most clean ale yeasts, lower sixties is the best temperature. But something like a saison yeast thrives in warmer temps. How cool is that basement area?
Depends on what you like to drink. I’m a fan of IPAs and pales in the summer. Others like a wheat beer or again, a Saison. Maybe something with fruit? The options are pretty endless. Tell us what you like to drink, and that will help us point you in the right direction…
I like to buy my bottles at Costco, prefilled with Sierra Nevada. Seriously, just reuse bottles. You’ll probably want to make sure you have bottlecaps, something to measure gravity (hydrometer or refractometer), plenty of cleaner and sanitizer, as many fermentors as you think you’ll want. Oh, it looks like your kit comes with a gravity control bottle filler… I’m not a big fan. Best upgrade I ever had was a $3 spring loaded bottle filler: http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewing/brewing-equipment/bottling/bottling-accessories/spring-tip-bottle-filler
Thanks uberculture for the speedy response…
(1) Basement area probably around 60s; they have a dehumidifier in it to restrict the growth of mould; will that make a difference to the storage
(2) I’m a fan of Magic Hat No. 9, Sierra Nevada, Corona, Shocktop; I like the idea of a ‘citrus’ beer… I’ve already picked out the name for my batch… it will be called “Summer Breeze”! so something that fits the name really
(3) Perfect- thanks; is this beer any more challenging than any other? like is it harder to brew or anything like that?
(4) Cleaner and sanitizer looks heavy… and heavy = expensive for shipping; is there an alternative that I can get in a local pharmacy/convenience store? or are these a must have; might get an extra 2 fermentors especially if I have to wait 6+weeks between batches
In general, I’d go for the basement. Low 60s ambient temp usually works well for ale yeasts (there are exceptions to this rule). The dehumidifier shouldn’t cause problems. Might dry out your airlock quicker, but you can always top that off.
For your first, the amber in the kit should work out well. Also look for the Dead Ringer kit (should be like Bells 2 hearted). The Sierra Nevada clone is called Sierra Madre, iirc.
The hoegaarden clone isn’t too difficult. A few extra things to throw in at flameout (orange peel and coriander). The instructions on all NBs kits say to use a secondary, but you could skip it on most beer. Tons of topics on here about secondary, so read up and decide for yourself.
Cleaner and sanitizer- I use PBW and Star-San. You could use fragrance free oxy-clean from the store instead of PBW. I don’t know of a homegrown sanitizer, though. Star-San is light… it ships as a small bottle of concentrate that you mix with water. 1 Oz of concentrate makes 5 gallons of sanitizer, and you can save it between batches, so a little goes a long way.
Do you have a local homebrew store in Bermuda? Might be worth looking into.
At 60 you can brew just about anything. From the list of beers you and your wife like I suggest a summer wheat with citrus. Grab my recipe from the summer brew post. I think you’ll like it
No homebrew store here unfortunately- I reach out to the local brewery and they suggested contacting bsgcraftbrewing.com but they look more ‘commercial’ rather than ‘hobby’
Another issue is water… how important is filtered water? A chemistry teacher here suggest that I boil filtered water to get rid of all the minerals from my tap water… is this true?
Sad news about the lack of brew stores. Your going to have to bring in all your ingredients and equipment. That can get expensive if you catch the fever. My suggestion is go all grain biab to keep the cost down. Do three gallon batches to start and work on getting good mash efficiency to get the most out of your grains. Don’t be afraid of working with table sugar. Hot weather party brews shouldn’t be to strong either. Make sure you learn how to reuse your yeast and buy bulk hops. If money is not an option spend away. Good luck
Water can be important. For extract brewing, you could guarantee no water issues by using distilled water. Next best thing would be filtered water.
If you want to step up to brewing all grain instead of extract, water gets trickier. You can have your water tested at a lab, then treat it in various ways for what you want to brew.
The teacher telling you to boil filtered water… were they suggesting you distill it yourself? Do they sell distilled or reverse osmosis filtered water at grocery stores there?
For the sake of completeness this is what I was going to order:
-Brew Share Enjoy Homebrew Starter Kit
-Spring Tip Bottle Filler
-Gaarden Hoe Witbier
-Sierra Madre Pale Ale
-Thermohydrometer
-IO Star 32 oz
-3 x 1 Gallon Fermentor (should I get more? or larger ones?.. how much do they weight?)
I wanted to make sure I had everything to make this a success and if the ‘brewing’ bug bites me I’m not stuck short of supplies!
Hmm… are you planning 5 gallon batches or 1 gallon? The starter kit looks like it’s sized for 5 gallons, which makes me wonder why you’re getting 1 gallon fermentors.
Getting creative, you could always source other fermentors pretty easily. A food safe bucket will work, if you put a grommet in the lid so you can fit an airlock. They sell those at hardware stores in five or six gallon sizes. I just picked up some 3.5 gallon frosting buckets from a bakery that I’m using for half batches. I’ve heard of people trying to use those water dispenser jugs, but have never tried it myself. The one gallon fermentors are just glass jugs. You could buy apple juice at the store in a glass jug and end up with the same thing.
You might want to add some bottlecaps to your order. 3 five gallon kits will give you around six cases of beer to bottle. The starter kit only comes with 60 caps, you’ll need closer to 150 total. Maybe more airlocks so you can have your fermentors going at the same time. Paging the rest of the community here… anybody else see anything I’m missing?
One gallon fermenters are useless, to small even for one gallon batches IMO . Go to the hardware store and buy 5 gallon buckets that have the #2 on them( most do) order a couple air locks and stoppers. As far as water yes it’s important but don’t try to brew with straight distilled water. You need some minerals and unless you want to add dome back in like I said use bottled for at least half of the water. Others may disagree but I think adjusting water is best left for the future. Brew some batches first and see what you get. Sounds like your only going to brew small batches so I would suggest buying two of the same kit and do the same recipe more than once making small changes to learn what works.
I would add the Super Agata Bench Capper. The hand held cappers will not cap some commercial bottles you may eventually reuse. The bench capper is also more efficient to use than the hand held.
Again thanks for the responses!
Revised order cart:
-Brew Share Enjoy Homebrew Starter Kit
-Spring Tip Bottle Filler
-Gaarden Hoe Witbier
-Sierra Madre Pale Ale
-Thermohydrometer
-IO Star 32 oz
-120 Beer Bottle Caps
-2 x Bubbler Airlock (do I need a No. 10 Stopper - Drilled?)
The Super Agata Bench Capper looks too big and heavy to ship in
Are there any Facebook/Pinterest groups you would recommend joining or should I just come here to post my successes/failures!?!
I’m estimating this would all weight around 25lbs?
I’m pretty sure the #10 stopper is only needed for the Big Mouth Bubbler fermentors. Fermentation buckets have a grommet in the lid the airlock is inserted through. (Tip: wet the grommet and airlock stem with sanitizer and gently twist into place rather than pushing it in. Pushing can result in the grommet dropping into your wort.)
Come back with any questions after you get your equipment and before your first brew. Sometimes the brewing instructions need a little interpretation. We are dedicated to helping fellow brewers.
Gallon jugs are great… they can be used for starters, or fermenting small batches if you have extra wort that doesn’t fit in your primary fermenter. Or for splitting off a gallon if you want to see how a certain dry hop works. But I wouldn’t buy them online, get them from the grocery store, preferably with free apple juice inside of them.
Another piece you can add to your order. The clip to hold the auto siphon to the side of the bucket. You can use the clip to hold the auto siphon for the first three-quarters of the fermentor volume when racking to the bottling bucket. Your hands will be free to take care of something last minute.
