Hi all. I'm thinking of brewing my own beer for personal consumption. How easy/expensive is this to do? Does anyone on here homebrew? Thanks.

Starting off with a kit isn't too expensive, or difficult. Very scientific, in fact. Follow the instructions, and you should be fine. Where are you based? There may be a shop nearby, either that, or buy online.

I'm based in the Burnley area mate

Not sure if there's a brew shop nearby? Sheffield, where I live, has a couple. Google it. Owners of such places usually give out decent advice!

Standish st is Burnley home brew or it was.

It's still going as I drove past their van yesterday.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Here you go pal.

https://www.burnleyhomebrew.co.uk/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I used to brew from kits at home and got my initial set up from Burnley home brew on Standish street.

Never had an infected batch but did have loads that didn’t brew properly, thanks to rubbish yeast.

I’ve got a spare brewing vessel if you want it for nowt?

Do a search, there's a thread already with some good info on it.

FYI I'd suggest buying a brewing kit from homebrew online and buy a big pot (30L)

Edit: can't find the thread unfortunately. There was someone with a lot of advice. No doubt he'll offer info if he sees this thread.

A beginners setup will cos you about £100 i'd say (about 40 for a pan, 30 for a fermenter starter kit (comes with a hydrometer, spoon etc), a few quid for a bag for the malt and some hop bags and about £15 for a bottle of Star San, £13 I think for 40 plastic brown bottles) Ebay is your best bet, the same sellers on amazon are usually a lot more expensive.

Hi gandhisflipflop, homewbrewing is relatively easy and there are loads of online material and good books that you can get that will help you on your way, 'How to Brew', has an online version where you can pick up the ideas but it can be a bit confusing at first. In terms of cost it really depends on how much you want to get into it, there's loads of tech and equipment out there and if you get into it you'll want to invest in one of these. My advice is for starters buy a kit, throw the yeast in the kit away and get some new 'fresh' yeast, stuff in kits isn't properly stored in temperatures to keep the yeast alive (e.g. a fridge) or can be sat around for months and therefore you can have poor efficiency (which means your beer can be weak). For this you sometimes just need the kit, a fermenter, hydrometer, some steriliser, an airlock and some bottles - if you can recycle bottles and sterilise them you'll be able to pick this up from wilkos for around £30. Get some decent steriliser though like star san because even though pricey it takes a lot of messing about out of brewing.

Once you have had a go at this and if you like the process you can move on to extract brewing where you'll need a big 30 ltr pan to your equipment, then you can follow recipes you can get online or in a book or start experimenting with your own flavour combinations of hops and adjuncts (this is other flavours e.g. lemon or grapefruit peel, coco nibs etc).

The next stage of after that, if you're really into it, is full grain brewing where you replicate what goes on at commercial breweries, where you'll need to purchase a mash tun and probably a wort (this is the name of the beer before it's fermented) cooler. This is where you have full control over your beers and you can produce some exceptional beers. If you've got any questions, then fire them over and I'll try my best to answer them, I'm by no means an expert but I'll try my best to answer. Unfortunately, I'm a little rusty as I haven't been able to brew for 3 years due to the birth of my two kids and not being able to dedicate a day to brewing.

Me Dad used to brew it in the bath - Mam was not amused.

basil6345789 wrote:Me Dad used to brew it in the bath - Mam was not amused.

I bet, especially when she still had shampoo in her hair

gandhisflipflop wrote:Hi all. I'm thinking of brewing my own beer for personal consumption. How easy/expensive is this to do? Does anyone on here homebrew? Thanks.

How easy? Depends on whether you want to brew from a kit (Wilkos sell a range), from malt extract or do full all-grain brewing. Kits are easiest and quickest but don't taste great. Brewing with malt extract and whole hops marks a big step up in quality. All grain brewing gives you full control over every aspect of the brewing process. I brew using the all-grain method and it takes me a good six hours from start to finish.

How expensive? Again, it depends how seriously you want to take it? If you want to be serving up craft ales, you can spend thousands on brewing equipment, temperature-controlled fermentation equipment, dispensing equipment and the like. My advice would be to go down to Burnley Home Brew on Standish Street and get some advice on a basic set up. I'd set aside £150-£200.

Home brewing is a hobby that is seriously addictive. There's tonnes of stuff on YouTube to keep you on the straight and narrow, as well as some brilliant forums.

basil6345789 wrote:Me Dad used to brew it in the bath - Mam was not amused.

Beer Shampoo springs to mind

gandhisflipflop wrote:Hi all. I'm thinking of brewing my own beer for personal consumption. How easy/expensive is this to do? Does anyone on here homebrew? Thanks.

I go to the Burnley shop once a month, he is very helpful. Has everything you need including good advice.

Excellent place to start.

The advice above on yeast in kits is also good.

Thanks for the info guys. Im getting into my real ale but can't stand it from the bottles hence my interest in homebrew. Darthlaw I'm going to look into it further before deciding. Thanks for the offer very kind