Below you will find my first order which will be going in today and hopefully i will have in a week to ten days( not sure on this). I have opted for an Irish stout for my first brew so certain things are based around this. ;)
Also you will note that i ordered both brew enhancer and brewing sugar as well as carbonation drops. This is because for the brew i have still not decided on which i am going to use for primary fermentation. I figure if i use the brew enhancer i will have the brewing sugar left over and i could do a turbo cider or something quick while stout is brewing. :(
Either way it saves on shipping to order double lots now and also handy to have some to hand in case i get a brain fart to do something outta the blue ;D
Also you will note that i have ordered coopers plastic bottles,this is because i want to have a stock at hand and i have not sourced suitable glass ones yet. Over half the cost of this order is made up of the first item which is the actual equipment kit which will not need to be ordered again ::)
(1) http://www.thehomebrewcompany.ie/beer-cider-starter-kit-includes-33lt-fermenters...
(2)http://www.thehomebrewcompany.ie/coopers-oxygen-barrier-plastic-bottles-500ml-ca... (x2)
(3)http://www.thehomebrewcompany.ie/large-self-adhesive-liquid-crystal-thermometer-...
(4)http://www.thehomebrewcompany.ie/coopers-carbonation-drops-250g-p-406.html (x2)
(5)http://www.thehomebrewcompany.ie/star-san-sanitiser-8-oz-p-1426.html
(6)http://www.thehomebrewcompany.ie/coopers-brew-enhancer-2-1kg-p-965.html
(7)http://www.thehomebrewcompany.ie/coopers-brewmaster-irish-stout-17kg-p-814.html
(8)http://www.thehomebrewcompany.ie/brewing-wine-making-sugar-1kg-dextrose-monohydrate-p-251.html
This totals up to about 135 euro prior to shipping,when i have the actual order placed and shipping calculated i will update total.
You can always bump up your starting gravity with the sugar ;)
3.5 for your first pint, 50c thereafter :)
Spend the next week watching guys on YouTube doing kits and have the steps in your head, make notes! Especially pitfalls, like sterilisation, or my wort is too hot or too cold etc etc
After the 1st it's a piece of p.ss.
If i leave out 4 how am i gonna know what the temp is at any given stage? I believe that number 1 comes with two fermenting vessels so that should be covered.Also is it not better to use that brewing sugar than ordinary table sugar? If i use ordinary table sugar could i use dmerara brown sugar?
Tube
For a 1st time virgin kit brewer you can't seriously recommend batch priming better to get familiar with the process first.
Ordinary Sugar v's brewing sugar seriously :(
Brewers sugar is glucose. The advantage of using it over house-hold sugar (sucrose) is that sucrose can impart a tang to the beer which brewers sugar doesn't do. [smiley=tongue.gif]
A second bucket and sterilising VWP comes with Kit.
Careful now that you don't undermine everything I have been telling Deadman over the last 48hrs he is nervous enough as it is ;)
QuoteI've never primed any other way!
Sugar is sucrose. Sucrose is a chain of fructose+glucose. The yeast splits sucrose into fructose and glucose first and then gobbles them both up.
Education is a dangerous thing
A complaint in the early days of modern homebrewing was that using table sugar in beer-making resulted in a "cidery" beer. The symptoms were that a beer made with table sugar that was added to the boil produced a cidery flavor that faded after several weeks in the bottle. Therefore the rule of thumb became 'avoid all table sugar'. While this is still a good idea when using malt extract, this old-(ale)wives tale is misleading. That defect most likely came from poor yeast due to a too low pitch, insufficient free-available-nitrogen, or a lack of other necessary yeast building materials in the wort. Table sugar can be used in small amounts with no harm and it is certainly cheaper to use for priming.But Don't ;)
Poor old tube is that naughty ciderhead at ya? Yep thats the kit i am ordering,looks like it has everything.Must check it for that auto syphon though. I am going to order both the BE2 and brewing sugar anyway and once i get everything together decide which to use or ordinary sugar. None of the stuff will go to waste anyway,whatever i do not use now i will use in another brew down the road.
So tube is that where the saying "tastes like piss" originated? :o
I can't make out from that link though if both of those buckets are exactly the same? Are they both fermentation vessels with taps? Could you use both at the same time for two different brews?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57iwm0jc2Sc
Been watching this guys channel today a good bit and this is the way he does the coopers Irish stout i am getting ;)
Ok well i had another look at that equipment kit and it contains a simple syphon allright but i reckon the auto one is a better job. It contains a thermometer so no need for the strip one.Second container does not accept an airlock from what i can see so no using that for primary fermentation of a simultaneous batch. Other than that the list appears pretty covered ;)
Crap if they don't have taps thats gonna make bottling a pain in the ass.Bit stupid having a fermenting vessel like them with no taps if ya ask me :'(
Thats a very good point tube, i am all too familiar with bacteria and their hiding places and how even using a scouring pad on plastic can lead to problems. Not a problem for everyday use but when you are talking brewing or pharmaceuticals even a scratch or a dirty tap can lead to huge problems. ;D
One thing i noticed is that i don't see any hole on the lid of the second fermentation vessel for a bung and air trap,just on the first one i think :o
You will always need a spare bucket
If you are going to do rolling brews more buckets/bungs/bubblers will be purchased I have 8 ;)
QuoteQuoteCrap if they don't have taps thats gonna make bottling a pain in the ass.Bit stupid having a fermenting vessel like them with no taps if ya ask me :'(
It comes with a bottle filling stick which probably attaches to the syphon.
You shouldn't really fill from a tap as it aerates the beer, so not having taps isn't a problem. In fact it's easier to clean the fermenter if there are no taps for shite to hide in.
I drilled buckets to put 2 taps in, worst thing I ever did :(
QuoteQuoteI've never primed any other way!
Sugar is sucrose. Sucrose is a chain of fructose+glucose. The yeast splits sucrose into fructose and glucose first and then gobbles them both up.
Education is a dangerous thing
A complaint in the early days of modern homebrewing was that using table sugar in beer-making resulted in a "cidery" beer. The symptoms were that a beer made with table sugar that was added to the boil produced a cidery flavor that faded after several weeks in the bottle. Therefore the rule of thumb became 'avoid all table sugar'. While this is still a good idea when using malt extract, this old-(ale)wives tale is misleading. That defect most likely came from poor yeast due to a too low pitch, insufficient free-available-nitrogen, or a lack of other necessary yeast building materials in the wort. Table sugar can be used in small amounts with no harm and it is certainly cheaper to use for priming.
But Don't ;)
Table sugar is okay for priming, cidery only comes into play when you use excessive amounts of sugar. It's more a problem if you used a kit and just use table sugar for the rest of the fermetables instead of extract...
QuoteIt's not excessive sugar, it's the lack of malt, which means a lack of malt flavours.
My apologies, I should have said an excessive % of sugar...